VGA Cooling in a Shuttle.

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:09 am

I just bought a Sapphire x1550 to replace onboard graphics in my Shuttle.

The fan runs full speed and is by far the noisiest thing in the box. I don't believe I have any fan control or temp indication with this card.
No room for an aftermarket cooling solution that I can find.

I have room for a 80mmx15mm Zalman fan if I hang it from the case frame. It would sit right in front of existing VGA fan, just mm's from heatsink.

If I leave the heat sink on and remove factory fan, I would be able to control fan speed using XPC Tools using my spare fan header.

I do no gaming, just bought card for AVIVO and Vista (maybe).

Anyone see any problems, or have a better suggestion?
Thanks

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:23 am

Welcome to SPCR!

Can you post some pictures of the card and/or the case -- it would help folks get some ideas, maybe. Are there any mounting holes through the card? Have you done anything to improve the case temps (like cut out the fan grills)?

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:50 pm

I have to figure out the best way to post photos. My best bet is Yahoo Photos I guess, unless there is a better way.

May not need it though. I shouldn't be doing my thinking in the middle of the night. The 20 cm of clearance to the case that I thought I had is with the heat sink off. duh. With the heatsink on, I only have 6 cm, so my grand plan will not work!
Factory fan is 60 cm, If I can find a 3 pin replacement VGA fan i can control it from my spare fan header, but I can only find 2pin fans that look like they will work.
It appears as though heat sink is attached through 4 holes that go all the way thru card at ~60 cm apart in a square pattern.

I currently have modded the ICE Fan by moving outside the Ice unit to cure dead spot of airflow at center of fan, and also replaced it with a quieter Zalman ZM-F1. The stamped metal guard on case has been removed as well.

Prior to card going in (using onboard video), my idle temps were:
NB 34C
CPU 47C
System (I guess box temp?) 34C

After card installed:
NB--CPU--System--ICE Fan
Startup: 34--39--34--1800 rpm
Idle after
15 minutes: 42--49--43--1920 rpm
Video render
w/100% CPU: 43--51--43--2200 rpm

Full load doesn't seem to affect temps too much, and like I said no games.

So back to square one. I shall try and post a picure in new post below.

Jeremy

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:51 pm

Several edits later...

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kirsch92/ ... pg&.src=ph

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:09 am

It looks like 2 problems to me,
1 a noisy fan.
2 no airflow, so the card is using it's own already heated air to cool itself, causing even more noise, if there is some fan control.
Unfortunately, I haven't got a clue how to solve it in this tiny space

mike961734 · Post by **mike961734** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:00 am

man those are some cramped quarters your dealing with there. plain and simple, maybe a drill a vent hole over the position of the fan for fresh incoming air and a duct around the card to stop the hot air from making its way back into your system. You also could use a small lateral/crossflow fan such as silverstones fx121 (if it will fit) to move more air over the card or possibly just out of your system.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/ ... _spec.html
lateral fan link ^

i know lateral fans are usually loud at high rpm's but if you kep them slow they stay fairly quiet.

cyberspyder · Post by **cyberspyder** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:59 pm

Zalman HAD a one slot cooler called the VF-100, but apparently, it's destined for OEm only. HOWEVER, I found one of these OEMs---Sigmacom. Bad news is that there's literally no way of getting it in NA---get someone from Korea to ship you one (BTW, it's bundled with a card).

http://www.sigmacom.co.kr/m1/m1_view.htm?no=176

Brendan

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:59 pm

The card seems to be remaining cool, but it is throwing all the heat into the case. Slowing the fan down should be ok, but i have to find (or make) an extension for the existing fan. I can only seem to find 3 pin fan cables and connectors. I know I could splice one on if i had too.
A new 3 pin vga fan would be nice if I could locate one, that way I would get rpm feedback.

The fan spins counter-clockwise when looking at the card, so it is moving air from center of card out toward edges of heat sink rather than drawing it in and spitting it out at center. If it were running the other direction, I wouldn't be opposed to porting a hole in the side of the case and exhausing out the side, to prevent this added heat going into the box and across the ICE unit. The problem with that is the box is on desk and the hole would be pointing right at me and I would lose any noise gains I may have made.
I know some of the higher end cards have speed control on their fans, but I can't find any replacment 3 pin vga fans, unless they have a large heatsink with them.
Design airflow draws air in along the bottom of the case on both sides and is pulled thru the ICE unit and out. If I draw air in using the VGA fan I think I might ruin my flow across the MB and would then need another exhaust fan to compensate. More fans, more holes, such a slippery slope.
Perhaps my expectations are too high. This may be why I haven't found any solutions on any forums yet. No one had created one yet.
Mike, thanks for the lateral fan link, but it is too big.

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:01 pm

cyberspider,
that would be perfect with a 3 wire connection.
BTW how to i get a picture posted in the thread rather than using links?
Thanks

cyberspyder · Post by **cyberspyder** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:03 pm

kirsch92 wrote:cyberspider,
that is exactly what i need.
by the way how to i get a picture posted in the thread rather than using links?

Highlight your image link, and then click the 'Img*' button. It should look like the example below:

[img]yourimagelinkhere[/img]

dragmor · Post by **dragmor** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:08 pm

I'm using ATI tool to change the fan speed for my 6600GT in a Shuttle. I set the 2D to 50% and 3d to 100%. It makes a big difference.

kirsch92 · Post by **kirsch92** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:00 am

From what I have read about this card, I was under the impression that it had no fan control or temp monitoring, so I was reluctant to install ATITool with XPCTools and Catalyst also installed. I thought with so many different ways to control the card I would be asking for a BSOD.

Installed anyway, and lo and behold my fan was already running at half speed, and it does have temperature monitoring. I was able to bump it down to 30% without any temperature problems. Any lower and I got some annoying bearing noise. Fan sounds like a jet at 100%, guess I shouldn't complain.

Since the fan is only a two wire I had assumed no speed feedback. How does ATITool get that info?

My only hope may be acoustic dampening of the case and finding a way to move the VGA heat out of the box before it hits the ICE unit. This may have become an issue for the SFF forum rather than VGA.

cyberspider: Couldn't get the picture link to work. I turned on HTML thinking that was it, but it still shows it as off. Admin has to allow that I guess.

Thanks for all the help.

cyberspyder · Post by **cyberspyder** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:41 am

kirsch92 wrote:From what I have read about this card, I was under the impression that it had no fan control or temp monitoring, so I was reluctant to install ATITool with XPCTools and Catalyst also installed. I thought with so many different ways to control the card I would be asking for a BSOD.

Installed anyway, and lo and behold my fan was already running at half speed, and it does have temperature monitoring. I was able to bump it down to 30% without any temperature problems. Any lower and I got some annoying bearing noise. Fan sounds like a jet at 100%, guess I shouldn't complain.

Since the fan is only a two wire I had assumed no speed feedback. How does ATITool get that info?

My only hope may be acoustic dampening of the case and finding a way to move the VGA heat out of the box before it hits the ICE unit. This may have become an issue for the SFF forum rather than VGA.

cyberspider: Couldn't get the picture link to work. I turned on HTML thinking that was it, but it still shows it as off. Admin has to allow that I guess.

Thanks for all the help.

You got to host the picture first, using Imageshack, then get the linking code to post it here

VGA Cooling in a Shuttle.

VGA Cooling in a Shuttle.

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too bad its OEM only

Re: too bad