I'm thinking of a small case that will require a sheet of metal (alu or steel, not decided yet, color red in the picture) to sit ~5mm from the back of the video card (nvidia 660 TI or 560 TI), like in the screen below. I've read in some reviews that some cards (even the newer, lower spec, 650 ti) exhibit over 70-80 C on the back of the PCB, where the back of the memory chips or voltage regulators are. Would it be safe to place it like that? ps: the gpu's fan will get fresh air directly from outside of the case. pss: that will be the actual orientation of the case, so the heat will escape through the top. The whole case will be covered*, but will have holes for ventilation. *covers not shown in the picture.
Another view: 5 mm space, between the back of the video card and the case. Could this cause overheat? I guess i should test this the hard way, with a case mockup, but i'm asking you first. On the other hand, when i think of SLI configurations, sometimes two or more video cards sit real close to each other, a couple of mm apart, with no apparent overheating problems.
Don't think this would cause any problems, just be carefull that that wall doesn't hit the PCB, game over then! And SLI is a bit different, the fan that is against the 2nd cart is pulling air over the 2nd cart PCB and cooling it aswell.
if it is to sit 5mm of the card i dont think it will do a thing to hellp cooling,to remove the heat it would need to contact the card in some way, try some tim on the back of the chips and put a thick slab of aly on it and that should hellp pull the heat out.enything thicker than 4mm(aly) and you will need to make a brace of some sort for it to support it.hope this hellps!!
Thank you both for the answers. that_du^de, i just don't want to overheat and cause problems, that's all. Improving the cooling is not a goal, just keeping it safe. I don't think i can apply TIM on the back of the card, lots of circuits back there and it's not completely flat, like a chip's surface is. Maybe a soft, adhesive pad could work? But i'll need lots of it and it will be a problem to remove it, when necessary.
I can put some spacers there, so not to risk any contact. Plexi would be too think (or too fragile) and i need a way to easily attach it to the rest of the case. And it will also need to support 4 threaded holes, for the mini itx mobo on the opposite side. It should be a very compact mini itx gaming system, if all goes to plan.
No, plexi is bad.. it doesnt transfer heat and it would accumulate the heat on vga backplate. 0.4 to 0.7 spacer would be great for metal backplate. And you can cover your backplate with some paint or non electric thermal pad or sticker just for safety.
