Problem Cooling CrossFired 4870s

alphadogg · Post by **alphadogg** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:49 pm

I have an ASUS Rampage Gene mobo. It has dual PCIex16s slots for crossfire, but they put the damn slots too close together! If you put a second card in the slot, it basically blocks all air inatke in the first.

Anyone dealt with this situation? I guess I need a cooling solution that is less than 30mm with air being taken in from the back or top...

akromatic · Post by **akromatic** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:13 pm

im running GTX260 SLI in my rampage gene and i dont have cooling problems

maybe because of nvidia's design and i used a spacer to push them as far apart is allowed

what sort of case are you using for them

40974111 · Post by **40974111** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:28 am

Is there space on that motherboard to replace the stock 4870 heatsink with one which sits on the side of the card? (Just throwing a suggestion out there...)

alphadogg · Post by **alphadogg** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:27 am

40974111 wrote:im running GTX260 SLI in my rampage gene and i dont have cooling problems

They don't butt up against each other? Somehow, the cards I have leave maybe a 1-2mm gap at best, with stock sinks. I'm afraid the covered card will overheat, although admittedly I haven't run them and monitored if that actually happens...

I didn't think of putting a thin wedge to get a little more space (making sure not to put too much pressure on the slots, though). I'll have to see if that will create enough space.

40974111 wrote:Is there space on that motherboard to replace the stock 4870 heatsink with one which sits on the side of the card? (Just throwing a suggestion out there...)

On the side? Not sure on what you mean. Do you have a model you can point me to?

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:26 pm

You could try the Thermalright HR-03GT on the 4870 in the top position, with the cooler mounted going over the card and sitting on the 'back' side of the card on the CPU side.

This might interfere with mounting an aftermarket CPU heatsink though, as you will need to install a 92mm fan on top of this. The heatsink itself will hang at least one slot higher than the card and the fan will add another 25 mm in height.

Terje · Post by **Terje** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:15 am

alphadogg wrote:I have an ASUS Rampage Gene mobo. It has dual PCIex16s slots for crossfire, but they put the damn slots too close together! If you put a second card in the slot, it basically blocks all air inatke in the first.

Anyone dealt with this situation? I guess I need a cooling solution that is less than 30mm with air being taken in from the back or top...

It is thight, but its common for most SLI/crossfire setups.

The slots have a pretty standardized spacing after all.

You could go out and look for a MB that has the x16 slots 3 slots apart instead of 2, but that would mean a new MB.

Terje · Post by **Terje** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:15 am

akromatic wrote:im running GTX260 SLI in my rampage gene and i dont have cooling problems

maybe because of nvidia's design and i used a spacer to push them as far apart is allowed

what sort of case are you using for them

Just curious, how is a SLI 260 in terms of noise?

akromatic · Post by **akromatic** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:09 am

Terje wrote: Just curious, how is a SLI 260 in terms of noise?

not bad at all, well i have the stock fans at 25% and they dont spin up untill i game and even then it manages the temps well

still i have very sensitive hearing so i still hear them as the rest of my system is silent and only at night, during the day i wont notice them

right now im interested in installing the Trad GTX to my SLI config with scythe 12mm slim fans to reduce the noise even more

Problem Cooling CrossFired 4870s

Problem Cooling CrossFired 4870s

Re: Problem Cooling CrossFired 4870s