Overclock.net - Overclocking.net - View Single Post - Easy Homebrew 8800GT Cooling for Less Than $10 (or Free!)???

linskingdom · 01-10-08

$10 or free? Interesting.

Quote:

Testing Results
Temperature testing was conducted in a my computer system that I use on a daily basis, IE not caseless in the open air on a desk. The system consists of an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3GHz seated on an Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard, 2GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 memory, two Western Digital 74GB Raptor hard drives... all in an Antec P182 case with an Antec NeoHE 550w power supply. The case was fitted with stock cooling, with all Antec Tricool fans set to low.

Temperature measurements were monitored using RivaTuner's hardware monitor tool. Simulated load was produced using ATITool's artifact checker. I'm using this to simulate load as I found that it would cause temperatures to rise the most, higher than any game I'm tested with. So in effect, the recorded testing results should be a worst-case scenario in terms of real world usage.

It should come as no surprise that the stock cooler with the fan running in auto mode (temperature variable) was the hottest, peaking at 93 degrees celcius load. It should be noted that on automatic, fan speed was running at approximately 30% when the video card was loaded. Noise wise, the fan on auto could not be heard over system noise at any point.

Upon setting the stock fan to run at 100% speed, temperatures dropped drastically to 51 degrees celcius idle and 73 degrees celcius on load, a whopping 9 and 20 degrees celcius drop respectively. Subjectively speaking, fan noise was loud at this point, being the loudest solution by far. As a user, I would only set the fan to 100% for testing purposes, as it's too loud and high pitch for daily usage.

Removing the shroud on the stock cooler actually resulted in higher temperatures, which confirms my hypothesis that the shroud is an important part in the cooler's operational design.

Changing the GPU's thermal compound to Tuniq TX-2 and adding the compound to the memory chips didn't really change temperatures much, with the idle reading staying the same and the load temperature dropping by just 1 degree celcius. It should be noted however that by adding thermal compound to all of the memory chips, contact between the heatsink and the chips greatly improved (remember that one chip wasn't even making any contact with the thermal pad). This in effect would increase the heat load on the heatsink. While temperature readings remained the same with the application of thermal compound, we can safely imply that by adding thermal compound, heat transfer to the heatsink improved. This should help extend the lifetime of the video card. For overclockers, reducing heat of the memory chips should help with memory overclocking.

In changing fans and using our homemade cardboard shroud, temperatures improved all around. When using the inaudible (over system noise) 34CFM fan, temperatures were just a few degrees over that of the stock cooler running at 100%. With the 45CFM fan, temperatures were cooler than the stock cooler at 100%. With the slower fan, we gained most of the thermal benefits of the stock cooler at 100%, but with no audible difference in overall system noise. With the higher output fan, system noise was increased slightly, but the thermal benefits were the best.

Conclusion
For owners of the 8800GT who are concerned about heat and noise and want an inexpensive fix, I recommend doing what I did: swapping fans and making a shroud. Most enthusiasts should have atleast one 80mm fan lying around, whether it's in an old case or power supply, and if you don't, they should cost less than $10 each at your local computer shop. Couple this with some thermal paste to improve the subpar thermal pad placement, and you'll have a cooler card that will live a longer life.

What's also nice about this simple mod is that it can be reverted back to factory stock state quickly, and doesn't require any permanant modifications to your hardware.

If you apply this mod to your 8800GT, or other video card for that matter, post a comment on your results. If you have any suggestions on other easy mods, let me know too!

Source