Hey guys.

I just got the Thermaltake Duorb VGA fan for my 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3 nVidia card.
Before buying it, I had applied Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal compound on my stock fan and it had cooled the card from 52C idle to 48C idle (No OC'g)

When I changed the fan and applied OCZ Freeze thermal cpd, the card now runs at 50C (no OC). What am I doing wrong????


On the internet its says that it should have dropped to at least 38C (Duorb idle) from 48C (stock fan idle). I can't understand this...
Help please, anyone?

Hi X,
the Duorb is a large snazy looking cooler, but its results are average. assuming you installed it correctly you should be looking at the under load results and see if there is a marked improvement.

Thanks for the advice red1776, I will try re-applying the thermal paste (more patiently) and then screwing the Duorb back onto the GPU; after that, I intend to run Hellgate London and see if there is an improvement, using CPUID to check the temps.

Also, as an FYI, I did use Duorb's mem heatsinks and VRM heatsinks in tandem, also using minimal amts of OCZ Freeze thermal paste prior to "sticking" them onto each mem chip...



Does that contribute in any way to the high temps somehow?



Also, here is the setup of inside my PC for a better idea of the airflow behind my closed casing:

WOW you need to do some cable management, that could bring down the temp of your cpu. you dont have much to work with but im sure you can make it much better than that

Hi X, any luck with the reinstall?. what did the load temps reveal?

UPDATE

Hi Red!

I checked the setup twice and then placed the card back in and the temps were still high (50C idle and 65C load - HGL).

I read some other posts on the forum on similar topics to this and realised that I might need better case cooling on top of the duorb. I positioned the front 120 mm case-fan closer to the Video card, using elastic strings (since I had no other way to maintain the fan upright) and found my GPU idle temp go down to 41C!
But that's without the side panel of my casing on. With it on, the temp still goes up to 44C.

When I run HGL this time, I found the temp went up to 48C, which is nicer than 65C! But, one thing I noticed that I didn't before is my CPU temp shot up to 60C (load - HGL) from 47C (idle)

Also, another thing I noticed is that when my room AC is on, the temps drop by 1C or 2C.

What do you think?
What should I do to better cool the GPU, and now, the CPU (AM2 socket dual core - Athlon 64 x2 4400+ 2.3GHz - no OC) ??!


Thank you for the observation about my cable mgt
How can I better improve my cable management? I'm not too familiar with how exactly to optimally arrange them. Any guidelines on that, please?

Hi X,
65 under load is a pretty good temp for the 8800. as far as cable management goes ,that's a trial and error pain in the rear lol. get a fistful of twist ties and break up that bundle of wires by your cpu fan. try to run the wires up against the back wall of your case. you should be able to tuck many of them around and behind the mobo standoffs. tie up the leads that are not in use and get them out of the way. i was able to get my 4400 x2 down to 50 under load, but that was with a aftermarket zalman 7000 HS&f. I would not worry to much about 60c under load. operating temp range for that cpu is 71c,if memory serves. sorry i cant be more help with the cable management, its really a find your way monotonous procedure. let me know if I can help.

Thanks once again red !

I will try to do 2 things:

- Get the cables outta the way of the cpu area as much as I can (going behind mobo as u said)

- On the CPU heatsink, I'll tie/mount my old bigger (80 mm) case fan onto it and see if that works to cool the CPU even more !

I have a packet of plastic ties and twist ties I can use to attach the cables from the PSU and make the air close to the CPU "breathable". I'll update you on the temps after that!

Also, belated thanks to you dustin for the cable mgt


UPDATE!

Here are the temps I got after installing my contraption and not doing any other cable mgt; I will provide load temps in a few minutes :

UPDATE
Got your load temps right here!

59C - CPU
50C - GPU

I guess to bring those down further, I'd have to get a bigger casing, right? Do you have any recommendations in that area?

Hey X,
nothing wrong with those temps although your 500gb hdd is getting a little warm. I would be more concerned with your 12v rail output (10.20) thats really low if its an accurate reading.

all your temps are fine, if it aint broke dont fix it!

Hey X, you might want to verify your 12v reading through your bios, its not suppose to vary more than 0.3v if memory serves and could be destructive to your system if that reading is correct. this is the reading I am referring to on my system @ 11.97v

I checked the 12V rail on BIOS and found the following readings for 12V:

+12.14 V
-12.084 V

Is that more accurate?
Why is CPUID showing 10.20V?

Deleted - Double post

thats good news yes the bios most likely correct, those programs have to cover thousands of configs, they just get things wrong sometimes. someone who is not electrically challenged like me could explain it better. I doubt your system would post @ 10.20v, just thought ya ought to have a look. your temps look great, if you can get a little airflow improvement in there they will probably come down another couple degrees.......and remember...wire management is fun! LOL

Does that mean if the GPU gets hot, the PC has problems?

Lol! I will keep that in mind!

I may do the cable arrangement some other time, though cuz, as you said, that will take maybe a few hours' time!!


To thumbliner:
If the GPU gets unnecessarily hot (to like 60C+ temps), then your video card cooling is insufficient, or you may need to change the thermal paste, or (as shown above) you need better airflow (by adding more casefans) and cable management.

If the GPU is too hot, your PC might shut down, or your graphics card might just shut down, and your whole PC freezes until you let the temps go down while cold rebooting... not a lot of fun...

This is shows how much case ventillation affects the results of a heatsink. Even with a water cooling system, if the air cooling it is 40 degrees celcius it is not going to perform well.

Hard drives are safe up to 60 celcius. You can also check your hard drive temeperature using HDtune, a free hardrive utility program.

How can you cool your system more?
1) Cable Management.
2) Get higher speed fans.
3) Put more fans in - but may require modding with your case.
I bought a generic dremel at BJs for 20 bucks.

-you may be able to add a small fan under ur graphics card to help vent the hot air out.

You need a cool case because even though a video card and cpu may operate fine at warm temperatures. Capacitor longevity will be severly reduced. Every 10 degress celcius a capacitors lifespan gets cut in half. The capacitors in your computer which get most hot are the ones below your graphics card in the "hot spot." I'll post a link giving you exact figures.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTech/2006_motherboard_newtech/article_02_all_solid.htm

Your capacitors are Electrolytic, which will last a very long time if they dont get hot.

When checking your temps of your cpu you should run a program like prime 95 to make it run at full load, you should also run a graphics card stress test as well at the same time - this will simulate your computer when your doing heavy gaming.

ATI tool might work, by scanning for artifacts.

I dont have an example of a good graphics card stress test, maybe someone else in here knows of a good one you can run.

Oo! Thanks for the additional resources SineSurfer; I will check it out. I actually decided to buy a new case: the NZXT Zero 2 Full tower which comes with 3 x 120mm fans and allows up to 7 fans total to be installed. By adding my existing fans to that case, I am hoping to bring temps down even lower.

For now, I am keeping my case side open. Also, I will take up the offer to run Prime 95. I tried ATI tool, but it did not work well with my 8800 GTS. I will give it another try tho.

Also, with the new cooling of the Duorb (and an open case), I was able to OC my 8800 GTS to 620 Core/ 970 VRAM and still achieve a max temp of 50C-51C on the GPU while peaking at 59C for the CPU, running Hellgate (almost max) and Doom 3 (max settings)