Slot exhaust fan

[TheDiceman]

So my 2900Pro died out on me a few weeks ago after about a year of use and Sapphire was more than helpful with still supporting their warranty and granting me an RMA for the card (quite possibly one of the smoothest RMA experiences I have ever had next to newegg). They are sending me a 3870 single slot card as a replacement this week (a very small, but welcomed upgrade). My concern is the heat that single slot cards tend to give off. As I cannot afford a decent aftermarket cooler right now AND I would like to keep my warranty intact (Sapphire told me that the replacement card will be covered for the remainder of my two years of original coverage), I was wondering how much of a difference those expansion slot exhaust fans really make?

 

[objecterror]

Exhaust fans? Not an entire lot from what i've read, some of them spin to slow to pull any of the heat from your card or not enough at all. There roughly thirteen bucks if you wanted try them and some plug into your mobo or others plug directly into the powersupply.

The only thing that will keep heat in your case down significantly is proper airflow through the case. i.e, cleaning up your wire arrangement. and proper ventallation (spelling) going in and out of the case. If you have 120mm fans on the front and back then that's enough airflow to keep your graphics card cool.

If you want to take up a few extra slots on your board, then you could try it, but, if you want the best in cooling is liquid but, unfortunately that voids your warranty.

It's a real toss up. Try making some adjustments to the air flow in your case before blowing the 12+ dollars on those exhaust fans.

 

[Jorsoft]

+1 to that. I've never heard anything very good about the slot fans, mostly bad as a matter of fact. They tend to have the opposite effect or spin too slowly to have any effect. Best just to spend a few dollars on an extra case fan or two, or beef up your existing ones.

 

[objecterror]

Out of curiousity, what are the temps with the replacement card you have now?

 

[TheDiceman]

I am still waiting for teh replacement card to arrive. As far as fans go, I already have a 120 on the intake and outtake (I have a Tsunami case) and the (80 or 90?) fan on the side. Honestly I prolly don't need the side fan anymore since I got the Freezer Pro for my CPU. Annoying part is the way the case is laid out, my intake fan is in front of my HDDs which screws up my airflow and the positioning of my HDDs are at the mercy of my PCI-E slot in teh case of my old GPU. Won't know how the new one fits until later this week.

 

[objecterror]

Ah, your still waiting, well, try it out, see your temperature and either swap out your side fan with one with higher rpm's. I wouldn't remove it though, when the airflow can't escape the back it goes out the side.

an after thought on your 120's, you can have them spin higher and move more air over them. Yeah, the hard drives impede some of the flow, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing, it's all about moving air through your case and keeping things cool.

Everything else aside, jorsoft has the right idea, replace the old fans, those are roughly 5 or 10 bucks. try some different things.

or, you could always try watercooling