Video card fan..need help modding the HSF on my GPU

[jbell]

hey I need help! my gef2 gts is very 'warm' with stock cooling - what do ya recomend?

**edit**

This thread orginally started in the Classifieds Section of our Forums...jbell and I both could use some advice on GPU cooling, his is a Visiontek GF2 GTS 64MB, mine is a Visiontek GF2 MX400 64MB.

I know my card has a square 50mm HSF attached (with adhesive, not pins) to my GPU, and by the looks for the pic of his I got from Visiontek's website (which he says below looks exactly like his card), he has the same HSF on his card too.

He's having heat problems, and I could benefit from his learning, and get mine a bit cooler too (I'm not having problems, but anytime you can run cooler...;) )

The thread started getting a bit too, "techie" for the Classifieds, so I split that part of the thread off, and moved it here, where hopefully someone who's modded one of these cards can help us..

Thanks in advance!!

Cheers!

Mr B

[Mr B]

Well, a bit more specific info....

Q# 1) What is "stock" cooling on your GF2?? Just a heatsink, without a fan attached??

Q# 2) If so, is the sink 40x40mm square?? (IE, is it the same size a Northbridge chipset cooler?)

If both answers are "yes", I've got a fan that will fit right on that sink. The fans I have are for the old i486 cpu's...they have a two wire pigtail (no rpm wire) that will plug into a 3 pin mobo header, or a 3 to 4 pin adapter.

Sinks have so many different fin configurations, it would be easier to either attach it to a sink on my end, or for you to find screws on yours. (I could include screws, but they might be too long/short, or wide/narrow, etc...) I've got a couple of old chipset coolers about... =)

Let's go one better...I got three "Blorbs" (Thermaltake chipset coolers) a while ago, and every application I've thought to use it for, had had at least one (usually more) capacitors in the way, and wouldn't let me mount it... If there's nothing like that within a 2.25" (two and a quarter inch) diameter area from the center of the GPU, this would be better than any of the above ideas.... I paid $9 or $10 for these (each! I got them quite a while ago...lol), so if this would work, I'd need a few bucks for it...

Let me know....PM me what you need....=)

[Silversinksam]

I see that Blorb and raise you One :p

[jbell]

Originally posted by Silversinksam
I see that Blorb and raise you One :p

Wendy's double stack!!!! AWESOMe


YES AND YES... I have heatsink + fan it is the Visiontek GEForce 2 GTS 64mb....

and do I put a fan on top and bottom of video card?

MR B - a few bucks is not a problem - I trust you with my computer

...and that is saying alot

[Mr B]

Hey,

Question...is this your card below??

I'm looking at the pic (I got from Visiontek's site), and wondering if that OEM hsf is 40 or 50mm...any chance you could measure it, if yoou don't know?? English measurements (inches), I can translate into Metric, if you don't have facility to measure it in MM...;)

I've heard of people mounting hsf's on the BACK of cards, but have never done this one myself....so I might learn a new trick here myself, trying to help you...:) I, myself have a Visiontek GF2 MX400 64MB card, and the hsf in the attached pic of the GTS model looks suspiciously like the hsf on my MX400....

If so, it's glued onto the GPU, not mounted w/ pins. This is what's held me back from trying a Blorb on my GF2...I know the hot trick is to put the card in the freezer for a while, before trying to pop the OEM sink off, but I just ain't had the nerve to try....:(

I'm not sure if the Blorb is that much better than the OEM hsf, or how to go about mounting one on the back...I'm starting to think I should "split" this last half of the thread off, and mosey on over to "Vid and Sound Cards" in the main Forums with it, for "better" advice... :( I appreciate your trust, and I thank you...but this is one aspect of modding I'm a bit fuzzy on, and will be the first to admit it.

I suppose that's how you gain someone's trust, eh? Help 'em when you know, and don't help when you don't know, at least 100% for sure... Let me do some digging on the Front page, before I go moving anything from here...but I think that might be the best help of all... Get this part of the thread into the hands of someone who's done this mod before...;)

[Mr B]

DOH! (forgot to attach the pic.....) :rolleyes:

**edit** Just had my brother in law over w/ our niece and nephew for a couple of hours...Haven't seen the kids in a while..the wife has missed them quite a bit. And now, I'm gonna relax for a while in front o' the telly, and watch the Pats game..:)

They've done remarkably well, for a team that was written off after the 2nd week of the season...0-2, with Bledsoe getting injured and all..

I guess all the Waaaaaa! whinin' I was talking earlier this year here paid off...The Celtics and Bruins have BOTH either led or still do their respective divisions in their sport, in addition to the Pats foray into the deep playoffs...:p

If they both go deep into the playoffs too, it'll be fun to see how the folks at Fenway Park respond to the pressure....:rolleyes:

Anyways, I'll get back to researching this in a while jbell...just don't want ya to think I forgot ya...:)

[jbell]

MR B - that looks EXACTLY like my card -- no sinks on the ram chips just on the main GPU....

also only having the stanard video out.... I will measure it later - as like you i have company and a slight hangover from the company party - 8 hours of beer and laughtrer will do that to ya!

