jammin Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 (edited) The fact that I recently got some new hardware has given me more stuff to play with. I'm sure I'm like many people here in that I like to fiddle and tweak with things before I'm 100% happy with them. One of my main hang ups is how much noise a modern PC can make, so anything that can be done to reduce that is a plus for me. First, I'll introduce you to the 8800GT in question: It's an Inno3D OC Edition (comes shipped with clocks of 650MHz Core 950MHz Memory and 1500MHz Shader) As you can see, the stock cooler on this card is very similar to the nVidia reference design, though it does appear to have a slighter larger fan from what I can tell. The stock cooler is quiet at a low fan duty cycle (40% and below), but gets pretty noisy above 60%. Temps on the stock cooler aren't stellar either, with an idle temp of 55c+ and load temps over 70c (with 100% fan). So let's get that off so we can replace it with something better shall we. There is a nice big dollop of TIM on the core, which can't really have been helping matters. The pink thermal pads are a little different to some of the greasy white pads I have seen pictures of on other 8800GTs, which is likely a good thing as they left the memory chips relatively clean. The memory chips on this particular card are of the Samsung variety in a K4J523240E-BJ1A flavour, which are rated for 1.0ns. Again, this is a little different than the Qimonda chips I've seen pictures of on other cards (for better or worse I'm not sure). The core also looks a lot better after a bit of a clean. After a once over with some (acetone free) nail varnish remover everything is set for installation of the S1. Arctic cooling include 8 RAMsinks for memory cooling. They come with pre-applied tape so you can just peel off a strip and stick them down. The tape is rather sticky (I know there were complaints about earlier tape not sticking, and this being the S1 rev2 AC seem to have addressed this). But I'm not a big fan of thermal tape, so that gets the nail varnish remover treatment as well, ready for a AS5 + super glue application method. More pics and description coming up. Edited March 4, 2008 by jammin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
razor Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Arctic cooling include 8 RAMsinks for memory cooling. They come with pre-applied tape so you can just peel off a strip and stick them down.The tape is rather sticky (I know there were complaints about earlier tape not sticking, and this being the S1 rev2 AC seem to have addressed this). But I'm not a big fan of thermal tape, so that gets the nail varnish remover treatment as well, ready for a AS5 + super glue application method. jammin, out of curiosity - was your choice of AS5 + super glue due to lack of Ceramique, or is there a more technical reason? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Ceramique or AS5 are just about equal in performance razorcanes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammin Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 (edited) So on to putting on those freshly cleaned RAMsinks. With a tube of trusty old AS5 and some B&Q own brand liquid super glue we are ready to go. The chips get a small blob of AS5 each (I actually cleaned these up a bit to make them smaller) and a small touch of super glue on opposite corners (you can't see those here as it dries too quickly to take a photo). RAMsinks are now on nice and securely. The other picture shows the three groups of VRMs which apparently you can get away with not adding heatsinks to. Arctic Cooling don't give you heatsinks to fit 8800GT VRMs, but they do give you a heatsink designed for ATI VRM cooling: I could just leave them as they are, but that would be too easy and that ATI heatsink looks like the perfect candidate. It's not particularly pretty (and I did smooth things out with some emery paper), but it does work. Fortunately aluminium bends easily as well so I just bent one half of the top fin to avoid that capacitor. The other two VRM areas are more straight forward, so simply get other parts of the hacked up heatsink. I didn't really take any pictures of the actual installation, as it is pretty straight forward and just follows AC's instructions. I did ignore the use of the fiddly plastic clips though (which are supposed to increase stability, but it's fine as it is). A picture showing the VRM heatsink clearance (it's tight but fits fine) and one of the whole thing installed in the case. Results so far are pretty good. From stock cooler temps of 55+ idle and 70+ load I have gone to around 45 idle and 55-60 load. This is running completely passively, and with a quiet case with low airflow (2 low speed casefans + low speed CPU fan). The next stage will be to fit a low speed 120mm fan to the S1 and see how that helps with temperatures. I have an old vantec stealth 120mm lying around, that is by no means quiet at 12v, but should (hopefully) be silent at 5v: Edited March 4, 2008 by jammin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Yea, those Vantec's really aren't "stealthed" at all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammin Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 (edited) No, I distinctly remember it having quite a bit of 'hum' to it. I'm hoping spinning slowly enough that will go away. Temps are pretty good as they are running passively (games don't seem to push it much past 50). A fan will be helpful for some good OCing. Initial testing shows it'll seeminly handle 700 / 950 / 1700 just fine, which nets me just over 13k in '06. Edited February 17, 2008 by jammin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
werty316 Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Lookin' good Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Definitely does, are you also such a silence freak like Jack? How quiet is the PSU in that rig? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammin Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 I having a liking for silence yes. The Tagan PSU is very quiet. Certainly quieter than any of the other fans in the case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cchalogamer Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Just remember, a little accidental squirt of extra glue will suck greatly in the end I've personally got some toys on the way to get my 8800gt water cooled, but your temps were considerably higher than mine at your stock speeds, I run 50% fan speed and I'm not topping 60C load in SLI with a X600 between them in the 3rd PCIe slot, either way. Of course idk how hot the air around your cards happens to be, but in the LAN rig (housed in an Antec 900, that's far from silent btw (though not ready to lift off loud) ) i was getting roughly the same numbers. Also the stock cooler you have is the current revision, the early 8800gt cards had a fan like the old 7800GTX, the current ones have the coolers like yours/mine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverfox Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Definitely does, are you also such a silence freak like Jack? How quiet is the PSU in that rig? Well I've decided that my HX 520 isn't quiet enough. My dad has the Antec Phantom ... I'm holding out for a passive and modular PSU to power my machine. Then the hard disks need to be suspended. When this is done, I will be happy (no, happier ... but not fully happy until SSD's are 500GB). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted February 18, 2008 Posted February 18, 2008 Jack, you are one crazy mofo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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