Slain
09-06-01, 10:44 AM
Wow I thought my new GF3 rocks but as usual after 30 mins I had to o/c it. Much playing around I had it running stable at 215/ 510 MHz and was slighly upset it would'nt go any faster, a 7% core over clock was just not good enough.
Then I looked at the cooling, a cheap finless heat sink and a fan that looked to be rated at 4 cfm. Danm there had to be something better out there than this. OK looking through these boards I noticed that millsec seamed to be highly recommeded, so I headed over to there site and ordered a nice copper sink and a 15 cfm fan to sit on it. Big on ya millsec they delivered from the states to the UK in 4 days for a tiny shipping fee.
Having read Badgers posts on how he peltier cooled his Elsa 920 I thought I would have no problems, BIG mistake.
The copper sink needed some minor lapping which took 15 mins, no problem, then I popped the original sink off the card. OMG the the circular metal slug was actually recessed into the square plastic surround by about 0.5 mm !!! OK I thought I'll try with some AS II epoxy/compound mix, slapped it on and fired it up. The result zip the card would fall over at 175 MHz core speed !!!. This left me with two options, one get some phase change tape slap on the original HSF and forget about the whole thing, or two lap the die on my shiny £300 graphics card. Guess which option I chose ^^
The big moment came, I wrapped some 400 grit paper over the bottom of the lapped heat sink and began slowly grinding off the raised plastic surrounding the die. 20 minutes and a pint of nervous sweat I was down to the level of the die. But wait what is this i see, copper showing through the tinned die surface but only at the very edge of the die and in a perfect circle. The Nvidia logo was stll perfect in the center, this could only mean one thing the actuall GPU slug was dish shaped ARGGGHHHHH !!! Only one thing for it I had to carry on grinding. Another *40* mins with 400 grit paper and at last I was producing scratches in the center of the slug. This had to be *the* worst manufactured die I have even seen in life, I estimate I had taken off close to a millimetre of the plastic surround before I hit the centre of the chip. Eventually I finished the lapping with some 1000 grit paper. The result, a GPU slug about 3cm in diameter left with only a 1cm circle of tinning in the centre the rest being ground down to the copper substrate.
Ok major work over I reassembled the card, reattaching the RAM sinks with AS II epoxy instead of the glue gun stuff the factory had used and whacked the HSF back on.
Moment of truth time had come, power on and crossed fingers. The results after much playing around with 3DmK2001:-
Manufactures default speed 200MHz core 460 MHz RAM
After mods
Max core speed 235 MHz, stable core speed 230 MHz
Max RAM speed 530 Mhz , stable RAM speed 530 MHz
Conclusion, a 15% o/c in core speed for a cheap price but a hell of alot of effort and of course the possiblity of writing off a £300 card.
The way the RAM was attached is utterly appalling, just reattaching the sinks with AS II epoxy made the 3.8 ns RAM actally work at its rated speed of 525 MHz (why the default is 460 MHz is probably due to the total lack of thermal interface)
I don't know I just got a bad card but the quality of maufacture is majorly sub standard IMHO. I just wish I got a card like the reviewers got that would clock to 240 MHz core with the standard sink.
Then I looked at the cooling, a cheap finless heat sink and a fan that looked to be rated at 4 cfm. Danm there had to be something better out there than this. OK looking through these boards I noticed that millsec seamed to be highly recommeded, so I headed over to there site and ordered a nice copper sink and a 15 cfm fan to sit on it. Big on ya millsec they delivered from the states to the UK in 4 days for a tiny shipping fee.
Having read Badgers posts on how he peltier cooled his Elsa 920 I thought I would have no problems, BIG mistake.
The copper sink needed some minor lapping which took 15 mins, no problem, then I popped the original sink off the card. OMG the the circular metal slug was actually recessed into the square plastic surround by about 0.5 mm !!! OK I thought I'll try with some AS II epoxy/compound mix, slapped it on and fired it up. The result zip the card would fall over at 175 MHz core speed !!!. This left me with two options, one get some phase change tape slap on the original HSF and forget about the whole thing, or two lap the die on my shiny £300 graphics card. Guess which option I chose ^^
The big moment came, I wrapped some 400 grit paper over the bottom of the lapped heat sink and began slowly grinding off the raised plastic surrounding the die. 20 minutes and a pint of nervous sweat I was down to the level of the die. But wait what is this i see, copper showing through the tinned die surface but only at the very edge of the die and in a perfect circle. The Nvidia logo was stll perfect in the center, this could only mean one thing the actuall GPU slug was dish shaped ARGGGHHHHH !!! Only one thing for it I had to carry on grinding. Another *40* mins with 400 grit paper and at last I was producing scratches in the center of the slug. This had to be *the* worst manufactured die I have even seen in life, I estimate I had taken off close to a millimetre of the plastic surround before I hit the centre of the chip. Eventually I finished the lapping with some 1000 grit paper. The result, a GPU slug about 3cm in diameter left with only a 1cm circle of tinning in the centre the rest being ground down to the copper substrate.
Ok major work over I reassembled the card, reattaching the RAM sinks with AS II epoxy instead of the glue gun stuff the factory had used and whacked the HSF back on.
Moment of truth time had come, power on and crossed fingers. The results after much playing around with 3DmK2001:-
Manufactures default speed 200MHz core 460 MHz RAM
After mods
Max core speed 235 MHz, stable core speed 230 MHz
Max RAM speed 530 Mhz , stable RAM speed 530 MHz
Conclusion, a 15% o/c in core speed for a cheap price but a hell of alot of effort and of course the possiblity of writing off a £300 card.
The way the RAM was attached is utterly appalling, just reattaching the sinks with AS II epoxy made the 3.8 ns RAM actally work at its rated speed of 525 MHz (why the default is 460 MHz is probably due to the total lack of thermal interface)
I don't know I just got a bad card but the quality of maufacture is majorly sub standard IMHO. I just wish I got a card like the reviewers got that would clock to 240 MHz core with the standard sink.