Do I need a cooling ujpgrade 4 my 9700Pro?

[Tomac]

So you're fairly certain that the BGA ramsinks would fit under the Zalman HP-80A passive video cooler? If so that would be a good addition to my Zalman and should be something offered *with* the Zalman.
Tomac

[revenant]

I know! I was very surprized that Zalman did not offer any ram sinks with that MONSTER GPU cooler of theirs. Sheesh! With all the metal they used, you'd think they could have spared a little for the memory. Oh well... I know the newest Zalman heat pipe cooler allows for tweakmonster ram sinks like mine to fit in, I have heard many people talk about them on Rage3D. Cheers!

[RDR]

I removed the GPU shim and put AS2 in place of the factory goop to help the cooling process. I

I finally got around to doing this too...as it turns out the factory heatsink didn't even make contact with the GPU lug w/the shim in place - it was only the very thick layer of thermal goop allowing any heat transfer at all

It was a little scary getting that shim off - they sure did a good job glueing it on - & I made a tiny gouge in one corner of the chip, but i didn't affect it's operation.

the net result: max OC with the shim was 340...max OC now is 365 - still not the greatest, but better than before

I'm gonna look for a cheap copper CPU cooler I can mod to fit the Radeon - then I'll see what knid of OC I can get

[revenant]

Hey RDR, will you let me know what you decide to go with for a new HSF combo on your GPU? I was thinking about getting the video cooling kit from sidewinder.com, but it appears to be for the GeForce4 only, and I don't like the TT Crystal Orb that much. So, I was looking at a big ol honk'n P4 HSF cooler at work today and started having such thoughts... Well, I'm sure I will post something if I decided to get crazy with these "thoughts" any time soon. Cheers!

[RDR]

I've been seeing thermalright SK6's around for $11 or $12US - they were a top-of -the-line cooler a year or two ago - I think all it would take is a couple of drilled and taped holes in the base to be able to attach it to the Radeon PCB w/a couple of cap screw's...I think I could manage that.

I'm a little concerned about the weight of the cooler - but I think I might give it a try

[revenant]

OMG!! I just took one of those off with my xp2100 and sold the lot to my roommate. DOH! It is a bit heavy, though, as you were wondering. It was heavier than it looked, I remembered thinking when I first got it. Maybe one of those old SLOT1 coolers, you know, the long jobs with the dual fans on them. That might also be interesting. I have one on my old Celery450 (300a). I think I will take a closer look at it tonight, plus go through all of my old junk that I've been saving for about 10 years now. I know I have some old K6 coolers around, they might work too. Who knows...

[revenant]

I just opened up a machine here at work to examine a slot1 HSF. It's going to be too long to fit, unless you cut off one end of it. Then it would prolly work nicely. There's even a good spot to cut it where the fins are seperated from the middle group, to the end groups. Hmmm... and I have a grinder at home... Hmmm.... :)

[RDR]

Actually I have a couple of AthlonXP Retail HSF's - they're not much to look at - but maybe I'll try them first - since they're free - plus they'd obviously weigh a lot less

now let me go find a bridgeport and a #4-40 hand tap :D

[revenant]

Yeah! ...and some napalm!! ...wait, that's a different recipe.
:laugh:

[revenant]

Hey RDR, check this thread over at Rage3D:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33673085

Cheers!

[RDR]

looks pretty good & 400MHz is a nice OC:thumb:

he's only got the HS attached w/epoxy though - I don't like that idea....I want to drill & tap a couple of holes in the back of the HS & use cap screws w/springs throught the existing holes in the 9700 PCB

I'm hoping to get an AthlonXP retail HS installed on mine this weekend...I don't have much free time through the week...it's my 5y/o daughter's birthday this Saturday though so I don't know If i'll get to it or not.

depending on what kind of results I get - I may decide to try a more "high performance" cooler later

[revenant]

Yeah, I feel thermal adhesive is a last resort measure, also. OOoo, yeah, the kid factor does absorb a lot of time normally allocated for fun projects... Truth be known, I"d rather have a family than being so galactically single. *sigh* ok, back to the topic, I grabbed these two coolers from work and am getting ready to hack at them to make something for my GPU. They are big, but I have tools of mass destruction for that.
:devil:

[RDR]

Okay Revenant - I stayed up late last night & worked on my project a little.
I added the AthlonXP heatsink to my R9700...I replaced the factory fan w/a thermaltake 60mm 31cfm fan I had laying around, it was a little noisey - so I added a thermaltake 3 speed fan controller too
the step in the HS base just nicely clears a resistor located a little too close to the core
...yes it does take up 3 PCI slots...but with onboard LAN and Sound - my PCI slots are pretty empty anyway

[RDR]

you can see in this shot - it's apretty tight fit between the HS and a few of the capacitors - a 60x60 HS is probably the max. I can use w/o having to hack of the corners for clearance.

[RDR]

No thermal epoxy here....I drilled and taped two holes in the back of the HS & used #4-40 cap screws w/ nylon washers & springs for even pressure on both sides of the HS, and of course a thin layer of Arctic Silver3 on the GPU lug :thumb: