Thermalright SI-97 GPU Cooler Mod Guide Posted!

[aKho]

wow. using a cpu cooler as a gpu cooler. impressive. looks heavy. but having that on would mean your only able to run one card only, no option for SLi (dual 9800 etc). very wicked looking.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by aKho

wow. using a cpu cooler as a gpu cooler. impressive. looks heavy. but having that on would mean your only able to run one card only, no option for SLi (dual 9800 etc). very wicked looking.

Yup, as mentioned in the guide, no way you can use this for SLI cards.

However, it's actually lighter than third-party GPU coolers like the Zalman heatpipe coolers! That was one of the reasons why Max_87 chose the SI-97 (see page 1).

[Max_87]

Originally Posted by aKho

wow. using a cpu cooler as a gpu cooler. impressive. looks heavy. but having that on would mean your only able to run one card only, no option for SLi (dual 9800 etc). very wicked looking.

ROTFL! It's even lighter than those Zalman heatpipe coolers (200+g) That's why I choose it

[Olle P]

Your comment about where to put the fan is needed, and I'd like to add a few more issues/options.

Using a regular 25mm thick fan mounted between the heatsink and card, as shown in the article, will have a negative impact on the airflow. Not only because that plate blocks 1/3 of the fan, but also because the rest of the fan is too close to the PCB to allow free flow. (Rule of thumb: Have at least a gap equal to the thickness of the fan to allow free flow.)

This blocking force the fan to work harder and will increase the noise level.

A third option is to use two thinner fans, 10-15mm, mounted on both sides of the heatsink. Thinner fans are less powerful (move less air when restricted), but mounted push - pull they can do wonders!
This solution is somewhat more expensive but produce a better airflow and less noise with a minimum obstruction of PCI slots.

/Olle

[Bestia(ry)]

*errm*

Originally Posted by Guide

Mounting the fan on top of the radiator fins will improve the cooler's performance since the fan will have better access to cooler air. In addition, it will be free from interference by the aluminium plate. When the fan is placed between the radiator fins and the heatsink base, the aluminum plate will block about one third of the fan's air intake area.

[Max_87]

Originally Posted by Olle P

Your comment about where to put the fan is needed, and I'd like to add a few more issues/options.

Using a regular 25mm thick fan mounted between the heatsink and card, as shown in the article, will have a negative impact on the airflow. Not only because that plate blocks 1/3 of the fan, but also because the rest of the fan is too close to the PCB to allow free flow. (Rule of thumb: Have at least a gap equal to the thickness of the fan to allow free flow.)

This blocking force the fan to work harder and will increase the noise level.

A third option is to use two thinner fans, 10-15mm, mounted on both sides of the heatsink. Thinner fans are less powerful (move less air when restricted), but mounted push - pull they can do wonders!
This solution is somewhat more expensive but produce a better airflow and less noise with a minimum obstruction of PCI slots.

/Olle

Well I did mention about the drawbacks of mounting the fan between the fins and base of SI-97

It's a good idea actually, putting two thinner fans on both sides on the heatsink. However, I think putting a 25mm fan on top of the heatsink still performs better.

[CmdrTaco]

That thing is a big mother****ing piece of shit

A BIG UGLY FAT ****ER

Much like Chris Nandor. Yeah, he's fat. Yeah.

Holy shit that sonofa***** is ugly.

[M0b1u5]

I love it when people mod stuff - particularly when adding funky-looking heatsink solutions. I've moded quite a few CPU heatsinks and put them on GPUs, and also RAM on graphics cards.

This mod doesn't impress me very much however. Mostly because:

1) The HS isn't really modified much at all.
2) The heatflow is totally messed up.
3) The requirement for a very noisy fan = BLECH.

Here's what I would have done with the same HSF and the same graphics card.

a) Removed the CPU cooler "foot" (where it contacts the die) and inverted it 180 degrees. Even if the heatpipes are soldered into the foot, gently warming the foot with a smallgas tourch would release the solder and allow easy removal (I've done this before).

2) Reinstall the "foot" but with the contact patch of the foot now facing INWARDS.

3) Now when then cooler is mounted it'd actually be ABOVE the card, allowing for completely passive cooling via the airflow generated by the CPU fan, and the PSU fan. (Or just natural airflow in the case if the machine is already (mostly) passively cooled.

The space occupied by a dirty great big fan in *this* mod, is now where the Graphics card is located. You don't lose a PCI slot, and the efficiency of the cooling is probably sufficient to allow substantial overclocking without having to use any kind of fan at all.

================

I too, once prided myself on wringing the absolute maximum out of every piece of gear in my boxes - no matter what the cost in terms of noise pollution (That's what 500W 7.1 surround sound is for - right?) but over the years with new heat pipe technology, fan-speed mods, ultra quiet TMD fans, large 120mm cruisers, and silent PSUs, the new challenge is to create cooling solutions which are far quieter than the original, and yet perform in a superior fashion.

Over all, I'd give this effort a 6/10 - mostly because he has the guts to publish what isn't a very remarkable achievement.

To get higher than a 6/10, he'd have to show silent (or quieter) operation than stock, more overclockability than stock, a method of avoiding ruining access to 2 other PCI slots, and more actual modifications.

[werty316]

wow look at this noob. He thinks he is all big and can do better. Well actions are louder than words buddy so lets see what you got. Why would you criticize Max_87 work? The point is he used a non GPU cooler to cool a vid card geeeze. I like it because of that fact I wanna see you mod it using your suggestions. What you don't want to?

On another note anyone else find the site loads really slow? I get a long wait time for the ads to load before the rest of the website is loaded.

[Bestia(ry)]

@M0b1u5:

First of all ... hi and welcome to the ARP. ^^

Second ... as for myself, there will never be any sort of modding able to impress me. And I'm talkin about real modding, not putting some fancy light on like decorating a X-mas tree.
The thing is I do RESPECT the time and effort ppl are spending on it, no matter if it works out, looks ugly or is just plain useless.
That's why I dun like it when some pop up and tell others "I'm so much better than you, I've done so much more and I can do this better even with one hand."