Artic Cooler for VGA cards

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Stoneskin

I'm thinking about buying one of these for my Prophet 9800 Pro. Anyone
use one?

The reviews seem to give it a thumbs up. What do you think?
 
Works great. Very quiet, even with fan on high. The stock fan made a high
pitched noise. The installation was easy with the hardest part being removal
of old heatsink. They have double sided tape holding HS to GPU. Must pull
away slowly and use nail polish remover to remove residue.

-Kent
 
Stoneskin said:
I'm thinking about buying one of these for my Prophet 9800 Pro.
Anyone use one?

The reviews seem to give it a thumbs up. What do you think?
Click to expand...

yup, i'v got one on my 9800 pro, much better than the stock one
2 minor issues i had:

you might have a problem with a pci card in the slot next to the cooler, the
metal part of it is right up against it, it's not conductive, but it's a bit
annoying to make it all fit, depends on the cards though
also
remember to remove the plastic tab at the back of your moptherboard agp
slot, it's a pain in the ass to get the card out if you don't remove it :)
 
Stoneskin said:
I'm thinking about buying one of these for my Prophet 9800 Pro. Anyone
use one?

The reviews seem to give it a thumbs up. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I installed one recently on a 9700 PRO. The hardest part is scraping the old
thermal pad off the cpu. The card itself is made up of many many tiny very
sensative components that can be easily damaged. The yellow thermal gunk
that was on the GPU was impossible to remove--I had to scrape and scrape for
almost a solid hour. It was painstaking. Nailpolish remover did not help--it
might have been because mine was acetone free. Anyway, I finally got the
thing installed, I played with it for a few minutes and itseemed fine. Then
I started overclocking it. I heard a loud click from inside my case and my
card just died never to return. I might have fried it--I might have
installed the VGA silencer too tightly--it could have been just about
anything. A piece of thermal gunk might have gone where it didn't belong,
ect. The point is, there are a million ways to destroy a graphics card if
you tinker with it enough, and the installation proceess of this cooler
requires handling of the card that puts you at risk of killing it. The
silencer itself is excellent and the noise level is a major improvement, but
install at your own risk! Also, my arctic cooler did not seem to allow me to
overclock the core any further than stock cooling.~Chalky
 
Chalky said:
I installed one recently on a 9700 PRO. The hardest part is scraping the old
thermal pad off the cpu. The card itself is made up of many many tiny very
sensative components that can be easily damaged. The yellow thermal gunk
that was on the GPU was impossible to remove--I had to scrape and scrape for
almost a solid hour. It was painstaking. Nailpolish remover did not help--it
might have been because mine was acetone free. Anyway, I finally got the
thing installed, I played with it for a few minutes and itseemed fine. Then
I started overclocking it. I heard a loud click from inside my case and my
card just died never to return. I might have fried it--I might have
installed the VGA silencer too tightly--it could have been just about
anything. A piece of thermal gunk might have gone where it didn't belong,
ect. The point is, there are a million ways to destroy a graphics card if
you tinker with it enough, and the installation proceess of this cooler
requires handling of the card that puts you at risk of killing it. The
silencer itself is excellent and the noise level is a major improvement, but
install at your own risk! Also, my arctic cooler did not seem to allow me to
overclock the core any further than stock cooling.~Chalky
Click to expand...

I think the stock thermal compound etc varies from manufacturer to
manufacturer and may well be different between 9700's and 9800's. But I can
share your "dried yellow gunk" experience. I had exactly the same with my
9700 Pro and it was a real pain trying to scrape it all off.

Luckily for me however, once fitted the VGA Silencer has been completely
brilliant and one of the best upgrades I have ever bought. Its added a good
30MHz to my max Core speeds, taking it up to 400MHz and beyond, and I only
use the <low> setting on the fan, so its completely inaudible.

I feel like I got a 9800 Pro upgrade for about $20. Brilliant.

Chip
 
I think the stock thermal compound etc varies from manufacturer to
manufacturer and may well be different between 9700's and 9800's. But I can
share your "dried yellow gunk" experience. I had exactly the same with my
9700 Pro and it was a real pain trying to scrape it all off.
Click to expand...

Mine scraped with a fingernail.
Luckily for me however, once fitted the VGA Silencer has been completely
brilliant and one of the best upgrades I have ever bought. Its added a good
30MHz to my max Core speeds, taking it up to 400MHz and beyond, and I only
use the <low> setting on the fan, so its completely inaudible.
Click to expand...

Girly man. Turn it up!
I feel like I got a 9800 Pro upgrade for about $20. Brilliant.
Click to expand...

