Gettting tid of tiny whiny fan in GeForce FX5700 Ultra

Tommy_A · Post by **Tommy_A** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:06 pm

I was tired of hearing that little video card fan so I decided to take the plunge and get rid of it. To do so you have to take off the huge GPU/RAM combo heatsink. This is held on with 3 plastic snaps. I destroyed one getting them off (and I consider myself lucky) and had to replace it with a nylon 4-40 screw and nut (be prepared and get some a head of time if you want to do this). The heatsink is taped to the memory and just pry's off. Clean up the RAM and GPU (I used Goo Gone) as well as the HS. The HS has a 'top' on it that needs to come off in order for outside air to get to the fins. Four tiny screws hold the top to the base (in fact, the only reason to remove the HS in the first place is to gain access to these screws). With the top off and the fan removed, you can now re-install the HS. Now comes the problem of how to blow air on it. I used Zalman's fan bracket (I had it already for my CPU fan) and mounted a 92mm Panaflo M1A thru a Zalman Fanmate. I set the speed so that I could just barely hear the fan over the other noise sources in my case (slightly modified Sonata). Thus, the air blows down from the edge of the card toward the GPU, parallel with the PCB. GPU temperatures are:

stock modified
idling 40C 49C
gaming 56C 71C

I would pretty much rate this mod a failure. I think I'll mount the fan on the video card PCB such that it blows down onto the HS where the GPU is (i.e., perpindicular to the PCB), similar to how the original fan was. I just have to figure out how to mount it. Does anyone else have any experience cooling a card like this? The Zalman GPU cooler supposedly won't fit.

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:17 pm

Try this:

1) remove at least 4 PC slot covers below the AGP card -- assuming these slots are free.
2) Use anything like an elastic band to you name it in order to position the fan so that it blows from the inside end of the VGA card, across the HS & out the open PCI slot openings on the back.

A picture's worth a thousand...

It's a low power card with a HS swap for a Zalman NB HS & a 6~7V Panaflo hanging of the card with elastic. (Same kind used to suspend my HDDs...) Lets me push the card to extremes w/o noise or problems.

If I created a duct ot tunnel beneath the VGA card with a piece of cardboard, posterboard, plastic or something, it would probably work better. It's a ghetto version of the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer's elegant heat exhaust.

Cob · Post by **Cob** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:05 pm

Mike, I was thinking of doing the same thing to my asus 9180 ti4200, with the same zalman sink and the same fan. However, the heatsink only covers about 90% of my gpu. I didn't do it for fear that that bit of uncovered gpu would wreck something.

Good news though, the stock heatsink with the fan gone and an l1a blowing air over it from the side panel intake works fine.

PretzelB · Post by **PretzelB** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:34 am

I haven't tried this yet but one idea I had was to use a spare pci slot cover to mount a fan on. My pci slot covers have holes but you could easily drill a few holes into one. Then take some twist ties, string, or whatever and attach the fan to the bracket. Depending on the card you might have to make the fan stick into the case so I was thinking that either some packing foam or even small blocks of wood could be used as a stand off. I'm sure with some planning you could make something more permanent with glue or bolts. The key was it gives you a fan that can be mounted parallel to your graphics card and blowing right on the gpu.

A concern I had was what size fan to use. I wanted to use a nice quiet 80mm but the dead zone might be bad for this application.

If you try this and it works just be sure to give me credit

Tommy_A · Post by **Tommy_A** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:07 pm

So far what I've changed is to screw an 80mm M1A directly to the heat sink fins on the GPU/RAM heatsink with the fan blowing directly on the HS (the 92mm fans are too big). The self-tapping screws go thru the fan and work their way into the fins of the HS. The fan is about 1/4" (or less) from the HS and seems moderately secure. With this configuration I'm getting the following GPU temperature results:

idling 38 degrees
gaming 51 degrees

with the fan going full speed. This is much, much better (better than stock) and gives me some flexibility with trying an L1A and/or reducing fan speed. This mod is now a success.

kinetik · Post by **kinetik** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:44 pm

Hey Tommy can you post up a picture? I'm curious to see firsthand how much space it all takes up as I've been thinking about doing something similar with my 5600..

..j

Tommy_A · Post by **Tommy_A** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 7:37 pm

Unfortunately I don't have access to a digital camera. The fan is basically mounted right on the heatsink, so it adds the thickness of the fan (probably a little more) to the thickness of the VGA card. It basically prohibits you from using the PCI slot next to the VGA card.