VGA Cooler in an SN41G2

[MiniMarc]

When I got my shuttle ages ago, one of the first things I noticed was the noise of it, so since then I've been steadily working towards the quietest stsyem possible without resorting to extreme measures.

To this end I have a PAPST 80mm exhaust (might swap it for a noiseblocker when it arrives depending on noise levels), a massive zalman heatsink on the northbridge and a 250W SIlentX PSU (much better than the standard one )

Now the only annoyance is my Radeon 9700pro as it has an annoying whine, so I've been hunting around for a suitable alternative to cool the card down. The main problem is the amount of space around the card as there is pretty much no room around the card as the side of the shuttle is only a fewmm away from the standard HSF and there is no room behind it as I have a massive DVB-C tv card in there. I was hoping for the zalman heatpipe but thats far too big. are there any other options suck as low profile passive coolers or very quiet fans that I can use to replace the existing one?


Cheers Marc

[Knoxville]

There is one zalman passive hs that will actually fit iirc, i'll try and dig out a link.

[Knoxville]

Right, after a look around the Zalman ZM80A-HP may fit although im not sure as i can't look at my own shuttle to check.

This - http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/zm50-hp.htm will definatly fit but may not be enough to cool a 9700pro without some kind of fan on it.

[Bindibadgi]

HP80s wont fit with the shuttle case on. Only the HP50s will, and it wont cool a 97/9800 series.

[MiniMarc]

Thanks knoxville, that was the passive heatpipe I had been looking at, and as Binidibadgi said, it definitely wont fit due to a lack of space on both seides of the card

What about replacing the current fan or modding it to make less noise, do you reckon that would work? The card isn't overclocked and the case temperature stays at a cool 38c

[MiniMarc]

I have found this heatsink which looked promising as it was only 17mm thick so would definitely fit



unfortunately I didnt see the GPU block which adds an extra 20mm onto the height

[Bindibadgi]

it wont cool a 9700 series though, i had one on my 8500 and it just about cooled that at the time.

[MiniMarc]

How effective do you think a volt mod on the existing fan would be? or what about replacing the current fan with a better (quieter) one as it's 50mm so shouldnt be too hard to find one. I just need to go find the specs of the current one now

[MiniMarc]

Well if I can't go passive then the next best thing is replacing the heatsink fan already on there

I asked around on irc about the dba levels of the stock cooler and someone reckoned it was in the region of about 36dba (unconfirmed) and I have found this over at kustom:



Its rated at 30dba so for 1) I'm not sure if the old one is actually 36dba and therefore louder and 2) if there is a great deal of difference between 30 and 36 dba to warrant the £15 price tag??

Any help?

[MiniMarc]

Bah I just found a review on it and my thoughts regarding the use of a 5000rpm fan have been confirmed

The fan is fairly quiet, although high pitched - I could not get a reading with a Radio Shack sound meter 8" from the fan's intake

Looks like it might be a case of put up with it or bring on the volt mods

[dawson]

I run that Vantec Iceberq at 7v, its quite quiet, maybe around 23dba?

EDIT : And cools my 9800se in a shuttle perfectly... runs hours and hours of 3D Mark 2003 with no problems.

[MiniMarc]

cheers for the info dawson

I also noticed a standard 50mm delta on kustom which only hits 18dba @ 3500rpm etc so its a toss up between a vantec at 7v and the delta cut to ribbons to fit the current heatsink Decisions decisions.....

[dawson]

The vanteq also comes with 4 x Ram Sinks