# Gpu shroud mod.



## mediasorcerer (Nov 16, 2011)

I bought a 6950 recently and after finding the shroud on it to be rather ugly, i decided to try to build my own shroud made out of metal, instead of plastic.
I have a pair of 80ml slimline fans coming any day and might use them or the original fans, not sure yet, heres a few pics of it so far, i made it from a metal filing cabinet draw that was laying around.
Its a work in progress, i also took the opportunity to lap the heatsink base too why not.
Its going to have an "army" theme to it when finished haha, like it came out of a tank or something, a gpu for the army lol.!!!














i will post some more pics of progress if you like. Something a bit different anyway haha.


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## John Doe (Nov 16, 2011)

I'd have gone with a reference card and I don't think these kind of stuff (ghetto mod) is much worth the hastle anymore. Reference all unlock and have Volterra's. Other hand, non ref are cheaply made and don't unlock much anymore. You should be able to still find a reference card over there.


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## mediasorcerer (Nov 16, 2011)

A mock up with fans, this is an engineering challenge to get it to work, it may not but , gets the mind working and is creative .
If i can get it to be practical and functioning , then i may spray paint it in urban camo or something,


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## John Doe (Nov 16, 2011)

You're going to reduce the performance of the cooler. That metal piece would cause air resistance, also, the plastic was a more open design. Not sure where you're trying to get with that. Just for looks, eh.


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## wolf (Nov 16, 2011)

I eagerly await the look of the finished product! this has the potential to look amazing IMO, keep it up!


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## Jetster (Nov 16, 2011)

Bullet proof, Literally


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## n0tiert (Nov 16, 2011)

Jetster said:


> Bullet proof, Literally



for shure    looks great !


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## N-Gen (Nov 16, 2011)

I like where this is going. Eager for project updates!


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## Bo$$ (Nov 16, 2011)

John Doe said:


> You're going to reduce the performance of the cooler. That metal piece would cause air resistance, also, the plastic was a more open design. Not sure where you're trying to get with that. Just for looks, eh.



think he is trying to vent the hot air out better


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## John Doe (Nov 16, 2011)

Bo$$ said:


> think he is trying to vent the hot air out better



And it doesn't... a rough piece of rusty metal has no turbolance to make it vent better. All it does is to tank the GPU and rescrict airflow. If you noticed, the plastic cooler is feather and shaped in a way it makes an "open design". It already has the spaces to vent it out. I'm sure this is going to make it work worse than stock. I mean, look at his second pic. He locked up the card with metal garbage.


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## Fatal (Nov 16, 2011)

John Doe said:


> And it doesn't... a rough piece of rusty metal has no turbolance to make it vent better. All it does is to tank the GPU and rescrict airflow. If you noticed, the plastic cooler is feather and shaped in a way it makes an "open design". It already has the spaces to vent it out. I'm sure this is going to make it work worse than stock. I mean, look at his second pic. He locked up the card with metal garbage.


From his first post it seems like his concern is the way the card looked. The shroud is not even finished I wouldn't say its garbage.


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## John Doe (Nov 16, 2011)

Fatal said:


> From his first post it seems like his concern is the way the card looked. The shroud is not even finished I wouldn't say its garbage.



...which is more important than how it performs sitting upside down in your case under the desk, right? He's making it out of garbage. That is what is it. Garbage is garbage, GIGO.

Look at the stock cooler, notice it's curves? It's made to produce positive airflow. This idea is too tough to be practical with that piece.


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## Fatal (Nov 16, 2011)

I am not sure that he cares how it performs. My main concern is performance but I push my stuff to the limit. Some people like looks and maybe the feeling of modding their own stuff. I think its great when people mod things. He may take a temperature hit but I doubt it will be much. I would think his shroud will effect how loud the card is but then some care less about sound. I guess we will have to wait for him to finish to get the results.


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 16, 2011)

All im going to say is metal isnt the greatest material to make your shroud out of. I know your going for that old reference cooler look.


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## AsRock (Nov 16, 2011)

John Doe said:


> ...which is more important than how it performs sitting upside down in your case under the desk, right? He's making it out of garbage. That is what is it. Garbage is garbage, GIGO.
> 
> Look at the stock cooler, notice it's curves? It's made to produce positive airflow. This idea is too tough to be practical with that piece.



1st Rome was not built in a day and i do see what your on about but if he got this far there is nothing stopping him taking it a little further.

