[SOLVED] SLI hot cards, one has hybrid cooling (H20). Which one on top?

[indigo.root]

Hey, guys. Just got two 980 almost for free, so I'm planning to use them in SLI (even though it's not optimized, has bad scaling and so on, I know). The main question is: which one should be on top, if:

1. One of them has hybrid cooling option and I have expendable H2o solution already, so it will be cooled a lot better.
2. Hybrid cooling card blows out hot air to the front side of my case (and the case has 2x140 inhaling fans there).
3. It also has backplate if matters.
4. The other card: no backplate, blows out hot air to the viewing side of the case (strange choice IMO), so it doesn't have decent opportunities to breathe. I suppose, it inhales fresh air from the front side of the case.

Even the simple card alone bumps into heat wall and throttles when case is closed (on reasonable, not annoying fan speeds).

(for those who interested in details: hybrid cooling is the 980GTX Poseidon by Asus and the «simple» one is EVGA 980 ACX2.0).

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Well if you go about it "scientifically" heat rises so the card that has the best cooling should be on top. Then monitor the gpu temps.If the uncooled card is getting too hot from lack of moving air, reverse them and see if they run cooler.

 

[rubix_1011]

If you are installing the cards directly adjacent to one another (without a PCIe slot between them), then install the AIO card on the top and the air cooled card on the bottom. This would (hopefully) allow the air cooled card to have enough inflow air to the cooling fans while the AIO cooler should be fine to account for close-quarters install.

 

[Karadjgne]

Depends on what fits. Aios aren't shallow and some slot distances can be problematic for taller cards and shorter pcie slots.

All of the axial gpus draw air from underneath and exhaust it out towards the side panel. The fins on the heatsinks run side to side, not lengthways, so offer the best and shortest air channels. If they were lengthways, you'd end up with exhaust getting dumped out the ends, not good for hdds/SSDs or connectors.

 

[indigo.root]

The fins on the heatsinks run side to side, not lengthways, so offer the best and shortest air channels.

this makes sense, thanks for sharing the idea.

all in all, I guess installing the hybrid cooling one on top will work best, so I agree with you guys.