Adding Aftermarket Fans

The GFXChilla is unique in the fact that it allows the user to easily remove the stock 80mm fans and replace them with something a little more powerful. As long as it is an 80mm fan with standard mounting holes, you can mount whichever 80mm fan you want.

We recommend that you swap fans with the GFXChilla uninstalled from the graphics card since the heatpipes flex quite a bit when any pressure is applied to the top of the cooler. If you end up pressing too hard, you can damage your card which is much more expensive to replace than a $30 cooler.


Unlike Thermalright’s completely user-unfriendly fan brackets, Coolink has gone with a blissfully simple way of installing and uninstalling fans on their cooler: screws. All you will need is a thin Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the four screws on each fan.


Once the four screws are removed you just have to lift clear the fan which exposes the aluminum fins below. The next step is to line up the holes of your chosen 80mm fan with the screw holes on the heatsink.


Finally, all that needs to be done is to reinstall the screws and you have your new fan(s) installed. While an aftermarket fan may stand a bit higher than the stock ones, it should also provide additional cooling.


Case Installation


Since the GFXChilla doesn’t take up any more room that the stock 8800GTS 512MB cooler, there is plenty of space to spare for a second graphics card. There were absolutely no conflicts with the motherboard or anything else in our case.


Even with a pair of Zalman 80mm by 25mm fans installed there is still about ¾ inch between it and the card installed below it so airflow into the fans should not be constrained too much.

All in all, installing the GFXChilla onto a graphics card and then installing it into a case was a dream come true and couldn’t have been easier. Having such a low-profile CPU cooler is something customers have been asking for and this one looks like it delivers…so far.