SOLVED EVGA GTX580 DS SC Cooling Problem

[kiru]

So I recently built a brand new rig (in sig) and I purchased 2 GTX 580 DS SC on impulse cause it was on sale. Once I had it set up, and did some testing with Crysis 2 with all the eye candy add-on packs + DX11 + Ultra settings, I noticed it running quite hot (for a dual fan set-up).. I did some observations from the case while running the games and quickly found out that the graphics card did little to disperse heat from the usual back vents, what it did mostly was dispersed it's heat into the case from the sides of the vents of the brackets.

Now before I have to go through the trouble of returning the cards, I was wondering how well will repositioning my case fans to divert the heat generated from the cards going into the case will work. I made a diagram of my current airflow and modified.

Current:

Top : 1x 230mm fan
Side : 1x 230mm fan
Front : 1x 230mm fan
Rear : 2x 120mm fans (Corsair H80 setup)

Modified Target:

Top : 2x 120mm fan
Side : 4x 120mm fan
Top Front (Drive Bay) : 1x 120mm fan
Bottom Front (HDD Bay) : 1x 230mm fan
Rear : 2x 120mm fans (Corsair H80 setup)

With the modified, I am wondering if replacing the 230mm fans with 120mm fans will contribute to getting more air in the case or not. I would like some inputs as to what are some good performing 120mm case fans if I do plan on going with the modified route, noise isn't too much of a problem for me but if it is possible to have lower noise and good performance in the fan, I'll take it. Otherwise I usually take priority over performance/cooling over noise level. Also hoping with this route it would actually help with the overall case temperature.

I purchased the 2 cards for about $419.99 each and spending a bit on some which is alot cheaper than most 580s out there, and if I must return them they also charge a 15% restocking fee, so I would like to avoid returning them if possible. I do not mind spending a bit extra on the fans for the case so there isn't really a budget on the fans. Other suggestions are also greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[JR23]

Try changing the fan curves of your graphics cards. MSI afterburner is the best software I have come across, lots of useful features. Of all the things I did to increase cooling in my SLI rig that had by far the most effect. I see a lot of people try to improve their overall cooling with fan upgrades and changing round without getting the potential from their component coolers, kinda silly.

EDIT: When I say kinda silly, I did it myself first!!! All new fans, different layout, modding to fit an extra one, new cables for better management/less obstruction and removing hard drive cages for better flow. I think I have shaved about 15 degrees of the heat my cards were running at, they are very chilled now hovering around 60 when at the start of my build the top one was hitting 73.

 

[kiru]

Try changing the fan curves of your graphics cards. MSI afterburner is the best software I have come across, lots of useful features. Of all the things I did to increase cooling in my SLI rig that had by far the most effect. I see a lot of people try to improve their overall cooling with fan upgrades and changing round without getting the potential from their component coolers, kinda silly.

EDIT: When I say kinda silly, I did it myself first!!! All new fans, different layout, modding to fit an extra one, new cables for better management/less obstruction and removing hard drive cages for better flow. I think I have shaved about 15 degrees of the heat my cards were running at, they are very chilled now hovering around 60 when at the start of my build the top one was hitting 73.

I have already have a custom profile for the GPU fan speed using EVGA Precision. But right now the problem isn't in the fan speed, but how the the card is built to disperse the heat. I think with other cards, the fan takes in air from the case and exhausts most of the heat through the back vents. With my current card the DS, it exhausts very minimal heat out the back, and does more on dispersing the heat from the heatsink out the side vents which results in the hot air exhausting into the case itself. And what I want to do right now is to try to find a way to get fresh air into case to keep the internals cool plus exhausting the hot air outputted by the 580s.

 

[JR23]

Apologies for getting the wrong end of the stick on the cards. I guess really you got to switch the side fan to exhaust as there's no point blowing hot stuff around the case the modified plan looks very positive as does your current plan.

Maybe you could have 4 120's or 140's if possible in the side with the bottom two intaking and the top two exhausting leaving everything else as it is in the first picture perhaps with the addition of the top front fan?

 

[kiru]

Would 2 or 4 120mm over 1 230mm fan be more efficient in pulling/pushing air in/out of a case?

 

[JR23]

Its hard to say but I would have thought if you used them in pairs then you would create a nice little loop with the same going in as out. The stock 230mm fans are rated at 110cfm, pretty much all 120mm fans are 70cfm so that would be 280cfm which seems like a massive increase. But you probably wouldn't run them at that as it would be pretty loud. Are you very bothered about noise?

 

[kiru]

Not too much bothered with noise.. I'd probably run them around 80% max though, as I usually don't like running anything at their max settings (makes me feel like I'm going to kill them faster lol!).

 

[Ilden]

Why don't you relocate the PSU to the top of the case? That leaves you room for two fans in the floor, which is already set up for it. You'll lose the fan in the roof, but can still install a 120mm up there even with the PSU.

 

[kiru]

Why don't you relocate the PSU to the top of the case? That leaves you room for two fans in the floor, which is already set up for it. You'll lose the fan in the roof, but can still install a 120mm up there even with the PSU.

I would have to find another spot for the H80.

But I have tried many different positions for the fans and did not find any viable increase in performance other than a 5c drop. The cards were doing 95c w/ 90% fan speed on the first 2min of the under water bench of 3dmark and lowest I got them was 86c after fiddling with the fans.

I don't believe that this case isn't able to handle 2 GTX580 with air exhausted into case, as this 932 should have a pretty good air flow. Hence I went out and purchased 2 MSI GTX 580 Lightning (I admit I'm too loyal to Nvidia >_>).. to test the difference between the the card's cooling performance. Under the same condition and fan setup, the MSI cards ran at 63-65c max throughout the entire 3dmark. Unbelievable difference... I'm done trying to get the EVGA DS card to perform the way I want lol... Time to get rid of them for good.

 

[snowbrd]

Not to be straying off topic but could you take a picture of one of the 580's coolers? I am quite interested in how it looks in real life.
Unless you already got rid of them...