Another Case Fan

[sharpshooter_992]

Hello everyone,
I'm planning on buying a 6th case fan in my custom PC. I'm placing the final fan under my GPU because my card faces upside down - so to speak. Any of you think that a fan pushing air up to the GPU fan will help cool it.

My GPU runs at 75-80 degrees right now, but I want to get it a bit cooler because I'm tired of keeping my GPU fan at 70%.

Thanks!

 

[clutchc]

It won't hurt, but you might have other issues causing high temps. Is the 75-80C temp at idle or under load? What card, case, and other fan placement do you have?

 

[sharpshooter_992]

Those temps are at full load, well while playing Battlefield 3. My card is a GTX 570. Case is a Zalman Z11 Plus High Performance Case.

1 120mm fan on the back
1 120mm fan on the top
1 120mm fan on the front
2 80 mm fans on the sides

And last but not least, there is an option to install either a 120 or 140mm fan on the bottom.

 

[clutchc]

That many fans should be more than enough air movement to cool the GFX card, not to mention its own fan. Actually, your temps while playing BF3 aren't all that bad. I don't have BF3, but running the 1920x1080 bench in Furmark, my #1 GTX 570 card reaches a max of 76C. And I have a 140mm fan on the side of the case blowing against the cards, a 200mm front, and 120mm rear. I only mention this for comparison.

Is your PSU mounted so that its intake fan is pointing down or up into the case? Adding a slot card below your GTX 570 will be the best solution without going to water-cooling, as long as your PSU's fan isn't facing up cancelling the slot fan. Adding a bottom fan blowing into the case would, of course, help also. But, man!... it has to be getting noisy with all those fans running.

 

[sharpshooter_992]

That many fans should be more than enough air movement to cool the GFX card, not to mention its own fan. Actually, your temps while playing BF3 aren't all that bad. I don't have BF3, but running the 1920x1080 bench in Furmark, my #1 GTX 570 card reaches a max of 76C. And I have a 140mm fan on the side of the case blowing against the cards, a 200mm front, and 120mm rear. I only mention this for comparison.

Is your PSU mounted so that its intake fan is pointing down or up into the case? Adding a slot card below your GTX 570 will be the best solution without going to water-cooling, as long as your PSU's fan isn't facing up cancelling the slot fan. Adding a bottom fan blowing into the case would, of course, help also. But, man!... it has to be getting noisy with all those fans running.

Well actually I have my tower right next to me and it's pretty quiet, unless the GFX card fan is on 70 percent. As for my PSU, I'm guessing that the fan is facing up because my PSU is mounted in the bottom of the case to add more room for the rest of the components.

 

[sharpshooter_992]

And also could you put a link to what a slot card is?

 

[clutchc]

Well actually I have my tower right next to me and it's pretty quiet, unless the GFX card fan is on 70 percent. As for my PSU, I'm guessing that the fan is facing up because my PSU is mounted in the bottom of the case to add more room for the rest of the components.

You can easily tell which way the PSU fan is facing by taking the side panel off and looking at it. I was just suggesting that any fan mounted below the GTX 570 would have its air flow hampered by a PSU intake fan directly below it. However, if the PSU is mounted with the fan facing down to intake from under the case, you won't have that problem. Fan facing down is usually the prefered mounting method for bottom-mount PSUs.

Here's what I thought you were looking to add:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008006&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&SrchInDesc=slot%20fan&Page=1&PageSize=20

There are several other different gfx card cooling solutions:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006648%2040000576&IsNodeId=1&Description=vga%20coolers&name=VGA%20Cooling&Order=BESTMATCH

But unless you O/C your card, there usually isn't a need for extra cooling.

 

[sharpshooter_992]

Best answer selected by sharpshooter_992.