Universal GPU blocks

MrKennedy

MrKennedy

MrKennedy

Associate
Joined
20 Mar 2011
Posts
60
I am looking to get one of EK's universal vga blocks for my gtx 480 se as it isn't a reference design. I was wondering if it would fit right out of the box or do I need to buy something like the EK-GPU Reinforcer?
 
It should fit out of the box, but have you taken into consideration the need for airflow over the RAM/VRM chips?
 
It will fit the core with no problems but you are seriously going to have to do something with the VRM's on these cards. Left bare they will be red hot. Even with a good set of ramsinks on them you will need a fan pointing at them.
 
It is possible to fit a core only cooler to the 480gtx without taking the inbuilt heat spreader off which cools the rm and vrms. You just have to make sure the block will sit clear of the spreader and thus make proper contact with the core. With my 580gtx and a dtek fusion core block I had to file a little bit off the corners of the base of the block. It makes no difference to the cooling performance as that part of the block doesn't make contact with the core anyway. It should be doable on the 480gtx. You have nothing to lose anyway if you find you do need to remove the spreader and fit ram sinks.
 
I don't think there is a heat spreader just for the ram, it is part of the whole cooler however the vrm's have there own heatsink that is separate from the rest of the cooler so they should be fine. I'll just have to make sure I have a fan blowing over the card to keep everything cool.
 
Sounds like your non reference cooler is quite radically different to the stock ram/vrm heat sink then. On the stock assemmbly the heat pipe cooler comes off leaving behind a single large aluminium heatsink covering the ram and vrms. You're saying that when the heat pipe cooler comes off it takes the heatspread for the ram with it? I pic would be helpful.
 
:( one piece cooler because of the vapour changer heatpipes. You will need something to cool the memory, the VRMs appear to have no cooling other than the fan above blowing onto them through the heatsink at the back.
Choices would be something like the Alphacool MCX One miniblocks (would need to be bonded into place) or the previously mentioned ramsinks, which would be semi permanently stuck on and would then need a good amount of airflow to work.
 
Those Althcool MCX block look very cool but I can't afford the extra £40 it would be for them. I think I can get away with just the heat sink as I can get a fan close without spoiling the looks too much. I take for what iv seen that Enzotech are the best one or are there over heat sinks that are better?
 
For the ram i use Zalman ramsinks on my cards. It's debatable really that the ram even needs cooling. The ramsinks on my 480 barely get warm. For the VRM's on my 480 i cut up a old pentium cooler as the ramsinks could'nt handle the heat even with a fan blowing directly at them. These are the problem as the vrm's get insanely hot even at stock speeds.
 
pastymuncher said:
For the ram i use Zalman ramsinks on my cards. It's debatable really that the ram even needs cooling. The ramsinks on my 480 barely get warm. For the VRM's on my 480 i cut up a old pentium cooler as the ramsinks could'nt handle the heat even with a fan blowing directly at them. These are the problem as the vrm's get insanely hot even at stock speeds.
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting you got a pic of it?
 
Not at the moment. All i did was to cut the heatsink into strips that were wide enough to cover the VRM's and fixed them with Akasa thermal tape. The advantage over ramsinks is that ramsinks are around 10mm high and these are 50mm high. Going to change soon as i have almost finished heavily modding my CM Storm Scout case and all will be rebuilt into that.
 
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