Passive Cooling - Small Space betw AGP Slot and Northbridge

[the_bruce_dickinson]

I would like to passively cool my ATI FireGL X1 128MB AGP card (akin to a 9700 Pro), but my motherboard (ASRock 775i65GV) leaves only a small space between the card and the northbridge heatsink (about 14mm). Here's what the motherboard situation looks like (apologies if these images load slowly):

http://www.overclockzone.com/t_u_m/8-04 ... %20054.jpg

http://www.overclockzone.com/t_u_m/8-04 ... %20051.jpg

http://www.overclockzone.com/t_u_m/8-04 ... %20009.jpg

The heatpipe cooling options that sandwich the card with heatsinks require more room on the back of the card than the 14mm my motherboard allows.

I do not game at all. The most involved video task I do is to occasionally watch movies. Does anyone know of a heatsink that would passively cool my card without my having to cut into my northbridge heatsink? Or perhaps there's another, easier way to mod the northbridge heatsink to allow the space? I've looked a bit into replacing the northbridge heatsink, but can't seem to find anything that will provide the clearance. I'm trying really hard to avoid any solution with a fan.

Thanks in advance--and thanks to the whole SilentPCReview community for teaching me a lot in the past couple of months.

[sjoukew]

Why do you have a separate vga card in the first place.
According to the asrock website the motherboard as onboard vga, which is good enough for watching movies and not gaming.
The port in question is an AGI port (NOT AGP) according to the sticker.
this means that the AGP card installed will work in PCI modus. The ATI 9700 is not compatible with it according to wikipedia.

So there is 1 thing I don't understand, why the ATI card if you have an onboard graphics solution that also works for you?
And second, why try to put an probably incompatible ATI card in and AGI port? This solution will if it will work at all probably be slower than the onboard solution anyway.

[the_bruce_dickinson]

Thanks for the reply, sjoukew. To respond to your questions: 1) I'm using an AGP card to get DVI output; and, 2) the card does in fact work in my motherboard. I just want it to work silently.

[sjoukew]

That are both goood reasons Cool that it works
What about an ati silencer
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=36
If your card has a default pcb, then this should fit. It isn't silent, but it isn't a screaming small fan either So if low noise it enough this would do the trick I think.

[TedMC]

If you have room underneath your agp card,you can use a Thermalright HR-03 Rev-A. (Make sure you also get the Thermalright HR-03 REV-A Six Hole Mounting Adaptor Kit HR-03-IX-HOLE-ADAPTORwhich should be part of the Rev-A kit) The HR-03 REV-A can be mounted with the heatsink on the underside of the card and will cool a 9700 class card easily.
Unless your card is configured significantly differentl from a 9700 PRO this passive/active heat pipe cooler should fit even though your model is not listed on the current compatibility list.

http://www.thermalright.com/product_default.htm

[miahallen]

Or perhaps there's another, easier way to mod the northbridge heatsink to allow the space? I've looked a bit into replacing the northbridge heatsink, but can't seem to find anything that will provide the clearance.

Try this:
Purchase the Thermalright HR-05-SLI and angle it towards the RAM slots, should allow clearance for both the HR-03 GPU cooler, and whatever CPU cooler you are using. Good luck!

[the_bruce_dickinson]

TedMC -- Thanks for the tip on the HR-03 Rev A. It looks like a good option.

miahallen--The HR-05-SLI could do the job, esp. given its low price and the fact that I already have a sandwich-style VGA cooler. In some limited searching, I wasn't able to definitively determine that it works on NB set-ups like mine that use hooks. Do you happen to know? Thanks for the suggestion.

[Tephras]

The heatpipe cooling options that sandwich the card with heatsinks require more room on the back of the card than the 14mm my motherboard allows.

The northbridge heatsink does not necessarily have to be a problem. The heatsink on my VGA cooler is not as wide as the video card itself, so even though I have a northbridge HS that is 47mm in height and is positioned quite close to the AGP slot, the two heatsinks does not interfere with each other. Another example is the ZM80 coolers from Zalman, as long as the northbridge heatsink is 25mm or less in height, they will fit even though there's only 5.5mm between the northbridge and the AGP slot.

[vortex222]

the HP80 on my 9700Pro worked flawlessly with any mainboard i installed it into with lots of room to spare. The backside heatsink hangs well above the mainboard so it pretty much can clear anything there.

I was never able to run it fully passive however so i got an old Cardslot bracket and bent it to hold an 80 mm fan at 5v perpindicular to the video card, and it also cooled the nortbridge cooler at the same time.

[the_bruce_dickinson]

Thanks for the suggestions and info, Tephras and vortex222. My northbridge heatsink is pretty tall. So I've settled on a sandwich-style heatsink and have over-rotated the heatpipe away from the motherboard so that there's clearance over the NB. The backside plate isn't anchored onto the card (it just sort of rests there on top of a plastic spacer I wired in), but it's working well enough.

Thanks to all for your help.