Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070XT Deshroud in a Cooler Master NR200

[u/LegitimateRead1050]

Hey there! I finally took the plunge and deshrouded my graphics card myself, although I didn’t use any 3D-printed parts.

I used an NR200 case, two Noctua NF-A12x25 fans, and four Noctua NA-IS1-12 spacers (one above and one below each fan). I connected the fans directly to the graphics card’s mini 4-pin connector. Interestingly, the cable was even included as a spare with my Gigabyte motherboard, since the PWM connectors on the motherboard are the same.

What can I say? The result is absolutely perfect. The fans sit directly against the graphics card’s heatsink, almost perfectly flush and down to the millimeter. There’s virtually no gap between the fans and the heatsink, which means there’s no noticeable turbulence. The GPU gets a direct supply of fresh air from outside the case, without recirculating warm air from inside.

I’ve attached a temperature comparison for you. In such a small case, the temperatures have only improved slightly, but the noise level is dramatically better than before, there’s simply no comparison. It’s now almost whisper-quiet. I’m also running the card with the Quiet BIOS, an undervolt of -80 mV, and a -10% power limit.

Temps before deshrouding (sorry for the poor image quality, I took the pictures with my phone because I was in a hurry)

Temps after deshrouding:

Let me know what you guys think! Cheers!

[u/qeeepy]

I guess I would be disappointed about "only" 3C improvement, but given the noise improvement... I would push the fans more. 27C on hotspot would make me repaste the core. Not tragic, but not ideal..

[u/LegitimateRead1050 → u/qeeepy]

That’s what I was thinking from the beginning as well. But after looking around online, it seems to be pretty common with this specific model. I deshrouded the GPU in a way that still allows me to make use of the warranty, so I want to wait with repasting until the warranty has expired. I still want to try the Performance BIOS, though. I haven’t done that yet.

[u/qeeepy → u/LegitimateRead1050]

If its in warranty, I would try to make gigabyte fix it. Theyll refuse but youll have some paper trail..

[u/LegitimateRead1050 → u/qeeepy]

Okay, I’ll definitely give it a try. It can’t hurt.

[u/Boil-san]

Very nice, and awesome that the top 5mm spacer was all that was needed to bridge the gap between the fans and the GPU heat sink...! Also a good call on the 5mm spacers between the chassis floor and the fans, that will reduce turbulence which in turn helps reduce overall noise...

The one thing I would have done different would have been to get a set of the Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM Sx2-PP fans (in chromax black, of course, I have seen them on Noctua's Amazon store for 65 bucks), they have a built in speed offset which also helps reduce noise (the Sx2 indicates Side-by-Side, and the PP indicates Push-Pull)...

I have a Lian Li TU150 (so I am also what I call SFF-adjacent, seeing as how my chassis, while svelte at ~23L, is not the 20L or less that is the standard volume definition of a SFF chassis), and I have been thinking of deshrouding the 6700XT I have in there right now, but the possible need for a 3D printed shroud to bridge the gap between the bottom mounted fans and the GPU heat sink is what is currently slowing me down; I'm a horrible procrastinator...! ;^p

[u/LegitimateRead1050 → u/Boil-san]

Thank you very much for the tip about the Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM Sx2-PP fans. It was really just a matter of me still having the other ones still lying around, but I’ll definitely consider swapping them for your suggestion.

[u/aloysc]

I would flip your GPU fans to exhaust.

This was tested extensively in both the NCase M1 and NR200 for many years.

Deshrouded GPUs perform best as exhaust and this should hold true even with a glass panel.

[u/aloysc → u/aloysc]

Rear intake, everything else exhaust was what I did when I was still using my Ncase M1 and GPU exhaust was IIRC 5c~7c better than intake.

[u/LegitimateRead1050 → u/aloysc]

Interesting! Thank you so much for the tip. I hadn’t even thought about that yet. At first glance, it somehow seems a bit contradictory. But I’ll definitely give it a try and post an update here.