Can I leave fan unplugged on my Radeon 9550

[aidanjm]

The small fan on my graphics card makes more noise than all of the other components in my computer combined. (I have silenced the other components e.g., with fan-mates, switching to a silent power supply). I am not playing 3D games, just watching a few DVDs. Would it be OK to leave the fan on the card permanently unpluged? The heatsink on the card goes from cool to the touch (with fan on) to quite warm to the touch with the fan off. It is about as warm as the heatsink on the Northbridge. It isn't so hot that it is painful to touch, tho. Would it be safe to leave the fan off? I think the 9550 is just an underclocked 9600, so surely there would be a margin of safety? I would have got a card with passive heatsink, but they were out of stock at the time.

 

[mwmorph]

try getting a bigger, quiter fan on it then.(ex 120mm held on with duct tape).

 

[snarl]

Just replace the Fan, but keep it running or you risk overheating/frying your Video card.

 

[Peter]

The strange thing here being that the 325 MHz plain 9600 usually comes fanless, while the 250 MHz 9550 cards all do have a fan on. Apparently a cheap fan is cheaper than a proper extruded-aluminium heatsink.

So you could simply put a proper, big heatsink on and do away with the fan.

 

[zakee00]

i thought the radeon 9500's were clocked higher then the 9600s...?

 

[Peter]

9550 is 250 MHz, 9600 is 325. Apart from that, it's the exact same thing.

 

[modedepe]

Probably is ok without the fan, but I'd underclock it a little to be sure.

 

[imported_JamesDax]

Most 9550s and even some 9600s come without fans. So you should be alright.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: zakee00
i thought the radeon 9500's were clocked higher then the 9600s...?

Originally posted by: Peter
9550 is 250 MHz, 9600 is 325. Apart from that, it's the exact same thing.

And while we're at it, just to make things more confusing, the 9500 is 275 MHz.

 

[gwag]

bad thing is fan heatsinks are usually smaller and provide less cooling that a regular heatsink, if got a lot of fins and surface area you OK i bet.

 

[kmmatney]

I just bought a 9600 Pro for a friend that came with only a heatsink, with a core speed of 325 MHz. You should be perfectly fine unplugging the fan, even with its small heatsink.

 

[Peter]

That's not a "Pro" then. You've been had. 9600Pro is supposed to run 400 MHz core - w/ 300 MHz RAM on proper "Pro", and 200 MHz RAM on the "ProEZ" or similarly named cheapskates.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: Peter
The strange thing here being that the 325 MHz plain 9600 usually comes fanless, while the 250 MHz 9550 cards all do have a fan on. Apparently a cheap fan is cheaper than a proper extruded-aluminium heatsink.

So you could simply put a proper, big heatsink on and do away with the fan.

I wonder if I could use this northbridge cooler? It's about 3 times as big as the existing heatsink.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: modedepe
Probably is ok without the fan, but I'd underclock it a little to be sure.

I've downloaded the STI Tool for over/ under clocking. How much is underclocking a little? Deault for the core is 250.