[3DFlyer]

OK, here's what I want to do. Maybe I shouldn't do it, and if that's the case somebody please say so.

I have a stock Intel Prescott HSF. The heatsink is the one that has the rounded bifurcated fins, and the round copper interface in the center of it. I want to shoehorn this thing onto my Chaintech card that is ihn mky sig (Chaintech AA6800GT).

What is a good way to attach the beastusing the stock hole locations. Should I use some support for the graphics card?

Is this something that help out alot over what i'm getting now? I'm running 48C at 400/1100 idle and about 53C gaming. At 425/1140 temps go up a little to 50C idle and 60C gaming. I have a solid copper reference cooler at present.

Would this be something that is worth the trouble? Will it help my clocks? Will it help my benchmarks?

I guess I'm trying to justify the weight of the dam* thing. If it's only gonna give me 3 degrees at load, it's not worth the trouble.

[Westline]

Go for the mod

Weight should not be that much of a problem as long as you use the screw that you secure to the Slot on the back of your case. If your really worried about it, you can support the heatsink from the bottom of the case using lexan or wood or what ever. I would definitely kill for that heatsink to put on another one of my cards that has a Stock AMD XP cooler on it.


As for securing the beast onto your card, I would go with some screws (Nut and bolt style). You can find these at any Home Depot or similar store. I could not find screws small enough to fit my reference holes so I went with the zip tie style. It works perfectly and its much easier then using a screw. Plus it adds to the ghettoness of the mod


You temperatures will depend upon your ability to make a nice flush contact with your GPU. I made sure I was making 100% contact with my GPU on my mod. I just took the heatsink off after seating it with a thin layer of thermal past and made sure it had made contact. Your temperatures will be much more stable and also be significantly lower. I would say they will be in the 30's depending on your ambient temperature.

This mod, if done right will definitely help your overclocking ability. I was able to pull another 30mhz out of my core. That was enough to give me about ~400 points in 3Dmark05. A significant amount for a little time and effort.

I don't know if this helps you at all, but I had done this mod on all of the cards I own and one on a friends card. I have some pictures of my mod in my sig.

[Superjed]

Yea, Id suggest doing what Westline suggested. His cards are very nicely modded.

[copernicus]

go for it should help alot. i stuck a stock xp2500+ sink on my old 5900 after i flashed it to 5950. and put a tt smartfan2 on top of it. idles at 29c hardly breaks 32-33 while gaming.

been in my bro's system since i got my gt last year and play's all including bf2.
temp's with the stock cooler were near 60c idle and 70's gaming.

to mount it i used a drop of high temp epoxy on each corner of the heatspreader with as ceramique on the rest. hasn't fallen off yet. [crosses fingers] although that wont help you as the gt has no heatspreader, at least mine don't.

[3DFlyer]

Yes, you guys are correct. This will be a direct core mount. The only thing structurally supporting the HSF will the the mounting method and the core. I have to be extremely careful doing this because I do not want to chip or stress the core from an unequal load being distributed to the core.

Warning: For anyone out there watching this, if you are new PLEASE (I beg you) to be careful if you try this. It takes a feel for hardware, and you can damage one of these 6800 cores easily. Many have chipped their cores, and some of these folks are serious modder's and just slipped...that's all it takes. They aren't completely fragile, but they can be damaged easily just the same. Treat them like glass because it they crack or chip they will be about as useless as a broken glass.

I am learning myself on this, and I could very well screw it up. That's why I'm asking these fine folks now, so I do not screw it up. These are expensive cards. If you do not have the money to replace your card, then definitely do not try this. I don't want anyone to do anything that could damage their card. Please do not slam me for suggesting this if something goes wrong when attempting this mod. This is definitely experimental and will definitely void your warranty.

If you feel comfortable doing this, then by all means go for it, but I don't want newbies to loose their prize possession because they didn't understand how delicate something like this can be.

[Susquehannock]

This thread is exactly what I needed as I am seriously considering mounting a sktA
sink on my 6800nu.

[Westline]

Originally Posted by 3DFlyer

Yes, you guys are correct. This will be a direct core mount. The only thing structurally supporting the HSF will the the mounting method and the core. I have to be extremely careful doing this because I do not want to chip or stress the core from an unequal load being distributed to the core.

Warning: For anyone out there watching this, if you are new PLEASE (I beg you) to be careful if you try this. It takes a feel for hardware, and you can damage one of these 6800 cores easily. Many have chipped their cores, and some of these folks are serious modder's and just slipped...that's all it takes. They aren't completely fragile, but they can be damaged easily just the same. Treat them like glass because it they crack or chip they will be about as useless as a broken glass.

I am learning myself on this, and I could very well screw it up. That's why I'm asking these fine folks now, so I do not screw it up. These are expensive cards. If you do not have the money to replace your card, then definitely do not try this. I don't want anyone to do anything that could damage their card. Please do not slam me for suggesting this if something goes wrong when attempting this mod. This is definitely experimental and will definitely void your warranty.

If you feel comfortable doing this, then by all means go for it, but I don't want newbies to loose their prize possession because they didn't understand how delicate something like this can be.

3DFlyer is dead on. If you don't even have a clue as to where to start, then don't. He is right on, the cores that are on the 6x series cards do not have the metal shroud like the 5x series and lower cards have. Click on the link in my sig and you can see exactly what the core looks like with out the metal shroud. If you want to learn how to preform these kinds of mods, practice on cards with a metal shroud around the GPU. Those GPU's are alot more durable then the newer models, I know of people who have lapped the shroud on the GPU. 3DFlyer is definitely doing the right thing by asking first before he trys to complete this kind of a modification.


Now, if I could only get my hands on a 7800gt and put a mod heatsink on it......

EDIT:: There really is no way to use epoxy on the cards with out a heatspreader/shroud. If any of you are doubting copernicus temperatures, they are right on. I did the same thing to my 5900 with the exact same heatsink and have gotten the same results.

[Susquehannock]

Good disclaimer - this mod is definitely not for the novice.

By "metal shroud" do you mean the square frame around the GPU core? If so my
Leadtek 6800nu does indeed have that. So perhaps it's a later revision to the 6800 reference design.

[jcw122]

IIRC this mod will work correctly, SolidxSnake has done it I think