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Looking for the right VGA cooler.

Last response: in Overclocking
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I plan to upgrade my present computer. I will be getting a new motherboard (ASUS Maximus IV Extreme), a new CPU (Intel i7-2600K), a second set of 2x2gb RAM, and I plan to get a second EVGA GTX 470. The single GPU already runs a little hot, so I imagine that two of them would worse. So I am thinking of buying an aftermarket VGA cooler, two of them actually, one for each card. Money is not so much of an issue, though I'm not willing to purchase water/liquid cooling or anything like that (unless its something like Corsair's H50). I would just like to know what the best performing and most reliable aftermarket VGA coolers are (with the 470 in mind), and I would like to know which ones will fit well in a dual-GPU setup with the MOBO I plan to use.

Thanks.

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Overclocking Expert

H50 is a poor LCS system...the H70 is somewhat better, if you go that route. If you are going to spend the $$ on the H70, might as well get the XSPC Rasa kit for a few bucks more; it will perform far better.

To check if you have an airflow issue, pull the side panel of your case and blow a house fan into your case...run your benchmarks and see what the temps are across the board. If your temps drop, you have an airflow problem. If they remain the same, you should address the coolers.

As for GPU coolers, if you are worried about GPU heat, you should first look at your case airflow. If you buy GPU coolers and you have poor airflow, you'll still have hot GPUs without the cool air to 'cool them'.

Also, before you buy/install aftermarket coolers for your 470's, consider getting some good thermal paste, pulling the stock cooler off, cleaning the stock paste and reapplying good paste...then replacing the stock cooler. You will be surprised how much difference this can make. I run full watercooling now, but years ago, this was one thing I always did...and it makes a difference.
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Overclocking Expert

Quote:
Still need to consider actual case airflow...it might be the real underlying issue.


Heh...I quoted myself.

Consider also pulling the stock cooler and replacing the factory thermal paste with some quality stuff...and replacing the stock cooler. This usually nets 5-10C in many cases. Oh wait...I already said that, too.

Quote:
Also, before you buy/install aftermarket coolers for your 470's, consider getting some good thermal paste, pulling the stock cooler off, cleaning the stock paste and reapplying good paste...then replacing the stock cooler. You will be surprised how much difference this can make.
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