View Full Version : Wasted $45???
Joker_927
10-01-03, 06:56 PM
Well, ehen I bought my waterbocks I bought one for everything including my video card.
I want to buy a new Radeon 9800 or 9800XT. Difference between then is $275 or $499. If I buy the 9800, it already doesn't have anything on the ram, just on the core. So replacing the default coolier with water-cooling is a GREAT idea.
But....
If you look at the new 9800XT...
http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/1064859264AkBoiQWteN_3_1_l.jpg
it uses the brand new cooling technology, has a built in thermal sensor, and can even overclock itself until it gets to hot! COOL! The problem is that if you take off that massive heatsink, and put on a water-block, how will that affect performce. Now the RAM has nothing to cool it. All is not lost...
Supposedly that default cooler is realyl good. Espicially since it is ALL copper. If I get that card I should probably just leave the sucker on, which would cool the card decently. I would then have zero use for my waterblock, but the plus side is that I take a lot of heat out of my water line, right?
Choices choices.....
you can either make some money by selling your block, or you can spend some more to get ramsinks.
unless you find a way to remove that fan+plastic shroud and stick your waterblock straight onto that copper heatsink.
cherryp00t
10-01-03, 07:01 PM
does the 200+ difference justify the card?? i think not.. you'll get much more out of 200 bucks worth of wcing gear than that stock crap they give you... plus wcing cooling gear is more reusable.. and can be esaily sold sepearatly if you do decide to upgrade later
humdinger
10-01-03, 07:01 PM
you're talking $500 here... not much point worrying about $45 :)
Originally posted by humdinger
you're talking $500 here... not much point worrying about $45 :)
that's definitely true.
The cooling looks pretty good for a stock solution. It does look pretty massive but it is only a couple fins and a low rpm fan so I don't think you'll have to worry about swapping it with your gpu block. Now onto more important matters: Automatic overclocking?!? What's the fun in that :D?
Joker_927
10-01-03, 08:48 PM
HardOCP was down, but I added the pic in.
mata2974
10-01-03, 09:29 PM
If I were you I would remove that massive cooling unit and cool it with water. There is just no substitute!!!
cherryp00t
10-01-03, 09:45 PM
going with a normal 9800 pro is more than enough.. go with water as teh cooling solution it will def beat out that stock cooler
Joker_927
10-01-03, 10:06 PM
The more I thought about it, justifying $499 for a video card was just too hard. $275 - $125 which I will sell my card for is $150. $150 for a 9800 sounds a lot more reasonable.
Now, rip off the default 9800 heatsink, put my waterblock on it, then add some ramsinks that I cut up with a hacksaw, add Artic Silver Thermal adhesive and I should be killer, right!
won't be far off what the XT can do.
Joker_927
10-01-03, 10:41 PM
Do any places make water blcoks that cool the Core AND the RAM?
squeakygeek
10-02-03, 12:07 PM
I plan to try my hand at it. Only for myself, though.
Fins are very thick - if they were thinner they would remove heat much better, but heatsink would be harder to produce.
Anyway I wouldn't give so much cash to just have this heatsink. (But having ram without active cooling really sux on fast cards.)
Big_Baller
10-02-03, 01:44 PM
Looks like a great heatsink but I would re apply some As3. Just find out another way to cool the ram and your set.
DipStickTony
10-02-03, 02:30 PM
the 9800XT is not even clocked 10% higher...and true they moved some transistors around to hopefully raise the oc potential. Basically theres no way you should buy the XT over the regular 9800pro. A waterblock will cool better then any air solution and ramsinks are easy to make.....keep your WB.
Joker_927
10-02-03, 05:43 PM
So out of ALL the places on the interent not a single ones makes a waterblock for the GPU that cools ram?
Weird.
Okay, I'm buying the 9800 non-pro next month. I will flash the bios and to make it a 9800 pro, put my waterblock on the card, and overclock the core like mad.
But I am still in a paradox about waht to do with the ram. I have an old PII heatsink here, that I ripped off, and cleaned the back. It's about 2x2 inches. I figured I would cut the thing up with a smooth hack-saw and have some nice ram sinks. (I don't even know if I will have enough) but there has got to be some better way to cool them...
Will keep searching.
RedArmy
10-02-03, 05:50 PM
The best GPU RAM heatsinks I ever came across were made of the Thermal Take RAM cooling kit. It makes exactly enought small chanks for the card's RAM.
DipStickTony
10-02-03, 11:46 PM
Originally posted by Joker_927
So out of ALL the places on the interent not a single ones makes a waterblock for the GPU that cools ram?
well in between the ram there are transistors and such that are actually raised up higher then the bga ram.....a wb that would cover everything would be very hard to do and very costly....not to mention that a seperate one for each type of video card would most likely have to be made.
Joker_927
10-03-03, 12:28 AM
So best and pretty much ONLY way to cool ram is with ramsinks.
Hmm.
DipStickTony
10-03-03, 12:29 AM
right
humdinger
10-03-03, 05:29 AM
You could always have a go at making your own; should be able to make one with just a hand drill, hacksaw and some copper ;)
http://zerofanzone.co.uk/ for bladerunner's nice blocks.
UnLoadeD
10-03-03, 10:47 AM
I say save the money, but i doubt you will be able to find a 9800np by next month. They are pretty scarce already, and a lot of people are ending up with SE's and are very disappointed.
I'd like to have one of those big cooling units from the pic and see if it could be made into a water block. IF you do go watercooling, I'd try things first without the ramsinks and see what happens. I remember somebody (cathar I think?) mentioning that a lot of the heat in ram chips comes from the gpu thru the traces, and once the gpu is cooled nicely it also lowers the temp on the mem. Others in the thread speculated about hot case temps and ramsinks possibly doing more harm than good. Anyway, thats just some tidbits I've read, never seen it proved one way or the other but its worth considering and trying if you are going that route.
One other thing, you're not suposed to link directly to (somebody else's) pics here. You need to download the image and host it somewhere yourself. (Just a warning before the mods get ya)
peace.
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