Reasonably sized VGA coolers (fanless or with 120mm fan)

They make noise, too.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
ermi
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:00 am
Location: eu

Reasonably sized VGA coolers (fanless or with 120mm fan)

Post by ermi » Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:53 pm

I have an Antec P183, with the middle fan mounted on the drive cage, like in this picture:
Image

I find this middle fan setup very convenient and efficient for cooling the video card, so I'd like to keep it.
The problem is that some longer VGA coolers might not fit.
I also wouldn't want to use more than 4 PCI slots for the whole thing (video card, heatsink and a 25mm wide fan).

I was looking at the Accelero S1 PLUS, but I'm almost certain it wouldn't fit (while the now discontinued S1 Rev.2 probably would).
In case anyone has tried the S1 PLUS or a similar cooler let me know.

The Thermaright T-Rad2 GTX could be an option, I guess.

I'm also looking at smaller coolers that let you use your own regular (25mm wide) 120mm fan. Like the Scythe Setsugen 2, for example.
I'd rather avoid coolers with non-standard (non-replaceable) fans.

BTW, I plan on using it on a Radeon 7850.

kuzzia
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 709
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Reasonably sized VGA coolers (fanless or with 120mm fan)

Post by kuzzia » Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:52 pm

You could also use an aftermarket passive heatsink and then strap a 120 mm fan on it. It's a very efficient way to cool the GPU!

edh
Posts: 1621
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:49 pm
Location: UK

Re: Reasonably sized VGA coolers (fanless or with 120mm fan)

Post by edh » Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:12 pm

ermi wrote:I was looking at the Accelero S1 PLUS, but I'm almost certain it wouldn't fit (while the now discontinued S1 Rev.2 probably would).
The black outer plastic shroud for the S1 Plus could be removed or cut such that the plastic forward protrusion is removed. Then it would be near enough the same length as the old S1. The S1 is basically the same length as a MicroATX motherboard so you should have quite a bit of space anyway. I'd tried the S1 Plus and if it doesn't fit, modify it.

ermi
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:00 am
Location: eu

Re: Reasonably sized VGA coolers (fanless or with 120mm fan)

Post by ermi » Sat Jan 05, 2013 3:33 am

@kuzzia: Yep, that's one of the options I'm considering. But if the middle case fan was enough, even better.

@edh: Good idea. Based on the pictures in this thread (in a P182, but still) it looks like removing the plastic and cutting off some aluminium could make the S1 Plus fit.
It might depend on the video card. Here it seems the cooler is positioned further back, for example.
But this is what I'm leaning towards right now.

Post Reply