Graphics Card heatsink question.

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AberTech

I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want to reduce the
noise of my PC. Now, I also have an old heatsink from a Pentium 166 and
I've been toying with the idea of seeing whether I could take the fan of the
vga, stick this old heatsink on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be
enough to keep it cool. i dont play 3D games or anything and I know there
are a few radeons that don't have fans so....

whaddaya think?
 
" I also have an old heatsink from a Pentium 166 and I've been toying with
the idea of seeing whether I could take the fan of the vga, stick this old
heatsink on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be enough to keep it
cool. "


Did you figure out how it is going to stay there? It sure as hell won't fit
with the current connectors, and thermal paste won't hold it on when it's
underneath the card. If you used thermal epoxy, then you may have major
problems getting it off again, particularly if it doesn't do the job well
enough. You can also say goodbye to at least one, and possibly two PCI
slots with a heatsink like that. Either stick with what you have, or find a
silent aftermarket heatsink that was designed for your card.
 
you need to get a passive gpu cooler like the zalman ZM80C-HP or one of the
other types they do.
check out there web site to see with is best suited to you
check out ebay first as you my get one cheeper :)
they are easy to fit & work a treat the one i stated can have a fan mounted
if you need two but you shouldn't need to use one on your card..
 
AberTech said:
I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want to reduce the
noise of my PC.
Click to expand...

Messing with it at all goes against my intuition, but I have an FX5200
without a fan, so maybe the fan on yours is mainly a gimmick.

If you know something about electricity, maybe you can slow the fan by
putting a resistor or some diodes in the circuit. If the fan runs on
12V now, you could try reducing the fan voltage to 7V (= 12V-5V) or to 5V.
 
AberTech said:
I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want to reduce the
noise of my PC. Now, I also have an old heatsink from a Pentium 166 and
I've been toying with the idea of seeing whether I could take the fan of the
vga, stick this old heatsink on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be
enough to keep it cool. i dont play 3D games or anything and I know there
are a few radeons that don't have fans so....

whaddaya think?
Click to expand...

I'd try playing with the GPU Clock Frequencies in
Display | Settings | Advanced | GeForce.. | Clock Frequencies.

I have a GF4 4200 and can underclock the GPU to 80Mhz
using 61.77 drivers for the same reasons.
 
AberTech said:
I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want
to reduce the noise of my PC. Now, I also have an old heatsink
from a Pentium 166 and I've been toying with the idea of seeing
whether I could take the fan of the vga, stick this old heatsink
on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be enough to keep
it cool. i dont play 3D games or anything and I know there
are a few radeons that don't have fans so....

whaddaya think?
Click to expand...

If you use thermal paste, the heatsink could eventually slide off and
short out the AGP card, the card next to it, and your mobo. Epoxy
will hold it in place, and even regular epoxy will conduct heat well
enough to cool an FX5200 chip. But because epoxy can make removing the
heatsink difficult/impossible later on, it would be better to use
silicone rubber sealer instead because it's easy to cut through with a
razor blade, yet it sticks great (one person broke some solder
connection while trying to pry off a heatsink glued with it) and
conducts heat better than thermal tape does (I once measured with a
two-probe thermometer -- smaller temperature difference). Don't
listen to those heathens who say that silicone rubber sealer is a bad
thermal conductant because they've never tested it, and the hot stuff
inside your PSU has silicone rubber sheets between it and the
heatsinks.
 
I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want to reduce the
noise of my PC. Now, I also have an old heatsink from a Pentium 166 and
I've been toying with the idea of seeing whether I could take the fan of the
vga, stick this old heatsink on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be
enough to keep it cool. i dont play 3D games or anything and I know there
are a few radeons that don't have fans so....

whaddaya think?
Click to expand...

I did something similar with a noisy GF3 Ti-500 - removed the stock
fan, and fixed an after-market (and very tall!) northbridge heatsink
to the gpu with thermal epoxy. Reinstalled the card and installed one
of those card coolers (2x80mm fans) that mount onto the retaining
screws on the expansion card slots.

Worked like a dream, but kinda permanent. In my case, it didn't matter
as I would have dumped the card if I couldn't quiet it, since it was
so annoying.

Vic.
 
AberTech said:
I have a GeForce FX5200 graphics card with a fan. I want to reduce the
noise of my PC. Now, I also have an old heatsink from a Pentium 166 and
I've been toying with the idea of seeing whether I could take the fan of the
vga, stick this old heatsink on with some thermal paste and see if that'd be
enough to keep it cool. i dont play 3D games or anything and I know there
are a few radeons that don't have fans so....

whaddaya think?
Click to expand...

One PC I have is fitted with a Gainward FX5200 with a Passive Heatsink
which is no deeper 15mm.

Clocks are 250 and 300 GPU and Mem respectively so yes you can use a
Thermal Heatsink.

Case has no fans apart from the CPU (standard AMD HS and Fan) and the PSU.

PC gets used mainly by my 6 year old but also for UT2003 and NFS in the
evenings after they have gone to bed.

Hope this helps, ease of use is to get an aftermarket but of your 166
Heatsink is anything like an Old Compaq 166 I had is is much larger than
the Gainward Sink.

http://www.gainward.com/html/product/vga/fx/5200/680tvdvi.htm shows the
card in question


Hope this helps

Andy
 
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