Quietly Cooling a 7800 GT?

kyley · Post by **kyley** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:01 am

What are the best methods (although there's only 1 I'm aware of so far) for cooling a 7800 GT while not taking up the PCI slot below it? I found a waterblock from Koolance that wouldn't take up the slot, but I'm not sure if I want to go with water cooling or not... Are there any quiet single-slot coolers available yet?

Has anyone seen fan wire adapters that would allow me to plug the GPU fan into a fan controller (3 pin motherboard connector) so I can adjust the fan speed)? I can't find such a beast anywhere... Any other ideas? TIA,
--Kyle

Dr.CrackEnHore · Post by **Dr.CrackEnHore** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:45 pm

Zalman VF700-CU is the simplest way but it will be very tight if you want to put another card right below it. I run a 7800GT with the fan at 5V and it is very quiet. Temps are around 50C after a long run of gaming.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:54 pm

Another option is the Arctic Cooling Silencer Nvidia 5 Rev 3.

It's currently debatable as to whether it's better than the Zalman or not, but 1 plus is that it vents the hot air outside the case.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:43 pm

any consolation for the 7800GT is that it really isnt a heat beast.
the gtx gets out of hand.

I would put big copper sinks on the ram for that boy. the ram is going very fast.

just suggestions.

artic silencer idea the guy had is what I would try myself. exhausting case heat is for me, the most important spcr aspect.

i reserator my gpu though nowadays. solves the problems.

kyley · Post by **kyley** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:51 pm

thanks for the suggestions guys. Unfortunately, I think all those would take up the PCI slot. I might have to watercool with that low profile Koolance block. TTYL,
--Kyle

iatacs19 · Post by **iatacs19** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:42 pm

give rivatuner a try. you can adjust the fan speed to make it quieter while using 2D mode and specify faster fan speed in 3D mode.

it is $0.00/FREE which is much cheaper than replacing the HSF.

kyley · Post by **kyley** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:53 pm

Yeah, unfortunately, I've now read about this issue on the XFX forums (as well as the eVGA forums), and many people are having the same issue - the fan running at full speed all the time when it isn't supposed to. For most that are having the issue, RivaTuner isn't working either to allow them to control the fan speed.

Hopefully some BIOS revisions will fix the issues, but not everyone has the issue...
--Kyle

rei · Post by **rei** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 6:10 pm

I'm going to go with an eVGA 7800GT. Their lifetime warranty allows me to swap the cooler

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:52 am

Be careful about which exact model you get. Some only come with the 1+1 cooler.

warriorpoet · Post by **warriorpoet** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:32 am

rei wrote:I'm going to go with an eVGA 7800GT. Their lifetime warranty allows me to swap the cooler

This one? If so, let me knowhow you like it. That's the one I'm considering.

rei · Post by **rei** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:23 am

http://www.evga.com/community/messagebo ... IC_ID=8251

http://www.evga.com/community/messagebo ... IC_ID=8723

i can't find the exact post but ewong, evga rep posted that the cooler swap could be done, with my aforementioned provisos.

rei · Post by **rei** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:23 am

here:
http://www.evga.com/community/messagebo ... IC_ID=8893

all the 7 series are lifetime.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:13 pm

Are you sure?

I thought only the 'retail' versions were (ones which end with AX in their model number or something).

I happened to get a 7800GT which didn't have the AX or anything at the end of it...

" * Lifetime Warranty is for all retail Graphics Card and Mainboard products ending in the part numbers AX, DX, or FX"

I think my one was '256-P2-N515'.

rei · Post by **rei** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:41 am

oh yours is 1+1 then, i can only buy retail ones locally.

rei · Post by **rei** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:44 am

i think the 7800 ones became retroactive...

http://www.evga.com/community/messagebo ... IC_ID=8251

they say 'all 7xxx' end in -ax

i'll look for the retroactive post somewhere.

rei · Post by **rei** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:45 am

http://www.evga.com/Community/messagebo ... IC_ID=7573

did you buy an oem board?

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 4:00 am

I bought it from Zipzoomfly for $340 2 weeks ago, so I don't think it was OEM.

I asked here:

http://www.evga.com/community/messagebo ... IC_ID=8893

So it looks like they retroactively added the 'AX' suffix to the end, but I haven't got the card yet (I'm in Australia, and had it devlivered to parent's friends place, and they're still overseas for 1 more week).

rei · Post by **rei** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:42 pm

my 7800gt is noisy as hell, can't wait to put a zalman on it.

rei · Post by **rei** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:20 pm

using rivatuner to throttle speeds to 25% in 3d use keep temps around 60-70 still, and it's quite bearable. i may not even put on the zalman i bought today.

raregems · Post by **raregems** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:17 pm

I just bought the new 7800 compat nv silencer adn the default fanspeed is really loud. I just hooked it up to my t-balancer which uses pwm and it makes a nasty ticking sound. not happy, especially as i bought it to replace a zalman, only positive i can see it that the fan is exactly positioned for southbridge cooling.

So either i have to use some software to control the speed through the card or i've still got a non pwm speed controller that will hopefully work..

g.

raregems · Post by **raregems** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:37 am

i set my resistor non pwm based voltage control to the lowest setting and the fan is still the loudest item with the case open. It's inaudible with the side on. going to try the build in gpu conrol now. Fan noise is an odd sound, not smooth like a nexus

or the zalman which could become dead silent on a low pwm voltage from the t-balancer

raregems · Post by **raregems** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:38 am

i set my resistor non pwm based voltage control to the lowest setting and the fan is still the loudest item with the case open. It's inaudible with the side on. going to try the build in gpu conrol now. Fan noise is an odd sound, not smooth like a nexus

or the zalman which could become dead silent on a low pwm voltage from the t-balancer

raregems · Post by **raregems** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:24 pm

well i can certify that even at 25% in rivatuner the fan is still audible in a sound cladded p180.

yacoub · Post by **yacoub** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:34 am

Having had bad experience trying to install aftermarket cooling on a GPU before, I steer clear of Doing It Myself. I just wish Asus would hurry up with the passively-cooled GPU they displayed at an Asian hardware convention. I am hoping it will turn out to be a 7800GT.

I think right now I will just go for the Sapphire X800XL Ultimate edition with the larger Zalman cooler that comes installed on it stock.

Quietly Cooling a 7800 GT?

Quietly Cooling a 7800 GT?

oh dear