Ghetto Cooler....

[weldzilla]

As many of you Know my primary card used to be a volt modded 7900GT.
I still run the card daily just not in my primary machine and yes it is still modded. Now the only thing I did not like was the fact that with the fan set to 100% the card at 700/940 clocks idles at 46 to 47C and when really pushed hit right at 64C. Now these are by no means horrible temps but, I like to get better cooling anywhere and everywhere I can.
I know I could just pick up a after market cooler for my 7900GT or just pick up a fairly inexpensive pci slot cooler for the card. That just isn't how I like to do things though.
So I grabbed an old phone modem pci card today along with wire cutters, a tie strap,an 80mm fan one grill and one of those blue tooless fan holders you see in Enermax cases as well as others.
I cut all everything off the card with the side cutters and put some little cuts into the fan holder so it would sit flat on the pci card. Then I cut all the little plugs off the card. Hey this was fun. Oh yes I used a drill and a 1/4 in. bit and drilled 2 holes through the card also. Then I mounted up the fan and tie strpped the cofiguration to the card.
Have a look.
I installed all this into WeldZilla-3c cuz it is on the desk and easier to get at for testing.



WZ

[weldzilla]

Well I fired up and set the clocks and let it idle for awhile.
and it settled right into 40C !!
Then I tortured it for awhile and no matter what I ran at the 700/940 clocks I never exceeded 56C. You know this was a great success and when you consider it was done with stuff I had laying around it was virtually free except for 30 minutes of my time. Any time you can cut 6 to 8C off your temps,
I would say time well spent!

WZ

[Pitch]

Imaginative, nice work!

[Daniel ~]

Front Page WZ! Many thanks!

[TMM47]

Wow that is so simple yet so geez ,well kinda brilliant. I have a few old modem cards lying around here somewhere. I am going to try my hand at this little device too. It is just so simple. I know I have many fans to chose from. Thanks for showing this I am glad I stopped in!!

TMM47

PS. there is nothing ghetto abourt your cooler!!

[weldzilla]

Well you are quite welcome I hope it works well for you. I see no reason why it won't so put it together and put on a pic if you can.

WZ

[QSDT]

I love it reminds me of the first water cooler I made for my PC you know the one with the sauce jar for the res, but that's a really good use of old parts I'm going to copy it in my PC thanks for thinking outside the square.

[weldzilla]

Hey QSDT customize it up a bit and post some pics. I am going top paint my up to match my case and system. So it is not done yet.

WZ

[chrisbard]

Oh I hate the fact you're so far away Tom. I would be knocking at your door at least one day/month to see your work or to ask for your help !! Well done !!!

[weldzilla]

Hey chris. I would relly enjoy it if you lived closer. your enthusiasm is just great!! Take a pic of what you come up with. Remember it can be the same idea yet different so don't be afraid to experiment!! you know I just like to mess with stuff and kick little ideas around till they become something.

WZ

[booman]

Very Very clever! I never would have thought to use an old card. Thats such a cool idea and very functional too. I'm going to remember that when my temps get high. Luckily I have those two fans sucking in cool air at the bottom of my Dungeon case. I think that helps my temps because the highest I've seen my 7900 GS is 47c. And thats only with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

[Gizmo]

That's some pretty slick engineering, WZ! Definitely in the spirit of the very best ghetto modding.

[Samuknow]

Did something similar back when I had a K2 450. I cut a hole in an old token ring card and mounted the fan in the card. Yours turned out much nicer.

[booman]

Whats a token ring card?

[Samuknow]

It was an old style network protocol. It used BNC connectors in a series. Basically one computer to the next.

[raphael2040]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

It was an old style network protocol. It used BNC connectors in a series. Basically one computer to the next.

Lol.

Old networks.

Pfft.

[Samuknow]

Yes old like me.....LOL

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by raphael2040

Lol.

Old networks.

Pfft.

Don't be dissin' it dude. You'd be surprised what you can do with 16 Mb/s on a network. The one really BAD thing about token ring is that if you unplug one network cable, the whole network goes down.

[raphael2040]

Originally Posted by Gizmo

Don't be dissin' it dude. You'd be surprised what you can do with 16 Mb/s on a network. The one really BAD thing about token ring is that if you unplug one network cable, the whole network goes down.

Haha. Yeah. We learnt about token ring networks in Computing.

Was fun, mainly 'cuz we all roleplayed how it worked.

I was Computer Terminal #2. =)