AMAZING results with my 9700P and it's new VPU cooler

[Fever]

Wow.. I'm so stoked! I replaced my card's stock HSF with the stock AMD HSF that came with my 2100+. I removed the shim so it would make direct contact with the core, and drilled 2 holes through the HS so I could attatch it through the mounting holes.

Before the mod, I could not get my card's core running faster then 340MHz... Now, with AS3 and this HS, it's fully stable at 430MHz!!!!

I won't be posting 3DMark scores yet, since my board is dead and I'm testing my new cooling solution on my mother's PCChips motherboard.. :( Still though, I'm extremely pleased with the results, and I highly reccommend it to anyone with a 9700.

Bring on HL2 and Doom 3!!

Here are some pics of the mod:

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700PMod1.JPG

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700PMod2.JPG

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod3.JPG

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod4.JPG

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod5.JPG

[Fever]

Oh, here's a question.. I don't think running my card at 430MHz 24/7 is a very good idea, even though it runs plenty cool.. What should be the highest I go? I was thinking 400MHz should be pretty nice.

[steve75382]

If it runs cool I don't see how it would hurt it... Nice mod, btw.

[Fever]

Thanks. :D

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too... I'll probably just end up running at 400MHz, and keep the extra 30 MHz as backup power for when HL2 and Doom3 come out.

[madcow235]

volt mod it and shoot for 500mhz

[Fever]

Originally posted by madcow235
volt mod it and shoot for 500mhz

Is volt modding it as simple as it was with my 8500? All I needed was a pencil. I'm sure I could hit 500, but that would be pretty useless for now. (except maybe for destroying almost anything out there :p ) Maybe when it needs some extra juice to run Doom 3 or Half Life 2..

[Fever]

Here's a 3DMark2003 bench on this crappy PC. Keep in mind that it's a PCChips board with a SIS chipset and 256MB of SDRam. :D

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=778195

[Shade00]

Not bad. It still has a pretty kickin' CPU pushing it, despite the lack of bandwidth.

I've never seen a stock AMD cooler like that... looks pretty cool. :)

[timmyqwest]

i did the same mod to my 4600...although i only got 25mhz more out of it :-(

[pip]

I wonder if this would work for my g450 *thinks*

[PhobMX]

omg had to say it, what a ghey scoro for that beast of a card... dude you could win a bottlenecked system award... LOL JK bro, just show us when you have a balanced system, im sure that card is gffx2 killer.

For the cooling issue, i would suggest you to use a probe and measure the temps on load... it the chips temp is sub 40 you can oc it as much as you can... i wouldnt suggest a voltmod since most of the guys with this uber stuff end killing it :(

[SpliT71]

nice.

[Oni]

Can you snap a pic or two of your mounting job? I'm interested in seeing that.

[1-Man-Army]

ya same here i wanted to see how u mounted ur heat sink so i would get an idea of how to mount mine when i get my new video card

[IR1]

I have my 2100+ stock cooler and i have been contemplating puting it on my 9700 pro... and I think you have convinced me.

The drilling idea is brilliant.. I didnt even think of that. I was gonna use some arctic alumina adhesive.. but... it just didnt seem like the best way.

Does the card hang down much from the weight of the HS? I know it isnt that heavy.. but that was one thing that concerned me, I dont see much hanging in the pic... but still hows it hanging?

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=758853

My score only beats yours by 200 points.... and my CPU score is double yours. The only benchmark besides the CPU one that I beat you on is Wings of Fury, which is easily bottlenecked by CPU and Memory speed.

and your at 133... sdr... on a PCchips...man... I WANT TO MAX OUT MY 9700 PRO!

DUDE can you enlighten me on your... drilling and screwing technique... ?
Id really appreciate it.

[PhobMX]

post it here, im interested too...

[Fever]

Originally posted by PhobMX
omg had to say it, what a ghey scoro for that beast of a card... dude you could win a bottlenecked system award... LOL JK bro, just show us when you have a balanced system, im sure that card is gffx2 killer.

For the cooling issue, i would suggest you to use a probe and measure the temps on load... it the chips temp is sub 40 you can oc it as much as you can... i wouldnt suggest a voltmod since most of the guys with this uber stuff end killing it

Yeah, hehe.. Bottlenecked is an understatement! :p I hope it is a GFFX2 killer. :D I won't be vltmodding it, this is more than fast enough for any game out there.

Originally posted by Oni
Can you snap a pic or two of your mounting job? I'm interested in seeing that.

Originally posted by 1-Man-Army
ya same here i wanted to see how u mounted ur heat sink so i would get an idea of how to mount mine when i get my new video card

Done, and done. Check the bottom of the post.

Originally posted by IR1
I have my 2100+ stock cooler and i have been contemplating puting it on my 9700 pro... and I think you have convinced me.

The drilling idea is brilliant.. I didnt even think of that. I was gonna use some arctic alumina adhesive.. but... it just didnt seem like the best way.

Does the card hang down much from the weight of the HS? I know it isnt that heavy.. but that was one thing that concerned me, I dont see much hanging in the pic... but still hows it hanging?

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=758853

My score only beats yours by 200 points.... and my CPU score is double yours. The only benchmark besides the CPU one that I beat you on is Wings of Fury, which is easily bottlenecked by CPU and Memory speed.

and your at 133... sdr... on a PCchips...man... I WANT TO MAX OUT MY 9700 PRO!

DUDE can you enlighten me on your... drilling and screwing technique... ?
Id really appreciate it.

