Crazy idea regarding 4870 x2

[alex_oneill2006]

Hey guys,

I have not been one to use watercooling cos in the antec 900 case there is so much airflow that a decent air system will leave low temps.

Any who, that is not the point.

There are some custom water blocks that are coming out for the 4870 x2, but i cant manage to find any aircooling solutions... if any has please feel free to correct me and post a link

We all know how good the HR03-GT is at cooling the 4870,
Source: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/user-reviews/8855-thermalright-hr03-gt-ati-hd-4870-a.html

So i was thinking, what if we use the hr03 and stick that on both cores of the x2 sorta side by side or facing opposite directions. A little bit of bending will be probably required but i dont think that can affect the thermal properties of the heat pipes.

Any suggestions on the wacky plan,

Or do you think it will be a bad idea and that i will destroy 2 pairs hr03 and an x2 for that matter


EDIT: Just checked the thermalright website, and there are 2 ways in mounting the hr03-gt so im pretty sure that they can both fit on the card

Regards,

Alex

 

[No1sFanboy]

I don't think there is anything that would cool all of the ram modules and PLX chip. Any aftermarket heat sink would need to be made specifically for the one card (so far).

 

[alex_oneill2006]

i see, well wouldnt the ram heatsinks, if i buy enough of them do the job. And then for the PLX chip i can stick on an akasa Chipset cooler which i have lying around the house!?
Link : http://www.shop.bt.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3RS0

I have seen some videos on youtube, with the fan at 100% the temps stay ~ 50C while playing COD4......

Any ideas ?

 

[spathotan]

While i applaud his bravery for tinkering around with a $300 card so much, and his determination, it was really a waste of time and ALOT of money. Not to mention it takes up basically his entire case for only single digit temperature differences. The stock cooler with 35%-55% fan speed is good enough for anybody, if not then you are just setting your expectations too high.

As far as the OP's susgestion goes, I think the TR coolers are just too large to work with realistically, and you really dont want to be adding a whole bunch of random sinks and fans and sinks and fans to your board, as the more you mod and the longer you spend on it the higher the chances are of you damaging it. It would be better and smarter to just wait for a possible aftermarket cooler for the X2.

 

[alex_oneill2006]

I guess that is very true. it would take up most of my case, but i dont think the temp drop would be only single digit figures.

When the hr 03 cooler was put on the 4870, it dropped by 20C if i remember correctly...

Sticking them on both cores and lots of heatsinks everywhere and a chipset cooler for the PLX... should do a mighty fine job.

Maybe it really unnecessary, is the heat a problem for the x2 ?

 

[No1sFanboy]

Here at this http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...adeon-hd-4870-x2-2gb-video-card-review-8.html review are some good pictures to give you an idea of everything that needs to be cooled. The memory modules are on both sides of the card with just an aluminum back plate but probably still necessary.

The card can get very hot at stock fan speeds. So far I've been able to see a significant drop in temps by manually turning up the fan.

By turning it up to about as loud as my case fans at medium speed or 45% I have seen 2d temps go from 55-58 down to 41. My fully loaded 3d temps have dropped from the 80s to the 60s. I really need to test more and monitor in real time and not alt tabbing out to get exact numbers.

In general I think temps can be a problem. I've seen temps into the 80's with one of the sensors (GPU temp(shadercore) reading 98 before playing with the fan speeds. This is in a Antec 900 that while loud and dust prone is one of the coolest air cooled cases you can get and ambient temps of 21c.

 

[alex_oneill2006]

Well i suggest that you start using headphones, if you worry about how much noise your computer makes.

I do and i run everything on 100% and it keeps it all cool

To answer cooling all those extra things ill just stick more ram sinks on it

That always works !

 

[No1sFanboy]

Well we both have 900's but while I don't mind having the front side and top fans at 100%, I find the the two fronts a little loud at full speed. With everything else on high and the fronts at half there is still cool air coming out of the back and top of the case.

What I don't think you do understand is that the 4870x2's fan on 100% will make those two 120's on the front of the 900 sound like a silent system. The fan spins at 4800 rpm's on full and would probably have a short life. The clincher is that with all that noise the card doesn't get much cooler.

My point was that at 40-45% or 2580- 2920 rpms it is not too loud and made a world of difference in cooling.

 

[alex_oneill2006]

Oh ok, sounds cool. no pun intended.

Anywho ill see if i can muster up the cash to even go ahead with this project

 

[jerseygamer]

Ill tell you what I do with my GPUs and on rare ocation my case fans. I head down to an industrial HVAC supply house and start doing some research. I have found replacement fans for all my GPUs. Fans that are half the noise and higher RPM off the same power as the old ones. There is alot of high grade industrial applications out there. You just have to be up for the hunt. The fan on my 8800GT is industrial grade and makes no noise period. It keeps the card under 50c at all times in my antec 900 at full load. Thats a single slot btw. I find that anything rated for a clean medical research enviroment does the job pretty well and will not hurt your rig.

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Nice. I should do that. (Btw, do you mind giving links to places to buy in the US?)