Backplate + Case Fan for GPU cooling

[mason marnell@1457018692]

I have an MSI 970 and was wondering if getting a back plate and using a case fan to cool it better, by either attaching it directly to the back plate or putting on the side of the hard drive cage and letting it blow on the the GPU. Would it be worth the ~$50 for the extra cooling.

 

[ajhockey3]

Backplates don't effect cooling. Just have a casefan at the front of your case blowing across the 970, 970's are normally really good on temps, Are you OC'ing or have a blower cooler or something

 

[mason marnell@1457018692]

No it's the normal 970 4G gaming I was just wondering if I could cheaply make it run cooler

 

[ajhockey3]

Hot glue a 120mm case fan in the front of it blowing air across the card out the back of the case

 

[Karadjgne]

Slap a low rpm 120mm (400-500rpm) fan on the hdd cage. Set it lower, so it blows air between the gpu and psu. This'll maximize cooler air from intake reaching the gpu fans without disrupting airflow. At that speed it'll also be dead silent unless you use a crappy fan. Best suggestion would be a focus flow style fan like a Noctua nf-f12 which blows air in a directed line not a wide angle broadcast

 

[mason marnell@1457018692]

How many degrees or how much would it affect my temps?

 

[Karadjgne]

No idea. Physically impossible to tell. There are simply too many variables. Your ambient temp, case temp, specific airflow in your case, degree of gpu fan speed, amount of draw on those fans, degree of usage, voltage, temps on the gpu. Etc, etc, etc.

Applying a low rpm fan does nothing more than make certain that some part of the intake air is reaching the fans for application to the heatsink. If rpm is too high, it ends up pushing the exhaust hot air in a circulatory pattern, so putting hotter air across the fans. Some ppl will put a low rpm fan on their side panel intakes for this reason, one for gpu and one for cpu/socket area. But it must be low rpm, or you disrupt airflow, and temps will either not change or raise.