Cooling solution for 2 x 6970 cards

nesf

So I've a choice at the moment, I can either overclock the cards and put up with the fan noise (annoying) or I can go back to stock and have a quiet machine again. Or I can go for an aftermarket cooling solution. My problem at the moment is that with the latter, nearly every cooler I've looked at is a 3 slot cooler and my mobo doesn't have the space between the two cards to make this work without cooking the top card. I'd need a 4 slot gap at minimum between the cards to make it work and even then there's problems. The other option is watercooling but that's looking very expensive.


Thoughts?

deceit

see can you get these coolers for them?
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms#p/u/5/UyhouiSb_m4

Serephucus

You can get a CoolIt Omni, but they're nowhere near as good as PNY's card (I actually watched that video yesturday, as it happens) because they use a worse pump, thinner rad, all cooling the whole card (not just the GPU) through an adapter plate.

nesf

Serephucus wrote: »

You can get a CoolIt Omni, but they're nowhere near as good as PNY's card (I actually watched that video yesturday, as it happens) because they use a worse pump, thinner rad, all cooling the whole card (not just the GPU) through an adapter plate.

Doesn't work with Crossfire anyway since you'll lack a fan slot for the lower card on most cases and definitely mine.

Serephucus

nesf wrote: »

Doesn't work with Crossfire anyway since you'll lack a fan slot for the lower card on most cases and definitely mine.

Yeah, the only way to do it would be to stick them both on the door, which would require muchos drilling.

deejer

There isnt much that these wont do at stock speeds id say

But I guess where is the fun in that

nesf

deejer wrote: »

There isnt much that these wont do at stock speeds id say

But I guess where is the fun in that

Yeah, but at stock speeds and auto fan control the top card which is sucking in air over the back of the bottom card is hitting 90-91 degrees in games and don't even consider stress testing them like this. The aftermarket coolers are great but require you to have a 4 slot gap between the cards which is rare on motherboards.

dwighet

The sythe coolers I have on my two 6970`s are slim...I will post a pic when I get back home from work...

The top card gets to 70c while gaming with the cards oc`ed @ 935/1435 and ultra settings...

Overheal

Submerge the build in Mineral Oil.

MWahaahah.

Serephucus

dwighet wrote: »

The sythe coolers I have on my two 6970`s are slim...I will post a pic when I get back home from work...

The top card gets to 70c while gaming with the cards oc`ed @ 935/1435 and ultra settings...

The only VGA coolers Scythe offers are triple slot... They use slim fans alright, but they're not any slimmer than other coolers unfortunately.

dwighet

here you go.
[IMG][/img]
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They look like two slots to me:cool:
here`s a screen shot of the temps after running heaven for half an hour with the cards @ 935/1435...
68c top card and 61c bottom card and the ambient temp was 19c
You can see the settings I had on the screen shot for heaven..
[IMG][/img]

nesf

I think the new version of that cooler that's available at the moment is triple slot though.

dwighet

nesf wrote: »

I think the new version of that cooler that's available at the moment is triple slot though.

I only bought the second cooler about four weeks ago from hwvs..
This is the one http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=49140&agid=721

Serephucus

Oooooh, those things. Nifty. Didn't realise it was Scythe that made those.

nesf

Hmm a review isn't that favourable for high end cards:

Although Scythe Setsugen 2 can cool not very hot graphics accelerators from the mainstream and entry-level price segments and at the same time produce very little noise, we still feel that this cooler is not a success for several reasons.

First of all, there are obvious issues with the cooler heatsink design, such as dense heatpipe packs inside the heatsink body, extremely thick base plate without the grooves for the heatpipes, use of thermal glue instead of soldering and last but not least small effective heatsink surface size (it is too thin). Secondly, universal cooler is a great thing, but the installation procedure (which is identical for all graphics cards) is so inconvenient that at times you get really mad about those engineers who designed this retention featuring thin screws and tiny holes, which require sniper-precision and extreme patience during assembly.

Thirdly, we consider the MSRP of Scythe Setsugen 2 to be a little too high for the cooling efficiency it provides. Had it been priced at $30 or less, it could have been regarded as an alternative to reference coolers on mainstream and entry-level graphics cards. However, today you cannot find Setsugen 2 for less than $40. So, summing everything up, Scythe Setsugen 2 is in our opinion an inconveniently universal cooler with average efficiency, adjustable acoustics and high price.

It failed stress tests on both the 6970 and GTX570: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/scythe-setsugen-2.html

Sasquatch76

The Coolink GFXChilla is a very thin cooler. I had one on a 4870 and it was way quieter than the stock cooling. It's compatible with the 6970, but you need to put on another heatsink for the VRM, and the ones that come with the cooler may not be compatible.

dwighet

nesf wrote: »

Hmm a review isn't that favourable for high end cards:



It failed stress tests on both the 6970 and GTX570: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/scythe-setsugen-2.html

Yeah there not great...But it gets the job done for now..
I will be watercooling the rig very soon...

nesf

dwighet wrote: »

Yeah there not great...But it gets the job done for now..
I will be watercooling the rig very soon...

Yeah pricing watercooling atm but it looks pricey.

dwighet

nesf wrote: »

Yeah pricing watercooling atm but it looks pricey.

It costs a small fortune but well worth it..

This is what Im looking at..should have it sorted by the new year
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms#p/u/10/Am7ypdKUgfU

This crowd is pretty good for prices http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/120mm-Single-for-120mm-Fans-cid-1218.html

nesf

dwighet wrote: »

It costs a small fortune but well worth it..

This is what Im looking at..should have it sorted by the new year
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms#p/u/10/Am7ypdKUgfU

This crowd is pretty good for prices http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/120mm-Single-for-120mm-Fans-cid-1218.html

Yeah that was the option I was looking at.

Serephucus

*nudge, nudge* Aaaah, gowan gowan gowan gowan!