Pick me a passive heatsink for an old Riva TNT2

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:55 am

I want to replace the heatsink/fan of an old Riva TNT2 card. I'm thinking of sticking a ~6 euro passive chipset heatsink on there. From these which do you think I should pick?

Cooler Master Northbridge Chipset Cooler (PAC-P01)
Zalman ZM-NB47J
Zalman ZM-NB32K
Revoltec Northbridge Freezer

I'm leaning towards the Revoltec because it has less height...

Another question: the card has no mounting holes, but some of these heatsinks come with thermal adhesive tape/pads, this will be enough to hold it in place right?

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:58 am

No clue about a TNT2, but I put a NB47J on a Geforce II GTS and it worked well enough.

It had mounting holes, though. Especially given that in the tower case the heatsink will be hanging down from the card, I'd stick to something smaller like a NB32K.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:08 am

I will list the dimensions and weight then:

Cooler Master Northbridge Chipset Cooler (PAC-P01) 37.5mm x 37.5mm x 32mm 33g
Zalman ZM-NB47J 37 (L) X 37 (W) X 47 (H) mm 54g
Zalman ZM-NB32K 37 (L) X 37 (W) X 32 (H) mm 36g
Revoltec Northbridge Freezer 46 x 37 x 25 mm (B x L x H) 35 g

The Zalman ZM-NB47J is the taller and heavier. I think it will take up to much space and for adhesive tap/pads, the lighter the better right?

I'm still leaning towards the Revoltec, unless some one convinces me otherwise...

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:23 am

I cannot see how the height would be greatly relevant, and the weight of the three heatsinks (except the NB47J) is essentially the same. Are you thinking of not blocking adjacent PCI slots, perhaps?

I don't know how much heat the TNT2 puts out, so I cannot comment as to what will be sufficient to cool it...

At this price, you might as well go for the Revoltec and do some finger tests to ensure it's not overheating the card too much.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:28 am

Hi, I attached a big passive heatsink (old CPU cooler) to a Radeon 9000 card. I used ordinary white thermal paste over most of it and a small blob of super-glue in the corners. I pressed it down tight to spread the paste out as thin as possible before the glue set. When testing it the heatsink got hog so I can only conclude the heat transfer is working fine. This was many months ago and I haven't had and don't expect any problems. You can get "proper" heat conductive glue, for a price.
I would lean towards the Zalman NB47j as it is the largest and I doubt the weight is a problem but if you need the clearance the Revoltec should be fine too.
Seb

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:37 am

Yes I'm thinking of space, even though it's not a big deal. I have lower PCI slots available.

I'm guessing the bigger the heatsink, the more heat it can handle. But will a Riva TNT2 really benefit from the bigger NB47J?

scorp · Post by **scorp** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:12 am

Most of the TNT2 M64s were passively cooled by rather small HSes, but they were also wroking at smaller frequencies; My guess is that a NB32 would be enough, but if you do have enough space, I'd say to get the NB47.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:39 am

If you are using a thermal pad to attach your heatsink, can I suggest that you make a spring clip to hold it securely to the card. Wire coathangers can be manipulated with needlenose pliars.

Alternatively fine cable ties are also good for that sort of thing. If you join two together they form a loose rectangle that is great for holding things onto PCI cards.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:40 am

if the TNT2 has mounting holes, the NB47J should work fine.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:38 am

Techno Pride wrote:if the TNT2 has mounting holes, the NB47J should work fine.

It has no mounting holes

merlyn · Post by **merlyn** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:26 am

i'd use one of those low profile heatsinks you get on some older NB's. lop the pins off and use thermal epoxy. of course it depends what u have lying around the place. both those zalman's come with thermal epoxy.

sonuvbob · Post by **sonuvbob** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:00 pm

I've had a TNT2 Ultra running fanless with the little stock heatsink for a couple years now; it's never been a problem. It doesn't get much use though.

ckolivas · Post by **ckolivas** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:15 pm

I put a NB47J on my GeForce4 MX 440 a while back.

Click on the photos for hi-res versions.

It came with a crappy fan on a tiny heatsink like this after I removed the fan:

The mounting holes were in the right place to put the NB47J on without any effort (I removed the thermal pad and used AS5):

and then mounted in the case it covered protruded into 2 pci slots like so:

The card has performed flawlessly since then.