Expert Recommendation...

[chazdraves]

Well, that about says it... I"m looking for "THE BEST" cooling solution for my 9800Pro so I can get some more horsepower outta it before Doom3 hits shelves. I'm not interested in installing an entire liquid cooling system (at this time) so that's outta the picture. I currently have the Zalman VGA Cooling kit on there, and the help it provides is moderate. I think the big problem is that the base heatsink on it is way too small, despite the large heatsink that rests on top... Opinions, comments, suggestions, links, etc.? Thanks a bunch!

- Chaz

 

[vshah]

vga silencer rev 3s seem to be the choice of most ppl around here

-Vivan

 

[chazdraves]

Looks to be exactly what I'm looking for; however, I have RAMsinks on each of the memory modules on my vid card so I can get a higher OC there as well... is this thing going to cool my RAM for me or is this thing going to force me to turn down my timings by not allowing me to fit my RAMsinks under it? Hope that makes sense, I gotta hit the sack...

Thanks,
- Chaz

 

[Sylvanas]

"I"m looking for THE BEST"

the best is the thermaltake giant 3

 

[PowderBB3D]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
"I"m looking for THE BEST"

the best is the thermaltake giant 3

:thumbsup:

 

[chazdraves]

Now, obviously I'm not real familiar with the products, but here is what I got right now. Do you think that Giant III will make a big difference over my Zalman? The biggest differences I noticed between the two was that the Giant #1 had a ridge to properly adapt to the 9800 #2 has 2 heatpipes instead of 1 and #3 comes with fans. I've attached a 80mm fan to the top of my Zalman and I have a Chieftech Dragon case so the side fan blows right across the video card; which reminds me of one more thing...

That Giant III has the side area sealed with a giant heatsink... that means my side fan wouldn't even be able to blow across the core... that seems like a really worthless design... why seal the side? Why not mount a blower on the side, but not put a heatsink there? I don't know maybe I just saw a bad pic, but it seemed a little iffy to me...

As long as I'm still going... My primary motivation with this thing is to get a bit more out of my 9800Pro core speeds... right now it's at a pretty wussy 422MHz... it stays cool at even 440MHz, but I start to see artifacts... is the Giant III gonna help me get a bit more out of it?

Phew... lot of stuff. Thanks for your time/insights!

- Chaz

 

[apoppin]

personally i wouldn't bother.

Your card is already pushed to near it's limit . . . a few extra mhz o/c'ing won't make any practical difference in FPS (except to your wallet's contents).

my rec - start saving your money for your next GPU

that said, i am using the Arctic-Cooling VGA Silencer r3 on my 9800Pro 256/256MB > XT . . . excellent design (dropped +10 C over the ATI cooler) and QUIET . . . and it probably won't make ANY difference over yours.

 

[imported_whatever]

another option to get more out of it would be to voltmod it, as it will prolly let you get a higher clock speed. it could be that the gpu is just maxed out, but the odds are it will do much better with a bit more voltage if it is staying cool as it is

 

[chazdraves]

I think the GPU is maxed because it's not clicking off or anything, it pushes till it artifacts... not sure that voltmodding would do a thing for it at this point, think I got what I can get. I still need to put on my ramsinks though, I got the mem speed at 375MHz right now and I think I can probably get a bit higher with them on.

Actually, that reminds me... That Zalman cooling kit thingy I got, the back heatsink comes down really low hence blocking me from putting the RAMsinks on the back 4 mem chips... Am I better off just putting sinks on the front 4 and hoping some of the heat transfers, or should I remove that giant heat shield on the back (as it's not really cooling anything right now) so I can put RAMsinks on the back 4 as well. Bearing in mind that at this point I'm not worried about my GPU anymore, I think that's topped and it's running plenty cool so to lose a bit of cooling ain't so big a deal anymore... Thanks again!

- Chaz