Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

They make noise, too.

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PMcG
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Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:09 am
Location: Canada

Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by PMcG » Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:10 am

So in the obsessive quest for silence the graphics card fans need to go. They are currently the only thing making noise and have recently developed a squeaking noise which occasionally starts up (my wife thought we had mice last night).

The parts:
1 Gelid 1-4 PWM fan splitter with molex power (may switch to swifttech 8 way with SATA to clean things up a bit when it becomes available in my region (Canada))
(http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_ ... _id=045724)
2 Noctua NF-P12 PWM (I chose these over the NF-F12 because of lower max speed and I am running the non PWM version at the front of case and am really happy with the sound) (http://products.ncix.com/detail/noctua- ... -64541.htm)

My plan:
Remove the stock fans and shroud from GTX660. Ziptie fans side by side together so that they become one long unit. Attach zipties to empty slot below the GTX660 to create a mount to ziptie one end of the dual fan unit to. Have the other end of the fan unit held in place by fishing wire (or picture hanging wire) suspended from the 5.25" bay and PC floor. I would then attach the 2 noctuas to the splitter along with my cpu fan and attach that to the motherboard CPU1 header to be controlled by bios and powered by PSU by molex.

I would love to hear any general advice or concerns that anyone may have (hopefully my explanation is clear). More specifically though. Have people had luck mounting those fans or any others horizontally? I have found some of my fans, some Scythe slipstreams for instance, made ugly noises when mounted in this orientation. Also do you think it is fine to have the GFX card cooling controlled by the CPU? I figured that if the GFX is loaded chances are the CPU is as well (I play games at 1080p (diablo 3(now), BF4, DOTA2 ect). Do you think this will give the card adequate cooling? Also does anyone know if not having fans hooked up to the GFX fan port causes any errors or anything like that?

Thanks.

PMcG
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:09 am
Location: Canada

Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by PMcG » Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:55 am

Here is a quick sketchup i did if that helps. Bare with this is my first time posting a pic to the forums.
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edh
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Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by edh » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:09 am

With the fans attached loosely as you have drawn they may not be very effective at cooling the graphics card. While they will work, a lot of air will be wasted so the fans would need to spin faster to compensate. Directly attaching the fans to the graphics card heatsink would allow it to be cooled quieter.

I would investigate swapping the entire heatsink for something bigger like an Arctic S1 Plus. Then a single 120mm fan at 5V would be sufficient to cool it as the 140W TDP of the GTX 660 is not far beyond the passive range of the S1 Plus.

You might also want to look at using an adaptor to connect a standard fan to the header on the graphics card instead of that GELID splitter. You can find adaptors for this and a PWM-DC adaptor separately would allow you to use a 3-pin DC fan and get full fan control based upon the temperature of the graphics card if you want to use DC fans instead.

xan_user
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Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by xan_user » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:46 am

I'd use the S1+ and just move the intakes closer to the card.
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boost
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Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by boost » Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:13 am

I'd ziptie one 12cm to the S1 or the original cooler, and possibly use it with this adapter so it's GPU controlled, and use one fan as an intake fan. I use the adapter myself with a Thermalright TY-150.

Abula
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Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by Abula » Thu Mar 06, 2014 6:02 pm

I have not used it, but i had my eyes on this adapters for a long time, in case you are interested, PCI 12cm Dual Fans Mount Rack Cooling Heatsink Bracket for Graphics video card

Image

PMcG
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Location: Canada

Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by PMcG » Fri Mar 07, 2014 6:35 am

Thanks for the replies everyone. I mounted an accelero S1 to my old Radeon 5670 and I found it never quite fit right, plus I want to avoid voiding the warranty on my asus so I think I will try just the stock heatsink first and then go from there. My thought with the positioning of the fan was to get it to blow at a slight angle against the card so that the hot air would be forced through the empty slots at the back, you may be right though that I need it higher up. Unfortunately I am not sure that the mini 4 pin adapter will work since my card has a 5 pin mini PWM fan header. I found one adapter but it was some company in HK that I did not know but may end up getting if the fans don't ramp up enough when necessary.

Anyone have any experience with the fans though, or mounting any good fans horizontally on a card?

PMcG
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:09 am
Location: Canada

Re: Alternate Cooling Setup for Asus GTX660 DC2O

Post by PMcG » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:38 pm

Just installed it all and it works great. GPU maxes out at 63 while gaming and things are totally silent. Loving it.

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