Hardware to avoid

[Bigred]

I bought one of these 10 months ago strictly for crunching. Well, it has fried both fans and possibly the card too. It is out for repair under warranty but I wouldn't buy another one with this cooling design. From my experience, the ones that vent out the back of the case work much better.

[gopher_yarrowzoo]

Those look like they should vent out the back but I'm guessing they don't... Yeah I had one where the fan died, no life in that card any more was SMOKED...

[mattozan]

Good to know. I'm using two Zotac GTX460 cards (768MB). I have an open-air "case" for my rig, so airflow is less of a concern.



But I have noticed that the card on the end of the mobo runs about 10°C-15°C cooler than the one sandwiched in the middle. The 1st card's fan is drawing in fresh air, but the 2nd card's fan is only about 1/2 inch away from the 1st card, and is drawing in much warmer air.

I just upped my RAM and installed Win7 x64 (mostly so I can run GeneferCUDA on PRPNet), and found that I can now OC the cards and keep them stable. I've got them up to 870 MHz (from 710 MHz stock) with no errors on F@H. They're running at about 60°C and 74°C respectively.

[Bigred]

Try moving the bundles of cable away from the cards and mount a small fan to blow cool air between the cards. The cooler the cards run, the less the fans have to turn. Therefore they will last longer.

[mattozan]

Try moving the bundles of cable away from the cards and mount a small fan to blow cool air between the cards. The cooler the cards run, the less the fans have to turn. Therefore they will last longer.

That's a good idea. I think I will remount the 3" case fan 90° from its current location. That way it will blow air right down the middle of the cards, instead of across the top of them.

[mattozan]

That's a good idea. I think I will remount the 3" case fan 90° from its current location. That way it will blow air right down the middle of the cards, instead of across the top of them.

I finally got around to doing this, and it totally worked. The temp came down 10°C on the middle card, and both are now running happily at ~67°C.