Surprisingly effective 980ti DIY Cooler

[xix6xix]

Most of my small projects usually have moderate success but I thought I'd post this up as it turned out to be surprisingly effective and could give others ideas for alternate methods of quiet cooling, who don't mind their case looking like a medical waste bin.

Long story short as possible... 980ti EVGA Superclocked etc

1. ACX 2.0 was pretty much rubbish at 4k, 80c+ constantly

2. Installed Accelero IV, knocked about 10c off. Got greedy for better temps...

3. Installed EVGA Hybrid combined with the rear heatsink from the Accelero, also a single 120mm blowing on the VRMs etc (No blower as it's not a reference card) Very effective cooling wise...

Pump noise horrible. Did some testing, when the pump is run at 7v it maintains basically the same temps as 12v with a lot less noise. Getting about 22c idle and max 57c under load. Pump then died on Hybrid (2nd hand so no RMA) on reflection the 7v may have knacked it, can only speculate.

4. Installed my original planned abomination (Pictured below)

The front and back heatsinks from the Accelero... Combined with 3x 120mm Nanoxia Deep Silence fans, mounted on an Alpenfhn PCI bracket directly under the heatsink. All 3 are wired directly to and controlled by the card, they never go over 30% (As per my fan curve) Case is a Phantom 630, so it has a 200mm side intake blowing air directly under the fans.

The results were unexpected for air and something that's pretty much silent and never ramps up etc.

Idle: 25c
Under load: 48c (Witcher 3 for an hour)
Under load: 51c (MGS V for an hour @ 4k, pretty much highest settings)

That 51c is the highest I've achieved. Worth noting the OC was hitting around 1500 / 8000.

Granted, it's ugly as sin (Yep, that's fishing line) with the finesse of a sledgehammer but my case only has a half window (No window if it was up to me) so you can't see it. Happy with the trade off and the much welcomed silence though.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[setter]

As long as it works that's the main thing. Cant beat a bit of ghetto modding.

 

[xix6xix]

As long as it works that's the main thing. Cant beat a bit of ghetto modding.

Haha indeed, I was very surprised at how effective it turned out to be, also slightly annoyed that it was my original plan before going Hybrid etc.

Pretty sure I could remove the third fan, it'd look cleaner and then there'd be no need for the fishing line but it can only be better for airflow. It's very much a permanent fixture now after beating all previous methods hands down.

 

[Uncle Petey]

Now this brings back some memories. Nice job.

 

[Scougar]

That is one hell of a drop in temps!!!

 

[Sayso]

I like it, old school modding at its finest

 

[EVGAdominik]

Me personally do also like "ghetto modding" my system at home is looking similar About the cooler, EVGA do also honor the warranty for second hand user and you do not even need an invoice within the first yrs. Just register the cooler to your EVGA Account and request a RMA at [email protected] then we will exchange it.
Can you explain what you mean with 12V and 7V, normally the pump should get connected to the fan header of the graka.

 

[xix6xix]

Me personally do also like "ghetto modding" my system at home is looking similar About the cooler, EVGA do also honor the warranty for second hand user and you do not even need an invoice within the first yrs. Just register the cooler to your EVGA Account and request a RMA at [email protected] then we will exchange it.
Can you explain what you mean with 12V and 7V, normally the pump should get connected to the fan header of the graka.

That's good to hear, thanks for the info, as far as I know it's never been registered.

I had it connected to the card to start with, but found the buzzing very loud. I also run a Kraken that's on a fan controller to regulate the voltage, so I'm familiar with the noise you can expect from a pump. However I found the Hybrid louder than my whole system, whether there was an internal problem at this point, I'm not sure.

I had an inline 7v / 12v adapter that came with the Accelero, it plugged in to the card, then a molex. There was one socket for 7v or one socket for 12v. I used the 7v for at least a month before the pump went. It reduced the noise a great deal and there was none of the clicking you can get from too low voltage. Then all of a sudden I noticed the temps were high and the pump wasn't working, as far as I can tell there's no movement in the pump.

 

[tommybhoy]

Love it!

Now this brings back some memories. Nice job.

Ha, remeber matt's ocd refit days?

 

[EVGAdominik]

If it was louder then the whole system it do sound like there was an issue with it. Good, now I understand it... Let me know if there is any issue during the RMA