Project 6600GT agp + VF900 (Dial up BEWARE!) - Overclock.net

tomasro · 05-07-06

So as many of you know, the 6600gt from nvidia is a great midline card for those still stuck in the agp age like myself. It gets decent enough graphics and can OC pretty well. Well, one thing I couldn't stand with my stock cooler is that the fan was unbalanced...so everytime I'd start the computer, you'd get the most annoying buzzing and humming ever. So I decided to try an aftermarket cooler, and the Zalman vf700 looked alright, but I saw that the VF900 was coming out with dual heatpipes. It intrigued me. Then when it was released they said "Not compatible with the 6600gt AGP". And that's when I said "*** mate?".

So I e-mailed a few people...the People at Zalman in perticular...to see what the real problem was, and got no response. It then became my mission to figure out a way to take this great cooler, and make it compatible with my video card. I wasn't going to let zalman try and bully me into getting a new vid card.

Here's the skeleton we will be working with (stock cooler removed):

And here's the other half we will be grafting onto our subject:

As a test fit, everything looks fine, and we wonder why zalman said it's not compatible:

Running only one of the screws from the cooler into the VF900 we find that the screw tabs are not long enough:

So for an ingeneous solution, I've devised a sort of extension bar to allow the cooler to sit on the card. And this will be our victim:

We find that the measurements for the holes are not even, so it's a little guess and check. The spacing between the first and last holes is 1.1 cm, and the new hole will be at 1.6 cm:

We will use the spare dual screws as fodder for the cannon as we reduce their functionality from dual screw, so simple regular screw. These screws will hold the extension bracket in place during operation:

And here's another picture of the actual distance between the holes:

So, after 20 minutes of dremelling, we are left with these next set of pictures:

The bracket came out just right as the screw holes for the first and last hole that would attach to the cooler are larger than normal to allow for some adjustment, and the new hole is a perfect fit for the screw (I did a test fit while dremeling):

This is a pretty fuzzy picture, but you can see how the board looks as a finished product. The VF900 does work with the 6600gt agp!:

Here's an arial view. I had originally invisioned that the 2 extra dual screws would hold 2 parts of the bracket, but then found that the width of the third one would not allow the screw to enter the last hold of the cooler's bracket. So I ended up with just the one screw in the hole nearest the cooler's core, and the screw connected to the cooler itself. Had I done it again, I would have made the hole for the third hole of the cooler, so as to add stability since the cooler will be sitting upside down in my case which will really tax the strength of the piece of metal I shaved down:

Here's a final installed shot:

And another installed shot of the VF900 + 6600gt AGP in all it's glory!!!:

Lastly, the temperature and OC difference...was it really worth it? YES!!!
Stock cooling was at about 45 degrees C with AS5, now it's 37 degrees with AS5. I could get a max OC of about 580 cpu, and 1.17 mem; now I get 600 cpu and 1.20 mem. Pulls 60,000 in aquamark, so I'm really happy!

Side note: The VF900 did come with memory sinks, and would probably helped the OC more, but I totally forgot about them until after I had installed the card into my system. And at 1am, bed sounds a lot more promising than memory heatsinks

But I will post an update for when I do install these later on.

If anyone has any questions about this mod, feel free to contact me. I will be more than happy to answer any questions. Enjoy!

Highly-Annoyed · 05-07-06

Good Work. Nice to see that you weren't prepared to settle for "not compatible" and worked out a good solution to the problem.

Good bit of creative and practical thinking on your behalf, well done!

Nice idea to put a link in your sig as well, will help other 6600 owners that way.

Good bit of bit of creative problem solving and a REP-worth mod imo.

Highly-Annoyed

PROBN4LYFE · 05-07-06

Now that's what I like to see posted...WORK WELL DONE

I'm saving that one...cool points awarded

ckp64 · 05-07-06

Nice job..I was one of the people who said it was not compatible, my guess was because of the HSI heatsink, but you proved me wrong.

13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y · 05-07-06

nicely done tom, a quality mod!

tomasro · 05-07-06

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckp64

Nice job..I was one of the people who said it was not compatible, my guess was because of the HSI heatsink, but you proved me wrong.

And I thought you were right too...truely that would have been a lot easier...all I would have had to do is dremel down the HSI heatsink...but this way was more fun

Remember, tell your friends!

sevenz · 05-11-06

great stuff tomasro

i had the exact same problem as you!

i was thinking of making an extension bracket to compensate then i bumped into your post! which of course helped a lot... thanks!

i don't have a dremel so i had to make do with a hacksaw, a drill and a file... (and sore thumbs!)

coincidently we both seem to have the same case! but i chose not to use the back panel that came with mine... i chose a more denser and thicker panel that i pulled out of an old computer... which is prolly the reason i have sore thumbs with all the filing away!

i left my bracket wider and more rounded... didn't manage to get a pic of it... i've drawn a pic to illustrate (attached).

the only problem i had was that as i used a thicker and denser panel, the screws would not fix in properly and the threads on the screw eventually wore away. i did eventually manage to fix the screw into the bracket, but it was loose since the threads on the screw was worn, so to be on the safe side, i added a bit of solder to secure it. if i were to do this any different, i would have made the the dual-screw hole larger and fitted it with a nut on the other end if the bracket. now where would i have found a nut to fit? sawing off one of the unused screw tabs... the ati screw tab would have been perfect!

but there you go! it works and it's solid! (well i like to think anyway!)

lohoutlaw · 05-11-06

Great work man.

tomasro · 05-11-06

Sevenz - Looks like you and I have the same idea...since you've got yours up and running...what temps and OCing have you gotten out of your card since the upgrade?

mootin · 05-11-06

Quote:

Stock cooling was at about 45 degrees C with AS5, now it's 37 degrees with AS5. I could get a max OC of about 580 cpu, and 1.17 mem; now I get 600 cpu and 1.20 mem. Pulls 60,000 in aquamark, so I'm really happy!

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Project 6600GT agp + VF900 (Dial up BEWARE!)

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