GPU fans started failing, had to improvise a little

[Elder III]

FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from   Gets you by.

Have to be careful about that, Power Logic in particular makes a ton of fans with the SAME "part number" that have different pinouts for different manufacturers and even different cards by the SAME manufacturer.
I would not buy their fans though, they're the folks that make the TOTAL JUNK fans that Gigabyte uses in their recent cards.

And yes, the cards will work with no fan connected to the GPU directly - you just don't get to monitor or set the fan speeds with my setup.
In THEORY, you could dig up some PWM fans to use instead, and splice them into the old connectors, but IMO too much hassle as long as the cards are staying cool.

Do you know of any other replacement fans that would work for the current Gigabyte Windforce cooler series?  I would prefer not to take off the entire cooler until after they are past warranty if possible. Strapping a case fan over the top of the cooler probably wouldn't work either due to not having enough space between GPUs in a 6-8 GPU rig.

[JaredKaragen]

usually you have to dismount the cooler;  they ziptie the pigtails to the cooler in odd places, etc.

sometimes you can get at the fan mounting screws from the front (inlet) of the fans....

I did lay a 120mm over the top of the cooler blowing down in the gap between the GPUs (with gpu's fans removed at that point)...  They ran in the high 70's to low 80's, but they did work.   Nvidia's self-throttling for temps works extremely well.   Its pretty hard to fry the die by lack of cooling unless a cooler is 100% missing altogether.



As far as recommended fan speeds;  if you can keep your card's fans to under 70% fan speeds;  the fans should last for well over 2-3 years of solid operation.   I ran my GTX980 at less than 70% for 2 years.   Then when I crammed it in a box with limited cooling and more GPU's, it stayed up at ~78*c and the fan went from being at ~75% on average to 100%.... and ~2-3 months later they were starting to fail/lock up.

[QuintLeo]

Just to chime in I have a zotac 1070 mini with a failing fan fortunately it’s a 2 fan model and still runs cool but worries me about the other 6 I have

https://twitter.com/voskcoin/status/964252560981921793

Said rig / card / fan

Ive noticed; when one fan begins to go out;  the second isn't far behind it.....

I dont know why;  but its always the case.

Maybe it has something to do with the failing bearing adding vibrations to the other and making it follow suit.

Near identical environmental conditions and speed history.
In theory, they SHOULD fail at the same time, but there is a HAIR of difference between 2 fans on the same card + manufacturing variations cause a little difference.

[QuintLeo]

Good discussion here on brands and fans, bearings, and orientation of cards.

My question... is water cooling more energy efficient or helpful to make a card overclock and work better or gain more hashrate? Or is a working air cooling system just as good as a GPU water cooling system? I have never tried water cooling and am just thinking about the summer time and proper planning.

Most water cooling setups keep the GPU noticeably cooler than air cooling manages - at a cost as the systems are expensive compared to air cooling.
They probably use a bit more power though, as they tend to use a higher-end fan on the radiator AND the pump uses some power.
Might be close or a bit less power though, as the fans they use TEND to be more efficient than the very thin fans air-cooled cards have to use.

[QuintLeo]

As far as recommended fan speeds;  if you can keep your card's fans to under 70% fan speeds;  the fans should last for well over 2-3 years of solid operation.   I ran my GTX980 at less than 70% for 2 years.   Then when I crammed it in a box with limited cooling and more GPU's, it stayed up at ~78*c and the fan went from being at ~75% on average to 100%.... and ~2-3 months later they were starting to fail/lock up.

*ROFLMAO*

The Gigabyte 3-fan Windforce models I have recently replaced fans on were more like *1* year old and spent that time in the 60-70% range.

Like I said, JUNK fans.

[Elder III]

The Gigabyte "Windforce" cooler fans are the ones I am concerned about. We have a dozen or so GPUs that use that cooler (2 fan and 3 fan models) and one of them has a fan going bad after less then 8 months. It looks like it should be possible to replace the fans without removing the cooler but I haven't tried it yet (I know it varies from model to model if it's possible to replace them sans removing the cooler). Even if the replacement fans are the same junk and die again after 6-12 months it beats an RMA that might be a couple of months or possibly never replaced due to current GPU shortages.

*We have nearly all of our GPUs set at a manual 50-70% fan speed with just a couple of "problem GPUs" running at 80% fan speed in the summer months.

[tg88]

Gigabyte really has the worst fans, I had problem with less than 1 year of use.

[Zepp74]

I have found that the EVGA fans are the best. They seem to run forever and they are quiet.

[Metroid]

Asus and gigabyte probably outsource all their fans and junk together, so identical in every way, stay away from their products.

[ntrader]

I had the same problem, but I contacted the support. They told me to keep the rigs in a clean place.Then the problem was solved by lubricating and placing the pit on a perfectly flat surface

[WaveRiderx]

Are the ROG Strix fans any good or are those included in the crap basket? They toute them as being good. Though I don't buy Asus cards because I hear their RMA service is generally the worst. Has anyone had good experiences RMA'ing cards with them?

Yeah those Gigabyte fans look exactly like the craptastic sapphire fans from years ago, just slightly redesigned.  Even the fans on Sapphire's current gen look like they've improved. Surprised gigabyte is using that inferior junk.

[ViperGuy]

Typical sleeve bearing issues with all Gigabyte fans. To be honest, reference card single blowers are more reliable because they are all ball bearing. The only thing I can suggest if installing ball bearing fans is not an option, is to take the fans apart every 3 months and re-oil all the sleeve bearings.

[dude215p]

I have a mini-itx Gigabyte 1070 which has a bad fan, it only starts if I push it by hand, and at some point it stops for some reason, I've never been around when it stops.

