VOGONS


Case Slot Fans and the Voodoo 3

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Reply 20 of 34, by kolderman

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I use similar fan mounts to keep my voodoo5 cool. I think even if the v5 fans fails those big fans will be enough. For all I know the HSD have already failed.

Although my fan mount annoyingly takes up 2 PCI slots, but not fully (more like 1.2), leaving a gap across the second slot. How did you manage to get another bracket under there?

Reply 21 of 34, by darry

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My solution is a 120mm fan zip-tied to the the main ATX power cable on one side and to the one of the case ventilation holes on the other . It keeps the airflow angled just right for the EZ1585CT linear regulator and the main IC heatsink .

EDIT: I have a PCI Voodoo 3 3000 with a 210-0366-001 PCB , which has the regulator on the outer edge of the card, probably the best place to put it . Is there a drop-in .
Anybody ever check if that regulator gets fed 5V or 3.3V ? If it's getting 5V, it's heating for nothing, IMHO, unless there's a good reason . Maybe somebody way smarter than me in these matters could design a drop-in switching regulator circuit .

Last edited by darry on 2020-05-26, 04:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 22 of 34, by kolderman

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kolderman wrote on 2020-05-26, 03:43:

I use similar fan mounts to keep my voodoo5 cool. I think even if the v5 fans fails those big fans will be enough. For all I know the HSF fans have already failed.

Although my fan mount annoyingly takes up 2 PCI slots, but not fully (more like 1.2), leaving a gap across the second slot. How did you manage to get another bracket under there?

Reply 23 of 34, by bZbZbZ

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kolderman wrote on 2020-05-26, 03:43:

I use similar fan mounts to keep my voodoo5 cool. I think even if the v5 fans fails those big fans will be enough. For all I know the HSD have already failed.

Although my fan mount annoyingly takes up 2 PCI slots, but not fully (more like 1.2), leaving a gap across the second slot. How did you manage to get another bracket under there?

I take it this question was for me...

Yes I the believe since a standard 92mm fan is ~25mm thick, the fan mount bracket is slightly thicker than a typical expansion card bracket. So in my photo you can see I've got a vented bracket installed below the fan mount... I installed the vented bracket first. Then I installed the fan bracket (with 2x 92mm fans) in a slightly crooked manner, such that the lip rests over top of the vented bracket. Luckily the misalignment is slight enough that I can still install the screws on both brackets.

Obviously the fan still mount blocks two PCI slots. I effectively have a triple slot Voodoo 3 😜

Reply 24 of 34, by bofh.fromhell

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boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:09:
Got it installed today. Overall, I'm pleased with this solution. The fan blows a ton of air down onto the V3, cooling both sides […]
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austinham wrote on 2020-05-22, 18:16:

let us know how it works.

Got it installed today. Overall, I'm pleased with this solution. The fan blows a ton of air down onto the V3, cooling both sides of the card. I'd venture that the fan I ziptied to the heatsink might not even be necessary, but I'll still keep it there.

IMG_9524.jpg

You can rotate the fan around that single pin that attaches to the arm.

The only downside is that the arm takes up almost all of my slot area. This isn't a deal breaker because I usually have only the AGP card and a sound card, and I have one ISA/PCI shared slot at the end of the case. It would be a problem if I wanted to have a PCI and ISA card installed at the same time. But I can always manually switch them out, and having more peace of mind when it comes to my V3s is the most important thing with this build.

I can also experiment with attaching the fan to the other grooves and may be able to free up an additional slot that way.

Secured a bunch of these coolers myself, they are a great way to keep our aging hardware cooler =)

BTW, you can easily attach the cooler arm above installed cards.
Usually the screws are long enough to reach through both arm and cards.
No reason to compromise on expansions!

Reply 26 of 34, by cyclone3d

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For years I have been just modifying regular old slot covers to make fan brackets. That way you don't have to deal with not being able to mount cards in the slots like what the Zalman bracket does.

The cost is also zero unless you don't have spare slot covers laying around... or a drill and drill bit to drill a hole in the end of the bracket if you don't have slot covers that already have holes in the end.

And you can also bend them pretty easily to make the fan be wherever you want it to be.

There is absolutely no need to have a crazy setup for a Voodoo 1/2/3 that takes up extra slots. A single 80/92/120mm fan blowing down from above the card is plenty.

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Reply 27 of 34, by chinny22

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-27, 15:29:

For years I have been just modifying regular old slot covers to make fan brackets. That way you don't have to deal with not being able to mount cards in the slots like what the Zalman bracket does.

It's also the period correct method if you worry about that kind of thing.

This is one reason I'm no longer activity looking for old cases though. Modern cases with a side fan sort the issue for you.

Reply 28 of 34, by boxpressed

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bofh.fromhell wrote on 2020-05-27, 14:32:
Secured a bunch of these coolers myself, they are a great way to keep our aging hardware cooler =) […]
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boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:09:
Got it installed today. Overall, I'm pleased with this solution. The fan blows a ton of air down onto the V3, cooling both sides […]
Show full quote
austinham wrote on 2020-05-22, 18:16:

let us know how it works.

