DISCLAIMER: if you are planning to replicate this mod with your 3060Ti, please do your own research first and proceed at your own risk. I take no responsibility if it does not work out for you.
Long story short, I was looking for a MSI 3060Ti AERO for quite some time now but as we all know, this card is hard to find and/or very expensive. Some days ago I finally found a "normal sized" 3060Ti for a quite reasonable price (EUR 600,- "only") so I started to do some research if it would be possible to mod that card and make it ITX sized.
Part 1: investigative research and feasibility check
The reference PCB (not Founders Edition PCB) for the 3060 and 3060Ti which NVIDIA made for their board partners are very similar and ITX sized. While "premium brands" like ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, etc. are mostly designing their own PCBs, the big OEMs like PCPartner, GALAX, etc. are usually using the reference board designs. So if you buy a more "budget" 3060Ti from a brand like inno3D, PNY, PALIT, Gainward, etc. it is very likely that you will get a PCB as shown below:
3060 reference board:
3060Ti reference board:
To make sure to get this kind of 3060Ti PCB we can do a quick search on the web to find some reviews / teardowns.
As an example, here is a teardown of the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 OC where we can see the PCB:
i2hard.ru
Given the fact that the Ti and non-Ti PCBs share the same layout / component placement, we can now start to search for an suitable ITX sized cooler. Luckily PNY and PALIT both offer an ITX sized version of the 3060 and a quick search on TaoBao came up with this one: PALIT StormX Cooler
Looking at the comments, it seems I was not the first one who had the idea of making a DIY 3060Ti ITX - the first comment obviously shows the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 OC - so that one should work
Now after my initial research was complete, I ordered the 3060Ti and the cooler - total cost about EUR 625,- / USD 720,-
The GPU is a 3060Ti MIRACLE and I suppose this was manufactured by PCPartner (inno3D) for EMtek but was never officially released. Anyways - I haven't disassembled the card yet but it seems to have the same PCB like the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2
The cooler from the PALIT StormX also arrived - it is brand new and came well packed with thermal grease and mounting screws
thermal pads are pre-applied and seem to be at the right spots for the 3060Ti
unfortunately it only has three heatpipes - we'll see if that's enough - worst case I should be able to undervolt the card a bit or just limit the FPS
the cooler comes with a 100 x 15mm fan / 98mm measured from blade to blade - I think the same size like the AERO 3060Ti?
now before going ahead with the mod and taking the 3060Ti apart (voiding the warranty) I'll first test the card for a while...
stay tuned for updates...
Part 2: performing the 3060Ti ITX mod
after running benchmarks and test for a few hours with the original honey bee 3060Ti I couldn't wait any longer and just started the mod...
first, removing the original cooler...
checking if the thermal pad placement matches...
measuring the standoff height on the original cooler...
standoffs on the PALIT heatsink are shorter, but shouldn't be an issue - just keeping that in mind and not tighten the screws all the way down later...
the I/O bracket was originally mounted together with the backplate...
maybe I'll design a custom backplate later - for now some M2.5 screws and nuts should do...
some shots of the board...
for comparison: inno3D 3060Ti Twin X2 OC (made by PCPartner) which I found on the Russian review site...
bonus shot: a legit 3060Ti LHR
fan connector from the PALIT cooler matches - unfortunately the RGB header is missing on my board - but I guess this could be modded...
time to see if it fits together...
that looks promissing...
almost there...
and voila - I proudly present you my PALIT StormX 3060Ti ITX DIY Edition
Part 3: performance and thermal testing
before performing the ITX mod I recorded some benchmark results of the card with the original cooler - here is the comparison between ITX & Original
all test were done in my BIG560 with side panel off
Original:
ITX mod:
Original:
ITX mod:
Bonus picture: Valley Bench with ITX mod
I also tried to measure the noise levels with the ITX mod but this is not exactly accurate since the PSU fan seems to be the most noisy component under load - so the numbers don't say much but my ear tells me that the card is certainly less noisy then the R9 Nano I had before - IMHO this is impressive and I did not expect it working so well.
ambient noise, no load, all fans off (yes, the card does actually have a 0-RPM fan mode!)
noise during Valley Bench:
Part 4: final words
Given how well the mod with the PALIT StormX heatsink turned out, I am almost certain that PALIT had the idea to release an ITX sized 3060Ti variant of their card but cancelled that plan at some point. Good for us: the cooler can be found easily on TaoBao and Aliexpress and if you own a compatible 3060Ti you can now just build your own.
I hope you enjoyed my post and found it helpful!
