Leadtek 6600GT (agp version)

[andrewuk]

Anyone here got one?

I bought one from a well known UK online retailer based on their own cooling solution which is supposed to be nice and quiet according to the reviews I've seen.

You can see the cooler design on their website here

However mine has just arrived this morning and as well as the box being crushed to a pancake, the card itself just has a standard reference Nvidia cooler on it which I'm seriously annoyed about . It even has the picture of the standard cooler on the box so it's not as if the wrong card is in the box or anything and the card itself is branded Leadtek. (I thought someone may have previously returned it and pulled a fast one with a different 6600GT)

Just wondered if anyone else has the same card and has the same carp cooler on it?

[skuzgib]

If it's any help my pci-e version came with the cooler on their website.

Where did you get it from?

[andrewuk]

If it's any help my pci-e version came with the cooler on their website.

Where did you get it from?

Overclockers.

I just checked on Leadtek's European website and that does show the reference cooler so i guess that we got the cak one here and the people over the pond got the decent version

Slightly annoying because their website picture shows the decent cooler on it so I suspect they just plucked it off the US website.

Argh, it's times like this that really want to make me just sell all my PC games and graphics card and live off the on-board graphics and buy an Xbox...

[davidstone28]

That pretty crappy by the manufacturer and / or retailer - advertising it as one thing but selling it as another. Leadtek have clearly produced reference boards and put them into retail channels (or Overlcockers have somehow got OEM versions and sold them on) - is yours retail or OEM?

Truly sucks mate.

But what can you do about it?

1. Send it back, get and refund, and put up with OCuk's horrendous returns (read delay) policy.
2. Sue the bastrards!!
3. Mod the card - buy a Zalman fanmate, a Zalman fanbracket and a quiet 80 or 120mm fan or a Zalman passive cooler (check that it fits the 6600)

If it makes you feel better, I would be very surprised if the Leadtek cooler was that much quieter than the reference cooler. All stock coolers on ALL graphics card (except the passive ones) are horrendously noisy (and I include those with the ATI/NV Silencer).

EDIT: I just noticed your sig. If you're running a Shuttle, not much is going to fit, unless you cut your case.

[andrewuk]

That pretty crappy by the manufacturer and / or retailer - advertising it as one thing but selling it as another. Leadtek have clearly produced reference boards and put them into retail channels (or Overlcockers have somehow got OEM versions and sold them on) - is yours retail or OEM?

It's full retail.

Yes it does suck and I guess most people wouldn't care that much but I have modded my shuttle so it is quiet as a mouse so it's damned annoying when this turned up grrrr!

Techincally it's not faulty and it is the same card as on the european leadtek website (even though OCUK show the nice cooler on their pic but I'm sure their T&C's have something about images being for illustration only or somesuch get-out) so if I sent it back under the DSR then I lose out on the 8 quid postage plus have to pay out again to post it back...

Ah well Ebay have a 5p listing day today so I guess it'll be going on there when I get home...

Arse.

[davidstone28]

You know that every single height graphics card you buy is going to be noisy?

[andrewuk]

You know that every single height graphics card you buy is going to be noisy?

Yes I realise they are never going to be very quiet but the Leadtek card scores considerably better on both heat (especially important with my toaster PC!) and noise than the other's using the reference cooler

[skuzgib]

You could put up with it until Arctic cooling bring out a cooler that fits or use the zalman one.

[andrewuk]

You could put up with it until Arctic cooling bring out a cooler that fits or use the zalman one.

I have a shuttle mate so i'm limited to single slot cards - anything bigger would require butchering a big hole in the site of the pooter

I have since discovered that Overclockers.co.uk seem to sell this version of the card whereas Overclock.co.uk sell this version

Bloody leadtek! Exactly the same card but different cooler designs GRRRRR!

[skuzgib]

Ahhh right. Ignore what I just said in that case.

