ATi/nVidia need to rethink their heatsinks w/case air flow??

They make noise, too.

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acaurora
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ATi/nVidia need to rethink their heatsinks w/case air flow??

Post by acaurora » Fri Apr 30, 2004 4:06 pm

Ok, I've been reading and thinking for the past few days about how ATI and nVidia really do need to rethink their heatsinks. I mean, wouldn't it be a WHOLE LOT BETTER if their graphics cards, say, used the next PCI slot to exhaust the air out? I have a 9800 XT from ASUS, and it sucks in air perpendicular to the card, and spits it out toward you (or, if you're facing the card staring at the fans head on, upward). I had a Radeon 9800 XT from ATI, and it spits out the air up and to the right, if memory serves.

What i'm trying to get at is the past graphics cards I've owned, which are a 9800 XT, GF FX 5200, GF3 Ti 500, GF 4 MX400, and the ones i've read about (including the GeForce 6 series) all have some sort of intake, and then spit out the hot air BACK INTO THE CASE'S AIRFLOW. Isn't this bad...? Has anyone noticed this? I mean, you're spitting out warmed air into the case, and, with typical cases, that warm air gets sucked into the CPU cooler, which therefore decreases the CPU cooler's efficiency. I find it reasonable that it sucks cool air in from the case, but to be spitting out exhaust air back into the air flow of the case to reduce teh efficiency of cooling other components is simply weird for me.

My ideal cooling solution, at least in my mind, would to have some sort of setup in which air gets sucked in from the very right (where molex connectors are), cool the RAM/GPU/Whatnot, then get sent out through the PCI cards. That, to me, is the best solution. That way, the warm air will not affect or reduce the effficiency of the cooling of other components, therefore making it possible to have the other coolers (CPU/PSU/Fans) not have to work as hard. Get what I'm saying? Need a share of opinion... post freely :P

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Post by Wedge » Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:05 pm

Hi acaurora,

I haven't read your entire post because I'm in a bit of a hurry but I will come back to it. I saw your subject line and thought it was a good point to raise.

My 2 cents: Cases need to be redesigned to expel hot air out from the card, kind of like the Arctic VGA silencer.


Edit: just read your post. I couldn't agree more.

whoiswes
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Post by whoiswes » Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:13 pm

agree as well.

and i'm pissed at AC for not making a VGA silencer for the GF series...there are only a few hundred thousand cards out there - hardly a market at all!

</sarcasm>

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Post by acaurora » Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:10 pm

Honestly, I'd like to hear what ATI/nVidia has to say about why they haven't designed their heatsinks as I have described. It seems the most logical and sensible way for cooling. Yet, no one does it. The AC VGA Silencer you mentioned seems like an interesting solution, and I'd like to try it. They probably are making either A. A fortune because of its logical design, or B. not a lot because no one has really heard of them, or they haven't really made their place in the cooling industry yet, as their product sounds familiar, but I dont really remember it very clearly.

But in any case, yah. Heatsink design is something I think is overlooked. These heatsinks look as if the designers just wanted to suck air in from somewhere and blast it out into the cast somewhere, not really caring for the design of the airflow within the case. I would also like to add that this design flaw also is apparent in CPU coolers. Until recently, the CPU coolers acted pretty much the same, sucking air in, and blasting it out below the heatsink in all directions. However, why not have a solution that takes the cold air, and blasts it out to the back of the case? Only CoolerMaster and a few other brands, I believe, have products that do such a thing.

I dont know, maybe I'm just thinking too hard or something, lol. The thing that got me going about this heatsink thing was that I was looking at my case while it was running and noticing how the air was flowing. I have a Papst 4412FGL in the exhaust of my SLK3700 BQE, a Truepower 480, an ASUS 9800 XT (Very sweet btw, with 2 fans that are fairly quiet), and a ThermalTake silent boost. Those are all the fans that are contained within my case. Even with exhaust fans, I was thinking at how the cold air sucked in never really gets to where it NEEDS to be, and the hot air always gets to where it SHOULDN"T be. I'm pretty sure computer manufactuerers have realized this, such as Dell, with the whole ducting idea and all. Has anyone tried ducting? I'm not really one for modding, but I think it may be necessary. -_-;;

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Post by zak » Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:36 pm

I keep wondering why the heat sink is on the 'wrong' side of the card. Thiswas inherited from PCI, which did it to be different from ISA so slots could be dual purpose.

But not it means air has to be taken in through the pci cards, and it limits the space for the cooler.

I realize that the current situiation is not that bad with airflow. The cards suck in on the bottom and that is also where aire comes in the case.

Another way out might be to use the space that is nearly always above the card. I do not know what is generally available there, but a comb of fins pointing up might catch quitesome airflow there.


Thomas

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Post by Leto » Sun May 02, 2004 4:50 am

Actually Nvidia sold 23 million units last year, if just 1% needs a good HSF sollution Arctic would have a hell of a market.

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Post by acaurora » Sun May 02, 2004 8:45 pm

Well maybe they do. Never know. :P

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