Silencing Graphics Card [Archive]

garycooper

28-01-2003, 22:12

I have a oldish Creative TNT2 Riva Ultra 32Mb graphics card, the problem is the bearing is dying in the fan causing it to be very noticable. The card does what I want (I dont use it for games just AutoCAD, Photo Shop etc). Has anyone tried the Zalman stick on VGA cooler or do you think I should just get a passively cooled higher spec. card (if so have you a recomendation, I'm using XP the MB is a Asus A7V266)

Thanks.

PJ Matthews

28-01-2003, 22:54

Good news, your gfx card puts out bugger all heat. Like the MX and almost all TNT cards ive seen, the thing can run fanless. Checkout the web to see the sort of heatsinks you need. They arn't very big at all, no biggert than the chip and probably sed to cool north bridge chips now days.

PJ

Kynoch

28-01-2003, 23:03

The heatsinks on the TNT2's are smaller than the standard GF ones, ive already looked at replacing a noisey fan on one i have got.

Think it will be an epoxy and a heatsink jobby.

Dizzie

29-01-2003, 16:39

I used the older zalman vga sink on my radeon 8500 no problems

I have it for sale at cos I can't get enough air flow over it in the shuttle. Yours for £20. :D

Gordy

29-01-2003, 18:20

Originally posted by Dizzie
I used the older zalman vga sink on my radeon 8500 no problems

I have it for sale at cos I can't get enough air flow over it in the shuttle. Yours for £20. :D

Does it crash ure system them? Have u tried it in the shuttle as this block here says it works on his 8500

http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=43&threadid=29954

I'm very tempted in it for my shuttle so let me know :)

garycooper

30-01-2003, 08:53

I've ordered a Zalman VGA cooler from Kustom, so once it's fitted I'll post about it.

Gordy

30-01-2003, 12:01

Originally posted by garycooper
I've ordered a Zalman VGA cooler from Kustom, so once it's fitted I'll post about it.

Thanks :)

wizbongre

30-01-2003, 21:06

I have the same type of card in my old rig and it too developed a very noisy fan due to dodgy bearings. As it doens't get used for anything more powerful than searching the 'net I just unplugged the fan! Not had any problems with it at all.

Mr_Nemesis

01-02-2003, 18:27

I've got a TNT2 as well, came with my first OEM PC, and I may stick it in my HTPC once I've decided what the hell else I'm going to put in it.

However, it has a tiny passive HS on it, and it gets boiling hot and kicks out an amazing amount of heat, so I want to fit a bigger better passive HS on the thing. Problem is, it's epoxied on (rather than push pins), and seems like I'll need to yank the chip out in order to get it off. Anybody got any idea how I can loosen the epoxy, or am I just stuck?

garycooper

01-02-2003, 20:21

Well I've fitted the Zalman cooler and it's now very quiet. It supprised me how much noise a little fan can produce. However on inspecting the fan there was lots of free play in the bearing.
My heat sink was glued on to the GPU. Instructions for fitting are at INSTRUCTIONS (http://www.quietpc.com/vgainstall.html)

A few photos:-
http://www.garycooper.fsnet.co.uk/GPU-glue.jpg
http://www.garycooper.fsnet.co.uk/gpu-fitted.jpg

butch

02-02-2003, 12:34

looks good!

Gordy

04-02-2003, 20:56

I've fitted mine to my gf4 4200 128mb card in my shuttle and it works :) I've stuck a more powerful main fan in to allow the system to chuck out more heat if necessary but it doesnt seem to get off 5volts so its not really necessary, I think I'll stick my papst back in 2morrow after a bit more testing :)

cwt001

25-02-2003, 09:59

Gordy, just to confirm, but do you now have the above mentioned Zalman VGA cooler attached to a Ti4200, and a Papst 12dB fan as a system exhaust?

Have you had any problems? Is everything working ok?

Because this is exactly what I've been wanting to do.

Gordy

25-02-2003, 10:25

Originally posted by cwt001
Gordy, just to confirm, but do you now have the above mentioned Zalman VGA cooler attached to a Ti4200, and a Papst 12dB fan as a system exhaust?

Have you had any problems? Is everything working ok?

Because this is exactly what I've been wanting to do.

I've changed the main fan to a coolermaster blue led fan running on speed guardian just to be on the safe side and it never gets off the lowest setting that I've noticed :)

cwt001

25-02-2003, 11:19

Once you have attached the cooler to the card, how easy is it to get it off again?

Gordy

25-02-2003, 14:40

Originally posted by cwt001
Once you have attached the cooler to the card, how easy is it to get it off again?

erm dunno it says permenant but I used an old trick and used artic silver and artic thermal adhesive in about a 50/50 mix its a lot easier to remove if needs be :)

cwt001

25-02-2003, 14:42

Are there instructions for this "old trick" somewhere?

Going to have to give this a try. Roll on payday!!

Dizzie

26-02-2003, 16:51

I put mine in the freeze overnight. Seemed to do the trick. Came off easy. Now I'm back on the noisey standard one :(

6thElement

12-04-2003, 02:58

Has anyone tried used the ZM-50 on a GF3? I want to try one in my Shuttle.

Gordy

12-04-2003, 13:10

Lo 6th :D

U have two options I'd say the ZM50 is too weak for a gf3 so I would either go for the ZM80 and mod it so the base for the back is on the front and cut any sections that block capacitors which will mean u lose the pci slot
or
Get a http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=2812 it cools my gf4200 and I've seen people use it on ATi 8500's also :)

Hâmmë®™

29-04-2003, 21:00

superb, will be doing this when I aquire some spare cash ;)

then its just the HDD that needs to be silenced and im running a near silent nForce2 shuttle :)