Temp problems - improve airflow?

[sisu]

Hi

I'm experiencing temperature problems with my video card. I have 2x GTX 470 running in SLI. According to Msi Afterburner GPU1 is idling at 80-90 degrees on auto fan speed (about 64%).
When I play games the fan speed goes up to 90-100% and the temperature is between 90-105degrees.

I've already managed to burn one card. So It's about time I do something about this.

I have a Fatal1ty case with 2 "Scythe Gentle Typhoon92mm 2150rpm" as front fans blowing air in (full load), 1 "Scythe Gentle Typhoon120mm 1150rpm" back fan pushing air out (full load) and also a "Noctua NF-B9 Silent Case Fan 92mm 1600rpm" in the case door. I have tried switching this last fan to both pushing air out and blowing in. Doesn't seem to make any difference on the vide cards though.

As I have a "Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5" motherboard, the second video card is right below the first one which probably contributes to the high temps. But I keep my hopes up on that I can do something about the airflow to lover my temps.

For the CPU I have the Noctua NH-C12P.

I have thought of 2 options this far.
1. Removing the 3 HDD bay which is "blocking" the front fans and move the harddrives to the 3,5 bays instead.

2. Make another hole, but in top of the case with another 120mm fan pushing air out.

What do you guys think? Have any ideas and/or do you think the above options would improve anything?

Thanks in advance

Sisu

| PSU - Antec TruePower Quattro 850W | Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 | Ram - Corsair 6gb (3*2048mb) 1600mhz XmS3 | Processor - Intel i7 930 2,8ghz | Video - Gigabyte 2 * GTX470 SOC (SLI) | Sound-card - Asus Xonar d2x (pcie) | HDD\'s - 2* 80gb ssd Intel X25M G2 (RAID0), WD caviar black 640gb sata/300 32mb | LG DVD DL SATA | OS - Win7 Enterprise(64-bit)

 

[mouse24]

Well first just take out one of the 470s and see what your temps are, you could have 90 Delta fans blowing in that case and it still wouldn't matter because one card is starving the other

 

[rubix_1011]

According to Msi Afterburner GPU1 is idling at 80-90 degrees on auto fan speed (about 64%).
When I play games the fan speed goes up to 90-100% and the temperature is between 90-105degrees.

When you say this, do you mean degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius?


An easy way to tell if you have an airflow problem:

Open your case, blow a house or desk fan on HIGH into the side of your case. Repeat your typical load testing via games, encoding, Folding, benchmarking, etc.

If your temps are noticeably cooler, you have an airflow problem in your case. If your temps remain the same, yet still are too high, you have an issue with the cooler(s) on your hardware or how they are mounted.

Video cards are designed to run at 100% up to 100 Celsius and a little higher, but higher than 80C is where most start to become concerned. As for most modern CPU's, you should become concerned when temps are 70C or higher at load, unless they are very heavily overclocked, in which case, you should already have taken this into account and planned accordingly with a better CPU cooler.

Let us know your results and we'll go from there.

 

[davcon]

The most effective way to improve your current dilemma is to buy a new modern case.
A case with the ability to mount much larger fans=at least 2x120mm front intake.
A rear 120mm(of course) and top exhaust mounts.
Way too much hot gear in that case.
470's are hot cards from the get-go,plus an i7 930.

 

[jsc]

1. Removing the 3 HDD bay which is "blocking" the front fans and move the harddrives to the 3,5 bays instead.

That is what I would try first. If it works, it's a free solution. If it doesn't work, you haven't lot anything but a little time.

I do not think that cutting a hole in the top of the case and adding a fan there would help that much. Your cooling problem is located in the lower case with the GPU's, not in the upper case with the CPU.

 

[sisu]

When you say this, do you mean degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Sorry about that, Celsius.

An easy way to tell if you have an airflow problem:
Open your case, blow a house or desk fan on HIGH into the side of your case. Repeat your typical load testing via games, encoding, Folding, benchmarking, etc.
If your temps are noticeably cooler, you have an airflow problem in your case. If your temps remain the same, yet still are too high, you have an issue with the cooler(s) on your hardware or how they are mounted.

Sounds like a easy and good test. I don't have a desk fan at home, but I do have one at work. I'm going to borrow it and test this.

Video cards are designed to run at 100% up to 100 Celsius and a little higher, but higher than 80C is where most start to become concerned. As for most modern CPU's, you should become concerned when temps are 70C or higher at load, unless they are very heavily overclocked, in which case, you should already have taken this into account and planned accordingly with a better CPU cooler.

Nothing is overclocked...

Temps according to hardware monitor:
CPU Idle 44C
CPU Core Idle 47C
Main board Idle 42C
CPU Load 47C
CPU Core Load 66C
Main board Load 58C

Are these temps ok?

The most effective way to improve your current dilemma is to buy a new modern case.

I did expect that this would come from someone. I'm of course fully aware of this option. But before I consider it, I want to make sure that it is the airflow that is the problem and also that I cant fix it in current case as I like this one.


Thanks for everyone's replies. I will start with testing rubix's idea. After that I'll look in to the others.

I'll keep you updated...


PS: How do I quote only parts of posts?

 

[sisu]

I have now tested with a desk fan.
I get following temperatures:
CPU Idle 36C
CPU Core Idle 41C
Main board Idle 37C
CPU Load 45C
CPU Core Load 59C
Main board Load 50C

GPU1 Idle 77C (Fan 60% 2610rpm)
GPU2 Idle 44C (Fan 40% 1500rpm)
GPU1 Load 80C (Fan 100% 5040rpm)
GPU 2 Load 75C (Fan 50%)

It seems that my temps get better with this fan...

Next test is to swap the 2 cards (they're not from same manufacturer) and see if that makes any difference.
Maybe I should change the 92mm fan in the side to a larger and more powerful one?

 

[4Ryan6]

Do a little case mod with your existing case and locate and mount a 120mm fan around the 70cfm range, blowing fresh outside air directly into your GPU intakes on the outside of your case side panel.

Problem solved.

That will add airflow to your existing setup directly to your problem and assist airflow to other areas lacking cooling, and you won't have to remove the HDD carriage, but I would do both solutions.

Too many cases on the market follow the same airflow styling blocking the lower intake with HDD locations, seriously restricting any solid airflow path, leaving dead air space in the center of the case where it is needed most, those designs were fine in the days you could cool your CPU with a 40mm fan, and your GPU had no cooling fan, but not today!

 

[rubix_1011]

To quote parts, just do a

and copy paste in what you want, with end

and close the quote with:

.

As for temps, those are pretty normal ranges in Celsius...nothing to really worry about. However, like everyone has mentioned, your CPU cooler is likely suffering a bit and would benefit from and increase of good, cool airflow.

 

[sisu]

Do a little case mod with your existing case and locate and mount a 120mm fan around the 70cfm range, blowing fresh outside air directly into your GPU intakes on the outside of your case side panel.

Do you have any suggestions/experience of any 120 mm fan?
If a bigger fan fits, is it better to get that or is a 120mm fan better for some reason?
Why mount it outside the case?

To quote parts, just do a
Quote :

and copy paste in what you want, with end

and close the quote with:

.


I wanted to know how to quote by getting the line: "x wrote". In my forums you simply type

blabla

.
But this will do, thanks.

 

[4Ryan6]

Do a little case mod with your existing case and locate and mount a 120mm fan around the 70cfm range, blowing fresh outside air directly into your GPU intakes on the outside of your case side panel.

Do you have any suggestions/experience of any 120 mm fan?
If a bigger fan fits, is it better to get that or is a 120mm fan better for some reason?
Why mount it outside the case?

You can use either a 120mm or 140mm I'm recommending the Silverstone new air penetrator line as it directs the air straight out from the fan.

These fans either the 120 or 140 do exactly what they're advertised to do airflow wise, check out the design in operation at the Silverstone website, look under Remark on the web page.

Inside or outside mount on the side panel is up to you but the further from the GPUs the better under these circumstances as an inside mount will put you right on top of the GPUs, a little space there would be better.