GTX 580 aftermarket coolers

thor1112 · 12 Feb 2011 at 11:47

My GTX 580 is a tad noisy for my taste considering my CPU is cooled with the corsair H50 and some pretty quiet fans. At stock I have seen the temps go up to 89 degrees as well and I can't overclock the card at all really without problems.

So I am looking for recommendations for an aftermarket cooler with an emphasis on low noise but also so that I can get some nicer temps. Unfortunately my case is a midi tower that only fits cards/coolers up to 285mm (Lian Li PC-8FIB) so this rules out the Accelero XTREME Plus (290mm) unless there is a workaround.

I'm not absolutely desperate for this but I just want to know what the options are.

kmufc77 · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:01

Get a better case with better airflow and your 580 temps will be a lot lower,my fan speed barely goes over 52%.

There are currently not any 3rd party coolers out for the NV 5 series cards,and tbh i dont think the 580 needs one due to the Vapour Chamber cooling design.

With my current setup my 580 is both quiet and cool,like i said case cooling is a massive factor with poor video card temps.

chaparral · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:05

kmufc77 said:
my fan speed barely goes over 52%

Something very wrong there,,or you can't be stressing your 580 at all..

kmufc77 · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:06

Nothing wrong with my 580 i have excellent cooling thats all.

chaparral · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:08

kmufc77 said:
Nothing wrong with my 580 i have excellent cooling thats all.

My case has excellent cooling as well and there no way my 580 fan speed would stay anywhere near 52% while under load..

The 580 fan speed goes up with temps,and most reviews of the 580 also have the same temps at load (around 80c to 85c)

thor1112 · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:57

kmufc77 said:
Get a better case with better airflow and your 580 temps will be a lot lower,my fan speed barely goes over 52%.

There are currently not any 3rd party coolers out for the NV 5 series cards,and tbh i dont think the 580 needs one due to the Vapour Chamber cooling design.

With my current setup my 580 is both quiet and cool,like i said case cooling is a massive factor with poor video card temps.

chaparral said:
My case has excellent cooling as well and there no way my 580 fan speed would stay anywhere near 52% while under load..

The 580 fan speed goes up with temps,and most reviews of the 580 also have the same temps at load (around 80c to 85c)

Yeah this is about what I get usually. 89 degrees is the absolute maximum I have seen it go up to. (After many hours of 3D gaming). My case's airflow is not bad, I have an extra 140mm fan fitted on the top to pump air out. In any case I really like the look of the case and I would not sacrifice it just to get possibly a few degrees drop in temps.

And yes my fan speed doesn't often go really high, I can really hear it if it does - I think tbh that for some reason at lower fan speeds it's hitting the resonant frequency of something in the card and I can hear it. More annoying is that it cuts out when I go into a menu or something - if it were a constant noise it would blend into the background.

ebilcake · 12 Feb 2011 at 13:16

I used to get around 89C with the stock cooler on my GTX580 and I didn't like the noise either and went for the Accelero XTREME Plus, it's a fantastic cooler, quiet and keeps things very cool even when overclocked, 900/1800/2100 24/7 now and it maxes at 60C.

But not only do you need space but also good airflow as it dumps all the air inside your case, so it's really only for larger cases with good airflow.

thor1112 · 12 Feb 2011 at 13:53

The other option is to get one of these...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-141-GW

What cooler is this using? Is it proprietry, or can I buy one of these to fit myself?

Josh P · 12 Feb 2011 at 14:18

thor1112 said:
Yeah this is about what I get usually. 89 degrees is the absolute maximum I have seen it go up to. (After many hours of 3D gaming). My case's airflow is not bad, I have an extra 140mm fan fitted on the top to pump air out. In any case I really like the look of the case and I would not sacrifice it just to get possibly a few degrees drop in temps.

And yes my fan speed doesn't often go really high, I can really hear it if it does - I think tbh that for some reason at lower fan speeds it's hitting the resonant frequency of something in the card and I can hear it. More annoying is that it cuts out when I go into a menu or something - if it were a constant noise it would blend into the background.

Remember that the 580 does it's own exhausting; you need to push cool air towards it not extract away from it. Are you using your H50 as intake or exhaust?

Your problem about the fan ramping up and down surprises me - I was under the impression that Nvidia has specifically made it so the fan changes speed gradually. Certainly this is what I have found with my card.

thor1112 said:
The other option is to get one of these...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-141-GW

What cooler is this using? Is it proprietry, or can I buy one of these to fit myself?

I believe that is a proprietary cooler. My preference would be to stick to reference PCBs, just in case I wanted to watercool down the line (another avenue you could explore would be a GPU-only WC loop?).

thor1112 · 12 Feb 2011 at 18:56

Josh P said:
Remember that the 580 does it's own exhausting; you need to push cool air towards it not extract away from it. Are you using your H50 as intake or exhaust?

Your problem about the fan ramping up and down surprises me - I was under the impression that Nvidia has specifically made it so the fan changes speed gradually. Certainly this is what I have found with my card.

Well I'll describe my setup as best I can;

I have 2 120mm fans pushing cool air in from the front (these came with the case)
PSU is at the bottom of the case
I have 1 140mm fan at the top of the case extracting air
I have my radiator at the top of the case with push/pull fans extracting air

I tested different configurations but at the time I was only worried about CPU temps not GPU temps...

And yeah I wouldn't mind the fan so much except for the way it seems to resonate at a certain speed and that the fan speed goes up and down with menus. Perhaps a custom fan profile would be a better solution.

