VTX3D HD 7870 Black Custom Cooling

superleeds27 · 30 Jun 2013 at 11:41

As w all know, the stock cooling/fan on this isn't the best.

In my case, at idle its sitting around 33C, which isn't too bad, but as soon as it's under load, the fan makes a masssive amount of noise.

Im after a different cooling system for it.

I've been looking at the Gelid ICy rev 2.

I've seen a few people question as to what fits the 7870 Tahiti and what doesn't.

Does any 7870 cooler fit this, or is it a 7950 cooler we need?

Any info/suggestions would be appreciated

doyll · 30 Jun 2013 at 12:36

Some of us have had good results just removing stock GPU cover / fans and replacing them with a couple of 120mm fans.
Uncle Petey did it in Part 1: The Spectre bodge
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sh...95&highlight=gpu+cooling+username_Uncle+Petey

Here's one we did on a mate's VTX3D Radeon HD 7950 X-Edition V3 using 2x Arctic F12 TC case fan. Was 70c now 50-60c, ultra settings, 60fps unless particularly detailed cut scenes. F12 TC fans have a temp probe and built in control. We put the probe between GPU cooler fins and board. Just some fans we had laying around so figured to give them a try.. worked so good they were never changed. Cool, Quiet, and Cheap.
F12 TC £4.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-036-AR&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4
F9 TC £3.98 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-035-AR&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=820

superleeds27 · 3 Jul 2013 at 20:30

Might look into doing this!

Did you just cable tie the fans on?

doyll · 3 Jul 2013 at 20:43

superleeds27 said:
Might look into doing this!

Did you just cable tie the fans on?

Yes.

superleeds27 · 3 Jul 2013 at 20:49

Think I may look into this.

What are the fans like, noise wise?

doyll · 3 Jul 2013 at 21:51

Way quieter than stock fans were. When you are able to use lower rpm fans are quieter and moving more air at the same time means GPU is cooler too. It;s all on my original post above.

superleeds27 · 6 Jul 2013 at 17:33

Got around to doing this.

Furmark Temp wouldn't go above 71C.

Took me a while to figure how best to tie wrap it on, but, I think I got there in the end!

Idle temp is now around 38C, was 33C before, Granted, today is rather warm though and my room is roasting!

superleeds27 · 7 Jul 2013 at 08:45

Tested again this morning, when my room is at a 'normal' temperature.

Furmark tops at 68C. Which means I've seena 10C drop in temps!

Annihil · 15 Feb 2015 at 20:46

Thanks to this thread, I decided to change my VTX3D HD 7950 fan too.
Indeed, I had a 10°C drop in temp in furmark benchmark, and also a hotter idle temp (before: 39°C, now: 43°C)
But instead Arctic F12 TC, I took Arctic F12 PWM, so I made a thread to explain how I did it http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=27635402
Anyway, thanks doyll.

Annihil · 15 Feb 2015 at 20:47

Doyll, can you explain / take pictures of how did you cable tie your friend's HD 7950 card please ?

doyll · 15 Feb 2015 at 22:09

We zip-tied the 2 fans together on the front. similar to what you did on the back of them. We now have 2 fans secured together that will lay flat with each other when on the front of the fin pack. Then I feed zip-ties through the back holes on one side of each end so the big end of zip-tie holds it from going through the fan screw hole. This zip-tie goes across the back of fin pack and through the hole on other side of fan. Now put another zip-tie end with hole over that end to secure it.

Instead of a zip-tie threading into itself and being pulled tight, it is fed into another zip-tie and tightened. Think of it like a bolt and nut. The big end of zip-tie is the head of the bolt on one end and another big zip-tie end is the nut on the other end.

If that doesn't make sense, let me know.

JonSmith · 15 Feb 2015 at 22:52

Might have to try this on my 7850, however it's not long enough to fit two 120mms on it like that.

troops · 16 Feb 2015 at 03:29

JonSmith said:
Might have to try this on my 7850, however it's not long enough to fit two 120mms on it like that.

Use Arctic 92mm pwm fans then.

doyll · 16 Feb 2015 at 11:45

There is no problem having fans overhang the ends and bottom side of fin pack a little. In fact I like having fans almost touching motherboard so heated air coming out of fin pack does not flow out from under cooler over motherboard and up into fans. Sometimes it work, sometimes not. Keep an eye on VRM temps too.

Annihil · 16 Feb 2015 at 14:31

doyll said:
There is no problem having fans overhang the ends and bottom side of fin pack a little. In fact I like having fans almost touching motherboard so heated air coming out of fin pack does not flow out from under cooler over motherboard and up into fans. Sometimes it work, sometimes not. Keep an eye on VRM temps too.

Ok thanks, I was worrying that it could have any drawbacks.
I've another question. I'm french, and I failed to understand how you zip tied the fans (by the way, is the red cable zip-tie too ?), so I was wondering if it was worst (speaking in cooling capability of the heatsink) to attach the fans with two rubber band on each side of the fan like in The Spectre bodge ?
Is rubber band deprecated for that, is it more heat conductive than zip-tie ?
Also, the rubber band touch more area of the heatsink, so maybe it is bad ?
What do you think ?

(ps: have you still got the picture but with the original quality ? maybe it could help me understand)

doyll · 16 Feb 2015 at 16:26

Uncle Pete did a good job of showing how to do it.
Yes, a good strong rubber band is fine, but will not last as long as zip-ties.
I can't find the original pictures, but I'm still searching.

Telecaster · 16 Feb 2015 at 16:46

Kudos for persevering, I just gave up and sold my VTX 7870 Black, I didn't sign up for the hassle of bodging fans on to make it useable.