Simple VGA cooler?

They make noise, too.

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jensend
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:55 am

Simple VGA cooler?

Post by jensend » Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:37 pm

Some time ago, my PNY NV5700LE's fan (which was the loudest thing in my system by a good bit anyway) started making loads and loads of noise, and so I just unplugged it. Since this card consumes very little power and I haven't done any 3d stuff for a while (too busy), the dinky heatsink which comes with the card has managed to keep things running OK. But I'm thinking it'd be a good idea both safety-wise and for 3d to get this taken care of by replacing fan and heatsink with something better. I'm having a hard time, though, finding something middle-ground between dinky cheap things with fans running at 6000rpm and great huge honking things which are designed for quietly cooling cards which put out a lot more heat than this does. It'd be nice to find something which didn't eliminate use of the next PCI slot, but that's not required. What would people recommend for quietly handling what little heat this card puts out? Can I find anything smaller/lighter than a VF700-AlCu or VF900-Cu to do the job?

Tephras
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Post by Tephras » Sun Dec 09, 2007 11:01 pm

If it fits, a Zalman northbridge cooler and a slow running fan could be an option; I think the power consumption of your card are about the same as the ATI 9600XT - Successfully mounted Zalman Northbridge cooler on vga!
Maybe you don't need to replace the heatsink at all, place a slow running fan blowing on the VGA and see if the temperature is ok during load.

bryan_d
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Post by bryan_d » Sun Dec 09, 2007 11:50 pm

If you have space constraints underneath the video card, then might I suggest either this:

http://www.overstockdealz.com/products.asp?id=VM-101R

or

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/thv1ulvgaco.html

These could run your card passively and still leave you with a working PCI slot below, I believe (not 100% sure on the V1-Ultra, but the Aerocool with the black plate removed would allow the use of the lower PCI slot).

I would personally just aim a fan towards the card to give it some air flow.

bryan d

Krazy Kommando
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Post by Krazy Kommando » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:31 am

id just grab a VF700AlCu for it. they are cheap as chips these days, and even cheaper if you can get one second hand. it will cool your card well enough without even plugging in the fan...

Lawrence Lee
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Post by Lawrence Lee » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:13 am

Accelero S1 might be a better choice. It's fanless and pretty damn affordable.

sheninat0r
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Post by sheninat0r » Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:49 pm

You said it was dirty... getting the dust out and letting the fan throttle itself might work, and it won't cost anything!

jensend
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Post by jensend » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:23 pm

Actually I said dinky i.e. very small, not dirty.

jensend
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:55 am

Post by jensend » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:52 pm

Well, given that the Accelero S2 is inexpensive and despite its colossal size actually weighs less than a lot of other vga cooling solutions, I ended up going the overkill route and getting one. After finals and Christmas and being sick I was finally able to get around to installing it.

I mistakenly touched the preapplied thermal goo a couple of times while installing the HS, messing it up a bit, and I messed around with things a fair bit before I got the clips installed correctly. Because of this, and because the old tiny HS got quite hot with the fan off even under 2d, I worried a little when the heatsink didn't get the slightest bit warm under load that my clumsiness had interfered with the thermal contact. (I can't really tell anything exact about the cooling results because my card doesn't have a thermal sensor.)

However, I needn't have worried. Even with a healthy overclock to 325 MHz there's no artifacting in benchmarks etc- and the heatsink still doesn't get warm at all. Definitely overkill for this low-wattage card.

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