VGA coolers

[JulesMaximus]

The fan died on the video card in my main system (maybe that's why it's running so hot!). For a few days now it has been making this weird noise and when I pulled the side panel off to find out where the noise was coming from I noticed that the fan on the card was spinning very slowly or not at all. It would try to spin up and it turned for a few seconds but then grinds to a halt.

Anyway, I need recommendations for a replacement. I want one that is effective but not one that is overly loud. I'm not really interested in a $50+ heatpipe solution as I will probably be replacing this card after HL2 and Doom III are released.

 

[azntiger0586]

from what i get from your situation... i am assuming you had a stock fan. Since you will be upgrading your card for the future games (HL2, DOOM) then i guess any hsf over 10$ will serve you well.

any of these will do just fine

remember to check and see if they would fit on your card. not all fans will fit, but thats without modifying of course

 

[JulesMaximus]

The card is a GeForce3 TI500. I've looked at some of those coolers and most of them say they will work on a GeForce4 series card but they say nothing about earlier nVidia cards.

Yes, I'm looking at cooling solutions in the $10 range. I've had a blue orb cooler on another card but that fan was way too loud.

The TI500 fan was held on by two clips and an adhesive thermal pad (the board has 4 holes in it around the GPU). I've already removed the aluminum heatsink/fan and cleaned up the GPU for a new cooler.

Thanks again for the recommendations.

BTW-I am not afraid of a little modification. I had to grind off part of that blue orb cooler to fit it on an older card I had.

 

[BoomAM]

I`d say that the Crystal Orb is your best bet for a GeForce3. They were designed for GeForce3s, and perform very well with them. I got an extra 40mhz OC on my GF3Ti200 using one.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Well, I picked up a Vantec Iceberg 4 from Fry's during lunch today for $16.99+tax. You can't go wrong with copper and it has a blue led fan which will go nicely with the blue lighting in my case (I'm sure the wife will hate it though-oh well, that's why she has her own computer).

Hopefully it isn't annoyingly loud...

 

[cockeyed]

I think you will be happy with the Iceberg 4. A week ago I installed an Iceberg 4 Pro on my Ti4200 and am very pleased with it. It is quiet, cools the GPU fine and the blue lights look nice. I pulled the fan out and put a drop of oil on the shaft under the label on the bottom. I always do this with new fans to make them run smoother and quieter since they appear to be bone dry from the manufacturer.

 

[JulesMaximus]

:frown:

Well, I messed up. The fan doesn't fit and I was prying at the ramsinks on my video card to see if they would budge since the new cooler came with smaller ramsinks (the stock ones were blocking the new cooler from fitting on there). Anyway, one came off easily but the other one tore off one of the memory chips as I was prying on it. Damn. There goes a perfectly decent video card.

I didn't want to upgrade now but I ended up buying a 9800 NP from newegg.com for $250.

Probably have to reload Windows now to get this new card working.

Damn damn damn...

 

[BoomAM]

The old card will probably still work, just with less memory.
Ive heard of similar incidents, but the card still worked.
In particular, ive heard of someone doing the same as you on a GF2MX, and when booted, the card reported 24mb mem, rarther than the 32mb is should have, cos of the missing memory chip.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Hmm, I'll try it but I'm not going to hold out much hope that it will work anywhere as good as it used to.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the new video card compares. I'm sure it will be much faster.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Nope, didn't work. Lines down the screen, barely legible on boot and Windows won't start.

That card is toast.

 

[BoomAM]

Ah well.
At least you have a nice 9800 on the way. What make is it bty?
And i wouldnt try using the IceBergPro on it either. The 9800 puts out alot of heat, and the IceBergPro will probably give you the same temperature as the stock HSF.
Dont forget to do a complete uninstall of everything nvidia. Theres a couple of guides around, look for them. And most importently, dont panic if you have problems.

You might find this thread useful.
Link

 

[MDE]

Boot into safe mode to try and uninstall the Nvidia drivers.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'll try that. I couldn't even get Windows to boot last night with the old card (sans one memory chip) otherwise I would have uninstalled the drivers.

The new card is an ATI OEM SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 128MB Non Pro DVI/TV 8X card according to newegg. It will be quite a bit faster than the card it is replacing. I'm looking forward to some gaming tonight.

 

[BoomAM]

You wont be dissapointed at all.
Unless there are remenants of nVidia stuff still on your HD and in the Registary, then there will be problems.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have an old Voodoo3 AGP card I could throw in there to boot into Windows and delete the nVidia drivers. Or should I just throw caution to the wind and try installing the new ATI card?

 

[BoomAM]

Put in the VooDoo, go into safe mode, un-install any nvidia stuff, dont install VooDoo drivers (duh), and then shutdown, and try the ATI card. If you have problems, then i highly recommend a format and re-install.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Well, all went smoothly. I installed the ATI card, booted to Windows and chose cancel when asked to install new hardware. I uninstalled the nVidia drivers and rebooted. Then I installed the ATI drivers and all is well. No problems at all. NICE!

Man, UT2k3 looks SOOO much better with everything turned on! This card rocks!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Click on 'MyRide' below and go to page 2. I just added two pics of my system I took last night after installing the new card for anyone interested.

 

[BoomAM]

Nice.
Glad it went trouble free for you.
If you want to have a look at my rig as well, click on "My Website", there are some pictures there of my rig.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Nice.
Glad it went trouble free for you.
If you want to have a look at my rig as well, click on "My Website", there are some pictures there of my rig.

Thanks. I just installed that window kit this week. I put it a little too far back though so the gasket makes it difficult to remove the side panel because it rubs against the back of the case when I take the panel off or put it back on. I may smear some petroleum jelly or lube on the very edge of the case where it rubs to make it easier. I wanted to get that fan right over the video card though so that's why I cut the hole so far back. The window kit came with the cutout for the fan already in it.

I put 4 Coolermaster LED fans in this case. They are actually much quieter than the original fans that the case came with. I had a Volcano 7 on my old cpu in this case and it was much louder also. I can barely hear the Aero 7 at 2500 rpm.

Actually, I was checking out your webpage yesterday. Cool case pics.

 

[BoomAM]

Im going to be "re-doing" my case later this year.
I`ll be upgrading the cooling to a CPU/VGA/NB Water Cooler, a Fanbus, 1 80mm intake, 1 80mm exhaust, 1 120mm Radiator fan.
Then early next year, January or February time, i`ll be upgrading my CPU/Mobo/Mem to one of the latest platforms (Prescott or Athlon64)

 

[JulesMaximus]

Is your system overly noisy? I was surprised at how much noise the Volcano 7 made. After changing to the Coolermaster Aero 7 and changing all the case fans it is much quieter now.

 

[BoomAM]

Not really.
I have 6 YS-Tech Silent 80mm Fans in it. (27CFM, 20dBa). Thats 3 intakes(1 of which also blows over the HDs), 2 exhausts, 1 on the CPU.
My CPU HS is a SLK-800.
My Idle temps are around 39-41*c, and the Load temps, 42-45*c.

The reason im going for water cooling, is i want my rig quiet enough to run it overnight (i sleep in the same room), and so i can get lower temps, and hence, better OCs.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have 3 intake fans now and only one exhaust (not including the power supply). I'm toying with the idea of adding another exhaust fan on the top of the case. I'm on the fence on this though.

 

[BoomAM]

Go for it. It`ll cool slightly better, as heat rises.