Cost-effective 7600GT cooling?

furymouse · Post by **furymouse** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:37 pm

The tiny fan on this card likes to spin up alot (65% fan speed). At idle (31%), the racket is bearable and the temperature is at 55Â°C. I was thinking of applying some type of passive cooling (e.g. small heatsink /w fairly large, slow-spinning fan loosely attached or directed at the card) - problem is I don't know what fits or whether it'd end up being economical to go ahead with this mod. My intention is to stretch this card as far as possible until the GT300s are within reach.

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:59 pm

How much are you willing to spend? The arctic colling accelero S2 is likely the best passive heatsink you can buy for older and lower-end graphics cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835186017

furymouse · Post by **furymouse** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 11:00 am

Not more than ~$20 sounds like a good number. However, because I'd like to ensure that temperatures with this silent cooling solution remain the same/improved, I'd also like to compare the Accelero S1 Rev 2 with its extra two heat pipes + $13.42 (difference + tax + UPS 3 Day). Do the extra heat pipes justify the cost?

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:30 am

If you're that paranoid about temperatures then spring for the S1. That should definitely be enough to cool your card "passively". I use quotes because I firmly believe that even with the Accelero(s), you should make sure air is flowing over the fins at least. It doesn't need a fan strapped to it, but you can't just shove it into the bottom corner of your case with a nest of IDE/sata/molex cables forming a wall around it.

If it were me making the decision though, I would probably just get the S2. I've run an ATi X850XT Platinum using the S2 in passive mode just fine for almost a year. Then again I'm not that concerned with temps. As long as the card stays "cool enough" and I don't see artifacts on screen when at load, then it's good enough for me.

furymouse · Post by **furymouse** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:11 pm

I only have one 12cm intake case fan which is located at the bottom front of my full-size tower and one 12cm exhaust fan. The intake airflow is pretty much only going towards the hard drives, which are right in front of the intake. That's the main reason I was wondering if the extra cooling potential of the S1 could help offset the fact that there may not be enough airflow directly going to the graphics card area.

kater · Post by **kater** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:05 pm

My experience with S1 (had it on 9600GT, 8800GT and now on HD4770) says you will not need any fan directly on it. I run/ran all these cards "passively", only with the front bottom 92mm @ <700 rpm. My 2drives are above the fan so a kind of tunnel is created, and the flow is not obstructed in any way, but given the power consumption of, say, 8800GT and the low speed of the front fan I'd say a 7600GT can be cooled in your case (you box, excuse the pun) with v v little airflow. Just make sure the location of the GPU on the card makes it possible to fit the S1 - some cards could have non-reference layout, with the GPU a little to the front (I/O) end of the card.
If you want cheaper, S2 will also do. My brother has it on some Radeon (X1600 or 1900 or sth.) and it works great.

closersource · Post by **closersource** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 7:59 am

You should have no problem with cooling the card passively with an AC S1/S2. The 7600GT is one of the most balanced power-efficient cards NVIDIA has made since the Ti 4200 Series. I think it only takes up 40 watts. You have to be careful though if you own an ASUS or EVGA card as they have non-reference layouts.

nightmorph · Post by **nightmorph** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:49 am

furymouse · Post by **furymouse** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:12 am

Don't tempt me with SLI. I'm right in your proximity too.

I think I am sold on the S2 - modding it will be fun. Just need to find the best deal. Too bad I missed 10% Bing cashback for Newegg.. :banghead: