- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Location
- Kansas City, KS USA
the fan in the stock heatsink of my XFX 6600gt has suddenly gone buzzy (after almost exactly 6 months of service) and higher-pitched. It's annoying me to death. I want it to stop.
is this reason enough to request an RMA? I'm thinking it isn't, since the fan is still technically spinning and the card has yet to display artifacts or any visible sign of overheating (though I imagine the thing must be spinning slower than it was, and a mechanical freeze up could be looming over the horizon...).
so i'm thinking maybe the moral thing (?) to do is to buy a 3rd party heatsink that's quieter. I haven't bothered overclocking this card, and I don't really plan to until i need to to play the games I want to play. With that, and my desire for quietness in mind, I've jumped into the forums and found there are 5 solutions out there (listed here in order of decreasing cost):
#1: The Stasis Icestorm, commonly touted by consumer9000 here on the forums. Accepted as the de facto best performing cooler out there (for an AGP 6600gt), custom designed for the 6600gt agp. Also carrying the scariest pricetag - 51.98 shipped from the Stasis website (the only source I'm aware of).
#2: The Zalman VF-700Cu. This one has the advantage of being useable on future cards. 36.96 shipped from Xoxide.com to my zipcode.
#3: The Zalman VF-700AlCu. Same as its brother, but lighter, having some aluminum fins instead of straight copper. 28.85 shipped from newegg.com to me.
#4: The Jetart JACSH1. I've only ever heard of jetart once before and all I know is I wouldn't recommend you buy one of their laptops, if they're still in that business... anyway, this is 26.50 shipped from sidewindercomputers.com (i haven't yet found another place that stocks it, but i'm having trouble finding places that sell it... if you find a better one let me know and i'll update this list for others' use
)
#5: I could try to get another stock heatsink for an XFX 6600gt from someone here at ocforums, but agp 6600gt roundups would need to be closely read to be sure the replacement isn't any worse than the existing stock solution (in my case my stock has gotten pretty bad however)...
is there any other option i've missed?
if not, would you do an RMA?
if not, which would you choose bearing in mind that at this time I'm focused primarily on quietness, then price?
PS: as an offshoot, I have some heatsinks from some old K-7s with attached fans, but I'm pretty sure they're not hefty enough for the heat made by this card... can anyone confirm that? (i'm not sure how i'd attach one anyway) for reference, the heatsink itself is about 50x50x40mm , 40mm being the height, fan included (which is about 10mm thick)
is this reason enough to request an RMA? I'm thinking it isn't, since the fan is still technically spinning and the card has yet to display artifacts or any visible sign of overheating (though I imagine the thing must be spinning slower than it was, and a mechanical freeze up could be looming over the horizon...).
so i'm thinking maybe the moral thing (?) to do is to buy a 3rd party heatsink that's quieter. I haven't bothered overclocking this card, and I don't really plan to until i need to to play the games I want to play. With that, and my desire for quietness in mind, I've jumped into the forums and found there are 5 solutions out there (listed here in order of decreasing cost):
#1: The Stasis Icestorm, commonly touted by consumer9000 here on the forums. Accepted as the de facto best performing cooler out there (for an AGP 6600gt), custom designed for the 6600gt agp. Also carrying the scariest pricetag - 51.98 shipped from the Stasis website (the only source I'm aware of).
#2: The Zalman VF-700Cu. This one has the advantage of being useable on future cards. 36.96 shipped from Xoxide.com to my zipcode.
#3: The Zalman VF-700AlCu. Same as its brother, but lighter, having some aluminum fins instead of straight copper. 28.85 shipped from newegg.com to me.
#4: The Jetart JACSH1. I've only ever heard of jetart once before and all I know is I wouldn't recommend you buy one of their laptops, if they're still in that business... anyway, this is 26.50 shipped from sidewindercomputers.com (i haven't yet found another place that stocks it, but i'm having trouble finding places that sell it... if you find a better one let me know and i'll update this list for others' use
)#5: I could try to get another stock heatsink for an XFX 6600gt from someone here at ocforums, but agp 6600gt roundups would need to be closely read to be sure the replacement isn't any worse than the existing stock solution (in my case my stock has gotten pretty bad however
)...is there any other option i've missed?
if not, would you do an RMA?
if not, which would you choose bearing in mind that at this time I'm focused primarily on quietness, then price?
PS: as an offshoot, I have some heatsinks from some old K-7s with attached fans, but I'm pretty sure they're not hefty enough for the heat made by this card... can anyone confirm that? (i'm not sure how i'd attach one anyway) for reference, the heatsink itself is about 50x50x40mm , 40mm being the height, fan included (which is about 10mm thick)
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