Just wanted to give back to the community by sharing a solution I came up with to help cool my Spark. This adds two 40mm fans to push more air into the intake side. In my testing it lowered temps by about 10 degrees! I hope this can help some others cool their sparks down if they’re experiencing overheating or throttling. I used some fans that are powered via USB so it was super simple to setup.
It helps, but not much (2-3 degrees C) in my testing. I’ll store the GX10 in my Closet Center (home-data center) and I will probably go with something like the OP pushing more air from the front.
I haven’t seen any throttling yet, though, but I’m always for running it cooler.
Quick note: if you have the ASUS ascent, it may not fit perfectly out of the box. You’ll need to wiggle it a bit and adjust the model slightly to make it work.
My setup is a DGX Spark with the ASUS ascent, and after a small adjustment it fits great.
This thing is seriously cool and works really well.
yeah I actually measured this and the DGX Spark case is build a bit different then all of the other devices. So none of the other devices will fit easily into the 46mm slots that are carved out in that design. you will need the full 51mm. Also the Asus device gets most of its air from underneath… I actually have a modified file for that. But printing this costs 100€ here anyway, so kinda expensive :D havent measured if the face plates still match though only modified the main case, in case anyone needs it. I did not test print this fair warning^^
Also the Asus power button is in the front which is kinda bad for this design for obvious reasons :D dgx_spar_Case-52mm-modified.zip.zip (17.6 MB)
Only the DGX case is getting really hot though afaik. The actual external case temperature of my asus case is not really that high. ABS is rated up to 100C shouldnt that be enough?
I’m not sure how material concerns came about. Even the cheapest PLA is fine. The hottest the GPU gets is 80°C. Only the top of the case gets hot and obviously not as hot as 80°C. The sides and bottom stay cold.
I typically print in PETG as preference, but the example at the top of this thread was printed in PLA at only 15% infill and has been running with the spark under load for a few days with no issue. PLA has a glass transition temperature of ~65°C, that’s the point when it can soften or deform. But the sides and bottom never reach 65°C. If by some extreme condition it does deform, print another cheap one. Don’t waste money on exotic materials.
My two Sparks without external fans will hit 95 degrees during benchmarking. Now with a decent fan pushing air through the units that should hopefully not be the case.
When you added extra fans, is the side next to the power plug less hot as well as that is very toasty on mine.
The case/housing should overall become a bit cooler as more air is pushed through, but that means more hot air will be coming out the back and could warm up objects behind it.
Interestingly, it seems there are 2 general ideas to improve cooling. I think both are fine.
push more air through the unit to cool the chips
move more air around the housing so it can act as a better heatsink
If in a proper 18C server room, I suspect no extra cooling is needed. But I live in a tropical area where indoors is never less than 24C.
