9600GT + Accelero S2 heat issues

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clamato12
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9600GT + Accelero S2 heat issues

Post by clamato12 » Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:02 am

I recently put together a new setup that utilizes an evga 9600gt superclocked combined with an accelero S2 passive cooler inside an antec solo case. The case has a 120mm exhaust fan alongside the psu's exhaust fan, but nothing else for ventilation. The cpu's temps are 18/38C (idle/load) in a 23c ambient environment, but the video card is a different story. When running bioshock with high resolution and effects, it takes about 5 minutes to go from an idle of 50C to 80C, and it continues to climb to at least 90C (stopped it there).

I'm trying to pinpoint the problem, but there are several things that come up.
1) The ventilation in the lower half of the case is horrible.
2) Maybe I botched installing the S2, and the contact between gpu/hs is weak.
3) The evga 9600gt sc needs more than the s2 for passive cooling.

Right now, I'm thinking of adding a fan, but should it be by the front of the case blowing back towards the card, or should it be attached to the S2? Also, how exactly do people attach fans to their S1/S2 (nylon zipties, string...) ?

Nick Geraedts
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Post by Nick Geraedts » Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:14 am

My first guess is that the S2 is improperly installed. I'd remove it and see if you can reseat it again. Since the spacers are fairly poorly sized, it's easy to screw one edge of the screws too far and the other edge not enough, resulting in an uneven contact patch.

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:24 am

IMO for a superclocked 9600GT the passive S2 is doing well. Reseating may improve temps, but my guess is that not much.
You should have bought an S1 instead, the price difference is so small, but the S1 would have coped much better.
The easiest way to sort out your high temps is to add the turbo module (2 x 80 mm fans) on the S2.
If after adding the turbo module (even undervolted) your temps don't improve a lot, then your main problem is a faulty mounting of the S2.

WR304
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Post by WR304 » Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:33 am

Try taking out all the PCI blanking plates beneath the graphics card. That will help reduce heat build up beneath the graphics card.

You probably need to fit a fan to the card too. A quiet 120mm fan should be enough. My brother's 8800GTS 512 grpahics card with Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 is fine with a 500rpm Scythe Slipstream fan blowing onto it. :)

For fastening it to the card a couple of zip ties or suspending it with string/ elastic work ok.

Image
8800GTS 512mb with Accelero S1 and HR-11 fitted showing suspended fan

tehcrazybob
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Post by tehcrazybob » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:10 pm

An S2 should be completely fine cooling even an overclocked 9600gt passively. A Superclocked card is only clocked 3.8% higher than a standard card, so I'd be willing to guess it also runs roughly 3.8% hotter. Ignore Tzupy's comment - although the price difference between S2 and S1 is tiny, the S2 is nearly overkill for a 9600gt.

I've got a standard 9600gt and S2, and my card usually idles around 45 and loads at 55-60 C. The bottom portion of my case is very well-ventilated, with probably 3/4 of the intake air coming from the bottom front by the hard drives and the rest coming in at the PCI slots right under the video card.

Now, I don't expect your 4% extra heat is causing you any problems. There are two possibilities left; you've either got a poor core contact or terrible case ventilation. Try leaving the side panel off your case and pointing a desk fan at the card, and see if your overheating goes away (if you're running a passive CPU and need the side panel on to keep air moving past the CPU, then pull off some PCI slot covers and throw a fan down there). If this fixes the problem, you need to improve the ventilation in the case. If this doesn't fix the problem, reseat the cooler and try again.

frenchie
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Post by frenchie » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:17 am

Same advice as above : open a couple of PCI slot covers. It should improve temps.

Tiny Turtle
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Re: 9600GT + Accelero S2 heat issues

Post by Tiny Turtle » Sun Sep 21, 2008 5:59 pm

clamato12 wrote:...The cpu's temps are 18/38C (idle/load) in a 23C ambient environment,...
Are you talking about a 18°C relative increase or are you using some sort of peltier cooling? Having a CPU temp five degrees below ambient isn't really possible otherwise.

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