Video Card Repair - Dead Fan! Jury-Rig Fix It Up or Pay $$$ for New Cooler?

[cdog]

So the fan died on one of my MSI 7950s - not the awesome Twin FrozrII but the basic crappy one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127737&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814127737&gclid=CKqbq8H-r7gCFYyd4AodAiQANA

So I took everything apart and the fan is very stiff and it feel like I will probably break it off if I try to pull it off from the plastic casing.

So I have a few options:

1. Buy an expensive aftermarket cooler for $70: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arctic-Cooling-Accelero-Xtreme-7970-VGA-Cooler-Support-AMD-Radeon-7970-7950-/350825593466?pt=US_Video_Card_GPU_Cooling&hash=item51aed5ba7a

2. Buy a replacement stock cooler for $30: http://www.ebay.com/itm/75mm-VGA-Video-Card-Fan-For-MSI-R7950-4Pin-0-50A-FD8015U12S-278-/121135629515?pt=US_Video_Card_GPU_Cooling&hash=item1c343f04cb

3. Make my own cooler from a 80mm case fan for $3: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IDE-Black-80mm-Chassis-Crystal-Fan-for-Computer-PC-Host-5844-/190645117960?pt=US_Computer_Case_Fans&hash=item2c6355a408


By far my first choice is to make my own replacement, but in the past when I did this I had a couple of issues. One, the larger 120mm case fan doesnt fit flush against the heatsink, and ends up being very bulky, and I have to have the fan blow INTO the heatsink because its very inefficient trying to draw air OUT without any casing.

So Im looking at the 80mm or 60mm. Now, I think I could fit these (def 60mm) flush against the heatsink, but with a smaller fan I dont know if blowing IN will be enough cooling, so Im considering how to fabricate my own casing for it to optimize airflow. The first thing I thought of was aluminum foil, as I can mold it to the exact shape I want and it wont be affected by the heat. However, it is conductive! Is there any way around this? If Im careful and dont have it touch the main board, do you think it would be OK?

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[induktor]

Hello!
I don't know your specific card model, i don't have one like that, so I can't comment, because every case is unique and specific.

but I can show you what I did with one of my 7850's that died the primary fan (it has two, but only one report speed to the card)
this is the card (with the fan taken off):



so I prepare two pieces of aluminium 3mm thick i had around, drill and thread the holes, and screw it to the heatsink:



Put two Arctic F8 PWM controlled coolers on it:



If I knew how efficient F8 are, I will only put one, because 7850 doesn't need that much cooling capacity, but 7950 will need two for sure!.

here it is the card working:



overclocked at 950 MHZ in scrypt, fan stays at 20% speed (about 900 RPM) with the card at 55 degrees.
unbeliveable efficient.

if I had to do this on a 7950 I will go with the F9 ones that are a bit bigger!, and cost the same.

just remember, that only one of the fans connects the yellow wire (speed sensing, it is the separated one), all the rest goes in parallel, also, colors from the card are different, if you have doubts about how to connect the fans, post pictures of both the fan connector (the new one) and of the original fan and the connection in the PCB so I can help

[crazyates]

So the fan died on one of my MSI 7950s - not the awesome Twin FrozrII but the basic crappy one:

By far my first choice is to make my own replacement, but in the past when I did this I had a couple of issues. One, the larger 120mm case fan doesnt fit flush against the heatsink, and ends up being very bulky, and I have to have the fan blow INTO the heatsink because its very inefficient trying to draw air OUT without any casing.

So Im looking at the 80mm or 60mm. Now, I think I could fit these (def 60mm) flush against the heatsink, but with a smaller fan I dont know if blowing IN will be enough cooling, so Im considering how to fabricate my own casing for it to optimize airflow. The first thing I thought of was aluminum foil, as I can mold it to the exact shape I want and it wont be affected by the heat. However, it is conductive! Is there any way around this? If Im careful and dont have it touch the main board, do you think it would be OK?

How did the stock fan die? Is it just not spinning? I take it it's something that taking the fan itself apart and re-oiling wouldn't fix?

Fitting an 80mm fan into where the original one was doesn't sound like it would work. The mounting looks like it's all wrong, and the fan blades wouldn't really work in that application. The stock fan is designed to whip air out, rather than down, which is what a normal fan blade is designed to do. You could always try it, tho. If the $3 fix doesn't work, then you could try the $30.

If you have to go the $70 fix, it'll be a less hacked together one, and I can guarantee you'll see lower temps. Might be worth it anyways.