Changing GPU Cooler

daywalker

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro and the stock fan is starting to fail, so i purchased a new gpu cooler for it the problem is when i attached the new cooler, the card would not allow boot up due to the fact that the new cooler uses a molex connector for power and the old cooler got power thru a connector on the card and when that card could not detect the old fan it stopped working

Does anyone know of a way around this or is there a gpu cooler that i can buy that gets power from the card?

heffo9

the artic silencer is regarded as one of the best, sends the heat out a pci slot in back. here's a link
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Arctic_Cooling.html
i have one fitted to my 9800, i have it flashed from pro to xt and overclocked, it's doing the trick for me.

Adeptus Titanicus

I've had an Arctic VGA Silencer on my flashed 9800Pro for over a year now with no problems, except that it's not so silent any more. Terrible whirring noise out of it on boot up, but it quietens down after a minute.

daywalker

Adeptus Titanicus wrote:

I've had an Arctic VGA Silencer on my flashed 9800Pro for over a year now with no problems, except that it's not so silent any more. Terrible whirring noise out of it on boot up, but it quietens down after a minute.

How did you find the contact of the Silencer heatsink with the core, did you have to remove the shim in order to get good contact, the cooler i tried was not making great contact with the core, because of the shim?

Billy Kovachy

Another option would be the Zalman VF700-Cu

http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/370?osCsid=61f2621ce01e121951370fa50e8f24c3

Hearing good ripples about it.

daywalker

Billy Kovachy wrote:

Another option would be the Zalman VF700-Cu

http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/370?osCsid=61f2621ce01e121951370fa50e8f24c3

Hearing good ripples about it.

Had a look at that one but unfortunately that fan uses power thru a molex connector and my card will not turn on if does not detect a fan on the fan connector on the card.

Hellrazer

Just cut the fan wire from the old cards fan and join it to the new gpu coolers wire.I had to do it last week with a 6600gt and zalman vf700 as I had no molex connectors left on my power supply.

The thing to remember with the zalmans is that they can be set at 12v or 7v so you have to be sure which wires to join.Temperature drop is amazing aswell from 80c+ under load to no more than 45-48 max.Overclocked to 595 core and 1100 memory now.Up from 500/900 stock.
Hope this helps.
Richie

heffo9

i forgot to mention that the artic silence 1 is powered by the card and fan speed is adjusted by the card according to rise/fall in temps. forget the rest this is the best value cooler for the 9800. also you could put some small heatsink's on the ram chips on back of card
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Zalman.html

gline

daywalker wrote:

Had a look at that one but unfortunately that fan uses power thru a molex connector and my card will not turn on if does not detect a fan on the fan connector on the card.

that shouldnt be the case. does it give u a visible error message on the screen (like when the molex isnt plugged into the card)?

daywalker

gline wrote:

that shouldnt be the case. does it give u a visible error message on the screen (like when the molex isnt plugged into the card)?

I tried the vantec VGA cooler CCb-A4C http://www.vantecusa.com/product-cooling.html#, cooler on the card and when i turned on the PC it refused to boot but when i plugged in the old fan, while leaving the vantec attached to the card, powered thru molex, and turned on the pc it booted up fine.

Adeptus Titanicus

daywalker wrote:

How did you find the contact of the Silencer heatsink with the core, did you have to remove the shim in order to get good contact, the cooler i tried was not making great contact with the core, because of the shim?

I left the shim on. I took a profile of the chip against the shim, and found they were on the same level, so althought the stock cooler has a little nub that sits against the chip, I has no problems with the flatness of the underside of the Arctic Silencer.

The Arctic Silencer doesn't have the fan speed varied by the card as heffo suggests, but it does have a switch on the back to allow you to kick it up a notch when gaming for example.

I have to say the cooling was great, even when flashed to XT levels, but if you get alot of dust sucked into your case, it's a pain in the ass to clean out the channels in the heatsink on the Silencer. And they really depend on good airflow. I think I may have been unlucky with the noise factor when booting (even switched to the lowest level), but I've just bought a water cooling kit, so no more of that for me ;o)

See http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=163314 and consider this to be the report back later :oD

Also, a pretty old post from me, but look down this for Sir Randoms photo guide to fitting the Arctic Silencer. A few results based on 3D Mark 2003 tests too.: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152835&page=2&pp=20. Seems so long ago now!

heffo9

fair enough Adeptus Titanicus, i stand corrected on the variable speed of the artic silencer, it runs at a constant 2000rpm.
where exactly is the switch to kick it up a notch?

Adeptus Titanicus

There should be a little toggle switch on the back of the card, just beside the outlet vent. It gives ya a two-speed setting. If you stick your ear beside it, or wet a finger and hold it at the vent, you should feel an increase in the airflow out.

If you take a peek at http://www.handspun.utvinternet.com/daniel/100404_07d.jpg and look at the 2nd slot bit that goes over the vent at the top of the pic, you can see the toggle there.

heffo9

ah we have different version coolers, no switch on mine.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Arctic_Cooling.html
the artic cooler 1. but it's no big deal, still very good coolers for the money imo.

Adeptus Titanicus

Ah crap, I didn't cop that it was version 1 you had, soz. Yeah, I've been very happy with it, and it made the flash to XT levels much safer. Very good value compared to alot of other coolers. Like I said, I think I've been unlucky as for the past few months has been like a chainsaw starting up. I got an innovatek block for the card, just waiting to get a chance to do a job on the case, rearrange some bits, fit the watercooling and sleeve the remaining wires. Been a long time waiting for this H2O stuff

heffo9

i just bought a bunch of fans etc. from endurance man, but i'm still toying with the thought of water cooling, i have a dell mobo at the mo, so no real point until i get something i can really get my teeth into. next machine is going to be an asus mobo + amd atlon 64 to start with.

roll on the overtime!!!