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Worth a cooling upgrade?

Elcs

Elcs

Diamond Member
Current finances and lack of any decent hardware/software in the market have lead me to stick with my current PC setup.

Im sitting on a T'Bred B at 2.2 ghz since my Mobile barton gave up the ghost, 1 Gb of pc3200 and a 9800 Pro.

These Sapphire 9800 Pro's seem to run a little hot, especially with summer coming around and my rather cramped room. I dont know whether I have an R350 or R360 core but it does 420mhz on the core, no visible artifacts after looping Aquamark for a little.

Considering Im going to be stuck with this setup for at the bare minimum, 8 months... looking more likely to be 12+ months before I reconsider upgrading... is it worth shelling out £20 or so for a new HSF combo and some ramsinks?

I can play any game that I want to so far without much trouble. 20 FPS is enough for me although dips towards 15 do throw me off a little.

Any suggestions? Criticism of my decision not to upgrade will be ignored and Im also ignoring anything that tells me to buy a new graphics card. Im only interested in whether it would be worth upgrading the cooling solution for overclocking purposes.
 
Actic Cooling Silencer
Either this one for a 128MB Pro
This one for a 9800Pro 256MB.
No ramsinks come with it, and I don't know if they would fit, but I don't expect RAM cooling will give you that much more frequency, although I'm sure some may say it will. It depends on the RAM you have on your card really.
I have my 9800 non-pro up to around 440~450MHz stable on the core.
 
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Actic Cooling Silencer
Either this one for a 128MB Pro
This one for a 9800Pro 256MB.
No ramsinks come with it, and I don't know if they would fit, but I don't expect RAM cooling will give you that much more frequency, although I'm sure some may say it will. It depends on the RAM you have on your card really.
I have my 9800 non-pro up to around 440~450MHz stable on the core.
Click to expand...

I knew about the Silencer... but is it worth it? Will the stable and extra mhz provide any tanmgible benefits, and if so.. when?

Even if ram sinks dont provide any extra performance, Im sure that it will help keep the ram cooler and give me some options for cooling any future card.

Any further suggestions/opinions?
 
Originally posted by: Elcs
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Actic Cooling Silencer
Either this one for a 128MB Pro
This one for a 9800Pro 256MB.
No ramsinks come with it, and I don't know if they would fit, but I don't expect RAM cooling will give you that much more frequency, although I'm sure some may say it will. It depends on the RAM you have on your card really.
I have my 9800 non-pro up to around 440~450MHz stable on the core.
Click to expand...

I knew about the Silencer... but is it worth it? Will the stable and extra mhz provide any tanmgible benefits, and if so.. when?

Even if ram sinks dont provide any extra performance, Im sure that it will help keep the ram cooler and give me some options for cooling any future card.

Any further suggestions/opinions?
Click to expand...

The benefit is usually only better cooling. I didn't get a better overclock out of my 9800 Pro when I stuck a VGA Silencer on it.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
The benefit is usually only better cooling. I didn't get a better overclock out of my 9800 Pro when I stuck a VGA Silencer on it.
Click to expand...

If theres a chance I can increase the overclock and/or longevity of the card at out-of-spec speeds, then for £10-£20 (the cost of a Silencer and Ramsinks) its looking like it could be worth it.

Ive already heard the VGA Silencer is quieter than stock cooling and vents the warmer air out of the back of the PC. Minor fringe benefits, especially as Im trying to keep my PC quiet or at least have the option of quieter living.

Considering how many revisions there have been of the Silencers, Ill probably take a pic or 2 of my 9800 Pro to make sure if I get one, that I buy the right one.
 
The 9800 Pro doesn't really get that hot though. I too bought the VGA Silencer hoping it would allow me to overclock more. It didn't. At first I laughed at the miniature heatsink on the 9800 Pro's... then I realized that's all they used because that's all that's needed.
 
Originally posted by: Elcs
Current finances and lack of any decent hardware/software in the market have lead me to stick with my current PC setup.

Im sitting on a T'Bred B at 2.2 ghz since my Mobile barton gave up the ghost, 1 Gb of pc3200 and a 9800 Pro.

These Sapphire 9800 Pro's seem to run a little hot, especially with summer coming around and my rather cramped room. I dont know whether I have an R350 or R360 core but it does 420mhz on the core, no visible artifacts after looping Aquamark for a little.

Considering Im going to be stuck with this setup for at the bare minimum, 8 months... looking more likely to be 12+ months before I reconsider upgrading... is it worth shelling out £20 or so for a new HSF combo and some ramsinks?

I can play any game that I want to so far without much trouble. 20 FPS is enough for me although dips towards 15 do throw me off a little.

