Modded my AIW Radeon 8500dv

[hcarlson]

Pic of the 8500 core

Pic of card w/ new hsf
Pic2 of card w/ new hsf
Pic3 of card w/ new hsf

The HSF is a socket7 HS and the fan was on my northbridge (Gigabyte 8iexp)

Stuck the card is the freezer for 20 minutes and popped off the old HSF.

Took a razor blade to the core and gently scraped the old thermal crap off. Finally used rubbing alcohol to get the last layer of stuff off so I could see the core clearly. Took me about 30 minutes for this part.

I made some homemade thermal epoxy using Loctite epoxy and Arctic silver mixed in.

This thing is silent now, I was so tired of hearing the whine of that damn fan. What do you guys think?

My next plan is to put a heatsink on the tv tuner, b/c that thing gets damn hot.

 

[Tab]

The fan on the 8500 is loud? Thats disapointing. I was considering upgrading from a TNT2 32MB to a 8500(I know I should get a 9500 Pro, but I dont have the money or power supply requirements.). I am really picky when it comes to nosie.

 

[hcarlson]

yeah if you want a silent or at least quiet system you will have to mod it.

 

[JHeiderman]

The fan on the 8500 is so skimpy to begin with that I bet if you put a nice size heatsink on it without a fan and had pretty good airflow through your case you could cool it at stock speeds ok.

Personaly, I put a nice Socket-7 heatsink on my 8500LE with a quite fan and I am stable at 305/305. Awesome card for the money.

- J