Cooling a Radeon 9800XT

Toth · Post by **Toth** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:04 pm

What's the best quiet way to cool a Radeon 9800XT? The ZM-80HPC with the ZM-OP1 fan? I'm going to see how loud the stock fan is before I try anything, but I have a feeling it will be loud enough to try something quieter.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 5:42 pm

The stock fan will most likely be very very loud. My 9800 pro fan is by far the loudest component in my system. Also I had trouble keeping my zm80c cool with a 80mm fan on the first attempt, so I sent away for a replacment but havent tried it again yet. Also there is the Arctic Cooling vga silencer, but aparently it doesnt fit on the XT series, but a new one is in the works that does. Also ive heard of people buying dynatron low profile cpu heatsinks and drilling holes in them and mounting them on video cards.

Toth · Post by **Toth** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 3:52 am

I was planning on the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer when I was looking at the 9800 Pro but since it doesn't fit, that's kind of out. If you had problems keeping a 9800 Pro cool with the Zalman solution with a fan then I don't imagine it'll be a good solution for the 9800XT. Looks like I'll have to deal with the stock fan for a few months and then hopefully Arctic Cooling can come through with a new version to fit the XT, or something else that becomes available.

Anybody else who knows of other alternatives, definitely let me know.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:20 am

Like I said, Ive seen pictures on the internet of a copper low profile dynatron cpu heatsink that was drilled to fit on a video card. This was a overclocker, but maybe the fan could be undervolted and work just as well? I could find the site if you want it.

Toth · Post by **Toth** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 10:27 am

Sure, a link would be cool. I'd like to avoid doing anything exotic, but if it looks simple enough I'll definitely consider it

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 11:42 am

http://sid.nrgservers.net/9700mod/ Looks like all he really did was drill a couple of holes through the copper. If you do something like this id love to hear how it turns out. I would like to do it myself just to experiment but im really short on cash now.

engseng · Post by **engseng** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 8:01 pm

GamingGod, what brand is your 9800XT? Have you guys seen the Asus card, the one with two fans? Man, that one makes noise.

Toth · Post by **Toth** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:13 am

engseng wrote:GamingGod, what brand is your 9800XT? Have you guys seen the Asus card, the one with two fans? Man, that one makes noise.

I was actually considering the Asus because you can set it to spin down the fans when it is idle. It looks like it has two 60mm fans so even if they were spun down I think it would be far too loud.

I think I'll deal with the ATI reference card (or the Sapphire) with a larger single loud fan and grab an ACVGAS when they are available for the 9800XT.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:32 pm

I have a 9800pro, see above. I can only imagine how much heat a XT puts out, my pro is a little toaster oven