vf700 on Leadtek 6800GT

[Compnewbie01]

I ask if anyone has more experience with Leadtek's warranty. I want to put this on my card, but the warranty in the user guide isn't 100% clear on this. It said the warranty is void if damaged through negligence from OCing/after market cooling. So does this mean that it voids the warranty period or only if I screw up the installation and make a mess out of it? I want to get better cooling for the card because it runs at 90/91C under load (CS:S) and around 83C load from Doom3 (strange) so that I can OC it to ultra speeds. I just want to know how the warranty with Leadtek works since they GIVE you an overclocking utility in Winfox 2.0. Also the vf700 has a 3 pin connector for the fan and I wonder where that would go since the one free fan slot on my mobo (Epox 9NPA+) is for the PSU fan(?).

 

[Tates]

Temps are high. My Leadtek 6800GT idles in the low 40's and 60's under full load.

The factory heatsink is very beefy and should work well. I'ld take the stock heatsink off, apply arctic silver 5 and refit.

OCing and aftermarket cooling = voided warranty

The VF700 comes with a molex to 3pin adapter.

 

[theMan]

it will void the warranty, but it breaks, and you are sure you didnt do it when you installed it, just stick the old cooler back on and send it in.

 

[Compnewbie01]

Okay so it sounds alright to add a new HSF to the card... but I have to ask about the giant copper heatsink on the bottom of the card. Do I remove the entire heatsink and fan in order to replace it or do I only take off the top part (fan and heatsink array-like thing). Also I need to know if I should use Arctic Silver 5 or if the normal thermal grease that comes with the new HSF is sufficient.

 

[Compnewbie01]

Also I want to add that my load temperatures for Doom3 are about 80C I believe so it is strange that CS:S hits 90/91C. Idle is still 64-66C. Ambient temperatures are usually around 50C give or take a few. So I do need some new case fans (the stock fans that came with case are junk) and my cable management is weak at the moment (probably impedes air flow). I will most likely end up getting the vf700 provided that I know whether to take off the ENTIRE HSF from the GPU and not just the plastic fan part with copper heatsink array thing. Also I really need to know if Arctic Silver 5 will make a nice difference over the generic thermal grease that the Zalman cooler ships with.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

im wanting to do this too, the HSF on the leadtek card is a beast alright but it sure doesnt cool all that beastly.

im thinking of getting the zalman also, but am too scared to even begin figuring out how to take that monster of a heat sink off. i understand the 6800GT has no memory chips on the underside correct? would i be able to leave that huge block of copper on the back if i changed the HSF to a Zalman?

 

[Compnewbie01]

Yea, I also need to know how many RAM chips there are and where.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

well i seen the back of my friends GALAXY 6800GT, that thing came with an arctic cooler pre-installed, and im pretty sure all the memory spots on the back of the card were empty

 

[Compnewbie01]

Okay so it seems that only the front part needs to be removed. Lastly, is it highly recommended to get AS5 or will the included thermal grease be enough? What I'm asking is if the AS5 is important or just overkill.

 

[the cobbler]

use Arctic Silver 5
it will make several degrees difference
just make sure you apply it by the official directions, don't use too much

your 6800GT only has four VRAM modules, all are on the GPU side of the card
if you had a 512mb card, there would be four on the back as well

honestly I see no reason why you couldn't just use the existing copper backplate with the Zalman
I'm looking at a picture of the backside of your card right now
should work to simply use the 4 bolts supplied by Zalman and just forgo using the Zalman bracket-thingy intended for the underside
the only potential problem I can see is that the bolts might not be long enough

give it a shot, what can it hurt

 

[the cobbler]

wait a minute...

dont use the Zalman along with the WinFast backplate

the plate is designed to take air in from the WinFast smoked acrylic fan hood on top of the card
without the hood, the heatsink probably can't rid itself of heat properly
might even get hotter

 

[Compnewbie01]

So I should just take the entire thing off and put on the Zalman? This would probably mean that there is nothing to cover the back of the card.