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Hello,

I have 4 x 7970. They constantly overheat causing my PC to shut down.
I have previously tried to cool them with a stand-alone fan blowing through a copper coil filled with water.
This way is not so efficient. PC still shuts down.

I am putting up bounty [1BTC] for the best idea on cooling.

Maybe there is someone out there who's got it figured out.

Thanks for participating.

What's the ambient temperature, and approximate humidity?

I don't know how your situation looks for power costs but you might just end up making more money overall by undervolting the cards and running at slower clocks. Makes dealing with the heat a lot easier.

If you're running them all side by side on a board in an open-air rig then I'd suggest grabbing some paper towel and separating the cards with paper towel shims. A shim between each card pair will position them open up maybe 1/2-3/4cm air gap between the cards and give the GPUs better airflow. Then get yourself a pair of 120mm fans and place them on top of the GPU stack and at the right side so the airflow is directed towards the intake fans for each card.

The better option is to run them on PCIe cables. That'll make each card run quite happy at low fan speeds.

Simple. Get a high cfm/high static pressure fan, and mount it on the back of the case. The fan on the 7970 is designed poorly it seems like.

My case comes with a fan box that goes on the back for the gpus. I used it with my 7970's on air and it caused a massive temperature drop for them. The fans on the cards barely went off idle while mining they were running that cool. You should be able to build something similar.
https://i.imgur.com/vNoLI.jpg

That's pretty slick for guys running cased rigs. Never really thought about pulling air through the heatsinks but that'll work great for cards that don't also vent to the case(mostly reference cards).

Yeah it worked fantastic. I just taped off some areas so it would seal better.

@Roadhog2k5, you might be onto something here. Let me research this, then we can talk about the reward.

Do you mind specifying which case/pressure puller you got?

The case is an ATCS 840. It comes with the little fan box you see. I don't see why you couldn't make a test box out of some cardboard and tape.

For the fan I just had a 120x38mm fan laying around that I used in it. You probably want a 120mm fan that is about 2500 - 3000rpms.

Or something like this. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12trblhisp.html

OR... http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12tfexhisp.html If you don't care about noise. Both fans will be loud however.

The last fan would be best on a fan controller so you can find a nice balance between temps and noise. It is also capable of the highest static pressure, which you want.

totally off topic here -- is that the myth buster lady Kari in your avatar? I am terrible recognizing faces.

Another alternative is to get a open test bench case:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KLF8MatmL.jpg

The product is at http://www.amazon.com/MYOPENPC-Transparent-Acrylic-Stackable-Capability/dp/B004TZAU1Q/ costs $44.99 and has good reviews, however I don't think you will fit 4 GPUs in it.

After you assemble the case, put it somewhere with cool breeze or just blow a cheap fan on it.

You can search Amazon or some other site to find more of these cases.

You can also remove the PCI bracket which will help prevent a lot of that turbulent air from coming cycling back into the cooler.  Also helps decrease noise a little.

Send me a PM if you want a heavy duty all aluminum tray designed specifically for mining.

http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww153/Spotswood_/MB%20Tray%20for%20Benchers/Final%20Pics/Gallery%20sized%20pics/ATXTray2A-320.jpg
 (http://richchomiczewski.wordpress.com/)