It cost me £7.00 + p&p. I think that it is the fan Radeons should be
fitted with as standard.
--

Julian Richards
computer "at" richardsuk.f9.co.uk

XP Home
L7S7A2 motherboard
Powercolor 9800 SE 8 pipelines with Omega drivers
1 GB RAM
10 GB + 80 GB HDs
CD+DVD/CDRW drives
 
Installed on 9700 Pro with the spacer removed
using Arctic Silver 3. Works like a charm.
Stable at 405/324 so far. (no Ramsinks).

The contact plate has serious tooling marks
on it so a couple hours lapping it down to
mirror finish were well spent.

Its a bit fiddly to install. I felt that too vigorous
tightening of the mounting mechanism might result
in a cracked component on side 2. However, firm
contact between the plate and the core did not require
all that much tightening. It simply has to be slow and
even on both screws to prevent damage.

It is very very quiet compared to the screaming
bit of junk that came stock on the card.
<{{ MudFish (Co30){('>
Click to expand...
www.Co30.com
"Careful with that Axe Eugene."
 
Installed on 9700 Pro with the spacer removed
using Arctic Silver 3. Works like a charm.
Stable at 405/324 so far. (no Ramsinks).
Click to expand...

Thanks to all who responded. Another quick question about it - my card
is a Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro and it has copper heatsinks on the back
of the card. I haven't seen any pictures of the Arctic Cooler which
have heatsinks on the back of the card. Do they need to be removed and
if so is the fact that the Arctic cooler only on the front of the card
going to cause problems with the rear chips overheating?

Pics of the rear of the card are here if I haven't made myself clear;
http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/herc9800pro1.shtml
 
it was a real pain trying to scrape it all off.

Use a small piece of cloth dampened with acetone, MEK, Xylol or lacquer
thinner next time. Wipes off like butter.
 
Pics of the rear of the card are here if I haven't made myself clear;
http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/herc9800pro1.shtml
Click to expand...

ohhh....

good job you put that bit up. Thats important information. It has a non standard stock cooling
solution. DONT DO THE MOD.

I dont think your card is compatible.

That second heatsink on the back of your card looks non standard. It looks like both the front and
back heatsinks are fixed by the same two pins, and these go through the board. If you take the fan
off, you have to take the back sink off.

I would recommend *against* doing the mod on this basis, the artic is heavy and relies on a sizeable
amount of pressure on the back of the card to hold it on. whatever is under that back heatsink will
be getting all that pressure.

BTW, I have modded two cards successfully, Connect 3D 9500 pro, and Sapphirre 9800 pro, both
*standard ATI reference designs*. I can certainly recommend it as a cool upgrade (in every
sense!), but on reference-design cards there is a blank area to the back of the GPU, on which a
clip needs to rest against. this clip holds the artic tight. It looks like there may be some sort
of chip (or sone sort of heat transfer device) under that non standard back heatsink of yours, and
this would worry me, because your pressure would now be on a chip, not on the board itself. also,
if your card uses a non standard heat transfer device to push heat through the back heatsink (and I
would wonder why all that expensive copper is there if it does not!), the artic would bypass it.
have a look at...
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/support/installation/install_vga_silencer1.pdf

....to see what the card expects the back of your card to look like, and what the clip is (it has a
little pad on it that presees down , and that point is right behind the GPU... you may have a chip
there looking at that back heatsink!

Also, the card you show seems to have a high quality *copper* heatsink. the artic is 100%
*aluminum*, which is a far poorer conductor. Your sink arrangement looks to be better than the
stock ATI sink on the reference design. Myself and others upgraded because we had stock coolers,
whereas yours looks to be superior.

Is there a real and compelling reason you are doing this upgrade? If not, dont bother is my best
advice (and I would normally thoroughly recommend the Artic, as you may see by some of my previous
posts).

How about you contact artic at their site and ask what you need to do next?
Seems the best option by far.

S
 
Girly man. Turn it up!
Click to expand...

Well I can do, but ATITOOL shows errors beyond about 395. I can 3dmark at
415 though :-)

I must have got good ram on my card anyway because thats rock solid upto
360MHz with no sinks or anything.

Chip.
 
Sham B left a note on my windscreen which said:
...to see what the card expects the back of your card to look like, and what the clip is (it has a
little pad on it that presees down , and that point is right behind the GPU... you may have a chip
there looking at that back heatsink!
Click to expand...

An excellent post - thanks for the advice. Yes, I looked up various
pictures of modded cards and noticed they do not have the heatsinks on
the back. I had assumend that either my card required cooling measures
on the back of the card which this mod would not cater for or that these
heatsinks are not required.

