VOGONS


Case Slot Fans and the Voodoo 3

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First post, by boxpressed

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So I'm in full Voodoo 3 preservation mode now because I've run across some bad cards and want to protect the ones that are still functional.

A little while ago, I posted a picture of a quick-and-dirty mod where I zip tied a fan to the V3 heatsink. It still works pretty well. I was running loops of the Unreal flyby as a stress test and noticed that the card's reverse where the GPU sits on the other side gets really hot too. Is it overkill to cool this side of the board too, maybe with a case slot fan that looks something like this?

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My question is, for those who own a fan like this, which direction does the air flow?

Here's what the setup looks like inside of the case. I'd want the air flowing down onto the back of the card, obviously, so I wouldn't buy one if it shot air upward. Thanks!

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Reply 2 of 34, by Doornkaat

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-05-12, 16:19:

The few that I have are all exhaust fans they push air out the back of the case. It probably wouldn't hurt to try it and check temps

This. By design those centrifugal fans can only work like this.
However they can still generate sime airflow over the card and it probably won't take much to cool the backside.
You can also equip your V3 with a heatsink and fan combo intended for chipset cooling to cool the backside of the PCB. Just use a thin electrically non conductive thermal pad for electrical insulation between heatsink and PCB since there are exposed pads.

I have no idea wether this has any effect on longevity though.

Reply 3 of 34, by austinham

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boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-12, 15:52:
So I'm in full Voodoo 3 preservation mode now because I've run across some bad cards and want to protect the ones that are still […]
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So I'm in full Voodoo 3 preservation mode now because I've run across some bad cards and want to protect the ones that are still functional.

A little while ago, I posted a picture of a quick-and-dirty mod where I zip tied a fan to the V3 heatsink. It still works pretty well. I was running loops of the Unreal flyby as a stress test and noticed that the card's reverse where the GPU sits on the other side gets really hot too. Is it overkill to cool this side of the board too, maybe with a case slot fan that looks something like this?

casefan.jpg

My question is, for those who own a fan like this, which direction does the air flow?

Here's what the setup looks like inside of the case. I'd want the air flowing down onto the back of the card, obviously, so I wouldn't buy one if it shot air upward. Thanks!

Most I seen like the one you posted blow air out the back.

A better idea would be something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/JXSZ-Side-Blown-Graphi … t/dp/B074G2HXGL
You could bend a pci slot cover and dill a hole or two in it to hold a fan if you want to save a little.

Reply 4 of 34, by boxpressed

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Thanks for the insights. I'll investigate a different solution then. I don't know whether this would add to longevity either. But at least I'll know I tried and won't second guess myself later.

Reply 5 of 34, by boxpressed

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austinham wrote on 2020-05-12, 16:37:
Most I seen like the one you posted blow air out the back. […]
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Most I seen like the one you posted blow air out the back.

A better idea would be something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/JXSZ-Side-Blown-Graphi … t/dp/B074G2HXGL
You could bend a pci slot cover and dill a hole or two in it to hold a fan if you want to save a little.

That looks interesting! Thanks!

Reply 6 of 34, by austinham

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boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-12, 16:40:
austinham wrote on 2020-05-12, 16:37:
Most I seen like the one you posted blow air out the back. […]
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Most I seen like the one you posted blow air out the back.

A better idea would be something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/JXSZ-Side-Blown-Graphi … t/dp/B074G2HXGL
You could bend a pci slot cover and dill a hole or two in it to hold a fan if you want to save a little.

That looks interesting! Thanks!

no problem, I think Phil's Computer Lab made a video or post about bending the PCI slotfor a DIY fan mounting.

Reply 7 of 34, by Thermalwrong

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I was trying to solve this problem last week too - I made some fan adapters to fit a 92mm or 80mm fan to the card. It's about the same as zip tieing a fan to it, but attaches securely to the board holes with some 10mm (2000) or 15mm (3000) "m3 hex spacers". I've attached the STL files if anyone would like to print one out for themselves 😀

My card was still pretty hot to the touch on the back even with this fitted with a reasonably fast fan. Given you've also got trouble with that, and the back of the card has a non-solder-masked area on the back of the chip, I wonder if putting a heatsink on the back with some thermal tape might be beneficial?

