bat09, andreyu30 SOOOO sorry, ive not been getting notification through!!!!
The MSI gtx 1050ti is WAY WAY WAY longer than their 750 and its a different cooler so my cooler won't really fit!
** No Trading outside of the MM ** and grabbing a 6gb 1060 which is roughly 3 times quicker than the 750ti and only about £75 more than a low profile 1050ti - I happen to have a load of liquid cooling kit that was destined for this SFF case, but also - it is no more, SFF just doesn't hit the specs I need, as convenient as she is! The bottom drawer of my desk is a filing cabinet type with hanging rails running right to left, and a secret compartment at the back, its 305 wide, 260 tall, and a whopping 630 deep (its a bloody big drawer!) so I'm planning on going for a bespoke PC installed in the back of the drawer, liquid cooled. I'll make up the frame for the mobo, psu 3.5, 5.25 and IO etc from an old lian-li PC60 thats in my loft.
I did look into the 1050ti mod in great detail, it seems like the best option is the
Zotac, since the MSI is WAY too long for the "wrap around" fan idea which works so well - the 750ti is around 146mm, the 1050 is 182mm - what the hell were they thinking!
The Zotac seems features a similar flat top cooler design - excellent for my kinda mod! It even has a channel grooved out along the top, which means I could shorten and thicken the sides and more easily mount the cooler. - the only thing is, it has a large gap between stock fans and cooler fins - it works presumably to allow the air flow from the fan to more evenly distribute itself across the cooler to prevent dead spots - but I just want maximum cooler area! I would have to make the shroud wrap down and touch the tops of the cooler fins inside, since I want all my air to travel the full length. Also, I note the base is quite thick, this would be ideal to machine and solder a flat heat pipe assembly, or even just a copper block into the base which would massively increase performance (since copper transfers double the heat of aluminium)
The gigabyte is around the same length as the Zotac, and more readily available at this time (I think the Zotac has perhaps just launched?) - so.... I was going to go for the Gigabyte and just machine the cooler down to the max height I can work with and then solder a copper sheet top on to it (I have a proper machine shop at home - who doesn't!?) and at the same time, I would measure the cooler underside clearances, so I could perhaps CNC one from copper cooler stock - yep, also have a CNC mill at home.... who doesn't.... maybe not many actually....
Since they mounted the DVI over the HDMI (dicks!) I have to irreversibly mod whatever card I buy anyway - so hell, why not cut up the cooler while I'm at it! My MSI as it stands is easily reverted back to its full factory cooler, its a true bolt on mod.
So the plan was just that, Gigabyte 1050 ti + machine down, + solder a copper sheet top on, and then 3d print a wrap around fan design again. But now moving away from SFF however if anyone fancies volunteering a card be it MSI/Gigabyte/Zotac, I'll get the mod done, donations welcome - hey you could even let me keep the card, I don't mind
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Over and out....
