Custom hybrid GPU cooling

[Feronix]

Heya guys!

 

Got an impossible question for ya  

 

I've recently purchased a what I thought was a reference EVGA GTX 760 2GB. While this card has enough horsepower for the little gaming that I do, it is incredibly loud. Not only during games, but also at idle because Nvidia has locked the fan so that the lowest it will go is 40%, even though my card idles at 28 C.

 

 

Obviously this is a bit high, and it should be able to do 20% easily in idle. The only way that this seems possible though, is by either flashing a custom (unsupported) vBios on it, which I'd really rather not cause I risk bricking the card and I have no experience with it.

 

The second way is watercooling it. This is where I found out that when you buy an EVGA card with stock cooler, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a reference card and after a quick investigation there appear to be no full-cover water blocks available for my specific model.

 

There are however, the universal blocks that I am considering. They go over the GPU core only and thus leave the vRAM uncooled, so I need a solution for that. 

 

 

 

I was thinking of modding my GPU shroud so that I can fit the block under it and still keep the original shroud + fan on. But, that would still mean that the fan will be loud so I have to fix that somehow and I still don't want to flash the vBios.

 

I think there are two main options right now for me:

 

- Solder in (or use a 5/7v adaptor) a resistor to make the PWM fan spin and 5/7volt instead of 12. Then set a fan profile so that it does 60% (60 : 12 x 5)= 25%  in idle and ramps up to 100% (100 : 12 x 5)= 41% under load.

 

- Get a regular style PWM fan (quieter) and attach that to the shroud and plug it into the fan. It won't be blower-style but there's only one way out of the shroud anyway so air should travel over the vRAM heatsinks.

 

Can you also buy the blower style fans seperate somewhere? Maybe I could get a slightly different (slower spinning, quieter) one.

 

I'm also running OS X on the same computer and there is no Afterburner software or similar available for that, so that would mean in OS X it won't spin up much at all (default fan profile). I won't be gaming in this OS but video editing might happen. Would the card run too hot editing on CUDA?

 

What do you lot think? Yay or nay? Any other things I could try?

 

Would love to hear from you.

 

Thanks in advance!

[ErfanT]

if its running at 28 degrees at idle you could probably set up a fan curve to lower the fan speeds.

[Matthew12106]

Why not buy an 860 when it comes out??

[Feronix]

if its running at 28 degrees at idle you could probably set up a fan curve to lower the fan speeds.

 

 

No, because Nvidia has locked the vBios so that the lowest the fan will go is 40%, which is loud. The only way to get it to run lower than 40% without hardware mods is flashing a custom bios made by some dude that I don't know, so I'd rather go for the hardware mod tbh.

 

Why not buy an 860 when it comes out??

 

Cause I just got this card, it's enough for my needs, and I'm a poor student

[Matthew12106]

No, because Nvidia has locked the vBios so that the lowest the fan will go is 40%, which is loud. The only way to get it to run lower than 40% without hardware mods is flashing a custom bios made by some dude that I don't know, so I'd rather go for the hardware mod tbh.

Cause I just got this card, it's enough for my needs, and I'm a poor student

Maybe sell it? With the money you get from that + the money you will spend on watercooling and the hassle ... + the fact the the 900 series epically the 970 which I'm getting is so aggressively price it seems like a good idea to wait for the 960.

Btw I might not be able to reply to you again if you reply to this. I have been watching every video on the 900 series and have researched a ton on which 970 I will buy (msi one) and I just called it the 860 instead of 960. I will most likly be throwing myself in a ditch now good luck with your card!

[nick99n]

i would add the block only and then i would get a fan for the side panel to blow air to the card i think it will be fine 

[Feronix]

Maybe sell it? With the money you get from that + the money you will spend on watercooling and the hassle ... + the fact the the 900 series epically the 970 which I'm getting is so aggressively price it seems like a good idea to wait for the 960.

Btw I might not be able to reply to you again if you reply to this. I have been watching every video on the 900 series and have researched a ton on which 970 I will buy (msi one) and I just called it the 860 instead of 960. I will most likly be throwing myself in a ditch now good luck with your card!

 

I can get an expandable AIO pretty easily and then sell my H60 so it doesn't have to be really expensive for me. The universal blocks aren't that expensive either. Chances are the 960 will also be locked at a certain fan speed though and I'm not running that risk.

 

i would add the block only and then i would get a fan for the side panel to blow air to the card i think it will be fine 

 

Well I do go for good looks in my system and a naked GPU doesn't exactly look good imo. I've got a Bitfenix Phenom ITX so there is no ventilation in the side panel anyway.

[Matthew12106]

I can get an expandable AIO pretty easily and then sell my H60 so it doesn't have to be really expensive for me. The universal blocks aren't that expensive either. Chances are the 960 will also be locked at a certain fan speed though and I'm not running that risk.

 

 

Well I do go for good looks in my system and a naked GPU doesn't exactly look good imo. I've got a Bitfenix Phenom ITX so there is no ventilation in the side panel anyway.

Well with the 970 and most likely the 960 there will be models like the msi and asus 970 with 0db fan technology. In others words the fan only will turn on at 65C. In terms of other stuff I really know nothing about water cooling so Yeah that is pretty much all the advice I had to offer

[Feronix]

Well with the 970 and most likely the 960 there will be models like the msi and asus 970 with 0db fan technology. In others words the fan only will turn on at 65C. In terms of other stuff I really know nothing about water cooling so Yeah that is pretty much all the advice I had to offer

 

Yeah I considered that and the 0db feature is really great, but they are non-reference coolers, meaning that as soon as they do spin up it dumps all the heat inside the case, which isn't desirable in an ITX system

[Matthew12106]

Yeah I considered that and the 0db feature is really great, but they are non-reference coolers, meaning that as soon as they do spin up it dumps all the heat inside the case, which isn't desirable in an ITX system

Yeah I guess but the Maxwell GPUS are pretty cool anyway if you have at least some good airflow in the case and where you live isn't crazy hot it should be alright I think