Thanks. :) I would definetly drill the HS instead of using Alumina.. It just seems so much safer this way. The HS doesn't weigh it down at all, I took a pic so you could see for yourself. Your compare link doesn't work.. What I did was find a screw that was thin enough so that it would fit through the mounting holes on the card.. Luckily, I found 2 of the same in my junk. I was going to measure the distance between the mounting holes on the card to drill them into the heatsink, but I got lazy and used the ATi heatsink's holes.. I lined it up against the AMD heatsink, and used a pencil to make spots to drill. Make sure the fan on the ATi heatsink is facing the bottom of the AMD heatsink though, or else your holes will be the opposite of what they should be... I made that mistake and I had to drill 2 extra holes because of it. I had to take a bigger drill bit and drill a bit more where I made my holes though, because the screws wouldnt go all the way through.. Once that was done, I put some AS3 on the core, and slapped the heatsink on and bolted her down. When you remove the ATi HS, make sure you remove the shim that's there. Use a razor blade, and slide it under the shim.. If you don't take it off, the 9700's core won't touch the HS, and you'll most likely kill your card. I used one of those red washers that come with motherboards between the card and the bolt so that it wouldn't short anything out. And yeah, that system really does hold my 9700 back. Anyways, here are the pics..

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod3.JPG
In this picture you can see the bolts that I used, and the red washers I talked about.

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod4.JPG
Here you can see that the AMD HS doesn't affect it at all.

http://feveroo.homestead.com/files/9700Mod5.JPG
And here you see where and how I drilled the holes.

If you guys have any more questions, don't hesitate.

Edit: I had to remove most smiley faces, because the forums wouldn't let me post this..

[IR1]

What did you use to remove the heatsink fins where you screwed?

Also... Futuremark is down right now
"Our servers are down for a short maintenance break. Please check back very soon! We are sorry for the inconvenience."

[Fever]

Oh, I see. I just used a pair of pliers.. It's a little hard, but don't worry. Just squeeze them together, and then push on them. That's how I got it off.. Don't worry about damaging anything, you won't.

[IR1]

Did you lap the heatsink?


Also anyone know the best way to insert a temp probe to measure temp on the GPU. I have a LCD thing that mounts to a CDrom slot and a temp prob goes.. well wherever.

Futuremark working now
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=758853

[Fever]

No, I didn't bother lapping it.. I just cleaned it really well after taking the thermal pad off.. For the probe, just stick it on the side of the core, and scotch tape it down.

[Cheesy Peas]

stick it in the card modding gallery. sweet! im gonna do the same on ym 8500, if it fits. no holes for mounting :(.

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=187469

[Fever]

Cool, I'll post it there. Are you sure your 8500 doesn't have mounting holes?? Mine did.. :(

[IR1]

Im stoked about this... I wanna do it ASAP...

I can get my core pretty high but i get slight artifacts anywhere above 370 no the core. I had it to 400 before but the artifacts scare me.. hehe... so obviously it needs more cooling.

Memory anything about 360'ish and it gives me the most artifacts. Ive tested the memory and core independentely.

Doubt ramsinks will do much... so I wont waste my time there. But the core... it has potential.

[Fever]

That's higher then I could get my core when I had stock cooling. :) But ramsinks will help you TONS! Loop 3DMark, and put your fingers on the ram chips.. See how long you can keep them there. ;) Ramsinks will help tons. :)

[IR1]

Seriously? from what Ive read they may get you 5mhz... but for the trouble its not worth it.

Well Ill loop some 3dmark and touch em... but I have 2 120mm fans (connected to a controller, along with all my fans) on the side case. One fan is right next to the video card the other is right above the CPU fan. I would guess that the fans doing an ok job at cooling the memory as it is, even though I run my fans at low almost all the time.

Edit: here I have a pic on my ftp of my computer you can see the 120's there. the bottom 80mm fan slots have no fans. http://ianr.hypermart.net/gtapics/nexus2.jpg

[Fever]

Very nice! :) I'm sure those fans help, but I know that ramsinks will help a lot.. Even if you don't get that much more speed out if it, atleast you'll know your chips are running cool instead of burning hot.

[IR1]

Hmmmmm... I do have plenty of arctic alumina adhesive left. Man you tempt me...

[bill]

I made the same mod with the same hsf but i didnt remove the shim & made ramsinks from an old pentium passive hs i had laying around. i can run all day @400/710 @stock volts without any artifacting @403 i got lines on my screen while benchmarking but i was still running stock volts.

[1-Man-Army]

yo dude can u repost the pics i didnt see it, only an x there

[IR1]

the host says maximum bandwidth used for the day. so I guess the pics can be seen tommarow.

[IR1]

see pics came back after midnight. I downloaded em for reference when I do the mod.

[1-Man-Army]

cool thanks for the pictures dude! :) hey btw can i use what u have posted etc and combined it into a guide?

[Fever]

Originally posted by 1-Man-Army
cool thanks for the pictures dude! :) hey btw can i use what u have posted etc and combined it into a guide?

Sure man, that could be very handy for people who'd like to mod their card.. Let me know if you need any more info. :)

[1-Man-Army]

k thanks i will credit us and give u the most credit for taking pictures and for the info should we start a new thread for the guide? or just stick it here?

[1-Man-Army]

hey im done the guide were should i put it?

[Fever]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.. Good job with the how-to. :D

[1-Man-Army]

thanks dude