About to overclock my Radeon8500LE for the first time...

Ubik · Jul 26, 2003

Hey all

I'm new to overclocking, but since I've read a lot about people overclocking the Radeon 8500LE I figured I'd try it out.

My only question is about whether my cooling is sufficient. The stock fan on my card died about two months ago, so I bought a Sunon 40x40 fan (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=619) and screwed it onto the stock heatsink. The Sunon fan gets 9.1 CFM, and I'll be getting some ramsinks in the mail this week, so I figure that'll all be sufficient to take it from 250/250 to 275/275. Am I mistaken on this, or can I go ahead with this configuration?

Silversinksam · Jul 27, 2003

Ubik said:
Hey all I'm new to overclocking, but since I've read a lot about people overclocking the Radeon 8500LE I figured I'd try it out.

My only question is about whether my cooling is sufficient. The stock fan on my card died about two months ago, so I bought a Sunon 40x40 fan (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=619) and screwed it onto the stock heatsink. The Sunon fan gets 9.1 CFM, and I'll be getting some ramsinks in the mail this week, so I figure that'll all be sufficient to take it from 250/250 to 275/275. Am I mistaken on this, or can I go ahead with this configuration?

You shouldn't have to much of a problem getting to retails 275/275 even with the default fan.

Just go slow incrementally 5 or so mhz at a time for both the core and the memory.

If you ever get adventurous with the cooling or volt modding read these (Digs in archives)

http://www.overclockers.com/tips757/

http://www.overclockers.com/tips759/

Ubik · Jul 27, 2003

Thanks!

I'm going to wait until my ramsinks from SVC.com come in first, though... maybe I'm paranoid, but better safe than sorry

Oh, and I'm going to be using PowerStrip to do it.

mdcomp · Jul 27, 2003

You should be ok getting to 275/275, but be careful after that because the stock cooler really isn't great. Think about maybe buying a vantec chipset hsf or a tt crystal orb to replace the stock cooler if you are looking to go higher. Good Luck!

Ubik · Jul 27, 2003

mdcomp said:
You should be ok getting to 275/275, but be careful after that because the stock cooler really isn't great. Think about maybe buying a vantec chipset hsf or a tt crystal orb to replace the stock cooler if you are looking to go higher. Good Luck!

Like I said, the stock fan is gone and replaced with a 9.1 CFM Sunon 40mm fan. The stock heatsink is still on, though, and I'm wondering if I should replace that.

mdcomp · Jul 27, 2003

By stock cooler I meant the stock heatsink. Heh, don't worry about it. That sunon fan won't do that much better than the stock fan anyways. I meant heatsink + fan.

Ubik · Jul 27, 2003

mdcomp said:
By stock cooler I meant the stock heatsink. Heh, don't worry about it. That sunon fan won't do that much better than the stock fan anyways. I meant heatsink + fan.

Ah. I'm considering getting a better cooler, but it has to be something that goes on with thermal epoxy - the card has no mounting holes (which sucks because I wanted to use that Zalman pipe cooler). I might eventually end up getting a Blue Orb.

mdcomp · Jul 27, 2003

Cool. Yea. Better cooling is a good idea. The cooler that comes on the radeons really suck. If you have room you can even put on an amd stock heatsink or an older heatsink you have lying around with a fan on it.

Ubik · Jul 27, 2003

mdcomp said:
Cool. Yea. Better cooling is a good idea. The cooler that comes on the radeons really suck. If you have room you can even put on an amd stock heatsink or an older heatsink you have lying around with a fan on it.

Heh, actually I DO have the stock AMD heatsink from my Athlon XP 2100+ since I put an SK-7 and Smart Fan 2 on it, but I don't know how I'd attach it to the video card - there's no mounting holes or anything, and I don't think just thermal epoxy would hold it onto the GPU. Any suggestions?

Fuzzbeaner · Jul 27, 2003

You could just use thermal adhesive and hope the card doesn't snap...

My 8500 LE clocked through the roof, I think I got to 295 core and 280 mem from 250/238. That's on stock with no volt mod.

Hercules makes a nice card!

-Jeff

Ubik · Jul 28, 2003

Fuzzbeaner said:
You could just use thermal adhesive and hope the card doesn't snap...

I don't exactly have the money to waste on "hoping" the card doesn't snap

But I was thinking it might be possible to build some kind of "stand" or support in the adjacent PCI slot, although I'd rather not have to do something like that.

Boostin14PSI · Jul 29, 2003

I went pretty far without adding anything to my 8500le. I got the one built by saphire and my clocks are in my sig. Adding ram sinks will only give you about 5mhz or so more on your ram. I fried one of my 8500s by trying to add ram sinks with conductive thermal paste. Make sure you get 100% non conductive thermal paste/adhesive or else you'll be sorry. I use rage3d and it is really nice and it hides in the advanced display properties when not in use. Also here is a tip for ocing. Raise both sycronously until you get jaggies in 3dmark. Then reduce both back one click. Then raise them from that clock separatly and see if you have any more head room on the ram or the gpu. Your gpu should have higher clocks then your ram unless you have really good ram. sorry for going on so long.

Fuzzbeaner · Jul 29, 2003

Yea, I have a sad Ramsink application story myself.

The year was 2003, and tired of my 2nd comps lousy preformance I decided to mod my pride and joy of the 2nd, my Voodoo 3 3000 for more OCing preformance. I cut 2 old 486 HSFs, and gladly applied CONDUCTIVE thermal adhesive. Completed the gorgeous beast, plugged it in, and PFFFFFTTTTT....

OUCH. Did my best to remove it....now all I get is a scrambled screen. I see layers of the bios and stuff, it's weird, but it's not working.

My conclusion: Avoid conductive thermal adhesive.

-Jeff

Ubik · Jul 29, 2003

Well, since I got these things, I don't think I'll have a problem with that

I just put in a new heatsink for my mobo too, and that was a bit of a pain.

Fuzzbeaner · Jul 29, 2003

Good, if not great call on those.

I always wanted to buy some premades....but I never wanted to speand money when I had 486 heatsinks lying around. :-D

-Jeff

Ubik · Jul 29, 2003

Fuzzbeaner said:
Good, if not great call on those.

I always wanted to buy some premades....but I never wanted to speand money when I had 486 heatsinks lying around. :-D

-Jeff

Well, I'm still a beginner at this kind of stuff, so I don't want to tinker with doing stuff like that just yet

Besides, the premades were only $5 - how can you go wrong with that? The heatsink I got for my mobo chipset was about the same price, and it lowered not only my chipset temps, but lowered my CPU temps even more! (2-3 degrees on the chipset, 3-4 on the CPU)

Boostin14PSI · Jul 29, 2003

lookis like someone did some research on cooling. How manny of those ram sinks do you get for 4.99?

Ubik · Jul 29, 2003

Boostin14PSI said:
lookis like someone did some research on cooling. How manny of those ram sinks do you get for 4.99?

8, which is enough to do front and back for all the RAM chips on my card

They have copper ones too, but those are $7.99 for 8, and I felt like being a cheap *******.

Ubik · Aug 4, 2003

Well, I'm going to replace the GPU heatsink/cooler pretty soon anyway. Would I be better off getting a Blue Orb or a Crystal Orb? I'm leaning toward getting a Blue Orb, especially since they're cheaper.

mage_x · Aug 4, 2003

just stick that stock amd hsf you have on to it with arctic alumina or something, it wont break just look at all the huge heatsinks people have on their cards here

About to overclock my Radeon8500LE for the first time...

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