6600GT AGP cooler

[bolillo_loco]

Hello, I recently made a cooler for my 6600GT AGP card and figured that I would pass it along. The modification is both simple, quick, and very inexpensive.

I was tired of a lack of aftermarket coolers for the 6600GT. The stock heat sink and fan that I have is very loud and it doesn’t cool very well. My idle temperatures were 53C and under a load the temperature would approach 80C. Since I usually purchase aftermarket coolers for the GPU and CPU, I’ve a box full of stock heat sinks and all the mounting hardware.

I fished through the box containing my parts and found a stock socket 478 heat sink and fan for a 2.4C/800FSB/512Kb Northwood. I also found a lot of mounting hardware for aftermarket Zalman, Artic Cooling, and Thermaltake coolers. I placed the socket 478 cooler on the card and marked onehole at each end of the heat sink. I then drilled and tapped them for fine thread screws that fit through the video card's stock holes. Since the 6600GT’s mounting holes are places very far apart, I had to **** the heat sink slightly to match the holes.

The fan for the socket 478 cooler is both larger than the 6600GT's stock one and much more quiet. When run on low, the stock fan for this heat sink is very quiet and uses a standard 3 pin connecter. Even when running the fan on 8 volts, the GPU of the 6600GT was unable to saturate the 478 cooler with heat. Back to being quiet, when this is running on low, I can barely hear it. The only potential drawback I can see for some of you is that it will take up three PCI slots.

A backing plate must be used to prevent the card from flexing. I used a backing plate from a Zalman CPU cooler. It’s large enough and doesn’t conduct electricity. It also has a square opening that doesn’t cover the GPU’s electrical connections on the back of the card. I then used an aluminum bar over the backing plate. This way the screws can be tightened very hard without worry of flexing the board. Due to the 6600GT’s unusually odd mounting holes, one on each end directly down the centerline of the GPU, I felt it was necessary to make sure it was tight.

I used UBI’s Pacific Fighters for a benchmark. Don’t be fooled by this game, it’s very demanding on the Video card. While running “Perfect Mode,” water 3, and 4x AA & AF filtering, it taxes the video card more than any of the Battle Field 2 games, including Battle Field 2142. This older game in fact heats up my 6800GT and 7800GT far more than any other game I have. Using a map in the middle of the ocean with ships and the like really causes stress on video cards. The water must be very hard to render.

The results:

53C idle 75/80C load with stock cooling
38C idle 49/50C load with 478 cooler

This is my first modification and it didn’t cost me a thing. I had all the parts in the garage. Final thoughts, I almost threw away my “junk box” a month ago. I’m glad I didn’t. Nobody, past or present, makes a cooler that will fit the 6600GT that I’m aware of. Perhaps the Zalman VF700 will fit, but it’s some 30.00 with shipping and I couldn’t see spending the money for the 6600GT that’s obviously aging and being used in a 3rd computer. This modification should work for any GPU.

Best regards, bolillo_loco

 

[sephiroth_749]

nice job if i had the skill and wasnt worried that i would break something i would try that

 

[Femto]

Great job! Glad you got some good results with that.

Though...

I REQUIRE MORE PICTURES!

 

[nd4spdbh2]

AHHH i loved my 6600gt agp... and still love it... i did the same thing i stuck a P4 478 hs on the dam thing.... overvolted it and ocd the hell out of it (626/1350) and it still lives today for htpc use (although it is not overclocked or overvolted n e mroe) i still have the huge hs on it for cool and quiet cooling. one thing that i have never done was to make a back plate... the damn thing is pretty much permantly bent... i should do something about that... but ehh w/e im gettin a x2 4200 and 7800gt htpc for free from my uncle... although im sure my 6600gt agp will live a good LONG LONG life.

heres a pic or 2 but we NEED pics of ur card... by n e chance did i corrupt you into doing this?!???!

 

[bolillo_loco]

Nd4spdbh2,

My modification is very similar, but slightly different. I didn’t angle the heat sing as much as you have. Since the 6600GT AGP was originally designed for PCI Express, there’s a little chip on the card. It looks much like a tiny processor and I covered both with the 478 heat sink. I was unaware of anybody doing this before me, but I must admit that it’s a rather straightforward and simple modification. I’m sure many have done the very same as the both of us.

Thanks for the pictures, I don't have a camera and somebody asked for pictures. Mine looks very similar to yours. I have a feeling that my box of old CPU coolers will come into handy in the near future as GPU coolers. Something that I recently thought of, my sound card actually has a cooler on the cards processor. The old GPU coolers may come in handy for tomorrow's sound card coolers...

 

[Navig]

Not detract at all from your mod, its well done, its cheap, and it performs great!

I've been putting cpu heatsinks on my graphics cards for years! I've found even the bargain bin $7 cpu heatsinks from my local microcenter spank the performance of stock sinks, as long as you are willing to sacrifice a few extra pci slots.

My current card with a $7 Ultra heatsink--keeps the x1900xtx under 45c under ATitool load.

My little experiment into keeping it lower profile.

If you are willing to sacrifice money like the folk at xtremesys, Check this one out.


navig

 

[bolillo_loco]

Yep, Like I said in my previous post, wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Your modification that I've included below is nearly the same as one I'm going to try. I'm going to use a conventional 92mm fan. My aim is low load temperatures and dead quiet operation. I can't stand fan noise! I plan to cut the heat sink down to 20-25mm on my radial arm saw or just by using a hacksaw. I've an entire garage full of big tools, makes me wonder why I'm only beginning to play with this now. There's nothing like ripping into a computer component with a die grinder that's spinning at 10,000 rpm.

This delay in modding may have had something to do with an AGP slot, hacksaw, and a straight razor. I had a 4x/8x agp card. I knew little about computers, but noticed that my 2x board's AGP slot was the same except for some annoying bridge that got into the way. 10 minutes with a hack saw fixed the problem and the 8x video card now fit into my 2x slot. :\/ too funny! Upon firing up my computer, thinking about my huge gains of 8x performance, my fans spun and it died! I was lucky; it did run ten minutes later after it came back from a wildcat strike. My guru computer buddy couldn't stop laughing after I called him up and told him what had just happened. Six months later he sent me a link to a forum. Some poor fool took a then new 7800GTX PCI-Express and hack sawed the male slot on the card so it would fit into his AGP board... At least I didn't ruin my equipment. Well, I've taken all of you hostage for long enough. Best regards, bolillo_loco