Quietest video card cooler?

[PointlesS]

ok...my radeon 8500 is overheating...becuase I couldn't play a game for 5 mins without crashing....and so I put a huge fan by my open case and ran the four demo for quake 3 and left it on for like 8 hours and it was still running....cpu temps are fine (43-45) and so it's probably my vid card overheating...but anyways...what's the quietest cooler? I was thinking of getting a pci slot fan...but I don't think that would be very practical and would probably blow hot air around...so would be best the best fan? I'm not into overclocking...I jsut want a fan that does the job and is quiet...I'm open to any suggestions...including putting a pci fan in...I'm not too comfortable with putting a new hsf on my card because if I screw up I could have a nice $150 peice of junk...but if it is the quietest way to cool my radeon 8500 then I'll do it....thanks...

 

[BoomAM]

i dont know about quiet coolers but you can buy the following
Thermaltake BlueOrb (Blorb)- the original GPU cooler about 30dBA
Thermaltake OrangeOrb - The successor to the BlueOrb, 1*c better at cooling
Thermaltake CrystalOrb(crorb) - The successor to both 3-5*c better at cooling than BlueOrb.

i`ve heard that if you take the guard off the top of the CrystalOrb, then its quieter and cools better

also, you`ll have no worries with messing up your card with almost any GPU cooler. all three Thermaltake products come with everything that you need to attach it to the card(push pins, thermal paste, thermal adhesive pads). As well as the fan itself, unless you have a spair fan header on your motherboard then you will need a 3-4pin molex connector to plug the fan directly into your PSU, i dont know about the last 2 orbs but the BlueOrb comes with one.

Check out overclockers austrailia or similar name(not sure on the name) and look for video cooling/overclocking article and it`ll show you how to attach a blueorb to a video card. or search for a guide on www.dogpile.com

 

[Brian48]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that all of the offerings from Thermaltake do not fit on the Radeon 8500. A few of the capacitors are in the way. Also, there are no mounting holes drilled into the PCB to accomodate the push pin mounting system. You'd have to use thermal tape, which might be OK for the Blue Orb, but the copper-based Crystal Orb is be too heavy to insure a secure mount.

 

[PointlesS]

<< Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that all of the offerings from Thermaltake do not fit on the Radeon 8500. A few of the capacitors are in the way. Also, there are no mounting holes drilled into the PCB to accomodate the push pin mounting system. You'd have to use thermal tape, which might be OK for the Blue Orb, but the copper-based Crystal Orb is be too heavy to insure a secure mount. >>


yeah...that's what I'm afraid of...I Know that there's some coolers that just don't fit....also how would you take off the heatsink on the radeon?

 

[Blurry]

Go to Rage3d.com and they have all the step you need to take off that crummy heatsink/fan off the Radeon. Better yet, here's the linky to it.Da Link

 

[Stevem627]

I have a slot fan and I have always found them to be very nice cheap additions for any PC...at the loss of the PCI slot used. Cools my 8500 fine.

 

[PointlesS]

<< I have a slot fan and I have always found them to be very nice cheap additions for any PC...at the loss of the PCI slot used. Cools my 8500 fine. >>


could you recommend a good quiet slot fan?

 

[PointlesS]

bump...also could I get a slot fan at comp usa? I don't want to order online,...because it sort of sucks when the shipping costs more than the items however right now I just have a spare 80mm fan literally sitting ontop of my radeon for a temporary cooling thing instead of a huge window fan...so now I know exactly that my video card is the problem...plus is a lot less louder

 

[Toro 45]

The 2 slot fans I used in the past were not what I would call quiet.Is it possible you just need to improve your case cooling?What case do you have & how is your airflow setup?

Toro

 

[BoomAM]

why not use a thermal adheshive then?
it`ll be better than a slot cooler.

if you want the best cooling solution for your vid card, then attach a Orb+some decent heatsinks, and then buy a bracket that will suspend a fan over the AGP/PCI slots. like the card cooler, you can buy the bracket on its own if you look around and then put a papst 92mm fan on it. that`ll keep it cool with a decent CFM airflow and quiet with a low dBa.