Want to "upgrade" my EVGA 570's Air Cooling

[clonazepam]

I'm using this EVGA GTX 570. It's the basic model.

I want to change out the stock cooling. I'm looking at two different options so far.

ZALMAN VF3000F(GTX580/570) EBR Bearing Dual 92mm Fans, FanMate 2, IHD Technology for Nvidia Fermi GTX580/570 VGA Cooler

and the...

ARCTIC COOLING Accelero XTREME Plus II Fluid Dynamic VGA Cooler for NVIDIA and AMD Radeon

So far, I have been unable to decide which is going to give the best cooling boost and last a good long time. I'm not concerned about the price difference or the difficulties in installation. I plan to figure out a way or ways to modify either model to make them "special" and it appears the zalman might be easier for that, especially since the green color would be the first thing to go.

So what do all of you think about these two products? I'm overclocking the 570 right now to 850mhz with a voltage of 1.05v. I'm currently hitting max temps in the high 80s and that's acceptable, but I want to try going for higher clocks, I want something custom, and I want to keep the temps out of the 90s completely.

 

[andywork78]

oooo~
If you already have 570 then i recommend Zalman cooling system.
If you are going to get 570 and cooling system.
Please ASUS 570 is best.
Big, looks very cool, monster cooling system build in.
I have ASUS 6950 2gb model.
ASUS 570 and 6950 looks almost same.
You will like by the size and cooling unit on them.
it's really monster.

 

[clonazepam]

I already purchased the EVGA 570. At the time of purchase, I was planning to SLI and didn't want anything more than a double slot card. Well, that plan has since changed so I won't be running SLI and now I'm open to triple slot cooling.

 

[clonazepam]

Does anyone else have any input?

 

[chesteracorgi]

Both of the aftermarket coolers will cool your card well; but there is a difference: the Zalman is easier to use because it doesn't require you to apply individual heat sinks on each of the RAM chips on the GPU card.

I modded out my GTX 470 (PNY reference design card) with the Zalman. I had issues with the reference cooling because I was getting idle temps of approximately 42-45 C. I had an issue with removing the factory heat sink because one of the screws holding it on to the card had been over torqued, resulting in stripped threads. I had to use a Dremel diamond edge cutter to cut around the aluminum heat sink and used the smallest vice grip pliers to get the heat sink off the card. After that it was simple: apply thermal paste and attach the Zalman. Plug in the card and attach the fan to the mobo for power and it was done. For the mechanical part of this, I hope that the factory didn't over torque the screws. If they didn't then all you need a small (almost micro) screwdriver, and removal should be relatively easy. When you remove the heat sink apply some cross pressure as the old thermal paste will tend to adhere the GPU card to the heat sink.

Once I got it up and running again it has consistantly idled at about 30 C, with consistant lower temps for games about 15-20 C lower than the premod.

Depending on your mobo and case you may still be able to SLI the card in the future. With the ASRock P67 Extreme6 I have enough mobo room to SLI in a Corsair 600T case.

In SLI I have a factory Galaxy 470 running in the top (closest to the CPU) slot and the modded PNY/Zalman 470 in the bottom. To keep temperatures down I have routed the monitor (I am only running one right now) through the bottom card.

Before you go doing this I have an alternative, cheaper suggestion: if your case has a side panel where you can mount one or more fans blowing down on the GPU you may find that you can decrease temps by adding extra ventillation fans. See this page: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-airflow-heatsink,3053-11.html

When I set up SLI, I had not replaced my side panel with a vented panel. I initially experienced idle temps of 30 C on the lower GPU and 42 C on the upper GPU. I followed tips from this site and rerouted my video through the lower card and saw a drop of 1-2 degrees on the upper card. But when the vented side panel arrived and I installed it with a single 120 mm fan temps dropped (on the upper card) by 10 C (and 5 C on the lower card).

I have ordered some more fans for the side panel (I can mount 4 120 mm fans) and expect that the temps will consistently stay in the 30s (or less) at idle and keep the difference along the stress curve.

Good luck with your modding.

 

[clonazepam]

Thanks. I'm going to be doing a window mod. I guess the main concern is they both dump heat into the case, so I'll probably flip the PSU fan-side up, and add an intake fan in the floor beneath the card.

I think its settled. I'm going with the zalman. Mostly because it looks like there is more metal to paint (the fun part).

 

[clonazepam]

Best answer selected by clonazepam.

 

[chesteracorgi]

Be careful to monitor your PSU if you flip it upside down. The PSU is one component that produces a lot of heat and if anything drops on the fan to block it you risk your whole rig. With the window you should have no problem venting the heat. Only flip the PSU if the window solution doesn't work.

 

[Rosebud]

My friend put the ZALMAN on and I watched he touched way to many thing when doing it (why I wouldnt help) after 5mos had problems and had to get new card so beware.

 

[clonazepam]

Be careful to monitor your PSU if you flip it upside down. The PSU is one component that produces a lot of heat and if anything drops on the fan to block it you risk your whole rig. With the window you should have no problem venting the heat. Only flip the PSU if the window solution doesn't work.

Most cases provide the option to have the PSU either way. Most PSUs have the stickers oriented so that either way you choose, there will be a sticker right-side up in view. It actually makes zero difference in most situations. But just in case, with the zalman dumping air into the case, it might make the slightest bit of difference.