Wahoo!!!

[jthg]

My 6800 GT had been overheating constantly when playing games. I can see the temperature slowly climb to 87C, the game would freeze, the temperature would drop by 3 degrees, the game starts running again and the cycle repeats. So I spent $30 and got a Zalman VF700-cu to replace the stock cooler.

I had a little bit of trouble installing the heatsink (ie, the computer wouldn't boot...), but in the end I finally got it working. And guess what... the core now runs *25* degrees cooler... The stock heatsink must have REALLY sucked....

Freakin 25 degrees...

 

[John]

The 6800GT coolers are more than adequate, so maybe you should spend another $30 and get some airflow in that case of yours. Be sure to tidy up the wiring while you're at it.

 

[Bona Fide]

Zalman > ALL

 

[jthg]

My case temp is actually 36 degrees. There are a total of 5 fans on my case.

 

[jthg]

As for air flow... my case is definitely very cluttered, but I think its as neat as possible right now. I do have 6 hard disks in there...

 

[suicidalpigeon]

i dont need a 3rd party hs on my card since bfg stuck a very big copper/aluminum sink with 2 led fans on it.

edit: wow stuck was as "suck" for a few days, couple of you guys think im retarded now.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: jthg
My case temp is actually 36 degrees. There are a total of 5 fans on my case.

Just because you have 5 fans doesn't mean you have good airflow. You have to think about placement and such.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

i have 4 in, 2 out, and one inside blowing to the ram. cpu temp=41/53.

 

[PurdueRy]

It would probably be better to have 4 out and 2 in...but whatever suits your fancy

 

[jthg]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Just because you have 5 fans doesn't mean you have good airflow. You have to think about placement and such.

Lian Li decided where the fans should go, and since they have a pretty good reputation, I assume that they're in the right places.

They put two intake fans in the lower front, blowing over the hard disk bay. Then there's one blow-hole fan on top and one more fan on the back. The other one's on the power supply.

 

[jthg]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
i have 4 in, 2 out, and one inside blowing to the ram. cpu temp=41/53.

Is it really necessary to have a fan for the ram? Are they overclocked?

 

[Some1ne]

It would probably be better to have 4 out and 2 in...but whatever suits your fancy

I agree...too much air going in can overpressure the case and this can make it very hard to get decent airflow. It's much better to have more air going out than going in.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: jthg

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
i have 4 in, 2 out, and one inside blowing to the ram. cpu temp=41/53.

Is it really necessary to have a fan for the ram? Are they overclocked?

some ram like OCX VX requires > 3.2 volts to achieve high overclocks and tight timings. Then there's good old BH5 which also loves > 3.2 volts. With such a boost in voltage it can become quite necessary for ram to have active cooling, seeing as how heat spreaders are pretty much all gimmick. If you have ramsinks that could be a different story.

 

[imported_ArtVandalay]

I got the copper Zalman 700 series cooler for my 9800p, I figure it's a good investment since I can transfer it over when I get a 6800. Card goes to 420/375 now, and could probably go even higher, on the core at least. I'm impressed :Q

 

[imported_meatball]

What caused the computer to stop booting after the install? And what was the fix?

Thanks.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Zalman > ALL

Well, an XP-90C strapped to a vid card with a 92mm Tornado might work marginally better

 

[jthg]

Originally posted by: meatball
What caused the computer to stop booting after the install? And what was the fix?

Thanks.

I'm not exactly sure. After the computer failed to boot, I pulled out the 6800GT and plugged in an FX5200 to see whether it was a problem w/ the gfx card. The computer booted fine with the FX5200, so I assumed that I had somehow fried the 6800GT while installing the new heatsink (I did actually smear some arctic silver across two leads too. I cleaned this up as well as I could). I didn't think that I could have messed up so bad on installing the new HS that the card overheats before it finishes boot up... At this point, I didn't feel like messing with the card anymore because I had already wasted the entire weekend messing w/ the machine and I wasn't planning to play any games for the next week anyways.

Then a week later (yesterday), I redid the HS installation, plugged the card in and it worked again...

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Originally posted by: ariafrost

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Zalman > ALL

Well, an XP-90C strapped to a vid card with a 92mm Tornado might work marginally better

yeah while plucking the GPU right off the board. It would fly around in your computer like a helicopter until it ran into the big building in your computer..... the CPU heatsink.

 

[jthg]

I've been thinking about taking off the two side panels and strapping an attic fan to one side of the case... something like 1000 CFM? Probably won't even need heatsinks on anything...

Edit: Hm... looks like these fans draw 200watts. More than my gfx card...

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Some1ne

It would probably be better to have 4 out and 2 in...but whatever suits your fancy

I agree...too much air going in can overpressure the case and this can make it very hard to get decent airflow. It's much better to have more air going out than going in.

2nd that. Slight negative pressure inside the case is better for expelling warm air.

 

[ronnn]

Is is it quieter, or can you tell with 5 case fans?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Hmm, I think I'll get that for my 6600GT. I want to overclock it a bit, but my idling temps at stock are already at 65C...

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Zalman > ALL

Thermalright have came out with a massive VGA cooler. Looks to cool better than a Zalman but you cant go wrong with the VF-700.

Awesome cooler.

 

[jthg]

Originally posted by: ronnn
Is is it quieter, or can you tell with 5 case fans?

Are you talking about the VF700? My comp is already very loud so... I can't tell the difference.

The fan on the VF700 does have two speeds though. You can either set it at 5V or 12V. I have it at 12V.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

Originally posted by: rleemhui
It would probably be better to have 4 out and 2 in...but whatever suits your fancy

But, if you have a negative air pressure inside the case, dust builds up around every little nook and cranny. All your port start to get clogged with dust. If you have possitive pressure, that doesn't happen. And if you put a filter on intake fans, your computer will stay cleaner and cooler longer.