Replace HSF or new gfx card?

[Chewy509]

Hi Guys,

The fan on my gfx card has decided to start whining... (a really high pitched whine, pretty sure it's a dead bearing or something)... It's gotten to a point, that I think the fan is ready to die a spinning death...

Its an Asus A9600XT/TVD/128M (an ATi R9600XT w/VIVO w/128MB). (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=9&l3=17&l4=0&model=284&modelmenu=1)

Does anyone know of a replacement/compatible fan or replacement HSF assembly that can be used with card? (I've googled and nothing immediate comes up, and searching several forums don't yield any info).

I've had a look at some of the Zalman solutions, but can't get a definite answer on compatibility. (The Zalman VF700-Cu in particular which is ~A$50). Also I'm not overally concerned with noise, (reasonably quiet), but should be a single slot solution. (There is 1 free slot between the AGP card and an installed SCSI controller).

The card is out of warranty (by about 2mths), so warranty replacement isn't a possibility...

Or, would I better off just getting a new gfx card?

The only catch(es) with getting a new card is:
1. Must work with FreeBSD AMD64 w/3D hardware acceleration in X 6.9 (and soon to be X.org 7.2 once FreeBSD 7.0 is released).
2. Work with Windows XP x64.
3. Offer comparable performance to what I have.
4. And (this one is critical) is AGP x8 and does NOT employ a HSI chip (it must be a true AGP card). I have a Tyan K8W mobo, which has a AMD-8151 AGP-HT chipset. The AMD-8151 has known issues with gfx cards that employ a HSI chip. (so nothing newer than a X800 or GF6800 I believe).
5. And cost around ~A$200.

 

[time]

<crickets chirping>

 

[Mercutio]

I have a Radeon 9700AIW I could certainly part with.

At one point, I tried to install a Vantec(?) graphics cooler on a Radeon 9800. It came with no instructions and the card burned out about two hours after I installed the new fan.

I do not trust after-market graphics cooling.

On the other hand, maintaining a fan really isn't that hard. A little sewing machine oil might make it good as new.

 

[Sol]

Looks like a job for a 40mm fan (Sunon or SilenX make pretty good ones that won't die too quickly) and some screws or hot glue.

...Maybe even a quieter 60mm fan if your really handy with the hot glue...

A standard 2 push pin chipset HSF would probably fit on thier fine as well but if the bit of heatsink extending over the memory actually does anything (which I seriously doubt, video cards that actually need to cool the memory seem to be few and far between, and fairly heavily overclocked) then you might want to look at RAM sinks as well.

Odds are there are some memory chips on the back working just fine without any cooling though which would be a good hint that any standard chipset cooler will do the job. (Including the VF700-Cu, but I hope that price estimate includes shipping 'cause otherwise it seems a bit high).

 

[Chewy509]

Merc: Unfortunately most 9700's are known not to work with the AMD-8151. Apparently a bug in the gfx chip that was fixed with the 9600/9800's. Thanks for the offer though.

The Zalman solutions won't really fit (in my case), due to taking over the next slot. (The price quoted is the retail box incl/shipping. OEM parts go for about ~A$40 incl/shipping).

So I'll take off the fan, and head down to the local Jaycar shop to see if I can find a matching part...

PS. Jaycar is a Radioshack like store...

 

[MaxBurn]

I have a Zalman Z80A-HP I have been trying to get rid of for a long time now. Course you are just about on the wrong side of the globe... Takes up that slot too.

 

[Sol]

You might have trouble finding a fan exactly the same as the one on there but I have no doubt you could find something that moves similar or more air that was roughly the same size.

Lets face it it's a heat sink, and by the looks it's one of those semi-metalic plastic jobs, you shouldn't have too much trouble making any reasonably similar sized fan fit on with a sharp knife and some glue.

At 30mm high I would have thought you could probably get away with the Zalman without taking up the next slot, but in any case there are plenty of other similar coolers that should do the job that are smaller.

Vantec make a few uninspired vga hsfs that are cheap and fine for stock cooling (~15mm) and pccasegear (in Melbourne) have a special on thermalrights V1 cooler (similar price to the Zalman one) at the moment which is only 20mm thick and doesn't have a fan (Or rather it does but on the back so it doesn't need any clearance beyond the 20mm of the heat sink on the front).

 

[Chewy509]

After shopping around for a new fan to replace the stock Asus fan, couldn't really find anything.

So just ended buying a Zalman VF-700Cu for AU$29 incl shipping. Fitted without any problems, and running great... There's about 4-5mm between the HSF and the next SCSI card, even though the Zalman HSF takes up the next slot, it's not as bad as I was originally lead to believe.