[SMK]

I've got a Gigabyte GTX 460 SOC, with another coming for SLI. These cards don't come with VRAM or vrm direct cooling, instead relying on air from the dual fans. Does anyone have solutions for these? The clearance is very tight so I'm not sure if any sinks would actually work,

Thanks

 

[DSP1]

I really would not worry about it. If RAM never actually gets that hot, all the heat sinks you see on "performance" ram are just for show. Actually most of the time ram heat sinks actually make the chips hotter, because they never get hot enough to get good thermal penetration through the aluminum. As for VRM you might need sinks if you plan on doing heavy OCing but at stock or close to stock speeds they should be fine the way they are. Just make sure they both get decent airflow.

 

[SMK]

That's kind of what I figured. These cards are highly binned with a overvolt and 140mhz OC on core, with no vrm sinks compared to reference which does have vrm sinks, but the soc has great airflow over vrms with it's open fins. Plus it has double the phases so it should run cooler.

Should be good right?

 

[juano]

I would look into some coppper sinks for the VRM, I do always like to have some cooling for the VRMs better than incidental airflow however I do agree that VRAM sinks are not a necessity at all. I don't know exactly how much space you have, but even if you have to buy the shortest ones available and then splay the fins out, which will retain the same amount of nice cooling copper but reduce the vertical height, then they will still be much better than nothing. I don't know how many you would need to cover all your VRMs or which option that enzotech sells would be best for you but IMO they do make the best copper heatsinks. Here's all of enzotech's stuff available from newegg for you to decide.

 

[SMK]

Thing is, I only have about 5-6mm of clearance from the fets to the heatsink. I havent been able to find any yet that are 5-6mm... anyone have any ideas?

 

[juano]

I would go with the 9mm tall ones then, and cut them first to fit the area you have to cover, then splay the prongs out or cut them down a mm or 2 if needed.

 

[SMK]

What about these:
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/enmofocomohe.html

12mm tall, but probably easier to cut. All I have is a pair of wire snips, they should be able to snip those thin copper rods right?

 

[juano]

Whatever you're more comfortable with, just get familiar with the space you have to cover and height you have to work with. I personally would go with the ones I linked you to because them covering more horizontal space is a good thing, yours only just cover the VRMs but the bigger that you can fit the better. A decent pair of scissors should be able cut copper without too much trouble if you're careful.

 

[SMK]

OK. Ive got 7mm clearance, the main row of fets are 10mm wide, about 85mm in length covering the card, plus the side row of fets as seen here, on the right side between the chokes and caps:

Im thinking ill have to do the small mosfet sinks, as there are some small resistor looking things that could get in the way of the wider BCC9 sinks.

This is the height clearance I have:

 

[juano]

The .04" relief you need will be taken care of by the thermal tape so no worries there. If you have a good handle on how many of the small sinks you would need to get good coverage then that's the most important thing. It doesn't really matter how I would do it, so long as you know how you want to do it and can see it through. Good luck and post pics when you get it done.