I tried pulling the rottary part off, cleaning and oiling up the middle pin, and it didn't make a difference (it wasn't very dirty to begin with).

Right now I have another fan working on top of it, but I didn't dismantle the shroud, and it's fine, but it's winter time and I'm keeping the mining PC on the balcony.

Do you guys have any suggestion on how to fix this fan? as I will probably want to eventually sell this card.

[QuintLeo]

The Gigabyte "Windforce" cooler fans are the ones I am concerned about. We have a dozen or so GPUs that use that cooler (2 fan and 3 fan models) and one of them has a fan going bad after less then 8 months. It looks like it should be possible to replace the fans without removing the cooler but I haven't tried it yet (I know it varies from model to model if it's possible to replace them sans removing the cooler). Even if the replacement fans are the same junk and die again after 6-12 months it beats an RMA that might be a couple of months or possibly never replaced due to current GPU shortages.

*We have nearly all of our GPUs set at a manual 50-70% fan speed with just a couple of "problem GPUs" running at 80% fan speed in the summer months.

 It's a pain but it's possible to replace the Gigabyte fans without removing the shroud.
 Getting to the power connector for the individual fan is the BIG issue, and getting it routed correctly for "no wires in the way" after swapping the fan are the biggest pains - the screws for the fan aren't a big deal.

[JaredKaragen]

I have a mini-itx Gigabyte 1070 which has a bad fan, it only starts if I push it by hand, and at some point it stops for some reason, I've never been around when it stops.

I tried pulling the rottary part off, cleaning and oiling up the middle pin, and it didn't make a difference (it wasn't very dirty to begin with).

Right now I have another fan working on top of it, but I didn't dismantle the shroud, and it's fine, but it's winter time and I'm keeping the mining PC on the balcony.

Do you guys have any suggestion on how to fix this fan? as I will probably want to eventually sell this card.

sell the card, or replace the fan.... that's the early sign that your about to have cooling issues.


@QuintLeo;  yeah, exactly!  That's why I mentioned the heatsync removal being necessary in most instances... plus;  it gives you a chance to re-paste that GPU that has dried and worn out it's OEM compound.

I personally typically re-paste after 1 year of mining.  I tend to see a temp drop when I do.

[Souran]

Great solution, thanks for sharing!

Surprising the temps are lower with those fans

I have some of the 1070 version of that card (and some of the 3-fan versions), ALL of which have had fans die or are starting to lose fans.
I have a bunch of NMB 92mmx25mm fans around - server-case fan design for about 40 CFM rated .35 amp at 12VDC.

I've been pulling the entire fan shroud assembly, twist-tie one NMB fan to each heatsink assembly, then wire them up to the *5 VDC* connection on a MOLEX - they toss enough air through the HS to do BETTER cooling than the original fans did at up to 80% or so, while using a LOT less power.

The original Gigabyte fans are JUNK on their current Windforce models - dunno why they moved away from ball-bearing fans a few years back except on the Aorus models, but it has cost them any chance of selling ME any more cards.
The AORUS models still have good ball bearing fans - but they tend to be high-end models with extra power connectors that make it harder to power a bunch of them for mining usage.

EVGA and Sapphire are still "all ball bearing, all of the time" and are my go-to brands - I just wish Sapphire made Nvidia cards.

Those 92mm fans have a similar CFM to the ones I got.

My Question though, you have only 1 fan attached to the card? and does it do a good job? so far I'm tying 2 fans to each card, which does an insanely good job at cooling, but I think one fan could be enough, especially that one of these fans produces a higher CFM than both stock fans added together.

[QuintLeo]

I mount one NMB fan to each heatsink, 2 per card.
I MIGHT be able to get away with one fan per card, but the spacing between the heatsinks would make that problematic as a lot of the airflow wouldn't go through the heatsinks at all that way.
I COULD mount one fan to the heatsink at the "end" of the card near the power connector and get acceptable cooling for the GPU itself, but I worry about the stuff UNDER the heatsinks getting enough airflow if I try to do that.

I have a ton of fans sitting around though, bought a batch of something like 20 of them at a hamfest decades ago for $1 or $2 each, so using 2 per card isn't an issue for now.
I also have quite a few other "leftover" fans from CPU heatsinks out of "retired" Athlon-era and older machines if I run out of the NMB fans.

[zorachus99]

I remember buying a Peltier cooler at Frys and putting in on my Pentium Pro instead of a heatsink.

[JaredKaragen]

I remember buying a Peltier cooler at Frys and putting in on my Pentium Pro instead of a heatsink.

PRoblem with those is if you don't temperature control them, you get condensation on the board like none-other.

Once I finish making a desiccant housing for it;  Ill be re-mounting my TEC to my WWAN adapter used for my home internet.  When I am uploading a file, or streaming;  it gets stupid hot.  The TEC kept it's whole housing at 36-38*f; but condensation buildup was insane.    The heatsync on the other side of the TEC came from an old AMD x64 machine, and was passively cooled.  I need a desiccant box to control it and run it that way any further.

I would think that using water cooling and having an internal TEC;  no radiator at all... could be an interesting product line if it can be made efficient and small enough.  IIRC the power draw from a TEC isn't near as much as lets say a typical heat pump.

[theodrim]

Replacements are $12.50 each including shipping from Sapphire and they are super easy to replace.

Isn't sapphire only selling led versions, that slightly different (0.35 vs 0.42 current, different noise floor). Only place I've found CF1015H12D selling is single lot on ali, that not available anymore, and it was $26.5 per fan. So, can you tell where are you getting such cheap replacements from sapphire directly?