Help!! My All-In-Wonder 9800 is too loud!

RCG · Post by **RCG** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 7:05 pm

I have an All-In-Wonder Pro that I desperately need to silence and the Zalman VGA cooler won't work (it is overheating *and* doesn't fit anyway).

I am using a specific desktop-style case and the card almost touches the top of the case... the height added by the Zalman prevents it from fitting.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Should I just rip off the fan and put a quiet 60mm fan on the existing heatsink?

Please help!

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 7:56 pm

lol your screwed. No really though, i have a similar problem. My 9800pro *not aiw* has a crappy little heatsink on it that im pretty sure is dying, its horribly offbalance. I tried the 9800pro on it but the card was overheating with it, even with a 80 fan at 12v. You might want to check out the new arctic cooling vga cooler that mike previewed on the front page when it becomes more widely available. I have heard of someone modding a slimline cpu cooler to use a gpu heatsink and claimed that it worked quite well.

gbass01 · Post by **gbass01** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 9:45 pm

Ignoring the case issue, does the Zalman HS fit the card, or does the TV tuner get in the way? I'm want to buy the new 9600 AIW which seems to have very similar dimensions.

With regards to the case, do you think you can trim off the offending edge of the Zalman with a Dremel tool?

As far as overheating, my understanding is that an actively cooled properly installed Zalman should not overheat.

RCG · Post by **RCG** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 10:36 pm

The Zalman does fit the card... and the case problem is mostly a heat issue (the heat has no where to rise and I can't put the optional fan on top as they recommend). The Zalman cooler did spread the heat evenly... but it got way too hot to even touch AND THAT WAS WITH NO 3D but just sitting at the windows screen. It would reboot every 5-10 minutes.

The arctic cooling solution doesn't look like it will work because of the face-plate replacement. It looks like it clears the tuner, but they replace the metal faceplate with one that works for the non-AIW version, but not the AIW.

I've given up passive cooling... now I just want quiet(er) active cooling. My guess is the Zalman product would work great in a normal mid-tower.

I have a free almost completely brand-new Zalman VGA cooler for anyone who can help me fix my problem!

Please help.

Fabool · Post by **Fabool** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 6:33 am

You can remove the faceplate on the Arctic-cooling VGA silencer for cards that don't have the normal backplate layout. It just leaves the small switch hanging loose but you can stash that somewhere easily.

I don't know if it clears the tuner since I don't have the card but I shot an e-mail to Arctic-cooling about it and I'm waiting for the reply. Hopefully it will fit and I can buy myself a nice AIW 9700pro with this cooler for my future desktop case

gbass01 · Post by **gbass01** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 1:45 pm

Good to hear that the Zalman clears the tuner. I too have e-mailed Arctic Cooling asking them whether their cooler would clear it as well. How much heat does the tuner generate? I wonder how much of it would the Zalman trap in the gap between it and the tuner?

MGP · Post by **MGP** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 1:47 pm

It should also be made clear that Zalman does not recommend using the heatpipe gpu coolers unless in a tower system (so desktop form factor isn't recommended, probably because of less efficient heat dissapation).

sbabb · Post by **sbabb** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 2:10 pm

I'm not sure there's such a thing as a quiet 60mm fan that will go on the stock AIW9800Pro heatsink. That is a little screamer, isn't it?

Is there any way you can position a larger fan inside the case to blow across the AIW card and take the adjacent PCI backplate out on the GPU side of the card to give the air a way out of the case? You may also want to consider adding heatsinks onto the VRAM chips. I've noticed that they get pretty warm. Can you use just the GPU side of that huge Zalman sink without the heat pipes and have a fan blowing across it like above?

I'll eventually be cooling my AIW with plumbing, but I'm putting up with the screaming fan for the moment.

Scott