Bubba fix GPU cooler

Problem: the cooling fan on my aging PNY GeForce 9600GT video card was going out. It was making ugly grinding noises and needed to go.

Apparently, this is nearly impossible to replace. Nobody sells the original fan and aftermarket coolers that fit the mounting holes on the board and hard to come by as well. So, I decided to improvise a solution.

First, a picture of the original cooler. Note how it's a squirrel cage blower that pushes the air across the cooling fins. The black plastic "tunnel" keeps the air from moving away from the fins.

I had a spare case fan laying around that was about the right size. I used a side cutter to nip the upper corners so I could access the lower screw holes.

I simply chose sheet metal screws that were just big enough to fit between the cooling fins and still have enough bite to hold.

I simply soldered the old end for the fan power connector and shrink wrapped the joints.

Apply a little thermal paste to the GPU.

Then mounted the cooler back to the board and connected the fan.

I re-installed the card and it all works good. PC Wizard says it's running at 50c when idle, and 63c when playing a game. The only downside is that the fan is too big for any other cards to be installed in the computer. Thankfully I don't plan on adding any modems or anything.