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Reply 8 of 34, by boxpressed

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Thermalwrong wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:41:

I was trying to solve this problem last week too - I made some fan adapters to fit a 92mm or 80mm fan to the card. It's about the same as zip tieing a fan to it, but attaches securely to the board holes with some 10mm (2000) or 15mm (3000) "m3 hex spacers". I've attached the STL files if anyone would like to print one out for themselves 😀

My card was still pretty hot to the touch on the back even with this fitted with a reasonably fast fan. Given you've also got trouble with that, and the back of the card has a non-solder-masked area on the back of the chip, I wonder if putting a heatsink on the back with some thermal tape might be beneficial?

Wow, that's fantastic. I have a 3D printer and will be printing off some of these very soon. May even use my special silk gold filament. Thanks!

Hadn't thought about a heatsink on the back. Even just a tiny little one might make a difference. The area is quite smooth.

Reply 9 of 34, by Thermalwrong

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Glad it's useful to someone 😀 I'm working on one for the PCI card now

I recommend using PETG or ABS if possible, though it's purposely designed to be away from the card & heatsink, PLA can get a bit floppy if it's over maybe 50c - the other day I made a monitor stand part out of some dark grey PLA and it melted downwards just from the sun shining on it 😒

The standoffs screw into the fan mounting plate - the holes are threaded for M3 screws, then the fan adapter screws onto the card.

Reply 10 of 34, by bofh.fromhell

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boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-12, 15:52:
So I'm in full Voodoo 3 preservation mode now because I've run across some bad cards and want to protect the ones that are still […]
Show full quote

So I'm in full Voodoo 3 preservation mode now because I've run across some bad cards and want to protect the ones that are still functional.

A little while ago, I posted a picture of a quick-and-dirty mod where I zip tied a fan to the V3 heatsink. It still works pretty well. I was running loops of the Unreal flyby as a stress test and noticed that the card's reverse where the GPU sits on the other side gets really hot too. Is it overkill to cool this side of the board too, maybe with a case slot fan that looks something like this?

casefan.jpg

My question is, for those who own a fan like this, which direction does the air flow?

Here's what the setup looks like inside of the case. I'd want the air flowing down onto the back of the card, obviously, so I wouldn't buy one if it shot air upward. Thanks!

What you want is the Zalman FB123:
FANZMFB123_m__93794.1443106333.1280.1280.jpg?c=2
fb123installed.gif
Its made for blowing air over the Zalman flower heatsinks, but since you can add fans anywhere on the "arm" its very easy to aim one at whatever card you want to cool.
And it certainly doesnt hurt with som extra airflow over decade old motherboards and chipsets =)

Reply 12 of 34, by Baoran

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I only installed a small 40mm case fan on both of my voodoo 3 cards. One of them is made by stb systems and one is 3dfx interactive card.
I hope that is good enough cooling for them.

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Reply 13 of 34, by boxpressed

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bofh.fromhell wrote on 2020-05-14, 10:23:
What you want is the Zalman FB123: https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-eqrlbki/products/5093/images/8730/FANZMFB123_m__93794.1443106 […]
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What you want is the Zalman FB123:
FANZMFB123_m__93794.1443106333.1280.1280.jpg?c=2
fb123installed.gif
Its made for blowing air over the Zalman flower heatsinks, but since you can add fans anywhere on the "arm" its very easy to aim one at whatever card you want to cool.
And it certainly doesnt hurt with som extra airflow over decade old motherboards and chipsets =)

That looks really useful, thanks! I like how I could move it from case to case if needed, and it would benefit the whole system, as you mention.

Reply 14 of 34, by boxpressed

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kolderman wrote on 2020-05-14, 10:27:

They are exhaust. I have found you can usually get almost any fan on with just 2 screws of the right size that can jam in the fins of the heatsink. Or cable ties.

Baoran wrote on 2020-05-14, 13:21:

I only installed a small 40mm case fan on both of my voodoo 3 cards. One of them is made by stb systems and one is 3dfx interactive card.
I hope that is good enough cooling for them.

Thanks. You can't really tell from the first photo, but I did install a fan on the heatsink with zipties. I was hoping to find a way to cool the backside of the card too (can't hurt), and there are some great suggestions in this thread.

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Reply 17 of 34, by boxpressed

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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.

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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.

Reply 19 of 34, by bZbZbZ

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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).

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