Long story short, I was looking for a MSI 3060Ti AERO for quite some time now but as we all know, this card is hard to find and/or very expensive. Some days ago I finally found a "normal sized" 3060Ti for a quite reasonable price (EUR 600,- "only") so I started to do some research if it would be possible to mod that card and make it ITX sized.
Part 1: investigative research and feasibility check
The reference PCB (not Founders Edition PCB) for the 3060 and 3060Ti which NVIDIA made for their board partners are very similar and ITX sized. While "premium brands" like ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, etc. are mostly designing their own PCBs, the big OEMs like PCPartner, GALAX, etc. are usually using the reference board designs. So if you buy a more "budget" 3060Ti from a brand like inno3D, PNY, PALIT, Gainward, etc. it is very likely that you will get a PCB as shown below:
3060 reference board:
3060Ti reference board:
To make sure to get this kind of 3060Ti PCB we can do a quick search on the web to find some reviews / teardowns.
As an example, here is a teardown of the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 OC where we can see the PCB:
Обзор и тест видеокарты INNO3D GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 OC
Видеокарта с тихой и компактной системой охлаждения
i2hard.ru
Given the fact that the Ti and non-Ti PCBs share the same layout / component placement, we can now start to search for an suitable ITX sized cooler. Luckily PNY and PALIT both offer an ITX sized version of the 3060 and a quick search on TaoBao came up with this one: PALIT StormX Cooler
Looking at the comments, it seems I was not the first one who had the idea of making a DIY 3060Ti ITX - the first comment obviously shows the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 OC - so that one should work
Now after my initial research was complete, I ordered the 3060Ti and the cooler - total cost about EUR 625,- / USD 720,-
The GPU is a 3060Ti MIRACLE and I suppose this was manufactured by PCPartner (inno3D) for EMtek but was never officially released. Anyways - I haven't disassembled the card yet but it seems to have the same PCB like the inno3D RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2
The cooler from the PALIT StormX also arrived - it is brand new and came well packed with thermal grease and mounting screws
thermal pads are pre-applied and seem to be at the right spots for the 3060Ti
unfortunately it only has three heatpipes - we'll see if that's enough - worst case I should be able to undervolt the card a bit or just limit the FPS
the cooler comes with a 100 x 15mm fan / 98mm measured from blade to blade - I think the same size like the AERO 3060Ti?
now before going ahead with the mod and taking the 3060Ti apart (voiding the warranty) I'll first test the card for a while...
stay tuned for updates...
Part 2: performing the 3060Ti ITX mod
after running benchmarks and test for a few hours with the original honey bee 3060Ti I couldn't wait any longer and just started the mod...
first, removing the original cooler...
checking if the thermal pad placement matches...
measuring the standoff height on the original cooler...
standoffs on the PALIT heatsink are shorter, but shouldn't be an issue - just keeping that in mind and not tighten the screws all the way down later...
the I/O bracket was originally mounted together with the backplate...
maybe I'll design a custom backplate later - for now some M2.5 screws and nuts should do...
some shots of the board...
for comparison: inno3D 3060Ti Twin X2 OC (made by PCPartner) which I found on the Russian review site...
bonus shot: a legit 3060Ti LHR
fan connector from the PALIT cooler matches - unfortunately the RGB header is missing on my board - but I guess this could be modded...
time to see if it fits together...
that looks promissing...
almost there...
and voila - I proudly present you my PALIT StormX 3060Ti ITX DIY Edition
Part 3: performance and thermal testing
before performing the ITX mod I recorded some benchmark results of the card with the original cooler - here is the comparison between ITX & Original
all test were done in my BIG560 with side panel off
Original:
ITX mod:
Original:
ITX mod:
Bonus picture: Valley Bench with ITX mod
I also tried to measure the noise levels with the ITX mod but this is not exactly accurate since the PSU fan seems to be the most noisy component under load - so the numbers don't say much but my ear tells me that the card is certainly less noisy then the R9 Nano I had before - IMHO this is impressive and I did not expect it working so well.
ambient noise, no load, all fans off (yes, the card does actually have a 0-RPM fan mode!)
noise during Valley Bench:
Part 4: final words
Given how well the mod with the PALIT StormX heatsink turned out, I am almost certain that PALIT had the idea to release an ITX sized 3060Ti variant of their card but cancelled that plan at some point. Good for us: the cooler can be found easily on TaoBao and Aliexpress and if you own a compatible 3060Ti you can now just build your own.
I hope you enjoyed my post and found it helpful!
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