All
Just wanted to let you all know that I have just installed my VGA Silencer on my Powercolor Radeon 9800pro without any issues at all.
The mounting holes lined up just fine. A monkey could install this cooler.
This cooler is beautiful.. the temps in my Sonata, including case, PSU, CPU and NB are down significantly across the board. Prior to installing the VGA Silencer I was running a Zalman Heatpipe with the Zalman fan.. the heatpipes are known to bake the CPU with heat from the base.
THe only odd thing is that the VGA Silencer's duct does not extend right to the back of the plate at the back of the case.. wierd coz I think in the piccies I've seen it does. There is around a 1cm gap between the duct and the rear of the case.
I am running the VGA Silencer at LOW speed (5v).. can't hear it at all. HIGH (12v) is audible.. more akin to a HUM than the movement of air.
Now if only my Seasonic SS 400W would arrive..
T-1000
Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer on a Powercolor 9800pro SUCCESS
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer on a Powercolor 9800pro SUCC
I've noticed that gap in pictures that others have posted - I wonder why they didn't make it extend further. Maybe it's concerns with some style cases or something. I wonder what would work to help duct it that last little bit, without causing some turbulence noise.t1000 wrote:All
THe only odd thing is that the VGA Silencer's duct does not extend right to the back of the plate at the back of the case.. wierd coz I think in the piccies I've seen it does. There is around a 1cm gap between the duct and the rear of the case.
T-1000
I'm still anxiously awaiting the one I ordered darn near a month ago!
Overall, at LOW speed the cooler does not seem to be pushing a low of air out the back of the case. When you bump it to 12v, the air moves nicely (very hot air too .. this GPU bakes) through and out the back of the case.. so I wonder if having the fan on LOW 5v means that the gap is letting some hot air recirculate ..
I'm leaving it on low.
I have a Sonata, so my 120mm exhaust is probably catching any of the stuff that is escaping out the gap anyway. As mentioned in my post, my temps are lower across the board.. so it's still doing a better job than the heatpipe.. gap or no gap.
T1000
I'm leaving it on low.
I have a Sonata, so my 120mm exhaust is probably catching any of the stuff that is escaping out the gap anyway. As mentioned in my post, my temps are lower across the board.. so it's still doing a better job than the heatpipe.. gap or no gap.
T1000
I just wish that the only place in the states that carries it would get it back in stock! Me thinks this company should try to get a few more outlets out here.
When I installed my 9800, my case temps went up 3 degrees minimum. I'd like to get that back, especially considering they went up again when I went from a case with 4 fans to the BQE with one.
Wendell
When I installed my 9800, my case temps went up 3 degrees minimum. I'd like to get that back, especially considering they went up again when I went from a case with 4 fans to the BQE with one.
Wendell
i brought one for my power colour radeon 9600 pro, it didn't fit but i swaped it for a zalman hp80-c + fan bracket zm-op1.
I tryed the zalman on the powercolour 9800pro before the vga silencer.
the zalman was fairly cool with the fan at 12V and at 5V it was warmer still and deffinatly radiating alot more hot air into the case. I colpletely forgot to attach me thermal probe.
Also to me the zalman ZM-OP1 fan ain't silent but i think it qualifies as quiet. Even at 5V was probably the noisiest thing in my computer and most of the audible noise is the HD.
i have to say the vga silenser can get awfualy warm, i measured 50.5°C with a thermal probe attached to the heatsink with the fan set to low. though it gets warmer than the zalman for sure it's still safe temps (real temps more like 60°C) for a graphic card, all the hot air get goes out the exaust ( especialy if you use celotape or any other sutible tape to make sure the exaust extends to the opening) though it will radiate some heat though the platic surounding the heatsink and i could not hear the fan on low ether.
though the zalman runs comfortably without the fan on my 9600pro.
I tryed the zalman on the powercolour 9800pro before the vga silencer.
the zalman was fairly cool with the fan at 12V and at 5V it was warmer still and deffinatly radiating alot more hot air into the case. I colpletely forgot to attach me thermal probe.
