Should we all be oiling our fan bearings??
If your gfx card fan has an oil well, look no further > Lubricate Your Fan: Prepping a sleeve bearing fan for work . If it doesn't which in most cases the stock fan doesn't, well kinda screwed.
Of course, given consumer electronics, it may cost less (esp. in terms of my time) to simply buy a new card...
You won't really be screwed, dunno y I said that... But, attaching a 120mm fan to the hs if the stock fan goes would be suffice. Oiling them increases the life of the fan if it can be oiled. I've got a few 4 year old 120mm fan, when I found that guide, I opened them 4 y/o fans up, they were bone dry. Hit it up with some oil, now they should last much longer.
does anyone know where I can get replacement fans from, I can't find any here in the UK and i don't want to get a full aftermarket cooler unless they are under £10. I don't mind ordering from abroard aslong as they are cheap
If you still have the warranty on your name, fill out a ticket form at xfx, they most likely will mail off a new fan to you, they mailed me like 5 of em, and each of em just ended up dieing within weeks. I ended up taking off the plastic shield and fan, wire tied a 120mm fan to the hs.
they're not under warranty unfortunatly, i think i'm going to have to do the same as you and attach some case fans and run the cards from the MB with some extenders to spread them out
Believe or not, doing this will increase the card to be cooler, just need to align the fan just right. Make sure air flow also hits the memory heatsinks. I was gonna post a photo of mine, camera is dead, I'll post a photo as a reference in a day, if you like.