Easy heatsink & fan replacement guide for Decklink cards

Do this at your own risk etc, for getting a better cooling and a lot less noise. Please leave comments and I will update the guide if needed.

Pictures can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NXhk-4oTKn0ArnoqsECgzfssJvMCuljH

1) CHECK for approx. 60mm spacing between heatsink mount points. Measure that your card has this.
I believe some of the high end Decklink models have a larger heatsink size.

2) buy Enzotech SLF-40mm copper heatsink (low noise fan is included)
http://www.enzotechnology.com/slf_40mm.htm
This is heavy, high quality copper heatsink. It fits directly onto the card without any modification.

3) Remove old heatsink. Install new heatsink onto the card using the silicon paste included with the Enzotech heatsink, or something like Noctua thermal paste.

4) Fan connector needs to be changed from the stock cooler to Enzotech. This can be done using 3M "Scotchlock" UY2 connectors without owning solder or wire strippers. Red wire goes to red wire. Black wire goes to black wire. Yellow wire goes to white wire. In my case I just soldered them.

5) Mount the card to computer and test that the fan spins.

Thank you for this, but is it necessary? Have you had issues with the card overheating in the past?

Thank you for this, but is it necessary? Have you had issues with the card overheating in the past?

No issues, but the fan was really loud and it bothered me.
Seen some videos etc of people replacing the heatsink and fan so I wanted to share this.

For anyone else who finds this thread, here's the solution I came up with. I wasn't able to find the heatsink mentioned above, so just replaced the fan with a quieter one. I chose a Noctua 60mm PWM model:

amazon.com/gp/product/B00VXTANZ4

I paired this to a SATA power adapter, because I just want it to run at full speed all the time. It's still much quieter than the original fan:

amazon.com/gp/product/B0837PKS8H

I attached it with 2 6" zip ties through the holes at the top and bottom of the original heatsink:

amazon.com/gp/product/B07P7MRK9Y

This is on my quad hdmi card, but it looks like it would fit similarly on others.

Here is the heatsink from someone other than manufacturer, at a signiificantly lower cost:

http://www.xoxide.com/enzotech-slf40low ... tsink.html

1) buy Enzotech SLF-40mm copper heatsink (30db fan is included)
This is heavy, high quality copper heatsink. It fits directly onto the card without any modification.

Could this fan be replaced with something like NF-A4x20?
Is the fan 5V or 12V?

Thanks and cheers.

There are a lot of "northbridge" coolers you can find on E-bay that will work, but measure the hole-distance on YOUR card first before you move forward.

The question about replacing the 40mm fan on the Enzotech, the answer is yes, you can replace it, but the clearance may be less compatiable with adjacent cards.

This is one of those problems where there are an infinite number of ways to screw this up; and so I think that there are two goals:

(1) is it quiet enough
(2) did you screw it up?

I think the best answer is to put all your money into a quieter fan that is physically larger and take up two-card-slots worth of space to do it if #1 is important enough. #2 is mitigated with a drill and some zip-ties.

I spent plenty of time weighing options, and I think that the guy who showed how to have an always-on fan on your rig is pointing out what the professional solution looks like for someone who doesn't care what is looks like as much as what it sounds like (if you don't want background noise of your computer running).

There are also water-cooling solutions for this if you have a water-cooled solution and want super-quiet operation.