Also to me the zalman ZM-OP1 fan ain't silent but i think it qualifies as quiet. Even at 5V was probably the noisiest thing in my computer and most of the audible noise is the HD.
i have to say the vga silenser can get awfualy warm, i measured 50.5°C with a thermal probe attached to the heatsink with the fan set to low. though it gets warmer than the zalman for sure it's still safe temps (real temps more like 60°C) for a graphic card, all the hot air get goes out the exaust ( especialy if you use celotape or any other sutible tape to make sure the exaust extends to the opening) though it will radiate some heat though the platic surounding the heatsink and i could not hear the fan on low ether.
though the zalman runs comfortably without the fan on my 9600pro.
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Ralf Hutter
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ACSVGA.GamingGod wrote:So what does everyone think would be the better cooler for a 9800pro. A zm80c with a 80mm fan, or the ACSVGA?
IMHO, because it vents the hot air outside the case. It most likely will lower your case & CPU temps. This is a good thing.
Now if they would only make one for the AIW.
-Bri
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wumpus
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Can't figure out which thread to put this in, so I'll put it here.
I finally got around to buying the VGA Silencer*, which installed without any problems on my newegg Sapphire 9800 with stock cooler and aftermarket ramsinks -- which has been flashed to 9800 pro bios/speeds.
Other than the aforementioned gap between the exhaust and the slot (mine was a bit over a quarter inch), this product delivers. It's a great performer, extremely quiet on 'high' and virtually inaudible on 'low'. A noticeable improvement over the whiny stock cooler. I know that sounds bad, but this is my gaming rig so it's necessarily a bit noisier than some of my other machines.
I had to tape some tyvek around the exhaust gap because first, I suffer from OCD, and second, I couldn't stand the thought of hot air being radiated back into the case, however unlikely that would be with a measly 1/4" gap. Other than the spacing oversight, this is really an amazingly well designed cooling solution. I can't think of any other solution that not only provides high end video cooling in near-silence, but also ducts the heat directly out of the case. It does eat the first PCI slot under the AGP slot, but I can't even remember the last time I had a legitimate need to use that particular slot on any of my systems..
It's a shame that it doesn't support anything except certain ATI video cards, and oddly enough, the GeForce 3 (?)
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/produc ... ity_en.pdf
Particularly since the current high end nvidia cards get substantially hotter than almost any ATI card.
I did notice one weird side effect. I guess the 9800 pro generates a lot of heat, because I noticed an INCREASE in fully loaded (eg, gaming) case temps with this cooler, with the fan set to "low." Everything was stable enough, but this surprised me. I suspect what was happening is this: the low airflow couldn't duct out the heat fast enough and the huge radiative surface of the cooler ended up dumping the heat back into the case by default. This particular case is watercooled (externally), so it has pretty low airflow. That's probably a factor as well.
Anyway, I switched the VGA silencer fan to "high" and that solved the problem. Not sure if "low" is a realistic setting for gaming conditions on a high end card with this cooler, for what it's worth..
* VGA? 1987 called and they want their marketing terms back. Who uses VGA?
I finally got around to buying the VGA Silencer*, which installed without any problems on my newegg Sapphire 9800 with stock cooler and aftermarket ramsinks -- which has been flashed to 9800 pro bios/speeds.
Other than the aforementioned gap between the exhaust and the slot (mine was a bit over a quarter inch), this product delivers. It's a great performer, extremely quiet on 'high' and virtually inaudible on 'low'. A noticeable improvement over the whiny stock cooler. I know that sounds bad, but this is my gaming rig so it's necessarily a bit noisier than some of my other machines.
I had to tape some tyvek around the exhaust gap because first, I suffer from OCD, and second, I couldn't stand the thought of hot air being radiated back into the case, however unlikely that would be with a measly 1/4" gap. Other than the spacing oversight, this is really an amazingly well designed cooling solution. I can't think of any other solution that not only provides high end video cooling in near-silence, but also ducts the heat directly out of the case. It does eat the first PCI slot under the AGP slot, but I can't even remember the last time I had a legitimate need to use that particular slot on any of my systems..
It's a shame that it doesn't support anything except certain ATI video cards, and oddly enough, the GeForce 3 (?)
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/produc ... ity_en.pdf
Particularly since the current high end nvidia cards get substantially hotter than almost any ATI card.
