Replacing a broken fan

[Silas13013]

So one of my Sapphire vapor-x 6950s had a run in with my wireless card while the fan was running and snapped off two of the fan blades.  The card still works fine but it makes a banshee racket when starting up and rattles at anything above desktop idle.  Normally I would send it off to Sapphire  but it's 3 months out of warranty.  Is it possible to replace individual fans on graphics cards or do I have to replace the entire heatsink?  

[Andrewr05]

Zip tie an 80 mm fan onto it, I'm not sure you.can easily get replacement fans for video card coolers.

 

Though if you hunt around a bit you mightbe ablee to find someone who put an aftermarket cooler on their GPU, they may have the original OEM setup kicking around.

[cchalogamer]

Not saying this is a replacement, but assuming the cooler is made like my old 6950s my mind is guessing something like this is out there on the market and should work (of course assuming correct size etc) http://www.amazon.com/Evercool-80mm-Drop-Replacement-screw/dp/B009D3GEEQ

 

I would pull the troubled fan off the card and look at markings, measure, etc and see what you need then start searching

 

Only issues you MIGHT run into is whatever connector they used to hook it to the PCB is likely not going to be the same as a "universal" replacement fan and that might require some rewiring work.  Good news though there was a big list of suggested items including some actual OEM fans at amazon to look through.  That one was just literally the first google result for "80mm video card fan"

Edited January 9, 2014 by cchalogamer

[BluePanda]

A lot of times you can find a match on ebay such as this (though I'm not saying this specific one will fit). 

 

However, if you are up to it -- Andrew's idea is the simple solution. I did at one point have a 4850x2 with two 80mm fans zipped to it (blue LED fans at that). Takes a little bit to find good mounting points but you can make it look nice if you take your time. Just be sure to plug them in!