Take plastic cover off fan/heatsink?

[Sideways]

I have a sapphire 6950, and a fan blowing on the top of it. The plastic that surrounds the fan seems to be blocking alot of that air going at it. I imagine that it's there to cause a type of air tunnel, in the middle, out the front and back. (very annoying, wish it all went out the back) Just wondering if anyone has taken all the plastic off, to have an exposed fan/heatsink, or maybe just cut the top portion of the plastic to blow more air in on it. Did it help? Hurt?

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[tunatime]

it would hurt you temps the way the fan is it forces all the air over the heat sink if you take it off even if you put more fans under it you not going to be moving the same amount of air over the fins

[fascistmuffin]

Are you keeping this card outside of a case?

The airflow of cards are designed around the ideal airflow inside cases. It's probably best to keep the plastic on it since there engineers who designed the card know more about the airflow around it than we do.

[Sideways]

They are currently in a case. Usually when I build machines, all the fans in the front of the machine blow in, and the fans on the back blow out, moving air front to back. Unfortunatly, these cards seem to kick hot air out the front and back of the card, making my normal setup not work right, as the hot air blown out the front of the card is forced back thu the card.. or something to that effect.
Just wondering what people had done... if it was worth it to try to mess with the regular airflow. After seeing the thread of pics of other mining boxes, I think I'm going to build a custom 'case' with extenders moving the cards out and above the mobo for some super open airflow style.

[fascistmuffin]

Sounds like the case has poor airflow. If you're using an old case, you're probably not getting sufficient airflow through it since they weren't designed with these monstrous graphics cards in mind. I say this since there is hot air coming from the back of the card, which should not happen if enough fans are pulling air out of the case.

Depending on your case, you can try to alter the air pressure in the case by adding more fans to the top and sides (if the case allows for it).

The airflow that I use in my cases is called Positive Airflow. What this comes down to is basically having more fans as outtake than intake. The fan at the front of the case stays as intake, while the fans on the top, back, and side are used for exhaust. Since there are more fans exhausting, air will get pulled in from the cracks and other open areas of the case (like the screen meshes some cases have in the front). If done correctly, you will be able to feel air getting sucked in from these places. The advantage of this is that air will constantly be flowing through the case, and no air will "sit" inside. The disadvantage is that there is a higher chance dust will get inside your case since air will be getting sucked in where there are not fans. I personally use this method and recommend it.

Or if you want a simple approach, add a exhaust fan to the top of the case. I had a mining rig without it for a while, and you could feel the heat radiate from the top. Now that there's a fan on top, the hot air gets pulled out and replaced with fresh air much better than it did before.

Of course this is all assuming that you have a case that can have fans added to it. If not, I'd suggest getting a case with good airflow. Cases are pretty cheap at newegg, and a lot have free shipping.