Fan for 9800 Pro

[Farm]

Just bought a Radeon 9800 Pro and I'm wondering what the thoughts are about a good, quiet cooling fan for the Radeon. It is a ATI - retail card and comes with the stock cooler.
Thanks.

 

[koojoe]

Arctic Cooler rev3 is a nice cooler. a rather huge heatsink with a plastic casing around it and a fan to blow air out the back of the system. Pretty quiet too.. $15-20 new

 

[Farm]

What about the goofy looking Zalman heatpipe?

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Farm
What about the goofy looking Zalman heatpipe?

I hear that its a bitch to install. I have no personal experience with it, however ive noticed lots of people recommending the Arctic coolers.

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: koojoe
Arctic Cooler rev3 is a nice cooler. a rather huge heatsink with a plastic casing around it and a fan to blow air out the back of the system. Pretty quiet too.. $15-20 new

Another vote for this one!
I bought an HIS Excalibur 9800Pro. It came with the Arctic cooler stock. The fact that it exhausts the hot air out the back brought my overall system temps down. 🙂

 

[LAVAB84615]

Originally posted by: koojoe
Arctic Cooler rev3 is a nice cooler. a rather huge heatsink with a plastic casing around it and a fan to blow air out the back of the system. Pretty quiet too.. $15-20 new

have one on my 9800pro and it keeps everything nice and cool. i like how it helps keep my case temps low cause the hot air is exhausted outside...

 

[koojoe]

I have one laying around but I think I might keep it. I'm currently watercooled but it might go bad some day. Have my radeon 9800 pro overclocked to 432/351 core/mem - I haven't seen any artifacts and I could probably push it further. 600 extra points in 3dmark 2003. - from 5,500 to 6,100 - I think that arctic cooler could probably get it to that OC.. not sure tho.


As for the zalman heatpipe I've had one. It is a lot harder to install but it isn't rocket science. You could figure it out. You won't get an OC on the heatpipe without a fan running over it. The 9800 pro is really hot with the heatpipe on and no airflow across it. Zalman does sell an additional fan that hooks to it. It'd probably be cheaper to get a bracket and put an 80mm beside it. Anyway I think the arctic cooler is cheaper than the zalman. Good performer too.


Let us know how it turns out.

Good luck.

 

[Farm]

The Zalman sounds like too much work for not a big advantage.

How much of a pain is it to install the arctic cooler rev3?

Thanks all.

 

[koojoe]

The hardest part is removing the stock heatsink. Hopefully you'll just have to squeeze the hold downs on the back side of the card to release.


The arctic cooler has two screws, and 4 rubber spacers... you put the thermal compound on the gpu.. plug in the fan cable of the arctic cooler into the cards slot. (same slot that the stock heatsink used to power the fan).. put the screws and one spacer on each bolt through the back.. put another couple spacers on the bolts after they have gone through the holes... so u have a spacer on each side of the bolt... find the holes of the front now by laying the front of the heatsink close to the screws that come through the pcb of the card. thread them in.. lay the heatsink side on the gpu... flush contact. Tight the screws on the back of the card to desired tension.

There is a high/low switch on the back of the panel of the cool.

 

[trexpesto]

There was this $11 deal on it
in HotDeals. Check to make sure it still works.

 

[Farm]

Originally posted by: trexpesto
There was this $11 deal on it
in HotDeals. Check to make sure it still works.

THANKS!

I just ordered one. It was easier than waiting around to catch one a couple bucks cheaper on ebay.

 

[jdiddy]

Originally posted by: koojoe
Arctic Cooler rev3 is a nice cooler. a rather huge heatsink with a plastic casing around it and a fan to blow air out the back of the system. Pretty quiet too.. $15-20 new

Another vote for this. Looks like you already got one though. You won't be dissapointed.

 

[Farm]

I've read to peal the stickers off the cooler so they don't peal off due to heat. Anyone else confirm this?

 

[koojoe]

hrmmmm it really isn't a big issue.. My sticker didn't peel... used it for half a month.

 

[zoob]

Mine was peeling off on my 9800XT. I ended up peeling off every sticker. It looks less stupid now 🙂 I'm beyond that now, currently have an old Socket A HSF on it, and waiting for my new water parts to come in (MCW50 will be going on it instead)

 

[gotensan01]

Have you thought about adding BGA RAM sinks? These seen to improve performance a lot. There are also reviews on the link I posted.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Farm
What about the goofy looking Zalman heatpipe?

I've used them, they are great if you don't plan to overclock, get the latest one (2 heatpipes) though for better heat dissapation. my 9700 pro I have with it kept it stable, and I never OC'd it, but I've heard reports the one I have won't handle the newer cards very well (keep in mind they may have been OC'ing.

edit: not hard to install, just time consuming, takes about 30-40 min. if you take your time. also when I did mine I used Ceramique instead of the stuff that came with it, the side opposite was perfectly even temp wise with the side on the vpu. you'll also need adequate case ventalation

 

[Farm]

Originally posted by: gotensan01
Have you thought about adding BGA RAM sinks? These seen to improve performance a lot. There are also reviews on the link I posted.

I looked into ram sinks, but I probably won't overclock my video card. I know, I know, it's easy and gives you better performance, but OCing just isn't my thing with video cards.