I am all for performance over looks any day but it takes time to get some thing how you want it.  Shii  maybe later he pick some thin alloy up to lighten and soak the heat and put more vents in it..

What you cannot argue at this time is the effort and skills he's putting in to it.  Best part is he can always change it if he feels that it's not good enough for him.



AthlonX2 said:


> All im going to say is metal isnt the greatest material to make your shroud out of. I know your going for that old reference cooler look. maybe look into a Arctic cooling accelero those are nice



There far from perfect 1st thing i do to those is replace the heatsinks and fans and remove the plastic crap which the later to are cheaply molded together.


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## t_ski (Nov 16, 2011)

John Doe said:


> ...which is more important than how it performs sitting upside down in your case under the desk, right? He's making it out of garbage. That is what is it. Garbage is garbage, GIGO.
> 
> Look at the stock cooler, notice it's curves? It's made to produce positive airflow. This idea is too tough to be practical with that piece.



Stop thread-crapping.  You have your opinion, and he has his.  What's important to you may not be important to him.  Leave it at that and move on.


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## mediasorcerer (Nov 17, 2011)

Im just playing around with ideas, whether it works or not ,meh, maybe the next one i make will, its fun.

A learning curve, theres a lot to consider , how to mount the circuit board , airflow, weight, size, thermal characteristics, which may have been good considering metal is better at heat conductivity than plastic[as far as i know]. Its challenging working metal.

It was just something i thought people may find interesting.

Who , that is into tech, wouldnt love to design there own gpu hah, lol?


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## Neuromancer (Nov 17, 2011)

I like it!

I get what you are after, and modders do not start out building those silly wire sleeeved lights and acrylic stuff in the first day.  They all start somewhere  (I hope you never do that silly pretty looking crap)

I much prefer seeing stuff like this, that is all about trying new things out 

Metal is a much better thermal conductor than plastic so 

Anywho, dont paint it!! and pair it up with a TUF series ASUS motherboard  Would be bad ass looking. Specially if you beat the crap outta your case and then cammo paint it 


EDIT: You can mod the backplate to provide more airflow or stagger the fans, one in one out to play with cooling properties if your case has enough airflow  I have not played with newer gen cards, but traditionally GPU heat is never an issue with clocking ATI cards, its the VRMs that overheat.  Leave the rear fan blowing down/in and the one closer to backplate blowing up/out


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## John Doe (Nov 17, 2011)

t_ski said:


> Stop thread-crapping.  You have your opinion, and he has his.  What's important to you may not be important to him.  Leave it at that and move on.



Thread crap? I'm trying to make him realize he's wasting effort on a rusty piece of metal. See the other suggesting an Accelero Xtreme? Oh well.


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## jagjitnatt (Nov 17, 2011)

Just make sure you don't short out anything on the back of the card with all that metal. Rest is all fine. No need to worry about turbulence or anything. Its just 100 cfm of air at max.


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## DannibusX (Nov 17, 2011)

John Doe said:


> Thread crap? I'm trying to make him realize he's wasting effort on a rusty piece of metal. See the other suggesting an Accelero Xtreme? Oh well.



You're being a dick and totally crapping on this guys thread.  If he wants to mod his shroud, even if it makes the cooling perform worse, that's his business.  It's cool he decided to share it with us, which may not happen in the future if douche nozzles like you repeatedly bash his idea.

It's his hardware, not yours.


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## SK-1 (Nov 17, 2011)

Subscribed


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## micropage7 (Nov 17, 2011)

wow
wow
its getting hotter.
theres many things you need to consider before you mod it, like how good material that you use, the contact area, airflow, your load etc


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## de.das.dude (Nov 17, 2011)

@ John Doe. you know theres a saying for you guys? it goes something like " haters gonna hate"
if you cant respect someones imagination and hard working skills, dont DE-motivate them with your BS. I guess you must be someone who likes everything ready made. But you must learn to appreciate others who like to do things like this just for the sake of it.


Wheres the fun in fitting a dumb looking accelero extreme on such a beautiful piece of engineering?
yes i think the accelero extreme is ugly.

also as long as this dude here has enough space for air to go in and an equivalent amount of air to come out, he will NOT have any problems.

Infact a well designed shroud is better than some open space, because you are improving airflow and hence reducing turbulence.


