[Acoma_Andy]

Since there were no aftermarket air coolers for the R9 Nano I made something myself.

Now normally a decent aftermarket VGA cooler will cost about €60. This mod costed me just €36, and I can always use the fan for something else.

Here is what I used. A 4-pins Gelid PWM VGA adapter, a Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 and a so called 'fan bracket' which I ordered from somewhere in China.

Good riddance!

Sorry for the somewhat unclear picture, but you get the idea

At this point I'm still doing some testing;

Idle temp is still between 28 and 31c, but now at just 420rpm (inaudible)

I left the settings 100% stock, did not make a profile yet. In this case the card will start to raise the fan speed at 75c.

The load temp after 10 minutes of gaming was 74c at auto fan speed, which in this case means the fan running at just 860rpm! The card was completely inaudible. Onto some more testing...

Tested the card at Fury X speeds (1050/500) with 20% power limit added. With these settings the stock fan would 'scream' at 2400rpm, with the Noctua fan it now does it at just 1150rpm and I still can't hear the fan above the other case fans. What a nice change!

If you have any questions or remarks let me know

 

[Simmons572]

This is slightly hilarious, the fan is nearly bigger than the GPU! Glad to hear that this mod was a success!

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simmons572

This is slightly hilarious, the fan is nearly bigger than the GPU! Glad to hear that this mod was a success!

Yeah I know it looks a bit silly, but I felt like doing this experiment. The bracket I ordered was made to connect 2 80mm or 90mm fans, but I figured using one 140mm would be more effective and less noisy.

And here is a link to the bracket I used.

 

[BergmanT]

I wanna do just the same. Can you upload some pictures of the mounting on the pcb og ehat it connects to?

 

[cainy1991]

I did the same thing with my asus dcII 7950 after I removed the shroud and put in vrm heatsinks and shimmed it.
Worked amazingly, was soo quiet.

I didn't use a fan converter though, I just ran them off the motherboard.

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

I wanna do just the same. Can you upload some pictures of the mounting on the pcb og ehat it connects to?

Do you mean where the fan adapter connects to the card?

 

[BergmanT]

I do get it now, its just mounted to the pci hole under.
Just ordered the same for alixpress, thanks for this topic.
I want the Nano to do 1050 mhz in my Ncase M1 and that seems to be the way

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

I do get it now, its just mounted to the pci hole under.
Just ordered the same for alixpress, thanks for this topic.
I want the Nano to do 1050 mhz in my Ncase M1 and that seems to be the way

Yes, you simply slide the fan into the bracket and the bracket will hold it below the card. The rubber grommets on the corners of the fan will also help to keep it in place in the bracket (no need for screws), it's quite firm.

I have been doing some testing and was able to determine that I need 15% extra to the power limit to always maintain a 1050 mhz clock in gaming. It does not throttle at all, just a constant 1050 while being quiet too

Now I'm going to test how much I need to add to the power limit to maintain a constant 1100. The fan RPM did not go above 1150 yet so there is still some room to overclock.

 

[BergmanT]

Awesome! I got two nb-eloop b12ps, considering to use 2 instead of one to make more airflow in the Ncase.
Nice youre going for 1100, that would be great. I have seen people giving the card less.juice and keeping it at 1050, with good temperstures, have you any experience with less volt on the card?

 

[BergmanT]

How are you VRM temp? Mine runs realy hot 90+.. My Card does -40mv and +15 powerlimit : Constant 1000 mhz. With 0 mv and +30 powerlimit it runs 1050 mhz, but i really dont like the vrm temps..

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

Awesome! I got two nb-eloop b12ps, considering to use 2 instead of one to make more airflow in the Ncase.
Nice youre going for 1100, that would be great. I have seen people giving the card less.juice and keeping it at 1050, with good temperstures, have you any experience with less volt on the card?

