Is AeroCool VM-101 sufficient for GeForce 6600GT?

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:07 am

Quick question. Will the fanless AeroCool VM-101 work on a MSI NX6600GT-TD128E GeForce 6600GT? Last time I checked, someone said they weren't successful with heat problems on a 6600GT. Can anyone confirm? I just got a new 6600GT and I want to use my now spare VM-101 for passive cooling.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:28 am

Hello:

I'm guessing that it would totally depend on the case, the air flow, and the other components in the case; mainly the CPU. So, no matter what someone else has done, you'll need to try it for yourself!

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:09 am

oh. The system is in my sig .. right now i'm using it with a 6600 ...

I also have an Antec Phantom 500 power supply on backorder .. so when it arrives I'll be upgrading to that (hopefully more reliable than the 350 ones

)

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:19 am

Hi, have you read this user review

Seb

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:56 am

yeah, I read it several months ago, which is partly where I heard of compatibility problems with crashing and such. I read it again just now, and I'm still not sure because some people say it might do some long term damage from heat problems (which I know is very possible where problems don't show up until several months later). On that thread they say it's more effective than the Zalman including 2 german reviews, but then on another thread here it says some site reviewed a bunch and found the Zalman to be slightly better than the VM-101. So I'm now all confused.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:57 am

Also the reviewer Edward mentioned there's no temp reading in the drivers. Is that the nVidia drivers or MSI drivers? What about latest revisions of these drivers? Do they show the temp? (or maybe the card just doesn't have temp sensors?)

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:39 pm

It's not the drivers, as I tried several different MSi and nVIDIA versions; it has to do with the temp reading being locked in the BIOS.

I've since switched to a different card that came from the factory passive.

-Ed

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:17 pm

hmmm .. i got my card at a pretty good deal which is why I guess I'm stuck with it. Well, unless I sell it and get the fanless Gigabyte.

So should I install it anyway? What I'm worried about most is long time heat damage (which I've experienced before). I imagine it'll probably be fine for at least the first couple of days. What about the newer VM-102? Is that guaranteed to work on the 6600GT?

f1sh · Post by **f1sh** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:58 pm

I bought a VM-101 last week for my 9800 Pro 256mb reflashed>9800XT (hot, hot) and it's been running fine since. I hadn't heard anything about long-term damage before

but as of now, it's holding up fine. I have little 80mm fan blowing at it at 5v (silent) and at most, it's warm to the touch (my card doesn't have a temperature sensor unforunately).

My system:
Fortron Source Aurora PSU (120mm)
Maxtor 120GB hard drive
Pioneer DVDRW
Thermaltake XP90
and that single, lonely case fan running at 5V

All my fans are running at 5v.
Speedfan temps Idle:
36
29
11
30
36

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:52 pm

I've installed the VM-101 on my new MSI NX6600GT-TD128E today. So far so good, no lock ups.

And to my surprise, the latest drivers do have temp readings! Check it out and see for yourself!

The idle temps are 44C GPU, 43C Ambient, and after a few tests in 3DMark05 it reads 62C and 57C. Are those temps okay? Can anyone tell me what the stock temps are suppose to be? (forgot to check before installing the VM-101 .. removed the stock fan without thinking twice)

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:03 pm

TD128 has temps; VTD128 does not; it's the VIVO card. It's supposedly something that can be enabled with a BIOS flash but stince I'm not even using that card anymore, I'm in no mood to fudge with it.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:37 pm

oh, that's strange. That would explain it. Strange that a more expensive model would be missing such a useful feature like temp readings.

Looks like my temps are pretty good!!! Just did a google and it seems to be even better than the fanless Gigabyte versions with the stock built-in heatpipes.