[Mr B]

BUMP!

Please help!

Thanks. :)

[Blue Jester_2112]

Wait, I'm confused...what exactly are you looking for?

[CrystalMethod]

Originally posted by Blue Jester_2112
Wait, I'm confused...what exactly are you looking for?

He's looking to cool his gpu down a little more.

Jbell, there's a cpuple of different ways to cool down your video card. It all depends on how far you want to take it, and if you want to keep your waranty on the card. If you want to keep the waranty, what you can do is make something to increase airflow to the card, but with out removing the stock heatsink. If you don't mind voiding the waranty on the card, then you can attempt removing the card and replacing it with a different HSF. Just by changing the thermal interface material that comes on the HSF you should notice a difference.

[jbell]

Originally posted by CrystalMethod


He's looking to cool his gpu down a little more.

Jbell, there's a cpuple of different ways to cool down your video card. It all depends on how far you want to take it, and if you want to keep your waranty on the card. If you want to keep the waranty, what you can do is make something to increase airflow to the card, but with out removing the stock heatsink. If you don't mind voiding the waranty on the card, then you can attempt removing the card and replacing it with a different HSF. Just by changing the thermal interface material that comes on the HSF you should notice a difference.

Card was bought from Ubid and is a year old - warrenty doesn't matter here anymore... I have an ELSA GEForce2 GTS 32mb to fall back on if need be.

I found a website some time back where I bought my 120MM Panaflo blowhole kit... I forget where it was and am trying to find it so I can get the 80mm Panaflo kit and make two intakes on my side panel. If I can do that I will install the 120MM on top and then invert my 2 - 80MM fans in the back of the case to suck in as well..

[Mr B]

BUMP. :cool:

Please help if you can! Thank you.

Mr B

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by jbell
hey I need help! my gef2 gts is very 'warm' with stock cooling - what do ya recomend?


After Watercooling the GPU a Rackmount Cooler is a great choice for your GPU. A Alpha pal 153 is my weapon of choice but heres a good IU roundup (http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1571&p=2)






Here's a couple suggestions, First go with the Crystal Orb (http://www.svcompucycle.com/crysorbforvg.html) over the Blue Orb..... Crystal Orb is just much better and its only $9.49
(An IU cooler is the best but a Crystal Orb is a good choice none the less)



Radio Shack sells These (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F007%5F004%5F000&product%5Fid=276%2D1368) ramsinks for $1.59 ea


ONLY arctic Alumina adhesive should be used on ramsinks in my opinion as its safer than its brother Arctic Silver adhesive.




Various IU coolers at good prices:
Speeze Copper
http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=S7&Category_Code=C3
Alpha Pal 153
http://www.inflowdirect.com/newalfcpal152.html

Generic
http://www.bestbyte.net/Product.cfm?ProductID=573&CategoryID=6&Keyword=

[Arkaine23]

1st let me say that I'd never owned a computer faster than 500 Mhz, never built one or OC'd, and never owned an AGP video card until just a couple of months ago...

But now that I have done these things and given you fair warning about my limited experience, here's what I've done to make my video card perform and offer some advice:

1. Ramsinks. Aluminum ramsinks from radio shack. $1.59 each, attached with Artic Silver 2 and superglue. Be warned about getting ASII on the ram leads! With intake case fans on the side panel this works very well.

2. Blorb. Spend a couple of hours lapping the base flat and smooth, these aren't that great, but are better than stock gpu hsf's. I took a silver coin and lapped that, popped out the blorb base and replaced it with the coin. Works much better than a standard blorb. A 1U cpu cooler would be the best option.

3. Fans. Experiment with your fans. 2 side intakes are a very good idea. You might want to duct the air to the cpu hsf and to your card.

4. Other mods. Filter capacitor removal may improve image quality. This mod has mixed reviews, but I like it.

5. Quadro conversion. Turning a Geforce into a Quadro improves opengl performance incredibly. Most games don't use opengl, so this won't affect the card's performance, only make proffessional apps work much better. Can either move resistors or patch drivers for this mod.

[jbell]

Arkaine23


and SilversinkSam


Thank you both..... after my tax refund these are my main projects

[jbell]

silversink or mr b - so you have a crysorb for sale?

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by jbell
silversink or mr b - so you have a crysorb for sale?

Can't speak for Mr. B but you can get a Corb for $9.49 Here (http://www.svcompucycle.com/crysorbforvg.html)


PS If I don't remind you that the Main forums are not a F/S F/T forum Mr. B will beat me up again :p

[jbell]

Originally posted by Silversinksam




PS If I don't remind you that the Main forums are not a F/S F/T forum Mr. B will beat me up again :p


I would pay to see that ... and just continueing this chat as it started.....


So MR B - what is it gonna cost?.... and Can I get it taped in mpg format?