Replacing the Nvidia GF4 reference cooler ??

[Borchers]

Got me a MSI Geforce 4 Ti4400 the other day. Great card, but that Nvidia cooler design is very noisy. So I'm thinking of replacing the cooler with a Thermaltake Crystal Orb. Wise choise ?

The way I see it, the told purpose of that Nvidia cooler is to cool the ramblocks aswell. But since the cooler only can "cool" one site of the card, I figure it's more for the eye, than for cooling the ramblocks.
Also the cooler is painted with a chrome kinda paint, and that cant be good for heat transfer ? All in all I think changing the cooler is better.
Any suggestions ?

P.s. I only have a few cooler options. It's Crystal Orb, Orange Orb and Blue Orb (Think Blue is noisy aswell. Vibrating to much).

 

[Overclocker456]

if you're not going to overclock, then don't change it. if you are going to overclock then go with a good 1U cooler like the Alpha 153.. change it ONLY if you want to overclock...

 

[Grande Juan]

Beware the crystal orb hole's line up, but the pegs that come with it are to small. Don't try to force them and make the same costly error I did. And yes the reference cooler is supremely lame, avoid it at all cost.

 

[Borchers]

Unfortuenatly I cant purchase anything but the Orb's here in Denmark.
I might overclock at some point, but right now the performance is plenty. I only want to change the cooler because the stockfan is way to noisy.

I have a good airflow in my Chieftec DX-01SLD miditower, with 3 80mm Enermax fans.

 

[ShadowCat66]

I just looked at your card to see the difference in the design compared to my visiontek.This is what I did.I took the fan off of mine(I kepted the original H/S just lapped it and used AS II) and super glued a blue orb fan in place of the old fan.I also used the pins from the blue orb(they seemed better) I have pics in this section under New Fan for my visiontek.That way you dont have to worry about the pins matching the card,as far as I know they dont line up.Then if you need to you could always pop the fan off and replace it with the original.No new holes needed.

 

[Borchers]

Interresting mod you made there ShadowCat66..
Talked to a friend earlier today, who just recieved his Creative GF4 Ti4400. He said that he couldnt understand why I was complaining over the noise, cause his was quite silent. Then we found out that his cooler doesnt have anything on top, like on my MSI. Tried to remove the top yesterday, but I didnt have en srewdriver small enough. Tomorrow I do, and then the top comes of
Will be on the lookout for an extra fan to fit on top of the card, like on yours ShadowCat66. There is a lot of heat upthere.

 

[ShadowCat66]

My temps using a digital doc are 50c at idle and 55C at load.Seems hot but is normal readings as far as what people are getting.

That is a 50mm fan on top in case you were wondering,Check out the artical in this forums tips and reveiws"Fan Sandwitch"