Cooling the GF2 MX

[Kiwi]

I want to replace the stock heatsink on my Elsa GF2 MX. Whats the best cooler out there for these cards. I've looked at the Blorb, but I really don't like it. Is there anything better out there?

[TUK101]

Thats a tuff one, cause the Blorb is a good cooler. The main thing when shopping for a heatsink for a video card is one that has a high fan speed. The size of the heatsink cant be too big because of the tight spacing between slots (pci, agp). So this is the reason that the Blorb is a popular choice is because it has a fairly fast fan on it.:p

[!-=sky=-!]

well

if you can afford to lose 2 pci slots then get a p3 heatsink and stick that on with thermal adheasive such as artical silver adheasive

but doing that will void your warranty so the choice is yours =)

[Luie]

I oc my inno3d mx 400 to 200mhz core and 210Mhz memory clock

[gouki]

Well .. you could put a Volcano HSF like I did. I got my Elsa MX 400 w/ 4ns SDRAM at awesome core/memory clocks. Look below :

[Sohryu Asuka Langley]

I have a CoolerMaster and YS Tech, 3 PCI slots :)

Ill post pictures in a few days, i was going to do it sooner but realised that im still in a qeue in IRC waiting :)

get some scores up gouki! or is it in the 3dmark thread, if it is, post it here anyway!

[Kiwi]

I was thinking about ordering an Alpha PAL 15U from cooler guys. check it out and let know what you guys think.

http://www.coolerguys.com/pictures/pal15.jpg


http://www.coolerguys.com/cpucool/duron.shtml

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by Kiwi
I was thinking about ordering an Alpha PAL 15U from cooler guys. check it out and let know what you guys think.

http://www.coolerguys.com/pictures/pal15.jpg


http://www.coolerguys.com/cpucool/duron.shtml


That Alpha Pal15u is the best gpu cooler your ever going to find, I use it and my video card has never been over 38*c


This is an excellent thread you should read about GPU cooling (http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35853)






http://www.ocshoot.com/ultra/hot/assy.jpg

[Luie]

Yeah!
oc my mx 400 to
200mem/210 core

[RedDeathDrinker]

I ended up with a PII fan on the stock Hercules heatsink. But with an 80mm fan cooling the whole card.

[!-=sky=-!]

the p3 cooler is the best.........enough said......

but the thing is really heavy and tends to fall off very easy

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by !-=sky=-!
the p3 cooler is the best.........enough said......

but the thing is really heavy and tends to fall off very easy

I agree and disagree:

With a P3 cooler on the GPU you lose several pci slots with a rackmount cooler like the Alpha pal15u you lose one pci slots

With the p3 cooler you lose the ability to add a pci slot cooler under the video card do to the P3 hsf and fan sticking down several inches, with a rackmount cooler you can use it directly under the video card.

My tests show the Alpha pal15u keeping my gpu cooler than a stocl P3 hsf, and you wanna know why this is? The Alpha pal 15u has a low noise high cfm fan.

Enuf said ;)

[Sohryu Asuka Langley]

I think my heatsink beats the alpha...well it should... ive lapped and mouted mine on like a mutha f***** if i try to move it i hear a grinding noise :) and teh fan is 27crm :)

[Silversinksam]

Sohryu Asuka Langley,

I noticed you are not using PCI slot 1-3 :p

Im tellin yah I tried a coolermaster mod with a top motor 20cfm fan and the Alpha kicked its @ss.....My highest temp with the Alpha is 38*c (Digdoc probe on back of card method) Anyway Im glad you are getting good results with yours.

Ps Dont get me wrong Im not disagreeing that P3 coolers can do the job, im merely suggesting that rackmount IU coolers not only do the job but they minimize your PCI slot loss......Not only that but most Mobo's lower PCI slots are shared irq's

[batboy]

Those Alpha pal15 appear to be awesome coolers. They work great on Ultra and even GF3 cards. However, maybe a little bit overkill for a MX card. I have a lapped Blue Orb on my Hercules MX using Arctic Silver thermal paste and I've had no trouble overclocking the snot out of it. The Blorb is a no mod, easy cooler swap. Hard to go wrong for the price.

[Kiwi]

Well I just ordered my Alpha for my card. I know it might be a little bit of an overkill, but i'm a true overclocker at heart. I buy budget stuff and then spend a forutne on cooling it so i can overclock the hell out of it. Hehe!

[!-=sky=-!]

if the blueorb for mx is overkill then what is a p3 heatsink for geforce256 sdr? lol

[e laursen]

I just put a slot fan under my AGP slot which draws air right off the GPU. I left the stock hs on the asus gf2mx. The core will go over 200+MHz. This was cheap and I didn't have to risk damaging the card.

[BrianCapps]

I just got a vision tek GF2 mx400, and was wondering how I'm gonna attach the new HSF as soon as i get it. I've never done a gpu b4, so how can i 'glue' the thing on?

Also, to remove the old one, can I just play quake 3 for a while to heat up the goo 'tween the HS and chip, and then pop it off?

[Silversinksam]

http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35853


This is an excerpt from the above thread:


To affix all of this use Arctic silver adhesive in this ratio so you can remove it if you ever decide to move these HSF's to your next upgrade,

I have found that arctic silver adhesive works best with this ratio

Mix the Arctic silver in this blend

1part A adhesive
1part B adhesive
1part regular arctic silver II

Arctic silver's website recommends a formula of 50% part A and 50% part B if its permenent

and 50%part A and B and 50% Arctic Silver II

I find my ratio of 1part A adhesive
1part B adhesive
1part regular arctic silver II

works best as and is stronger and will hold the weight of the Alpha easily:

There is also another trick

Mix up this formula :

1part A adhesive
1part B adhesive
1part regular arctic silver II

And apply it only to the corners of the gpu approximatly one sqr centimeter on each side in the corners. and use regular Arctic silver on the rest of the GPU.

THis works well and is my current method that I used when I affixed my Alpha15u

And you can get Arctic Silver adhesive here for $9.99 shipped

http://svcompucycle.com/arsiltherad.html

[ken257]

There is really no reason to go overboard with a GF2 MX. All I did to mine was add a 486 fan to the stock sink. With this setup I run the core and memory at 220. I have had the core up to 240 but there were artifacts so I backed it down.

[batboy]

Amen Ken. I've had my MX for a year now and believe me, I've tweaked and modded the guano out of it. That was the first thing I did was to put a recycled 486 CPU fan onto my MX too. It helped a little. Then I took the heatsink off, cleaned the gunk off and used Arctic Silver thermal paste. That helped too. Then I tried a 40mm X 20mm high output Sunon fan. That helped a bit more too. The sinks on the vid RAM only was good for 1-2 MHz. But, installing a lapped Blue Orb on my MX card helped the most of all my mods. I use a slot fan next to my vid card too. They don't flow but a fraction of what they claim, but those slot fans do help move heat away from the vid card.

[CrystalMethod]

Originally posted by Sohryu Asuka Langley
I think my heatsink beats the alpha...well it should... ive lapped and mouted mine on like a mutha f***** if i try to move it i hear a grinding noise :) and teh fan is 27crm :)
Sounds like the fan blades are out of balance. Might want to check and see if you can send it back, and get a replacement. If it's out of warranty, DON'T MOVE IT!!!
:D

[BrianCapps]

This is gettin kinda OT, but the OC's everyone is posting seems really low compared to what NVMax is telling me I did to my card. It's telling me my card is at 255 core / 365 mem. Does that seem high? Coz it's gonna go higher as soon as I get my blorb!