Fan replacement on 260X

[porina]

This is a Sapphire 260X where the original fan had died a while ago. I had a spare cooler from the 1700 so transplanted the fan. This is the second iteration, where the first version was cabled tied together and the fan connected to mobo, losing fan control. With an adapter cable I could remedy that, and I made new mounting bits so it should be more mechanically stable than the cable ties.

 

Only done a quick test run so far. Under some graphical loads like Superposition and FFXIV benchmarks, I saw a max of 95C which is a bit toasty, not for lack of fan speed which hit 100% and 2700rpm I think it was. Furmark pushed it to 99C and thermal throttling. I dunno if there is anything more I can reasonably do to improve this, without replacing the heatsink part. Not really worth it on a card this old.

 

Also another minor problem... I centred the fan on the heatsink, but the heatsink has a cutout to prevent interference with other PCIe or other expansion slots. The fan is a bit low, so it does press on other slots making the card lean slightly. Not sure if I can re-jig it to move it up slightly as there wasn't a lot of slack built into it.

[Vegetable]

sounds to me like that cooler isnt on the core very evenly or even at all. That cooler, if put on there making good contact with the core, would more than likely blow away even the cooler that was on the card when it was new.

[EnergyEclipse]

Just when I thought that one had seen it all... Although whilst incredibly awesome for sheer practicality I do believe that it may have been simpler for you to have just replaced the dead fan.

 

Also, for the fan header issue, you could do something like crimping (You will probably have to find that dead fan again just for the header and wires) as I did in this::

 

-EnergyEclipse

[EnergyEclipse]

2 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

sounds to me like that cooler isnt on the core very evenly or even at all. That cooler, if put on there making good contact with the core, would more than likely blow away even the cooler that was on the card when it was new.

260 TDP: 115W

 

Ryzen 7 1800X TDP: 95W

 

D:

[Vegetable]

Just now, EnergyEclipse said:

260 TDP: 115W

 

Ryzen 7 1800X TDP: 95W

 

D:

I also strapped a stock intel cooler from my 4790k to a Gtx 570 (225w card) and it ran cooler than the stock config, and I know damn well that AMD stock cooler is far better than the sad little intel one i have. I just really dont care what the tdp is, actually go do it or link me someone who did and i shall believe. 

[porina]

22 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

sounds to me like that cooler isnt on the core very evenly or even at all. That cooler, if put on there making good contact with the core, would more than likely blow away even the cooler that was on the card when it was new.

To clarify, the heatsink is the original one that came with the card. I only moved the fan from a Wraith Spire to it.

[Vegetable]

26 minutes ago, porina said:

To clarify, the heatsink is the original one that came with the card. I only moved the fan from a Wraith Spire to it.

That makes a bit more sense. Even then theres NO reason for it to be getting those temps. Is the thermal paste new or recently reapplied? Is the cooler mounted evenly/tightly?

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

That makes a bit more sense. Even then theres NO reason for it to be getting those temps. Is the thermal paste new or recently reapplied? Is the cooler mounted evenly/tightly?

It's always been a hot card, like all that generation of AMD cards. I've redone the paste before. The only thing that might help it is to have more substantial heatsink but it isn't worth it on an old card anyway. 

[Vegetable]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

It's always been a hot card, like all that generation of AMD cards. I've redone the paste before. The only thing that might help it is to have more substantial heatsink but it isn't worth it on an old card anyway. 

Yeah but go find a review of that exact 260x. Theres just no excuse for those temps something is WRONG physically with the cooler or it's contact to the GPU itself

[porina]

4 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

Yeah but go find a review of that exact 260x. Theres just no excuse for those temps something is WRONG physically with the cooler or it's contact to the GPU itself

I found one review reporting 82C with Furmark, but it didn't go into details or conditions so that doesn't really help. I'll try another repaste tomorrow but I'm still not convinced anything is wrong. The only maybe is if the airflow in the case is poor as I have it squeezed into a micro-ATX case, but the extraction fan exhaust air doesn't really feel hot.

[Vegetable]

27 minutes ago, porina said:

I found one review reporting 82C with Furmark, but it didn't go into details or conditions so that doesn't really help. I'll try another repaste tomorrow but I'm still not convinced anything is wrong. The only maybe is if the airflow in the case is poor as I have it squeezed into a micro-ATX case, but the extraction fan exhaust air doesn't really feel hot.

Yeah airflow is something I do forget to factor in. Hell, run it with the side panel off if that's what it takes

[porina]

12 hours ago, Vegetable said:

Yeah airflow is something I do forget to factor in. Hell, run it with the side panel off if that's what it takes

I first wanted to try with a PCIe extension to get it out of the case but it was unstable. The same extension has worked in the past with a 750Ti. So back in the case, but side panel off, FurMark temps settled at 84C. Lid back on but case horizontal (normally vertical) it reached 99C but didn't throttle. So... it is case airflow, and the design of the case it is in makes it practically impossible to do anything useful about it. There is extraction, but it doesn't encourage flow in the lower part of the case where the GPU is.

 

If I get really bored, I could swap it with another micro-ATX case I have, as that has more room above the mobo for a side panel fan.

[Vegetable]

6 hours ago, porina said:

I first wanted to try with a PCIe extension to get it out of the case but it was unstable. The same extension has worked in the past with a 750Ti. So back in the case, but side panel off, FurMark temps settled at 84C. Lid back on but case horizontal (normally vertical) it reached 99C but didn't throttle. So... it is case airflow, and the design of the case it is in makes it practically impossible to do anything useful about it. There is extraction, but it doesn't encourage flow in the lower part of the case where the GPU is.

 

If I get really bored, I could swap it with another micro-ATX case I have, as that has more room above the mobo for a side panel fan.

Yeah I remember when I moved my OG Dell Vostro's mobo/CPU/RAM into some $20 chinese sketch case back in like 2013 and filling it up with 5 120mm fans and my temps went WAY down from the OEM Dell case. Ever since then my PC has been high airflow oriented I suppose. My current S210 Elite is a piece of junk $50 case with no dust filters just a plain old chassis... with a butt-ton of fan mounting points. So I bought my $50 case, and spent $120 on 2 x 140mm Noctua P14s, 4 x Corsair AF120(QE), and a Corsair AF140(Also QE.) Then to ensure I dont have to fuck with it for a while I bought 3 x 120mm silverstone dust filters and a 140mm one for my side 140mm fan intake(s) and even stole the PSU dust filter from an S340 I have in the closet I dont use and it fit right in actually. Moral of the story is airflow is important I guess. I dont know why I felt like posting all this crap. Actually I have completely neglected my PC by not sharing it at all.  For no reason at on all this random thread, here is my PC lmao:

[porina]

1 minute ago, Vegetable said:

For no reason at on all this random thread, here is my PC lmao:

Go start your own thread  It's ok...  basically I have the 260X in my Ryzen 1600 system so that it'll work at all (and make it all AMD). I doubt I'll ever use it for GPU intensive uses as I'm not short on more powerful gaming systems. I could do the case swap I mentioned just to have a nice configuration, but it isn't a priority.

[Vegetable]

Just now, porina said:

Go start your own thread  It's ok...  basically I have the 260X in my Ryzen 1600 system so that it'll work at all (and make it all AMD). I doubt I'll ever use it for GPU intensive uses as I'm not short on more powerful gaming systems. I could do the case swap I mentioned just to have a nice configuration, but it isn't a priority.

Fair enough. Figured I'd preach a little trying to save your 260x from a fiery death but it is just a 260x at the end of the day. Meh