I believe that is a proprietary cooler. My preference would be to stick to reference PCBs, just in case I wanted to watercool down the line (another avenue you could explore would be a GPU-only WC loop?).

I'm not sure there is enough space, but maybe down the line I could try this (the case does have 2 holes for tubes to go out the back).

thor1112 · 12 Feb 2011 at 19:39

OK I've run some tests - something very funny is going on.

When I manually configure my GPU fan to run at varying speeds I can hear it when it reaches about 60%, but it sounds like a fan, like whooshing air.

When I run Mass Effect my GPU fan doesn't get to 60% (well not straight away, eventually it warms up quite a bit) but whenever it is displaying 3D graphics rather than menus there is this annoying buzzing sound that is quite audible. I presumed seeing as it is graphics related that it was the fan making funny noises but my tests seem to suggest otherwise. So I guessed it must be a CPU fan issue.

So I tested using Prime95, my CPU gets up to 60 degrees, but no annoying noise. In fact I can't hear the CPU fans at all really over the sound of the other fans in my case.

What could this be? I'm thinking PSU issue? My PSU does like to sing sometimes (like briefly when I shut my computer down) but how can I isolate this?

TheRealDeal · 12 Feb 2011 at 20:02

thor1112 said:
OK I've run some tests - something very funny is going on.

When I manually configure my GPU fan to run at varying speeds I can hear it when it reaches about 60%, but it sounds like a fan, like whooshing air.

When I run Mass Effect my GPU fan doesn't get to 60% (well not straight away, eventually it warms up quite a bit) but whenever it is displaying 3D graphics rather than menus there is this annoying buzzing sound that is quite audible. I presumed seeing as it is graphics related that it was the fan making funny noises but my tests seem to suggest otherwise. So I guessed it must be a CPU fan issue.

So I tested using Prime95, my CPU gets up to 60 degrees, but no annoying noise. In fact I can't hear the CPU fans at all really over the sound of the other fans in my case.

What could this be? I'm thinking PSU issue? My PSU does like to sing sometimes (like briefly when I shut my computer down) but how can I isolate this?

It sounds like you are hearing coil whine.

rolypolyman · 12 Feb 2011 at 20:55

'There are currently not any 3rd party coolers out for the NV 5 series cards,and tbh i dont think the 580 needs one due to the Vapour Chamber cooling design.'

Oh yes there is, Linky. This is an excellent cooler, I have it on my 470 and it supports the 560,570 and 580. Go to 'Gelid solutions' to see the details as I'm not sure I can link to the site.

trisp · 12 Feb 2011 at 22:19

There has been a cooling soultion from artic for the 580 since the the 480 came out !! (they use the save socket/memory cooling so work)

chaparral · 13 Feb 2011 at 02:57

trisp said:
There has been a cooling soultion from artic for the 580 since the the 480 came out !! (they use the save socket/memory cooling so work)

But don't you have to glue the memory & chipset heatsinks on with the artic cooler...?

Which would mean you can't refit the stock cooler after..

Darkman · 13 Feb 2011 at 07:25

ebilcake said:
I used to get around 89C with the stock cooler on my GTX580 and I didn't like the noise either and went for the Accelero XTREME Plus, it's a fantastic cooler, quiet and keeps things very cool even when overclocked, 900/1800/2100 24/7 now and it maxes at 60C.

But not only do you need space but also good airflow as it dumps all the air inside your case, so it's really only for larger cases with good airflow.

What voltage are you using to get those speeds? How have you tested stability?

thor1112 · 17 Feb 2011 at 22:01

I finally got this sorted. Replaced my crappy PSU with a Corsair 850W AX and now the annoying sound is gone. I can still hear the fan whilst gaming and the temps are still quite high though. They go down quite a bit when I open the case which tells me I need to improve the airflow. How do these look?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-008-LL

For me aesthetics>noise>temps so I am keeping the case and just looking for possible options. It's not a big problem like it was before though.

Also are Antec PSUs covered against coil whine by the warranty? Could I send the unit back for a replacement/money back?

tommybhoy · 17 Feb 2011 at 22:32

thor1112 said:
How do these look?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-008-LL

You can make one yourself and save yourself £30+ with 2 fans, cable ties and an old pci case plate. I made myself one years ago with spare fans that were lying about.

thor1112 · 17 Feb 2011 at 23:50

tommybhoy said:
You can make one yourself and save yourself £30+ with 2 fans, cable ties and an old pci case plate. I made myself one years ago with spare fans that were lying about.

Sounds good actually, then I can choose the fans myself to get nice quiet ones. How exactly do I fit the fans to the PCI plate? Just tie them on? Is this sturdy enough? I have a feeling that the fans may vibrate a lot being tied on only by cable ties.

tommybhoy · 18 Feb 2011 at 01:16

thor1112 said:
Sounds good actually, then I can choose the fans myself to get nice quiet ones. How exactly do I fit the fans to the PCI plate? Just tie them on? Is this sturdy enough? I have a feeling that the fans may vibrate a lot being tied on only by cable ties.

Sit the fans side by side and either daisy chain some cable ties, or get long ones and either source some thin foam or soft rubber spacers/rings to sit in between the fans and pci plate.

Crap picture

. The yellow lines is the foam, green is cable ties.
Pull the cable ties as tight as possible through the pci plate and your good to go.

Remember to make sure you leave a gap as far away from the screw in part of the pci plate so that it doesn't rub off the motherboard.