NV Silencer 5 + Gigabyte 6800GT

[Zygar]

A few months back, I bought a Gigabyte 6800GT. It had a meaty looking HSF and came with Doom 3. I discovered through my testing that the cooling system sucked. It really sucked. 100 degrees celsius under load. So I went and bought an Arctic NV Silencer 5, which arrived today. I've taken the original fan off, applied the thermal grease and everything, but the fan plug doesn't fit!

My card has a plug for a 3 pin fan connector. My cooler has a 2 pin fan connector. What can I do?
This is kind of urgent, as I need my PC by tomorrow afternoon. Currently the graphics card is sitting on my bench with the uncooperative cooler next to it. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[MDE]

You could splice the Silencer's fan wires into the Gigabyte cooler's header.

 

[Mrvile]

Zygar what was the brand of the card/type of HSF.

EDIT: I'm guessing BFG, dual fan. Me and you both buddy.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Zygar what was the brand of the card/type of HSF.

EDIT: I'm guessing BFG, dual fan. Me and you both buddy.

Read the OP, it's a Gigabyte. My BFG 6800GT and a friend's BFG 6800 both have the 2-wire plug.

 

[Zygar]

Gigabyte, as I said in my original post.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

personally I'd put the old fan back on, and order the right aftermarket cooler.

 

[Zygar]

Silly, it IS the right aftermarket cooler! Anyway, I've taken the plug cover off and plugged the... metal thingys directly into the socket. hopefully it will work. If not, I'll chuck the old fan back on and RMA the lot. The n00bs at my computer store won't know the difference...

 

[lobadobadingdong]

no fan plugs needed.

 

[Mrvile]

Oops sorry guys I missed the Gigabyte. Wow it was even in the title, I must've totally missed it. Oh well, same case with the BFG, the beefy looking dual-fan heat sink is actually a nice, lit-up pos. Gonna replace mine with a silencer soon.

 

[Zygar]

I just found something out from looking a bit more closely at the connector. It seems that the 3 pin connector is a tiny bit smaller than a normal 3 pin connector- I tried plugging the connector into a normal 3 pin fan header- and it was too small. Wonderful.

 

[akira34]

The fan connection on the NV Silencer 5 connected perfectly onto my eVGA 6800GT card... It can only go on one way (won't connect the wrong way), which makes things easier. IF Gigabyte didn't use a standard connection for their fan, then I'd have to wornder what else they did that didn't follow standards.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
no fan plugs needed.

Thats not enough cooling for a 6800 GT.

I would just cut the fan cable and plug the two ends in ignoring the middle wire, I believe that is for RPM monitoring or such. Best thing might be to call the folks that make the silencer. Worst case, put your old cooler back on until you have time to mess with it.

-spike

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
no fan plugs needed.

Thats not enough cooling for a 6800 GT.

I would just cut the fan cable and plug the two ends in ignoring the middle wire, I believe that is for RPM monitoring or such. Best thing might be to call the folks that make the silencer. Worst case, put your old cooler back on until you have time to mess with it.

-spike

On those coolers, they specify for the higher end cards you need to use the optional fan. Otherwise it won't get rid of the heat fast enough to not fry your video card.

 

[Zygar]

I got it working!

How I fixed it: I got a 3 pin --> molex adaptor. I plugged my 2 pin connector into that (had to cut off a bit of plastic to make it work,) plugged it into the power supply, and turned on my computer. It worked, and now I'm getting 38 degrees idle temps! W00T! Amazing cooler, 10/10. Would have been a pain free installation if not for Gigabyte's non standard cooling system plug. Thanks for helping, everyone.

 

[akira34]

How loud is the cooler/fan when connected to the PSU???

 

[Zygar]

Quiet as a mouse. I managed to dislodge a wire at one point poking around in my case- it got stuck in the fan and it wouldn't start. I didn't notice it not starting up. That's how quiet it is. (I'm paranoid though, and I noticed the temps going up at a rate of about 1 degree every 5 seconds. Lucky break.)

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: akira34

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
no fan plugs needed.

Thats not enough cooling for a 6800 GT.

I would just cut the fan cable and plug the two ends in ignoring the middle wire, I believe that is for RPM monitoring or such. Best thing might be to call the folks that make the silencer. Worst case, put your old cooler back on until you have time to mess with it.

-spike

On those coolers, they specify for the higher end cards you need to use the optional fan. Otherwise it won't get rid of the heat fast enough to not fry your video card.

it'll work fine if you have good case cooling. my 9700pro never had problems on the earlier generation zalmon.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong

Originally posted by: akira34

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
no fan plugs needed.

Thats not enough cooling for a 6800 GT.

I would just cut the fan cable and plug the two ends in ignoring the middle wire, I believe that is for RPM monitoring or such. Best thing might be to call the folks that make the silencer. Worst case, put your old cooler back on until you have time to mess with it.

-spike

On those coolers, they specify for the higher end cards you need to use the optional fan. Otherwise it won't get rid of the heat fast enough to not fry your video card.

it'll work fine if you have good case cooling. my 9700pro never had problems on the earlier generation zalmon.

A 9700 pro is not a "higher end card" anymore. The current generation produce ALOT more heat then the last. There are NO passively cooled 6800GT's on the market, usually by this point some maker has produced a passive cooler, but none have that works on these cards.

The only way it will work effectivly (without signifigantly reducing the life of your card) is to have a fan blowing over it to take away all the heat.

-spike

 

[akira34]

See the notes on their own site about the ZM80D-HP

Note 1)
If you are using an nVIDIA GeForce FX5800, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a Matrox Parhelia, or a more advanced model, an Optional Fan (ZM-OP1, sold separately) must be installed.

Here's a BIG one...
Note 2)
This product is not installable on an nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 6800 Ultra because they do not have 3mm holes around the GPU.

Finally...
Note 3)
Zalman does not recommend VGA card overclocking. Zalman is not responsible for any damage from VGA card overclocking.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: akira34
See the notes on their own site about the ZM80D-HP

Note 1)
If you are using an nVIDIA GeForce FX5800, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a Matrox Parhelia, or a more advanced model, an Optional Fan (ZM-OP1, sold separately) must be installed.

Here's a BIG one...
Note 2)
This product is not installable on an nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 6800 Ultra because they do not have 3mm holes around the GPU.

Finally...
Note 3)
Zalman does not recommend VGA card overclocking. Zalman is not responsible for any damage from VGA card overclocking.

Way to actually show facts, I need to learn to do that when I refute someone...

-spike

 

[akira34]

If you're going to do it, do it right and back your own ass up...