Video card mod - with a question

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Tue May 22, 2007 2:59 pm

After a suggestion on this forum (well, the "Cool and quiet VGA" forum), I decided to do a simple mod to my old FX 5950 Ultra, in order to try to make it more quiet.

First a description, in the end my question.

The FX 5950, with heavy heatsink:

The backplate:

After disassembly (harder then it looks, the front grips around the back and covers the backplate and you have to twist while lift - with the guiding stands of the frontplate still through the card itself and the backplate...)
From the paste left behind, you can see the heatsink is far from flat. I ended up using a lot more paste on one side to make sure the contact was optimal:

Old 55 mm fan and new 80 mm fan:

Cleaned the heatsink:

Cleaned the core and memory chips:

This is what the heatsink looks like after mounting. The top was covered by the frontplate/filter assemby. To prevent airflow leakage in the now open top, I decided to make a little blockade with carton (see other pics):

80 mm fan mounted with the same elastic wire I used for suspending the hard disks.
I soldered a 2 pin connector to the fan and connected it to the video card:

The carton blockade to prevent airflow leakage, held in place by the elastic wire:

Back in the PC:

My question:
The mod works reasonably well, it's less noisy then before (it better!) and temps are really low (as they were before), but I'm still not quite happy.

I use RivaTuner, in "idle" (not gaming) the duty fan cycle is at 25% (I can't set it any lower).
The Thermaltake fan is a left over from my current case, 2100 RPM max, with sleeve bearings.

Does anyone have an idea why it still makes a very audible noise? A low growl best describes it.
Could it be due to the sleeve bearings?
Or maybe (I'm not sure...) the fan controller in the video card's bios is using PWM which makes the fan more noisy then it should?

What are my options?:
*Get a new fan: with ball bearings or (maybe) fluid dynamic bearings (instead of sleeve bearings) - the fan is mounted horizontally.
*Make it connect to my fan controller and undervolt (instead of directly to the video card connector - no more fan control, but maybe better noise quality - no PWM).
*Get a proper video card cooler: maybe I expected too much from this mod. I tried this first because it's cheap.

samuelmorris · Post by **samuelmorris** » Tue May 22, 2007 3:49 pm

Sleeve bearing facing vertically is never going to be a great idea, but I don't think it'll be the only problem. The issue you have with graphics coolers is severe vibrations. I had an X1900XT with the stock cooler for a while, one of the loudest graphics cards ever made. I tried running the fan out of the heatsink and the noise level dropped by what must have been nearly 10 decibels. If your GPU will boot without a fan being plugged into the connector (it should), then perhaps you could connect it to a fan controller and run it manually? That's your best option of monitoring its speed. Elastic probably isn't the best way to atach a fan, but without mounting holes I'm not sure how would be.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Tue May 22, 2007 7:49 pm

If you want to find out if it is the video card PWM control causing extra fan noise or not, leave it mounted the way it is and plug it into a real voltage controller of some kind. If the noise goes away you have your answer, and should either try a different fan (that plays nice with PWM) or just switch to using the controller. I believe all video cards do use PWM and this has been an issue in the past...

Personally I like your idea though, and others have done similar mods in the past.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed May 23, 2007 7:51 am

Use some sticky foam or other cushy product (tacky butyl rubber strips as well) to place between the fan and anything on the heatsink it might contact to reduce vibrations.

A growl is characteristic of a mechanical load on a fan that keeps it from spinning with minimum resistance. Sleeve bearing fans in horizontal position (blowing vertically) will exhibit this, plus being prone to failure much sooner when oriented that way.

PWM noise is usually associated with a clicking or ticking sound as the voltage is rapidly switch on/off, not a growl (which would be a higher frequency), so this is unlikely the cause of your sound.

If your temps are good, than your mod is a "proper video card cooler", you just need to find a quieter fan and isolate it's vibrations. Which can be done with elastic like you done there, but just something in between the fan and the HS to keep it from vibrating.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Wed May 23, 2007 12:09 pm

Thanks for the replies, I hope I have some time to tinker around with it this weekend.

Gunzee · Post by **Gunzee** » Wed May 23, 2007 12:59 pm

Is the 80mm fan noisy by itself? If not, then are you blowing at the headsink or sucking air from the heatsink?