Any suggestions? Criticism of my decision not to upgrade will be ignored and Im also ignoring anything that tells me to buy a new graphics card. Im only interested in whether it would be worth upgrading the cooling solution for overclocking purposes.
Click to expand...

420 seems to be pretty good, what are your room temps? i have a r360 and i am using atitool 0.0.22 as i type to find max core, but if i remember correctly it wasn't that high. my room temp is ~83-85F

looks like ~410 is my max, maybe i will cut a hole on the side of the case door and put a 80mm fan blowing directly on the video card....
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: Elcs
Current finances and lack of any decent hardware/software in the market have lead me to stick with my current PC setup.

Im sitting on a T'Bred B at 2.2 ghz since my Mobile barton gave up the ghost, 1 Gb of pc3200 and a 9800 Pro.

These Sapphire 9800 Pro's seem to run a little hot, especially with summer coming around and my rather cramped room. I dont know whether I have an R350 or R360 core but it does 420mhz on the core, no visible artifacts after looping Aquamark for a little.

Considering Im going to be stuck with this setup for at the bare minimum, 8 months... looking more likely to be 12+ months before I reconsider upgrading... is it worth shelling out £20 or so for a new HSF combo and some ramsinks?

I can play any game that I want to so far without much trouble. 20 FPS is enough for me although dips towards 15 do throw me off a little.

Any suggestions? Criticism of my decision not to upgrade will be ignored and Im also ignoring anything that tells me to buy a new graphics card. Im only interested in whether it would be worth upgrading the cooling solution for overclocking purposes.
Click to expand...

420 seems to be pretty good, what are your room temps? i have a r360 and i am using atitool 0.0.22 as i type to find max core, but if i remember correctly it wasn't that high. my room temp is ~83-85F

looks like ~410 is my max, maybe i will cut a hole on the side of the case door and put a 80mm fan blowing directly on the video card....
Click to expand...

At idle, pretty warm day today, stock Radeon speeds.... 31 C (88F) system temp and 48C (118F) CPU temp.

I remember I had the core much higher a while back, up to around 430-440 for an hour or so.

Just popping the case off, the radeon heatsink is melting hot. I can barely keep my finger on the side of it for more than 3 seconds. I wish I had a few temp probes to gauge how hot that is but it certainly isnt cool.

However, my stuff is in my dads case atm. Havent really had any time to put stuff into my case and use my intake + exhaust fans so it might be cooler in my case.

Sorry Jeff7181 but my 9800Pro is roasting hot, contrary to your findings. Perhaps it is due to my lack of real case ventilation until I migrate back to my own case.

It might be a good idea to see how my 9800 fares when its back in my case.

Update: 2 hours later, running the PC with the case side off, the heatsink on the 9800Pro is still burning my finger. Its been idle for that time.

Update2: 2 1/2 hours after update 1, heatsink is very slightly cooler. Still way too hot to keep my finger on for any length of time.

Added question: If I have an R360 core, can I do any BIOS-Flash to enable any temperature sensor? This is a 128 meg, 256 bit 9800 Pro.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Originally posted by: Elcs
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Actic Cooling Silencer
Either this one for a 128MB Pro
This one for a 9800Pro 256MB.
No ramsinks come with it, and I don't know if they would fit, but I don't expect RAM cooling will give you that much more frequency, although I'm sure some may say it will. It depends on the RAM you have on your card really.
I have my 9800 non-pro up to around 440~450MHz stable on the core.
Click to expand...

I knew about the Silencer... but is it worth it? Will the stable and extra mhz provide any tanmgible benefits, and if so.. when?

Even if ram sinks dont provide any extra performance, Im sure that it will help keep the ram cooler and give me some options for cooling any future card.

Any further suggestions/opinions?
Click to expand...

The benefit is usually only better cooling. I didn't get a better overclock out of my 9800 Pro when I stuck a VGA Silencer on it.
Click to expand...

All depends on what your card is capable of - one of my 9800p's is stuck at 415MHz arctic silencer or not. However, my second one does 420 stock cooling and 445 with the silencer. But like you said, most of the time your only benefit will come with the better cooling.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
how do you live in a room that is 85 F? i have to keep mine below 80 so my compy doesn't get hot and i don't sweat an ocean.
Click to expand...

AZ native...
Click to expand...

I live in the UK, Newcastle Upon Tyne.... and that was my system temp NOT room temp

Its summer today, we get Summer 3 days a year usually. Today is expected to be hotter than yesterday.

What concerns me at the minute is, my ram is running hot and my gpu hsf is burning up at stock speeds.

Might actually go with a Silencer to keep it acceptably cooled. I shouldnt be burning my fingers touching it when idle.

EDIT: Side is off, PC has been on ~30 mins idle, System Temp 25C (77F), CPU Temp 46C (115F), GPU HSF burning up.
 
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