[davidstone28]

I have since discovered that Overclockers.co.uk seem to sell this version of the card whereas Overclock.co.uk sell this version

You sure you aren't splitting hairs mate? Looking at the design of both those heatsinks, the main cooling factor (to me) seems to be the speed of the fan rather than the HS. Given that its a 40mm (?) fan its going to be spinning like there's no tomorrow (4000-6000rpm?) to provide any sort of adequate cooling. That is going to be as noisy as hell.

If you're serious about noise levels, the only way to deal with this is to start cutting.

[Gazcoop]

Hi all i have xfx 6600gt agp they have changed, heatsink on them already, anyone know if they have had probs with them ??

[andrewuk]

You sure you aren't splitting hairs mate? Looking at the design of both those heatsinks, the main cooling factor (to me) seems to be the speed of the fan rather than the HS. Given that its a 40mm (?) fan its going to be spinning like there's no tomorrow (4000-6000rpm?) to provide any sort of adequate cooling. That is going to be as noisy as hell.

If you're serious about noise levels, the only way to deal with this is to start cutting.

I suppose I could stick single slot passive sink on it. I was running a Ti4200 with a ZM17CU (see the pics in my sig) passive sink for 3 years with no problems even though that sink was only supposed to be used on a GF2mx or lower card

Doubt I'd get away with it on this card though!!

The stock cooler is 40mm yes, but the leadtek one is 60mm so it spins slower (so less noisely) but still pushes the same air. I installed it tonight an the fan also doesn't throttle down when you're just messing around in Windows either which means it is in jumbo jet mode all the time whereas the leadtek one does throttle down. I have put my 5900XT back in (also a leadtek) and it is pratically inaudiable compared to this bad boy!

To be honest in the games I tried it with when it was installed it didn't seem to be much faster than my 5900XT anyway so I suspect my PC is a bit of a bottleneck (only does AGP 4x for a start) so perhaps it's not worth it until I change the whole PC.

[Applecrusher]

AGP 4 wont slow down your VC much at all... The new P4 m thingys all have agp 4 and the reviews all say that they notice no difference in the speed of the vc's

[davidstone28]

There was a guy on one of those SFF websites who installed a Zalman passive sink (the larger version) onto his card and cut a rectangular hole on the side of the Shuttle to allow it to fit. I used to have the Zalman sink (the larger version) on a Ti4200 and I have to say that I'm not convinced by them - during extreme use, something on the GFX card - possibly memory - would get too hot and cause a system crash. I guess in a SFF PC, its heat problem is going to be more acute. Having said that, I currently running a passive 6800 and it hits 90c-100c without a problem.

As a suggestion, what you might want to have a think about is how to incorporate a 'silent' 80mm fan into the Shuttle - probably by cutting a blowhole at the top of the case - should be a pretty straightforward job using a Dremel and an old CD and protractor as a template / guide. Running a SilenX, Acoustifan or Nexus 80mm even at 7v will provide the silence you're after as well as providing a reasonably adequate cooling for the card, provided its geared up for passive running. I consideredd buying a SFF PC at one point, but couldn't figure out a way of making it 'silent' - the PSU and GFX cards being the main culprits. The only way I thought of quietening down the PSU was to would be to buy an passive PSU and running it externally....and external watercooling the GFX card, which sort of defeats the point of a SFF PC.

In my desktop rig, I'm running as many passive components as I can - GFX card, PSU, northbridge etc with properly 'silent' fans running at anything between 0v and 12v through a T-Balancer fan controller. Along with other silencing bits and piece - HDD suspension, fan decoupling etc, - it's probably as close to silence as I'm going to get.

If you figure out how to genuinely silence your SFF PC, I'd be interested to know. Will be my next project

[andrewuk]

If you figure out how to genuinely silence your SFF PC, I'd be interested to know. Will be my next project

Mine's not too bad since the stock CPU cooler in my shuttle has been replaced since day one with an uber quiet model and the PSU is the 250W SilentX model. In fact it was damn near silent with my Ti4200 in there (which was passive) as they were the only two fans in the rig.

The fan noise on the 5900XT I have in there now isn't that bad because it's a nice big fan that rotates slowly and throttles right down when not on full load. Compare that to the new 6600GT I got which sounds like a dyson dual cyclone with the reference cooler