packardhell1

Hi all,

I've been reading threads on here about cooling for the Radeon HD3870. I've got fans blowing on it now, but it still has the stock ATI (well, VisionTek) fan/heatsink. It's running around the same temps other stockers have.

I don't have the $$ to spend on a Thermalright HR-03 or any other cooling mod. However, when I bought my Intel C2D E6550 a few weeks ago, I also bought an AC Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler, so I still have my stock Intel heatsink/fan.

Does anyone think that, if I can get it to mount correctly, the Intel setup would keep the card sufficiently cool? I'm not sure which gets hotter - a CPU or a GPU (I'm guessing the CPU).

Any chance of this working? Surely if it can keep a CPU cool keeping a GPU cool would be no problem....

Thank you for your help heat

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ESS_Eisenkreuz

if u could find an effective way to mount it it would work beautifully... but that is always the problem. this has been discussed many many times before.

Pvt. Pritchard

The hole pattern on a 3870 is probably a lot more compact than a stock intel cooler. Also I think the intel cooler would be too heavy for your card to support.The stock 3870 is probably still better than the stock intel heatsink anyway.

but good luck in your experiment

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packardhell1

Doh! I'm sorry about that - I forgot to search for this before I asked. I'll search now to see what comes up. Thanks

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packardhell1

Do you think it would be? The ATI does have a nice fan setup, but I'd think the Intel heatsink is better.

I do think it would be too heavy for the card or the slot to support. There is a solution to that, though. Since the Intel's fan has a cage, I would just support it with a piece of steel going from the bottom of the case up to the fan casing. To keep the heatsink/fan on while I'm installing it, I'd use thick rubber bands (those are still holding together a Celeron 300A, 2 heatsinks, and 2 fans!!).

I hesitate in doing this because I've only been using the card for about 24 hours and I really don't want to void any warranties. Will getting rid of the stock heatsink/fan void the warranty, or is it so commonplace that it is accepted by OEMs? I would watch the temp religiously through Catalyst to see what it was doing and, if it got too hot, change it back to stock. Again, I'm afraid I'm going to void my warranty - but I want my card to be cool and last (especially since, if that card gets hot, it will heat up the inside of my case and heat everything else up).

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packardhell1

Ha! I'll use this on the side of my case. That'll keep the card cool. If it's good enough for a small block Chevy...

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OcCam

I did the same kind of thing with an old vantec areo socket A cooler and a ati x1600 pro

I took the old heat sink off placed the card on top of the cpu heat sink and used a very small paint brush through the video card mounting holes to mark where to drill screw holes in the aluminum of the heatsink.

A little bit of drill press action and cut my temps by 30c and thats with a major vmod


IT CAN BE DONE (when things work out )

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--"Dr. Chandra?....Will I dream?

-hal 9000

packardhell1

Thank you for the encouragement. I won't even be able to try this until finals are over, but I'll try it as soon as I'm done. I'm guessing that removing the stock stuff won't damage the GPU? I guess it would be like changing out a CPU cooler...

I'll get some good thermal paste (unless the stuff on the Intel is good enough) and do it. If it's not cooler, I'll buy an aftermarket one.

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OcCam

Id use mx-2 since its not conductive and better than AS5.

as for removing the stock cooler it shouldn't be that hard to do if you take your time and be gentle. try not to jar the card or drag the cooler across the pcb.

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--"Dr. Chandra?....Will I dream?

-hal 9000