Also Sub'd


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## Velvet Wafer (Nov 17, 2011)

If you really gonna do that mod, which in my opinion, could look amazing, when done right, then i see 2 possible error sources, which may give you problems in the future...
if you want to cover the whole card up, you need some kind of spacer between the back of the card and the metal, or else: "BRRRRZZT".
second...you should really think about, if you dont want to make some ventilation cuts in the backend of the shroud... 
its open to give results, but i also think, that in the way it is now, it may block your cooling efficiency...im not sure tho, so better test it yourself. 
Only results can give us clarity!


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## t_ski (Nov 17, 2011)

John Doe said:


> Thread crap? I'm trying to make him realize he's wasting effort on a rusty piece of metal. See the other suggesting an Accelero Xtreme? Oh well.



See here:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=thread crapping

And I agree with these guys:



DannibusX said:


> You're being a dick and totally crapping on this guys thread.  If he wants to mod his shroud, even if it makes the cooling perform worse, that's his business.  It's cool he decided to share it with us, which may not happen in the future if douche nozzles like you repeatedly bash his idea.
> 
> It's his hardware, not yours.





de.das.dude said:


> @ John Doe. you know theres a saying for you guys? it goes something like " haters gonna hate"
> if you cant respect someones imagination and hard working skills, dont DE-motivate them with your BS. I guess you must be someone who likes everything ready made. But you must learn to appreciate others who like to do things like this just for the sake of it.
> 
> Wheres the fun in fitting a dumb looking accelero extreme on such a beautiful piece of engineering?
> ...



now move on


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## jsfitz54 (Nov 17, 2011)

I like the mod.  It is cool.

Question: Would there be some way to tie the metal shroud to the heatpipe, like some sort of metal tab, between the gpu and heatpipe base, a sandwich approach, and have the shroud act as an additional passive cooling device?

Keep the pictures coming.


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## _JP_ (Nov 17, 2011)

Sub'd. I want to see this getting done. Looks good so far.


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## mediasorcerer (Nov 17, 2011)

Its quite a challenge ,and yes the idea was to make the shroud act as a heatsink too, heres another pic of the two 80ml fans i bought[10$ each] to use for something like what im attempting to create.

I might start again on this with new sheet metal thats slightly thinner as weight is an issue atm, but by trying, at least i learnt a lot .All a bit of fun etc.
Thanx for input and gracious attitude from all.


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## Luciel (Nov 18, 2011)

John Doe said:


> Thread crap? I'm trying to make him realize he's wasting effort on a rusty piece of metal. See the other suggesting an Accelero Xtreme? Oh well.



I know exactly what you mean, but on another hand, I don´t think it´s fair on him to demoralise it like this as no matter the result, it´s just fun to do stuff, regardless of the result, no matter the result, you have to start somewhere with modding and in my oppinion, better this than simply add cold cathodes to a case : )


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 18, 2011)

mediasorcerer said:


> Its quite a challenge ,and yes the idea was to make the shroud act as a heatsink too, heres another pic of the two 80ml fans i bought[10$ each] to use for something like what im attempting to create.
> 
> I might start again on this with new sheet metal thats slightly thinner as weight is an issue atm, but by trying, at least i learnt a lot .All a bit of fun etc.
> Thanx for input and gracious attitude from all.
> ...



Try using some thinner aluminium sheet instead maybe. I like were you're coming from, i like to do stuff like this to my pc.

@ john doe, i always say, if you aint got anything nice to say then don't say anything. If you don't like what he is doing, fair enuff but let the man fiddle with his stuff.


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## Darkleoco (Nov 18, 2011)

It would probably be best to use much thinner metal as well as try and give it some openings to vent out air besides with the main fan set.


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## mediasorcerer (Nov 18, 2011)

Darkleoco said:


> It would probably be best to use much thinner metal as well as try and give it some openings to vent out air besides with the main fan set.



Your right dark. It is too heavy, when i get a chance i will try again with better sheet, its very hard to fold steel and get an accurate edge,90 degree angle etc, i liked the idea of fully enclosed and venting all the heat outside of the case etc, easier said than done tho haha.

re-tigr, yes aluminium is the best, light strong and cool, im keeping my eye out for something i can improvise with ,hope you are well, kind regs from me.


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## t_ski (Nov 18, 2011)

There is something called a brake, which is meant for bending sheet metal.  If youdon't have access to one, you can work something up with some blocks of wood or a hard corner like on a desk, counter, table, etc.


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