Nvidia's increadible streching fan.

It's been noticed that on a lot of the latest 8800GT's with stock cooler the fan is larger.
It's gone up from a 13 bladed 65mm fan to a 15 bladed 75mm fan.
At first it was thought a coouple of manufactors had designed an new cooler however more and more are now appearing.
Expreview.com - Extra Hardware News Report! » Blog Archive » [Comparison] 8800GT’s new stock cooler is cool n’ quiet

Nvidia are denie any changes and say these are aftermarket coolers, yet the list of makes with these enlarged fans is growing and all appear to be identical except for labeling/branding
Expreview.com - Extra Hardware News Report! » Blog Archive » Join our project, show your new 8800GT stock fan to the world![Final update]

I've only just found out about this when I spotted the Leadtek 8800GT on Scan's site which had a picture of the enlarged fan, I thought it was a Leadtek improved cooler at first, so I dug around and found out about this bigger fan and now I'm just spreading the word.

The cooling differnce seems to be minor, around 2c less, however it spinns far slower and is much quieter, so you whack the fan up higher while still being quieter.

The stock 8800gt cooler is now starting to look better to me and may even be worth while. :) (it has been a major factor putting me off so far, although the price is still a bit too high for my likeing)

Yup, this story has been about quite a bit though!

Only thing really putting me off a GT is the cooler, I remember what my old 7900GT sounded like with a single slot cooler, then I went to a GTO & the difference was unbelievable! I'd only get a GT with a decent cooler (not bothered about losing a slot) or I'd have to buy aftermarket which would only bump the cost up!

Just seems odd that no one has appeared to of mentioned it yet on here, unless I missed it :undecided:

And I'm the same as you Rob that the cooler has been putting me off, that and the price.
£170ish for the 512mb is a bit much considering my 7900gs 256mb isn't yet struggling at 1280x1024
And I must admit the ATi HD3870 is currently looking nice with it's lower price tag and better cooling.
Let's face it a 2 slot cooler isn't much of a problem and volume & heat is more of a worry for most people.

Price is really annoying!
I remember pointing a few people to one of the first links that had them for sale.
£134
& thats the 512mb not the 256mb

(kicks ones self up the Ar*e, for not buying one then)

You could always get one of these badboys:
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
or
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

I can't understand this fuss over the 8800GT stock cooler.

I run two of them, both bought on release, they're barely audible and the heat levels are just fine (59oC idle, 68oC burn)

It's nice that nVidia overhauled the stock cooler, but it does seem a little odd that they'd flat out deny making those changes.

Well thoes are odd numbers Codfather, seeing as almost every one else gets temps in the low 90's under load.
The only way to get the temps down that low on the old stock cooler is to increase the fan to max (something the eairly cards didn't do, the fan speed was fixed)
And while the fan is quite at the 28% speed it was fixed at on the eairly releases, it is quite loud if you increase the speed to try to bring the tmps down.

I ran into this by chance (I think I was searching for something else on Google and this popped up in their ads - I've never heard of that store to be honest). It's basically a 8800GT fitted with an S1. It's not a bargain per se (I think you can probably find a GT for £160 or less and a S1 for ~£15), but it saves the DIY. Looking at reviews, it's can run passively, and better than the Sparkle. Of course, it would work out cheaper if you can find a cheaper GT and fit it yourself.

I have a 8800GT from Inno3d, an early one, (cost just under £160 from ebuyer :D) and it gets damn hot. I'm using RivaTuner to crank up the fan as the temps increase but it's blooming noisy when it hits 70% and after an hour in FEAR it'll be whacking 100% and hitting 75 degrees C. I was looking for an aftermarket cooler like an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1, probably with fans attached, but can't find stock anywhere...

Intresting, I know of the name ECS as they make motherboards, the first thing I would do with that is strap a 120mm fan to it :)
But at lease that's not going to invalidate the warranty, which fitting a 3rd party cooler yourself will.
And the price isn't that steep at £173, well not compaired to a stock cooler one.
(I still think the 8800gt card is overpriced atm)