Worried about GPU cooling :S

bobbarley · 1 Oct 2011 at 21:16

Recently received my M4A88T-M motherboard and popped all my goodies onto it. However I'm a little worried about the cooling for the graphics card, or any future card I add.

You can see that there is just the one PCI clot next to the PCI-E slot. My graphics card (GTX 260) like the majority of others uses a dual height cooler. The PCI slot has my X-FI sound card in it.

This means the gap between the two cards is about 2 to 3mm!!

Reckon it'll be ok, or should I be worried about this? There's no way the hot air is being cleared.

setter · 1 Oct 2011 at 21:20

What length is your audio card, ie is it long enough so that it covers the fan on your gpu?

bobbarley · 1 Oct 2011 at 21:22

setter said:
What length is your audio card, ie is it long enough so that it covers the fan on your gpu?

Yes

setter · 1 Oct 2011 at 21:26

You may see a slight increase in gpu temps, though cant say how much tbh. Make sure that your case intake fan/s have good unobstructed airflow to help with cooling.

bobbarley · 1 Oct 2011 at 22:22

I've two 120mm fans at the front, one 120mm fan at the rear (radiator attached to it) and a 200mm fan in the roof.

pat_c · 2 Oct 2011 at 11:04

Some side fans blowing directly on the 260, would have been nice, however you have plenty of airflow. I wouldn't worry, the 260 was never a heat monster.

If you wanted to monitor your temps, there are plenty of apps to display the gpu temp onscreen, like msi afterburner, gpu-z, sidebar gadget gpu observer.

bobbarley · 2 Oct 2011 at 13:22

Thinking of popping a GTX 560 in soon, bet that'll make things toastie!

pat_c · 2 Oct 2011 at 14:15

bobbarley said:
Thinking of popping a GTX 560 in soon, bet that'll make things toastie!

You'll be fine, the 560 +560ti is another non heat monster and there are lots of manufacturers putting decent custom coolers on their models.

GTO656 · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:56

DOn't wory should be fine.