On your advice I don't think I'll bother with the mod.
Is there a real and compelling reason you are doing this upgrade? If not, dont bother is my best
advice (and I would normally thoroughly recommend the Artic, as you may see by some of my previous
posts).
Click to expand...

The reason I was interested is that I had assumed that my card was
basically 'stock' and that modding it would give me lower temperatures,
a quieter fan and/or more overhead to overclock it.

For the record my card is a Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro (I think I may
have said that already).
How about you contact artic at their site and ask what you need to do next?
Seems the best option by far.
Click to expand...

Will do. Once again - thatnks for the post.
 
Stoneskin said:
Sham B left a note on my windscreen which said:
what
Click to expand...

I was interested is that I had assumed that my card was
basically 'stock' and that modding it would give me lower temperatures,
a quieter fan and/or more overhead to overclock it.

For the record my card is a Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro (I think I may
have said that already).


Will do. Once again - thatnks for the post.
Click to expand...


Whats the default clock on your card and
how much OC can you put on it without
artifacts.

With all that copper on it it may be cranked
up as tight as it will go already (with air cooling).

As far as the fancy heat sink on the back of
the card its really doubtful that it covers
anything especially important (or matters much)
I predict its simply contacting the back of the
board opposite the VPU to wick some of the side
2 heat away, probably using non-conductive
silicone based thermal paste It may be machined
out around any side 2 SMT components
in its contact area. Looks cool - does little.

So you could take it off. BUT.... you got a bigger
problem on side one with those two rear ramsinks.
They look like they are tall enough to interfer
with the VGA Cooler installation. Not a good
thing.

The thing looks like its got plenty of cooling to
me already. Much more than a stock ATI
Reference board (bleck).
<{{ MudFish (Co30){('>
Click to expand...
www.Co30.com
"Careful with that Axe Eugene."
 
Whats the default clock on your card and
how much OC can you put on it without
artifacts.
Click to expand...

I intend to try with the ATITool application for more accurate results.
Standard clock speeds were 380/350 IIRC. I belive these are standard
9800 Pro speeds.

I have managed to clock it to around 400 core with no apparent ill
effects.
With all that copper on it it may be cranked
up as tight as it will go already (with air cooling).

As far as the fancy heat sink on the back of
the card its really doubtful that it covers
anything especially important (or matters much)
I predict its simply contacting the back of the
board opposite the VPU to wick some of the side
2 heat away, probably using non-conductive
silicone based thermal paste It may be machined
out around any side 2 SMT components
in its contact area. Looks cool - does little.
Click to expand...

I did wonder but I'm not sure I'm willing to gamble the card if those
heat sinks do something a bit more useful.
So you could take it off. BUT.... you got a bigger
problem on side one with those two rear ramsinks.
They look like they are tall enough to interfer
with the VGA Cooler installation. Not a good
thing.

The thing looks like its got plenty of cooling to
me already. Much more than a stock ATI
Reference board (bleck).
Click to expand...

I doubt I'll go ahead with the mod. There seems to be a bit too much
potential complication. Thanks for the advice.
 
Ohhh I sorta forgot this. You modders
might want to take note of this:

On top of the Radeon VPU's there are a
bunch of SMT 608 capacitors and resistors.
they look like little fly specs. Some of them,
depending on vendor or process soldering
and placement variables may be a bit higher
off the surface of the VPU than others.

This means if your heatsink contact plate is
anywhere off flat/level against the core it may
contact the termination band of one of these SMT
devices. This is a bad thing and may very well be
the reason why some are reporting fryed VPU's
after various HSF mods.

This may be the reason the ATI designers had to
use the spacer in the first place, to keep any warped
heatsinks from shorting out the SMT devices
that were higher than the core on early units before
they could get lower profile components.

Here's the fix I used. I got me some circuit board
repair epoxy and epoxied over every one of the
devices on top of the VPU to insulate them against
contact with the heat sink plate just in case.

Super glue gel (like loktite 4205 prism) would work
just as well. Just a *little* dab spread over top those
devices and allowed to set up. Don't try regular super
glue as its low viscosity will flow it everywhere. You
want the Gel type so it stays where you put it.
--
<{{ MudFish (Co30){('>
Click to expand...
www.Co30.com
"Careful with that Axe Eugene."
 
Martin said:
The HIS Excaliber is.

Martin
Click to expand...

Well the IceQ model is. Their other ones aren't: I'd hate anyone to go and
buy any HIS Excalibur expecting it to have a VGA Silencer on it.

Chip
 
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