20.6.13

Perks for Pocket Change: Hobo survival for Graphics Cards

My GTX 560 has really been getting on my nerves recently, with it's fan ragged and rattled by 2 years of only seeing an air duster twice (Delta fans all over the world attempt to pull a Yao Ming face...  and pull it off somehow, stunning server monkeys everywhere).  Problem is, this particular Graphics Card has a proprietary bolt spacing as a result of the GTX 560 spec for such things being "Scatter them over the board for giggles if you like", i.e:  There is no reference card.  It is upon this situation and others like it in future, which I bestow this installment of Perks for Pocket Change:

How to wrap up cool:  GTX 560

The Problem

Taken off google image search on account of "couldn't be stuffed to revert my card" 
As I mentioned before, the fan for my GPU is noisy as hell, due to a combination of the card being OC'd to 952MHz and the fact that the fan bearings are bashed; in any other situation I would by an aftermarket GPU cooler such as the Akasa Vortex Neo, but due to the bizarre bolting that remains out of reach.

The Build:  Phase 1

Only the outer 4 holes are used(?)
I chanced upon a discovery:  An 80mm fan fits snugly in the fan recess once the original fan and shroud are removed; this calls for a hoedown of all the fans I had in storage:
From Left to Right:  Cooler Master 92mm fan (80mm mounts), Intel (Delta) Reference Fan, GTX 480 Reference Fan, Zalman 92mm fan (came from a flower CPU cooler), GTX 560 cooler
Here is a rundown of the fan characteristics:
  • Cooler Master:  Quiet and powerul, but frame wouldn't be too sturdy once it was cut for radial airflow
  • Intel Reference:  Reasonably quiet, good airflow, open and sturdy frame
  • GTX 480:  Showed promise when it sported the same connector as the GTX 560 fan, but stuttered upon application of 5V; doesn't bode well for reliability
  • Zalman:  Simply too big
I ended up selecting the Intel Reference Fan and with a junior hacksaw, cut away the push pins and half the outer frame to get a fitting result:
My handiwork
Cable ties sorted out the mounting issue
Ordinarily, this section would be 'The Perk' detailing how well it turned out, but unfortunate events put paid to those plans; the new arrangement sat idle well enough at around 31 Degrees C at 51MHz (50 Degrees C idling at 952MHz, it does that sometimes), but under Furmark it hit 90 Degrees C and crashed; the prelude to which featured an alarming temperature climb which I have no evidence for sadly, so just take my word for it.

My theory as to why this went down was that the fan that the air was shifting wasn't entering the heatsinks but simply blowing away at the sides since air readily takes the path of least resistance.  This is the wrapping up part of the project where paper...  yes, paper, will come to the fore.

The Build:  Phase 2

A good place to begin is to make some support struts for the shroud you are about to build - to do this you take an offcut of paper long enough for the strut but several times wider, and you fold it up, tape it down, and you have a  sturdy support for the shroud worthy of Brunel...  If the only alternative material was papyrus:
Be sure to channel air through the fins by making the shroud as wide as the fan to begin with, then touching the fins at the end.
The Next step is simple enough - sheet her up!  Also be sure to account for the sides of the fan as otherwise it is these parts that most of the airflow will go instead of the fins.
Legit Larrabee?

The Pocket Change

To make things crystal, I am assuming that the Graphics Card is already owned, and that the items being bought are specifically to initiate this project; so here we have:
  • Intel Reference Fan - £6 on Ebay, and you get a free heatsink for future projects!
  • Paper - I used 80gsm Copy Paper which is around £3 if you take the cheapest packs, that said the choice is ultimately yours and cereal boxes could work even better.
  • Standard and Double-Sided Tape - Poundland offers both for £1 I suspect.
  • Cable ties can be had for as low as £1
Totals out to £12

The Perk

Evaluation will occur based on this scoring system out of 100 points:
  • Cost - for every pound under £30, 1 point is obtained
  • Looks - only 10 points given that I could care less about them
  • Practicality - 60 points, this is the heart of the matter
With that in mind, here are the scores:

Cost:  18 points

While a replacement fan may be cheaper, it would not necessarily be easy to find if possible at all.

Looks:  3 points

Doesn't scream 'Professionalism', so don't think you can get away with this in the IT Dept. unless the computers you work with remain shut for decades at a time.

Practicality:  30 points

While I have noticed a drop in temperature when idling at 952MHz (47 Degrees C vs 50 Before), after a while my PC will still crash when doing Furmark, so maybe that was the result of my own stupidity and pig-headed refusal to downclock back to 810MHz (EDIT:  I've caved in, and the cooler is now capable of sustained 100% running):
Playing Chicken with GPU temps, if only to prove that my card is indeed overclocked (if you can even see that).
Also of a concern is durability, don't go manhandling this card, I'd suggest 3D printing an adjusted shroud - or modifying the stock one - to accomodate the new fan ASAP.

Final Score:  51%

This isn't the kind of handiwork I would rely on for a server, nor would I want people to gaze at it; that said though, it does work well enough while a proper solution to the dilemma is sought.  I can only suggest this when you have a card with a non-reference cooling solution that you want to shut up, but cannot find an aftermarket cooler to fit the bill.

On a side note, I still stand by my previous post; the upshot is that I really don't care who uses the title or the entire system.  I personally love open source stuff even though I am a lamentable coder.

EDIT:  The cooler has disintegrated, I redact the Practicality score to 5 points, making my Final Score 26%; you may have better luck with superglue but then that brings a lack of flexibility into play.

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