Any advice for voltmodding a video card fan?

[bluemax]

This X1300Pro's video card is the loudest fan in my system by far. The thing gets disturbingly toasty without the fan though (unplug the fan and feel the HS fins = hot, but still touchable in 2D. No 3D testing w/o fan yet.)

I imagine a voltmod would be great! I have some resistors kicking around from another project (pretty big 2-watters, I should get something smaller?)

Anyone recommend a watt/ohm combination to go for?

And do I splice it into the red wire? (Not the black or yellow of the three...)

Wish it were just software controlled.

 

[Auric]

Okay so assuming it's not controlled by Crapalyst does that also mean the necessary hardware is non-existant? Three-wire suggests the fan is variable. Have you tried ATI Tray Tools 'n' such?

Otherwise if going ahead with the wiring have you determined the voltage and amperage yet? Often they are labelled on the underside with the specs or at least a part number so as to look them up.

 

[bluemax]

You know.... I went straight to the Omega drivers. I'll bet that's why fan control is grayed out. I'll try the standard ATI drivers before I go cutting wires.

Tray Tools, eh? I'll check it out.

 

[Navid]

Don't run the card without a fan when running 3D. There is a reason for the fan to be there!

You can have a fan controller in many different ways. You can build a simple one by swapping wires or adding resistors, or you can buy one.

All of these options reduce the noise by reducing cooling!
This is not a good idea for 3D since the cooler that usually comes with a graphics card is not a very optimum cooler.

The best option is to upgrade to a better cooler. They are already quiet. Since they improve cooling too, you can further reduce the sound if you wanted to without degrading cooling below what you have now.

Edit:
It is a good idea to keep an eye on the temperature while you are tweaking it. I don't know if that card has a thermal sensor or not. If it does, you can use ATITool to monitor the temperature on your taskbar.
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

 

[bluemax]

The idea is to do this cheap. The cooler appears to work extremely well - it's very cool to the touch while running - even in 3D, but heats up pretty quick if the fan is unplugged. I'd say, if the fan were running @ 50% speed, it would be more than sufficient to keep it at a safe running temperature. Besides - it's winter here and there's lots and lots of ambient cooling to be had.

 

[bluemax]

BTW: Thanks for the tips, guys!

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: bluemax
The cooler appears to work extremely well - it's very cool to the touch

I'm sorry but that means nothing!
I gave you a link for monitoring the temperature of your GPU.
Good luck!

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: bluemax
The cooler appears to work extremely well - it's very cool to the touch

I'm sorry but that means nothing!
I gave you a link for monitoring the temperature of your GPU.
Good luck!

Can't easily do that at work.

And while it's not accurate - it IS a good indicator if your GPU is (or not) getting enough cooling. With the fan, it's noticably cold. Not just cool - COLD. Without fan, even in desktop 2D, it gets uncomfortably hot. If I ran it in 3D and nearly burned my finger, I'd say it's a mighty fine indicator it's not getting proper cooling.

Let's hope the software does something to reduce the noise....

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: bluemax

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: bluemax
The cooler appears to work extremely well - it's very cool to the touch

I'm sorry but that means nothing!
I gave you a link for monitoring the temperature of your GPU.
Good luck!

And while it's not accurate - it IS a good indicator if your GPU is (or not) getting enough cooling. With the fan, it's noticably cold. Not just cool - COLD. Without fan, even in desktop 2D, it gets uncomfortably hot. If I ran it in 3D and nearly burned my finger, I'd say it's a mighty fine indicator it's not getting proper cooling.

If you touch a heatsink and it is cool, it means that the heatsink is cool, not the chip necessarily. How close the temperaure of the chip and the heatsink are depends on many things, which could vary from installation to installation.
That is why it is better to measure the temperature of the chip (GPU in this case) itself.
The main test for a cooler is to see how well it performs under stress (in this case, it would be 3D). A cool heatsink when runnig 2D is not a reliable indicator that you can safely drop the RPM of the fan!

 

[bluemax]

Sensible. One should never assume the heatsink is actually doing its job...

 

[bluemax]

@#$%^#$! None of those ATI apps have any control over the fan. Useless! #@$^#$%~!!!!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well when my gf's fan for her 9500pro was getting rather loud, I took that off and slapped an 80mm fan onto the heatsink and did a 7V mod to it. It's been working fine. The POS fan that came with the card barely pushed any air to begin with, so the current fan is giving a low more flow even at 7V.

 

[bluemax]

Good idea - I just did exactly that with an old 90mm fan I had lying around. Almost silent, but it cost me one of my 2 PCI slots. No more faxmodem.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: bluemax
Good idea - I just did exactly that with an old 90mm fan I had lying around. Almost silent, but it cost me one of my 2 PCI slots. No more faxmodem.

And that's a bad thing?

 

[bluemax]

Only when wifey wants to send a fax...... good thing that's rare!

 

[Auric]

Well then what aboot replacing the lame HSF with a larger heat sink (old CPU one or whatever is cheap and/or laying about) and putting the large fan at the back with air flowing over the length of the card and optionally removing the adjacent slot cover to expell the warm air?

In the olden days before mounting holes, the HS could be affixed with a tidgy amount of super glue at corners if necessary (secure against glue failure with non-conductive strap) and while that remains an option it should be EZ 'nuff to make use of the holes with threaded fasteners (plastic else metal with insulating gromets or washers) and a retention "bridge" betwixt them on top of the HS, if you dig? Or if you have the resources to drill the HS then "Bob's your Uncle".