Modder shows off 3D-printed cooling shroud to replace dead GPU fans

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: When the active cooling solution on your graphics card fails, there is obvious reason for concern. YouTuber SamoesA DIY recently ran into this very issue and after trying to Jerry rig up a few CPU cooling fans, he decided to design and build a more permanent and effective solution.

The DIYer shared a timelapse of the design, print, and installation process over on YouTube. SolidWorks was used to create the design, which was then loaded into a Creality Ender 3 S1 3D printer. A power failure mid-print threatened to ruin the job but SamoesA DIY was able to resume the print with only minor defects.

Cooling shrouds have been around for decades and became quite popular around the turn of the century. In the earlier days of computing before 120mm fans were the norm, CPUs and cases often used smaller 80mm or even 60mm fans. These were more versatile in terms of size but often didn't move a ton of air and were noisier than larger fans.

It wasn't uncommon for enthusiasts to use an 80mm to 120mm fan shroud adapter on their CPU heatsink and in their cases to move more air and / or cut back on fan noise. The shroud that SamoesA DIY created for his Galaxy GeForce GTX 980 Ti HOF is essentially the same thing, replacing multiple smaller fans with a single, more powerful unit.

SamoesA DIY said the 120mm fan used is a "server fan" but didn't go into detail. It sure looks beefy, but is also likely on the loud side. A chart at the end of the video shows a max GPU temperature of 71.5 Celsius observed while running the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. As a fellow enthusiast, I'd sure like to know what temps the card was hitting with the Jerry rigged CPU fans and also the specs of the new 120mm fan being used.

Either way, it's another great example of what's possible with a 3D printer and a bit of thinking.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98566-youtuber-3d-prints-custom-cooling-shroud-replace-dead.html

 

[Julnor]

I thought it was jury rigged, mostly because FNV had a perk for that.

As to the cooling, makes it all the funnier that AIBs can justify huge prices for their cooling solutions claiming how expensive they are to design and make, if a modder by themselves can make a better solution. Clearly it's not some new complex physics and engineering, it's just fans and a heatsink. So why are people willing to pay massive premiums for a logo stamped onto it?

Always get the reference board, but they purposely don't want to sell the reference boards. And if you really want to push it, you'd pull off their solution and put a waterblock with a custom loop on it anyway---this is actually cheaper these days than the massive premiums these GPUs are selling at.

I think it's because the hobby got expanded to far less educated and informed people that foolishly spend money, and think that is something they should be praised for. These companies saw this, they encouraged it, slapped a bunch of LEDs on everything and gave them "gamer" names while jacking up prices to cater to that group. A lot of the new tech makes no sense to the old crowd.

 

[yRaz]

It's getting to be time everyone has a 3D printer in their toolbox. Even the cheap small ones are capable of some fairly high quality prints with some tinkering. You can spend as much as you want on a 3d printer but I think the sweet spot is $500-600 but there are options in the sub $300 segment that will work just fine

 

[highwind]

No offenes but two 120mm (slim) fans strapped to the cooler with simple zipties would be much cheaper, much smaller and probably much more effective in terms of heat dissipation