1100 did not work out at stock voltage (which was pretty much to be expected) so for now I'm keeping it at 1050 with stock voltage and +15% power limit. This will run it at constant 1050 without throttling. I don't want to raise the voltage on this card but indeed I did try undervolting it. I believe -20mv worked at 1000 without any change to the power limit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

How are you VRM temp? Mine runs realy hot 90+.. My Card does -40mv and +15 powerlimit : Constant 1000 mhz. With 0 mv and +30 powerlimit it runs 1050 mhz, but i really dont like the vrm temps..

I'm using Gpu-Z to monitor temps and I don't have Afterburner or something like that installed to prevent issues with the driver. Which program do you use to read the VRM temps?

 

[BergmanT]

I use hwinfo for monitoring temps, imo the best programme.
I bought my cars used, think i wil change the gpu paste, when i do the fan mod.
Hate the long delivery tim with alixpress, but love the prices :-D

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

I use hwinfo for monitoring temps, imo the best programme.
I bought my cars used, think i wil change the gpu paste, when i do the fan mod.
Hate the long delivery tim with alixpress, but love the prices :-D

Ah I see, I already have Hwinfo but didn't know it could monitor the cards VRM temps so thanks for that. I don't know which brand card you have but my Sapphire came with too much paste on it. After replacing the paste with Gelid GC-Extreme I also saw a nice improvement (same temps but 10% drop in fan speed on auto mode).

Also note that when you replace the thermal paste be careful for some of the small parts around the die because they are very sensetive. Sapphire put a small piece of protection thingy over the sensetive part so you don't accidentaly damage it. Don't know if other brands do this as well but I heard some do not.

Edit: so far max VRM temp was 79c

 

[BergmanT]

Cool i will change the paste, chsnge thermal pads and put on 120mm fan, then its hopefully ready for 1100/525++.
Btw nice temps you got on your vrms

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

Cool i will change the paste, chsnge thermal pads and put on 120mm fan, then its hopefully ready for 1100/525++.
Btw nice temps you got on your vrms

Well those VRM temps were only from a 1 hour gaming session with a specific game. My son just used my PC for gaming for 3 straight hours and I let it record maximum temps and fan speed. Maximum VRM temp reached was 91c, maximum GPU temp 76c and maximum fan speed was 1200rpm (it can go up to 2000). This was at 1050/500 with stock voltage, automatic fan speed and +15% power limit.

 

[BergmanT]

Just changed the paste last night, and added the 120mm fan, without the bracket but with cabelwire(or what its called in English :-D) The Noiseblocker cant keep it cold enough even with 1300 rpm. Maybe i must invest in a 2000 rpm fan from NB or should i invest in a 140mm fan? both will fit my Ncase..
But the silence in idle is just beautiful

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BergmanT

Just changed the paste last night, and added the 120mm fan, without the bracket but with cabelwire(or what its called in English :-D) The Noiseblocker cant keep it cold enough even with 1300 rpm. Maybe i must invest in a 2000 rpm fan from NB or should i invest in a 140mm fan? both will fit my Ncase..
But the silence in idle is just beautiful

Did you leave the settings at 'auto'? What temps did it reach? A 140mm would surely cool better because it covers more area of the card. Or 2 x 92mm perhaps (BeQuiet Silentwings fans?).

 

[Smanci]

Does AC Mono plus fit this card? It's 36€ and comes with a better heatsink.

 

[Acoma_Andy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smanci

Does AC Mono plus fit this card? It's 36€ and comes with a better heatsink.

No, there are no coolers that I know of that will fit this card except from some custom waterblocks.

 

[BergmanT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acoma_Andy

Did you leave the settings at 'auto'? What temps did it reach? A 140mm would surely cool better because it covers more area of the card. Or 2 x 92mm perhaps (BeQuiet Silentwings fans?).

I manually adjusted the curve so it will hit 100% at 76 degrees. It wil go up to 84.. Just think i will invest in a fan with more power, just thougt that it wil be enough, also when i changed the paste, there was way too much used