I did notice one weird side effect. I guess the 9800 pro generates a lot of heat, because I noticed an INCREASE in fully loaded (eg, gaming) case temps with this cooler, with the fan set to "low." Everything was stable enough, but this surprised me. I suspect what was happening is this: the low airflow couldn't duct out the heat fast enough and the huge radiative surface of the cooler ended up dumping the heat back into the case by default. This particular case is watercooled (externally), so it has pretty low airflow. That's probably a factor as well.
Anyway, I switched the VGA silencer fan to "high" and that solved the problem. Not sure if "low" is a realistic setting for gaming conditions on a high end card with this cooler, for what it's worth..
* VGA? 1987 called and they want their marketing terms back. Who uses VGA?
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wumpus
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Hmm. There is this ABIT OTES product, for nVidia fans. Of course most newer nVidia cards are also smart enough to scale up/down their clock speeds based on what they are doing, too..
http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=600
http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=600
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MikeC
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ABIT OTES product...
You can tell from the shape & style of the fan blades that its an ordinary axial fan pressed into service. The blades push the air in the direction of the fan axis, but that path is blocked, and the side path is open to the duct. The air has to turn 90 degrees to go out the duct, which means a lot of it bounces back; back pressure causes audible turbulence noise. I've heard similar looking nVidia cards; they are not quiet.
The AC VGAS fan is different. The blades are shaped more like curved paddles that scoop in the direction of the duct. That's why it has so little turbulence noise. Very low back pressure.
Actually, I have had success plugging the tiny 2-pin 12V connector into a Zalman Fanmate1 and running it off a motherboard header -- at a voltage other than 6V or 12V. The low seems too low sometimes while the high is almost always too high for me, so this is a good option. The pins
Also if you have an AOpen board with SilentTek or use SpeedFan, you could plug directly into a board header and use those to control the AC VGAS fan speed.
It would be nice to see AC come up with a similar product for nVidia, but my suspicion is that it won't happen unless a card maker commissions AC to OEM one for them. I think that is how the VGAS got created in the first place.
You can tell from the shape & style of the fan blades that its an ordinary axial fan pressed into service. The blades push the air in the direction of the fan axis, but that path is blocked, and the side path is open to the duct. The air has to turn 90 degrees to go out the duct, which means a lot of it bounces back; back pressure causes audible turbulence noise. I've heard similar looking nVidia cards; they are not quiet.
The AC VGAS fan is different. The blades are shaped more like curved paddles that scoop in the direction of the duct. That's why it has so little turbulence noise. Very low back pressure.
Actually, I have had success plugging the tiny 2-pin 12V connector into a Zalman Fanmate1 and running it off a motherboard header -- at a voltage other than 6V or 12V. The low seems too low sometimes while the high is almost always too high for me, so this is a good option. The pins
Also if you have an AOpen board with SilentTek or use SpeedFan, you could plug directly into a board header and use those to control the AC VGAS fan speed.
It would be nice to see AC come up with a similar product for nVidia, but my suspicion is that it won't happen unless a card maker commissions AC to OEM one for them. I think that is how the VGAS got created in the first place.
About the gap guys.. if you look at one of these things installed on a geforce3 there is little to no gap. So I would assume that in designing their product to fit on as many cards as possible, AC decided on a length that comes up far short on many of the current gen ATI cards. My answer to the gap question is positive case pressure.
I grabbed one of these along with a shiny new 9800 pro last week, installation was easy although I managed to break it... yeah the little metal rod that is supposed to flex as the screws tighten "alternately up to the rubber washer." I was nowhere near the washers, and one side split near the center. It might have had to do with the pressure I was putting on the screw driver. You know what I'm talking about, when that screw gets hard to turn you have to push down on the driver to keep it from slipping. There is a noticeable slant to the the silencer's mating surface
I'd considered writing AC and asking for a new blue clip, but I wonder how a company in Switzerland would respond to that kind of request. And SVC would likely just want the whole shebang back. Any suggestions?
I grabbed one of these along with a shiny new 9800 pro last week, installation was easy although I managed to break it... yeah the little metal rod that is supposed to flex as the screws tighten "alternately up to the rubber washer." I was nowhere near the washers, and one side split near the center. It might have had to do with the pressure I was putting on the screw driver. You know what I'm talking about, when that screw gets hard to turn you have to push down on the driver to keep it from slipping. There is a noticeable slant to the the silencer's mating surface
I'd considered writing AC and asking for a new blue clip, but I wonder how a company in Switzerland would respond to that kind of request. And SVC would likely just want the whole shebang back. Any suggestions?
