Radeon 9600: ultimate SilentPC video card?

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:39 am

The 9600 should be fine with the ZM50-HP if weight is your concern. I've had a ZM80 and I move my computer around a bit without a problem, but from looking at the SFF tech forums, there are quite a few people who get by with a 50-HP on their 9600XTs without any issues.

Blito · Post by **Blito** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:42 pm

So... a stock P4 or Athlon hs, fanless, would be more than enought to keep a 9600p cool, even if it was slightly oc'ed?

In any case, I don't think the stock 60mm fan at 5v would make much noise...

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:57 pm

Well the stock fan is only 40mm, but any 60mm fan is easy enough to attach to the stock sink.

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:58 pm

A 486 heatsink is more than enough to keep a 9600p cool even with minimal airflow.

I use these Zalman ZM17-CUs on mine, with arctic alumina adhesive

Even with the ZM17-Cu the heatsink really doesn't get hot when looping 3dMark2001, on the vanilla or the pro. I'm serious! Warm, yes, but not hot.

swivelguy2 · Post by **swivelguy2** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:26 pm

Thanks for the answers everybody - i'm getting a good idea of how much (or how little!) cooling the 9600p needs.

I'm going to try slapping the Zalman NB heatsink on it this weekend and see how it does. Sounds like it's not been done before, and I'm as good a guinea pig as any.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:21 pm

swivelguy2 wrote:I'm going to try slapping the Zalman NB heatsink on it this weekend and see how it does. Sounds like it's not been done before, and I'm as good a guinea pig as any.

I've heard of it done, but I don't remember on what cards (but with only the older orange one). My biggest concern about the zalman NB sinks would be if they cover the whole chip, though I think think they are also just too small. I though something like this http://www.siliconacoustics.com/aavidpassive.html on a video card would be a good idea, but that's a CPU heatsink, and the mounting holes on northbridge coolers sound really convenient (they do work for most cards, right?). I'd like to try or see the biggest passive passive northbridge heatsink available on a video card, like something that's at least 80g with a full 4cmx4cm base.

swivelguy2 · Post by **swivelguy2** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:53 am

mathias wrote:I'd like to try or see the biggest passive passive northbridge heatsink available on a video card, like something that's at least 80g with a full 4cmx4cm base.

I completely agree - enlarge an NB47-J a bit, and replace aluminum with copper until you reach about 120g, and I'd be a happy camper.

The base of the 47-J is 37mmx37mm, so it's pretty close to 4cm (where did you get that figure, by the way?).

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:19 am

swivelguy2 wrote: I completely agree - enlarge an NB47-J a bit, and replace aluminum with copper until you reach about 120g, and I'd be a happy camper.

Actually, if the NB-47 was made of copper, it would weigh 180g just the way it is. A copper NB32 would be 120g. Unless you mean replacing some aluminum with copper. Then again, at 120g, that's equal to a CNPS2005 zalman flower, though I don't think you can even drill mounting holes in one of those, if you could find one. The NB32 is 32mm tall, is that a one slot solution?

swivelguy2 wrote:The base of the 47-J is 37mmx37mm, so it's pretty close to 4cm (where did you get that figure, by the way?).

I measured the NB heatsink on my A7N8X.

Post by **Rusty075** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:27 am

Something like this may be what you're looking for:

It's 50x50x40mm, and is only $1.25 at allelectronics.com

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:11 am

I assume you guys are OK with taking up two plus PCI slots under the video card? Otherwise, I'd go with something flat, one of the low-end Zalman coolers like the Zalman ZM17-Cu, or ZM50-hp

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... 4&code=013

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... 4&code=013

Either one of those will be MORE than enough to cool any 9600: vanilla, pro, or xt. As I've said many times before, even a 486 low profile heatsink will do fine. Just don't run the GPU bare

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:51 am

wumpus wrote:I assume you guys are OK with taking up two plus PCI slots under the video card?

I'll be commandeering three PCi slots soon, but like I said, I think the NB32 would take up only one extra slot. And if not, you can give it a little haircut.

wumpus wrote:Either one of those will be MORE than enough to cool any 9600: vanilla, pro, or xt. As I've said many times before, even a 486 low profile heatsink will do fine. Just don't run the GPU bare

I think you're pushing it. Especially with the XT. What exactly does a 486 heatsink look like anyway? To the best of my knowledge, it's just a 4x4x1 cm heatsink with a 4x4x1 fan.

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:39 am

Yeah, for the XT, you probably would want one of the zalman solutions. But based on my experiences with the vanilla and pro 9600s that I own, I feel 100% confident recommending a 486-class heatsink for those particular models.

Schroinx · Post by **Schroinx** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 1:26 am

A P133 heatsink is fine for the 9600XT. I have done it, and there haven't been any problems so far. If pcislots is a concern try finding a heatsink for a P Pro for 1U servers. They are about 2 centimeters high, and therefore should only render one pci slot useless, I would think.

swivelguy2 · Post by **swivelguy2** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 9:08 am

I'm going ahead with my plan to stick a ZM-NB47J on my vanilla 9600 pro.

After pulling the stock HSF off of the card, I was surprised to find how puny this thing is. The heatisnk is a single metal plate, with 1 row of pins going around its perimeter. The fan is truly tiny, and the whole thing was a dust colony after 6 months in my case.

This gives me strong expectations for how the northbridge heatsink will do on the card. I'm going to have an 80mm L1A@5v blowing directly at it from about 2 inches away, through a DIY setup similar to Bluefront's cookie jar or birdcage mods. PCI slots are not an issue for me, as i'm currently using 0/5.

I'll have my whole system back together in a couple of days (right now I'm on my puny linux folding box), and I should have some pictures and results to post.

Owen1978 · Post by **Owen1978** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:27 am

Interesting topic, as im looking for a card for my SFF, its going to have minimal airflow.

So which do i get 9600 or 9600 XT Ultimate, i want the best graphics available with the least heat produced. i.e how much hotter does the XT Ultimate get?

EDIT
re-read the thread made my mind up that the XT Ultimate is not worth it when you can overclock the 9600 to pro level with next to no level in heat increase!

Great thread

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:07 am

heh, i've got one of these on sale right now actually (Radeon 9600 pro). It'd probably be very easy to slap on a huge ass heatsink and run it passive. Auction is here (Note to mods: I'm not sure if this is allowed, please say so if it isnt!).

That card ran about 35C with the fan on its lowest setting but it was by no means quiet.

toNka · Post by **toNka** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:25 pm

My 9600 AIW comes passive stock and the sink doesn't waste any pci slots.
I have over clocked it to pro speeds just fine.
XT speeds brought artifacts.
But I have a very low air flow case and the sink is really tiny.
A Zalman heatpipe sink would easily cool any 9600.