9800SE with a Processor Heatsink

[penceman]

I have a 9800SE and it is overheating like crazy. Its not overclocked or anything. I was in the middle of playing FarCry and it froze and came up with an error from the video card. I guess it got too hot or something. Someone told me they've heard of peple putting processor heatsinks on their video cards and it's worked. They just glued it on with thermal grease. Do you guys think it will work?
P.S.- If it wont work I'll just buy a video card cooler for it

 

[damonpip]

It would work, but they can be hard to mount to the video card. You cannot just use thermal grease, thermal epoxy may work, but it is permanent. You'd be much better off to buy a VGA silencer and/or get better ventilation in your case.

 

[Jeff7]

I attached a 1U-sized copper heatsink (slim thing, with a 60x60x10mm fan) to a few of my videocards over the years, using tiny machine screws and nuts, with insulating washers. I drilled holes in the heatsink to facilitate mounting directly to the board. Thermal epoxy, especially with exposed-die GPUs, will either be inadequate to hold a heavy heatsink in place, and it would also be likely to just rip the chip right off the board with even the slightest amount of shearing force.

Easy solution though is to get a ready-made videocard cooler. Just make sure you've got space; I bought an ATI Silencer, and it was too long for the case - Antec SLK3700AMB with 5 hard drives. The ATI Silencer hit the hard drives. I had to get a VGA Silencer rev3, which is shorter. It doesn't have the copper base - all aluminum - but it seems to do the job well enough.

 

[xbassman]

Sounds to me like you need to address the source of the problem.

If your vc is overheating without being overclocked, you probably aren't getting proper airflow within your case. Your vc is just the hottest chip in there and is the first to show symptoms of the problem. Raidmax cases don't really have the best ventilation, but can be improved upon.

BTW- I have one PC here that has a GeForce II with a K6-2 heatsink mounted on it. It works fine. I wouldn't go that route with a 9800 though.