fan reliability

[Voodoo Rufus]

I may be in the markte for a Sapphire 9600 Pro in the future, and wanted to know what people's luck with ATI/Sapphire fans has been. This would help me decide whether to get the Ultimate Edn. with the heatpipe or not. I am noise conscious, and I don't want another failed fan in under one year, so I am leaning towards the heatpipe one, though it costs significantly more.

Or can one passively cool the 9600 Pro with a regular large heatsink like a Volcano2 or other sink without a fan? I have plenty of them.

Any opinions would be helpful.

[IR1]

I actually have yet to read about anyone having a fan fail on their radeons. The fans arnt noisy either. My system is whisper quiet when I turn all the fans down and I swear I cant hear the Radeon fan.

The heatpipe is cool, but I think you could do better by just buying a regular 9600pro and a Zalman heatpipe and doing it yourself. Then you could actually put some good thermal stuff on there.

[Voodoo Rufus]

How about passive heatsinks? You have me convinced of the fan version, but does a 9600 Pro run cool enough to be passively cooled? I have this monster 3x4", 1" tall Pentium Pro aluminum monstrosity I'm waiting to use on something.

[IR1]

Oh yeah the 9600pro is the coolest Radeon yet. They use a smaller heatsink than usual on them. So yeah they can be passively cooled, that monsterous heatsink may do the trick.

[Voodoo Rufus]

I'd just use some AS Epoxy on it. It's not terribly heavy. I have decent airflow through my case, so I should still be able to OC if I want to.

Thanks for your help.

[stereo555]

I have two Sapphire cards , a retail 9700 Pro and OEM 9700 NP .

(Ive had the 9700 Pro for a longer period of time ; about 12 months)

Both still have the factory fans , they quite and going strong .



My.02

stereo555