Got it installed today. Overall, I'm pleased with this solution. The fan blows a ton of air down onto the V3, cooling both sides of the card. I'd venture that the fan I ziptied to the heatsink might not even be necessary, but I'll still keep it there.

IMG_9524.jpg

You can rotate the fan around that single pin that attaches to the arm.

The only downside is that the arm takes up almost all of my slot area. This isn't a deal breaker because I usually have only the AGP card and a sound card, and I have one ISA/PCI shared slot at the end of the case. It would be a problem if I wanted to have a PCI and ISA card installed at the same time. But I can always manually switch them out, and having more peace of mind when it comes to my V3s is the most important thing with this build.

I can also experiment with attaching the fan to the other grooves and may be able to free up an additional slot that way.

Secured a bunch of these coolers myself, they are a great way to keep our aging hardware cooler =)

BTW, you can easily attach the cooler arm above installed cards.
Usually the screws are long enough to reach through both arm and cards.
No reason to compromise on expansions!

I never thought about using longer screws through the overlapping parts. Perfect solution.

Reply 29 of 34, by Ozzuneoj

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bZbZbZ wrote on 2020-05-26, 03:34:
I had similar concerns with my Voodoo 3, and decided to buy this cheapo fan bracket from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/ […]
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I had similar concerns with my Voodoo 3, and decided to buy this cheapo fan bracket from AliExpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32973335117.h … .27424c4d6KMD6s

I paired it with a couple modern Arctic 92mm fans. Not really period correct, but it keeps the Voodoo3 very cool. I haven't taken measurments, but when I touch the heatsink during gameplay the metal isn't even warm (you probably have found that the heatsink is near finger-burning hot in the stock configuration).

file.php?id=77931

Now that's the kind of solution I like. Super cheap and very easy to keep running for years. I'm probably going to order some of those!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but does it completely block the slot below it? Or is it possible to use a card directly below the fans? Obviously airflow would be reduced and it might make more noise, but it'd be good to know if these absolutely always take up two slots or if it's possible to get by with only one slot free in a pinch.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 30 of 34, by austinham

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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2020-05-30, 03:02:
bZbZbZ wrote on 2020-05-26, 03:34:
I had similar concerns with my Voodoo 3, and decided to buy this cheapo fan bracket from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/ […]
Show full quote

I had similar concerns with my Voodoo 3, and decided to buy this cheapo fan bracket from AliExpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32973335117.h … .27424c4d6KMD6s

I paired it with a couple modern Arctic 92mm fans. Not really period correct, but it keeps the Voodoo3 very cool. I haven't taken measurments, but when I touch the heatsink during gameplay the metal isn't even warm (you probably have found that the heatsink is near finger-burning hot in the stock configuration).

file.php?id=77931

Now that's the kind of solution I like. Super cheap and very easy to keep running for years. I'm probably going to order some of those!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but does it completely block the slot below it? Or is it possible to use a card directly below the fans? Obviously airflow would be reduced and it might make more noise, but it'd be good to know if these absolutely always take up two slots or if it's possible to get by with only one slot free in a pinch.

Looks like the slot below it is part way blocked.

Reply 31 of 34, by Ozzuneoj

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austinham wrote on 2020-05-30, 03:20:

Looks like the slot below it is part way blocked.

Somehow I was thinking cards were aligned to the bottom rather than top of the plate, but that is only ISA cards. Looking at it again, it definitely blocks any cards below the fans.

I wonder if they make a slimmer version of these brackets?

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 32 of 34, by bZbZbZ

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Yes, the cooling solution blocks the slot below it. So I essentially have a triple-slot video card. This is actually somewhat annoying because the shared IRQ assignments on this motherboard mean that I can only use 2 PCI cards... which is barely enough for me to scrape by (sound, ethernet).

I believe the limiting factor is the thickness of a standard 92mm (or 80mm fan). The bracket is designed to match the thickness of the fan, and the industry standard thickness of these fans is thicker than an expansion card bracket.

But overall I'm happy with this solution because I can keep my Voodoo3 bone stock, while decreasing the chance it'll die from heat (this is my childhood video card not I'm interested in paying big bucks for a replacement!!).

Reply 33 of 34, by bloodem

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That's pretty neat, bZbZbZ! It's especially useful for Voodoo 3 PCI cards, which have that scorching hot MOSFET.

1 x PLCC-68 / 2 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 5 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
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Reply 34 of 34, by RichB93

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All of this seems a bit overkill. A 50mm fan will suffice. I prefer the earlier V3s with the holes in the heatsink (rather than glued on without any holes). You can then neatly cable tie a 50mm fan to the card with ease. I'll post pictures when I get some more cable ties.

It may however benefit the card to have an additional heatsink on the back of the chip, but again a 50mm fan and the original heatsink is more than enough. I suppose these larger fans may be quieter?