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Wed May 23, 2007 1:59 pm

It's not very noisy by itself, and at 25% of 2100 RPM shouldn't be heard at all. It is blowing towards the heatsink (in the case, the way it's mounted, blowing upwards).

But as suggested, I think it is due to resonation.

Neiro · Post by **Neiro** » Wed May 23, 2007 2:08 pm

Would you be able to suspend it in some .. erhm ... rope, wire - whatever it's called in english?

I've bolted an iglo (socket a cooler) onto an old gf4mx card, and attached the fan by having it suspended in some cord/wire/rope thing that I had laying around - doesn't make a sound ; not connected to the boards pwm though, but to constant 7 volt

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Sat May 26, 2007 4:30 pm

I have now attached the fan to the heatsink using the same elastic cord, and inbetween them some sticky foam, 3 mm thick, which decouples any vibrations.
The carton airflow blocker has also been removed, and replaced by 5 foam sheets stacked on top of eachother. All contact from the fan to the heatsink is through the foam and the elastic cord.

The Thermaltake fan is not that good... In fact it's very bad.
(My former post "It's not very noisy by itself, and at 25% of 2100 RPM shouldn't be heard at all" is definately wrong).

On my CPU I have a Papst 8412 N/2G: 3100 RPM, 40,6 CFM. I run it at 2200 RPM and it's still audible.

The Thermaltake on the GPU however, is rated at 2100 RPM, and at about 6V (I can't go lower with my fancontroller) it's also very audible (to me anyway). There is no way I can't get rid of that irritating hum it makes.
At 6V it does maybe 1100-1200 RPM? In comparison, the Papst at 1500 RPM is completely inaudible (no way to tell really, because it gets drowned out but the Thermaltake - even when the Thermaltake runs at 6V).

My conclusions are:
* Even with cancelling out the vibration (if there was any), the Thermaltake is louder then a Papst which would run at higher RPM.
* It turns out, the Thermaltake is not suffering from PWM control. The noise hasn't improved, so I will again plug the connector in the video card (instead of the front bay fan controller).

I've got my eye on a Scythe Minebea 80 mm (3110KL-04W-B19-E51), 2150 RPM, 24.7 CFM, 2 ball bearing.
Not the quietest maybe, because of the ball bearing, but I've read some recommendations on this fan here (the Minebea series).

Maybe someone has another suggestion for an 80 mm ball bearing fan? I would like about 2000 RPM, because when stressed the temperature goes up fast (it reaches 60 Â°C within a minute) and I trust the video card fan controller will do its work.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Sun May 27, 2007 1:57 pm

I have a Glacialtech 2 ball bearing 80mm fan (green/yellow package). It's rated at 1700rpm and when I was playing around with it last week I thought it was pretty nice sounding.

EDIT: Whoops, I just noticed you'd like it to be a bit faster....

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Sun May 27, 2007 2:23 pm

I don't know why these don't get more press:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835186122

Assuming it fits, I suppose. (They make a standard 80mm fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835186003 ) Otherwise, you can probably use any non-Thermaltake fan and see an improvement. . .

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Sun May 27, 2007 5:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestions.
The Arctic Cooling 3 is not suited for my application, the open structure of the fan, combined with the "restrictive" heatsink will cause the airflow to get out sideways, rather then through the heatsink. I need a fan with a normal housing for my video card.

I have taken another approach: the current 80 mm Papst on my SI-97A CPU heatsink will be moved to my video card.
A new Scythe Kaze-Jyu 100 mm @ 1500 RPM (which I have just ordered) will take the place of the Papst on my CPU heatsink (the Kaze-Jyu will be undervolted to approx. 1100 RPM to get the same anount of airflow the Papst now provides).

If the Papst turns out to be too loud (which I doubt, the Papst seems significantly more quiet then the Thermaltake), I will buy another 80 mm fan.

I can't wait... I've been trying to get a more quiet PC since October 2006, and after a lot of reading and some modding, could it really be that I will have one, finally?

The odd thing is, I will probably upgrade to a new PC within a few months. But the learning process so far has been very educational!
In another thread, I posted a little movie (audio included) which shows how loud my PC was. If all works out ok, I will post another movie with the final outcome.