Need Help Cooling my NZXT Phantom

[talimore]

Hello everyone,

I have recently switched to a triple monitor setup and my GPU temps are through the roof. They were actually really hot playing some games before this on single monitor. The GPUs I'm running are the Palit 570's Sonic Plantinum's and I'm running two of them in SLI.

Here is a picture of my current fan setup but keep in mind that the back case fan by the mobo faceplate is actually the H70 Liquid cooled fans and radiator, not the case fan shown in the picture.

I was thinking that this might help with cooling the machine a little, switching the two top 200mm fans to intake and the side 200m to outtake. The main reason for that is, I dont think the side fan is pulling enough air in. I have a dust filter on it so my case doesn't get dust filled and the cable management in this case is amazing, i mean amazing, there is no blockage of air flow from that.

Here is what I was thinking there:

Another thing I was thinking, and this is somewhat off the topic of Cases and Mods, but Maybe I could underclock my GPU because the one I have is the OC edition. Maybe that could help. When im playing a game like RIFT, just 1920x1080 I get an upward bound of 85 Degrees. If I play it triple monitor I get an upward bound of ~93-95 Degrees, which is way to hot. Im just running it one monitor for now until I get this worked out. Another side note, I manually set the fans to 100% all the time when running any game, so these temps are with 100% Fan Speed.

 

[talimore]

Just a note, I did loot at a lot of reviews on the GPUs, one in particular (linked below) has temperatures under load and under an overclocked load and they are a lot lower than mine.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_570_Sonic_Platinum/31.html

Something with my case fans isn't doing the trick here...

 

[fil1p]

Is this only when you run a trip monitor set up? Also did you update your drivers?

 

[buzznut]

Neither one of these is a desirable setup. You have airflow working against itself in both instances. You should have intake fans in the front, keep the side fans as intake with fresh air for cooling you video cards.

For the exhaust use both the top exhaust fan and the rear exhaust or if the rear fan is replaced by the rad then you need to be blowing the hot air passing over the radiator out the rear of the case. Otherwise you are just blowing hot air into the case.

 

[talimore]

Is this only when you run a trip monitor set up? Also did you update your drivers?

When I run triple monitor it gets up to CRAZY not ok temps, the first card (one kinda being block by the second card) is running 92-95 degrees in a graphic intense game and 82-84 degrees in a non intensive game. The second card (not being blocked) runs at 85-88 and 77-80 degrees respectively. When I run these same games on a ONE monitor setup. The temps are 86-89 and 82-86 on the first card and about 78 on the second card. So the triple monitor adds a little more tempature but is it really going to run this hot? Its a nice custom cooler on that palit with 2 big fans... Hmm....

Also currently looking into water cooling these cards because these temps scare me.

Neither one of these is a desirable setup. You have airflow working against itself in both instances. You should have intake fans in the front, keep the side fans as intake with fresh air for cooling you video cards.

For the exhaust use both the top exhaust fan and the rear exhaust or if the rear fan is replaced by the rad then you need to be blowing the hot air passing over the radiator out the rear of the case. Otherwise you are just blowing hot air into the case.

The first setup, my current setup, is what you described. I have the side and front as intakes. The top two fans as exhaust but the only difference is I have the H50 Liquid cooled CPU radiator on the back fan as intake.


Is there anyway to lower these tempatures on the GPUs? I have also considered water cooling, can anyone recomend some good GPU water coolers?

 

[beyond]

When I run triple monitor it gets up to CRAZY not ok temps, the first card (one kinda being block by the second card) is running 92-95 degrees in a graphic intense game and 82-84 degrees in a non intensive game. The second card (not being blocked) runs at 85-88 and 77-80 degrees respectively. When I run these same games on a ONE monitor setup. The temps are 86-89 and 82-86 on the first card and about 78 on the second card. So the triple monitor adds a little more tempature but is it really going to run this hot? Its a nice custom cooler on that palit with 2 big fans... Hmm....

Also currently looking into water cooling these cards because these temps scare me.



The first setup, my current setup, is what you described. I have the side and front as intakes. The top two fans as exhaust but the only difference is I have the H50 Liquid cooled CPU radiator on the back fan as intake.


Is there anyway to lower these tempatures on the GPUs? I have also considered water cooling, can anyone recomend some good GPU water coolers?

I have gtx470sli, h50, and phantom case as well. I also have the same fan setup as you do. Usually, my graphic cards idles around 50 Celsius and 90 during stress test. Since both gtx470 & 570 are factory overclocked, a bit higher temp on them is completely normal. I do not worry about my cards getting burned. =)

 

[talimore]

I have gtx470sli, h50, and phantom case as well. I also have the same fan setup as you do. Usually, my graphic cards idles around 50 Celsius and 90 during stress test. Since both gtx470 & 570 are factory overclocked, a bit higher temp on them is completely normal. I do not worry about my cards getting burned. =)

You don't think 92 degrees is to hot for a video card? That seems high for me but yeah the card is overclocked out of the box. I mean, if I underclock it back to 600 (I THINK, dont remember base clock) the temps will go down as expected.

And this wasnt stress tested either. This is under game lol, If I stressed it, it might get worse and my GPU did turn my monitors black during one extended game where the tempatures on the first gpu in my sli rig hit an upward bound of 97.

 

[fil1p]

well basically with sli, you have two cards sandwiched together, as others have mentioned work with your airflow. Don't worry about your cpu, but direct fresh air at your gpu's. Also just an FYI, the gtx 570's have a max temperature tolerance of 97 C, so you are pretty close or in the danger zone. Also did you always have such temps, and one , more question, did you change something before the problems started to occur.