Asus Radeon HD 6570 fan died... any passive heatsinks?

[evilspoons]

Hi everyone,

I have an Asus Radeon HD 6570 I'm using for my HTPC. It's a low-profile card and it works great with XBMC on Windows 7.

Unfortunately the bearing in the fan has decided to start making horrible noises. It was quiet enough before, but now you can hear it through the whole apartment.

Before I send it back for RMA (I imagine it's still under warranty, not that I could find anything in the manual they give you with the card)... does anyone make an aftermarket passive cooler I could put on this thing? HIS make a lower quality 6570 with a passive heatsink, but I don't think buying an entire new video card is necessary at this point.

Thoughts?

 

[MrK6]

This your card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121441&Tpk=asus 6570

If so, take the fan off it and try running it passively, check your temps and see how high they get. If you're going past 85-90C full load, reduce the clocks and try again. If you're only using it for HTPC, it shouldn't need full power. You could also remove the expansion bay slot cover below one below the card so that negative pressure from your case fan(s) will draw air over the heatsink. You could also buy an 80mm fan, zip tie/glue it to the card, and run it at 7V.

 

[Hauk]

Yea if that's your card, I can't imagine that tiny fan has much an impact on that thick heatsink. As MrK6 suggested, unplug/remove fan and get some extra air passing over the heatsink. Zip ties FTW!

 

[evilspoons]

That is my card indeed. My HTPC box doesn't actually have any other fans inside right now except the CPU (the PSU fan doesn't draw air from inside the case).

I'm looking to add one or more fans to the far side of the case, but I don't think they're close enough to really keep the video card happy. Unfortunately, the case requires half-height cards so I don't think I could cram a 80 mm fan square against the heat sink. It'll fit an 80mm fan on the far right (the big ventilated side), but since there are empty PCIe slots next to the GPU that eats up my vertical space.

This is the case I'm using: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=283

 

[Hauk]

I used one of these before to get air between cards:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0246525

Good luck..

 

[evilspoons]

Thanks for the ideas!

I used one of these before to get air between cards:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0246525

Good luck..

So that's what that thing is. Do you know the diameter on the fan and/or the plastic ring around the fan? I can't find any actual measurements. I'll have to look into this some more...