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wumpus
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Right, excellent point.The AC VGAS fan is different. The blades are shaped more like curved paddles that scoop in the direction of the duct. That's why it has so little turbulence noise. Very low back pressure.
True, I forgot about that-- this was an OEM card design that got turned into a commercial product. Seems like they should be able to design a more generic form of this-- maybe with a "floating" GPU block that can be attached to the larger cooling plate anywhere that is necessary.It would be nice to see AC come up with a similar product for nVidia, but my suspicion is that it won't happen unless a card maker commissions AC to OEM one for them. I think that is how the VGAS got created in the first place.
There have been a number of similar cooling designs (see ABIT OTES above, and the original much-hated nVidia 5800 "dustbuster") but none as elegant as the vga silencer-- and by that I mean both quiet and efficient
Re: Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer on a Powercolor 9800pro SUCC
what revision vga silencer is it? I got a revision 1 last year and the screw holes did line up with the holes on my Powercolor 9800pro. So I was forced to sell it. However I'm tempted to try again due to the silencer obly being £14 here now hoping it will be a rev 2 I receive. Did the holes line up perfectly? do you have to use a lot of thermal paste? Do you have to be super careful when tightening the screws (is it easy to damage the card)? sorry for the barrage of questions but I really would like to get another one of these on the assumption it will fit this time.t1000 wrote:All
Just wanted to let you all know that I have just installed my VGA Silencer on my Powercolor Radeon 9800pro without any issues at all.
The mounting holes lined up just fine. A monkey could install this cooler.
This cooler is beautiful.. the temps in my Sonata, including case, PSU, CPU and NB are down significantly across the board. Prior to installing the VGA Silencer I was running a Zalman Heatpipe with the Zalman fan.. the heatpipes are known to bake the CPU with heat from the base.
THe only odd thing is that the VGA Silencer's duct does not extend right to the back of the plate at the back of the case.. wierd coz I think in the piccies I've seen it does. There is around a 1cm gap between the duct and the rear of the case.
I am running the VGA Silencer at LOW speed (5v).. can't hear it at all. HIGH (12v) is audible.. more akin to a HUM than the movement of air.
Now if only my Seasonic SS 400W would arrive..
T-1000
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Michael_qrt
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This happened to me as well. I was carefully tightening the screws during installation and I heard a snap. Thinking I may have snapped my card I quickly uninstalled the vga silencer, the card seemed fine and I didn't see that one side of the metal clip was cracked. I started installing it again and I herd another snap. Bothvertical ridges of the metal clip were now broken but the middle bit was still intact. I tightened it down to the washers and played with it a bit to see if it was loose. It seems like the clip was still able to apply enough pressure so I just stuck it in my machine and havn't had any problems so far.Gnerma wrote:
I grabbed one of these along with a shiny new 9800 pro last week, installation was easy although I managed to break it... yeah the little metal rod that is supposed to flex as the screws tighten "alternately up to the rubber washer." I was nowhere near the washers, and one side split near the center. It might have had to do with the pressure I was putting on the screw driver. You know what I'm talking about, when that screw gets hard to turn you have to push down on the driver to keep it from slipping. There is a noticeable slant to the the silencer's mating surface
Just BTW the clip snapped when I was nowhere near up to the washers, so I wonder if there were some dodgy clips or something. I really can't imagine someone being much more careful while installing the thing as I was, I mean the screws were correctly aligned and went in easily without force.
Interestingly when I pulled off the HS after hearing the initial snap it seems that the AC-VGA silencer puts a huge ammount of pressure on the gpu core, I mean almost all of the thermal paste was squished off the core and HS, it was really only present in the imperfections on the HS and core. I think this has a lot to do with the efficiency of the VGA silencer. Good thing the 9800 series has that shim for stabalisation, I'd be a bit nervous on a 9600 pro since the die is small and there isn't a protective shim around the core.
Anyway what experiences have the rest of you had while installing the clip on the AC-VGA silencer? Do you think its safe to leave on with the snapped clip?