Is anyone aware of a mod that does away with the cowling or the plastic cover around one of these cards and replaces the fan with; for example, a Zalman cooler. Something like this Asus: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=695921 Much appreciated.
I think what your referring to is basically swapping the stock heatsink, for an aftermarket one. Currently there are no 280's fitted with an aftermarket cooler by default. Even on my 8800GTX there are so many memory modules that need cooling, many more on newer cards. Most after market (air) coolers focus solely on the GPU and forget about the vreg's and mosfet's. You normally need to buy separate heatsinks with adhesive tape for those. They are quite delicate so I'm not sure they would hold up well during storage and transport. It's not necessary since most people don’t even consider cooling, they slap it in and run it until it breaks. Shipping with aftermarket coolers also pushes the price up. To be honest there is nothing inherently wrong with the stock coolers, in essence I quite like them since they cool everything. Most of them now exhaust warm air out of the case. What is wrong with them is the horrific thermal paste they use, and the cheap ass aluminium they are made of. I bet if they used better paste and copper that default heatsinks would rock! Phew!
I prefer after market coolers because they greatly improve the cooling, and noise. The only one I know that will support the GTX 280 is the HR-03 GTX. Other than the T-rad2 I'm not aware of a better cooler. Though its very large and doesn't come with a fan. Its also very expensive. Paired with an NF-B9 it would be practically silent, and cool much better than the stock cooler.
That took me to here: http://www.hardware.info/en-US/news/ymick5qYwp6aaJY/Thermalright_launches_GTX_200_cooler/ Fresh from the nest! I also found a review of the same cooler on an 8800GT: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=493&type=expert&pid=3 .........and the results of the temperature tests here: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=493&type=expert&pid=4 I should add this here as well: http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/hr-03_gtx/product_vga_cooler_hr03gtx.html The HR-03 GTX is well worth keeping an eye on. Many thanks!
I'm just picking up info' for future reference at the same time as watching how the price and developments go with the 280. I got the Gigabyte NX88T 8800GT: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/gigabyte_8800gt/2.htm .......which as you can see has the open design rather than being encased. I prefer this type of design as I have a couple of 120mm fans directing air around the card in my open case. Any ideas welcome though.
