7970 Matrix Platinum Crossfire Cooling

I have 2 ASUS 7970 Matrix Platinum cards in crossfire and at stock when playing BF3, the top card hit 82c.... The picture/s below illustrates why.

I need a way to cool them and watercooling is not an option i'm going to go with.
So far i have thought of getting the Zalman BR123 fan bracket, attaching it to the top of the hard drive cage with a fan on it pointed at the top card, blowing cool air at the end of it.
Also, the backplate on these cards are extremely well attached, so much so that it gets damn hot as attached to the GPU and VRMs heatsinks. So i think i may attach some heatsinks to it. I'm confident in getting at least 2 or 3 degrees off just by doing that without the additional fan.




Any other ideas?

something like this angled between the ends of the cards should improve things i would imagine

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-007-AN&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=399

Personally I'd take off the stock heatsink and put some better thermal compound on it. I did the same on my GTX560Ti as it was getting over 80°c temps but now it doesn't go over 70°c

Better thermal compound is a good shout, but probably the last resort as i know these are a pain to do on the Matrix Platinum.

Will take a look at the Antec Spot cool, need to see if i can turn off the LEDS on it, or remove them.

Removing the cooler might also void the warranty, which to be honest I wouldn't want to do with something that expensive!

The antec spot cool is the way I'd do it, even if it doesn't end up making a big difference in temps, better airflow is always a plus.

Indeed.
May have to go for the spotcool.

Used the spotcool on my old gtx 470 sli setup, (notoriously hot running cards). Top card was running 10c higher than the bottom one, using the spotcool helped bring them within 1c of each other. Though on the board i was using, there was more of a gap between the cards.



As a temporary measure till i got the spotcool, i simply hung a 120mm fan with string so that it dangled behind the cards. Looked terrible tbh, but it worked pretty much the same.

This is why motherboard choice is so important in a multi card setup very wise to get a board where you can still get 8x with one card in the primary top slot and one in the very bottom so you have a decent gap between cards when there isn't much of a gap it really cripples any good air cooler.

Hi im using two of these in my 600t with msi mpower and ive got slight heat when playing on 3 screens but when I get my 900d im sure it will improve but im going to try one of those coolers from antec

C64 said:

This is why motherboard choice is so important in a multi card setup very wise to get a board where you can still get 8x with one card in the primary top slot and one in the very bottom so you have a decent gap between cards when there isn't much of a gap it really cripples any good air cooler.

Click to expand...

These are 3-slot cards, so even with decent motherboard layout, you'll still struggle to get enough space between them.

If you can, using the bottom card for primary (where the video output goes), there's a few degrees in there. But it looks like it's starved of fresh air. And I don't think you want a side fan on this beauty. You'll need to get some air to the top card, somehow. Maybe another fan where the empty drive cage sits.