Just got delivery of a "rev 2" VGA Silencer. The packaging is identical, as are any markings on the cooler itself; the instruction sheet is very slightly different. (check the PDF compatibility sheet on the AC site). Here's the essential difference:

That little cutaway now makes it "compatiable with ATI 9500, 9700, 9800, 9800 ALL IN WONDER. Uncompatiable with ATI 9600."
The finish on the mating surface is shiner and smoother, too, BTW. See the camera flash relection on the left?

I am told that all VGA Silencers currently shipping from the factory are Rev. 2 but Rev 1. may be floating around. The only difference seems to be compatibility with 9800AIW.

Dangit... this cooler is definitely tempting me to go out and buy an ATI vid card, even though my ti4200 isn't really holding me back for what I'm doing.


Hrmph.



On topic: Nice to see functional revisions on a product, especially one so new to market.

Eh, you can do something similar with an undervolted PCI slot fan and some plastic boards...
See, for example, http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=3685 for how Bluefront did it. I did something similar with my TI4400 too, and I'm happy with it.

Yup, and if I needed much more cooling for my ti4200 I probably would. Still, that cooler just looks... NICE. Don't have a windowed case though, and probably never will. Thus my continued use of cardboard ducting.

Does anyone know if this second batch of coolers from SVC are the Rev 2 versions, or more of the Rev 1?

When mine arrives, if it's Rev 1, I may want a closer picture of that (or the original likely-larger picture) showing that cutout, so I can update my cooler so it'll work on my AIW card.

Mine was revision 1, and im gonna have to rma it cause the damn screw holes didnt line up right and caused the screws to go in at an angle. Couldnt get it installed.

Mike, can you tell me where you got the Rev.2 AC VGA Silencer? I just bought a AIW ATI 9800 PRO recently replacing my fanless Zalman zm80c cooled ATI 9700 and the stock fan on the 9800 is certainly the loudest component in my otherwise quiet rig.

Thanks.

PS You got a great site here.

Hi cmm0325, welcome to SPCR

Sample, directly from AC, the manufacturer.

Hi MIke,

are you SURE that rev 2 coolers won't work on 9600 AIW? The website says that the Feb Rev will fit 9600 Pro and XT, but no mention is made of 9600 AIW.

I have a 9600 AIW that is driving me nuts (it WAS a quiet system), just wondering if the rev 2 I just got will fit, or do I have to go with a Zalman hp80c?

How are those coolers anyways?

?

Why do you say is "was" a quiet system?

My system has grown a lot in the past year.

I had an old Rage Fury Pro Card, no fan on the heatsink.

Decided to go all out and get a 9600 AIW (too bad no DVI) , hoping the fan would not be too objectionable.

It has a loud high pitched screaming sound. Drives me nuts.


The rest of the system is pretty quiet:

Zalman 7000 AL-CU HSF, Nexus NX3000 PSU, Vantech Stealth 60 mm undervolted (couldn't find panaflos a while ago), Seagate Cuda V.

Pretty quiet, my TV makes more noise (hum).


Looking to change to a Seagate 7200.7 120 GB PATA with 8mb cache. Hopefully not too loud.

No I am not positive about any of that info, I am simply passing on what Arctic Cooling told me. You may be pleasantly surprised, or NOT, or maybe a minor "trim" is all that's needed... I really can't say.

The Zalman heatpipe coolers work well as long as you have some decent airflow around it. It's probably got a somewhat higher capacity to wick the heat from the GPU, but like any heatsink -- not only does the heat have to be wicked away from the source into the HS, it then has to be transferred from the HS to the air. If the air is still, it will heat up fast and limit the effective cooling -- doesn't matter where the bottleneck is. If the air is moving, with hot air moving out of the area/case and cooler air coming in, well, that's better.

This exactly what the AC VGAS has built in: Forced movement of the hot air out of the system altogether. It's why people are reporting lowered system and CPU temps when using it.

Thanks for the quick response Mike.

I have a desktop case and the pc is being used as a Home theatre box.

The case is a Cooler master ATC620.

The cooling is decent (running a Celeron 2 Gig now, may swap for a P4 2.66 C at some point).

The case fan is running slow but seems to help (it is almost exactly behind the video card).

I think I will try out the AC VGAS. I have access to a dremel so I figure a little trim should do it...


Is the rear bracket the same (ie will not fit AIW cable ports so will be left out or modded)?

Trying to see how much modding I have to do...

I presume you're talking about the metal bracketthat allows the card to be screwed down and secured to the case? Yes it is exactly the same.

If the bracket causes problems, I wouldn't bother with it myself. Just remove the fan hi/lo switch from the supplied double-width bracket, leave the switch dangling or mount it elswhere on the back panel (most cases have lots of odd little holes on the back), and remove the cover for the slot below the AGP slot. That bracket makes no contact whatsoever with the heatsink. As long as the hot air can get out of the case...

So it looks like 9800XT owners wont be able to enjoy a vga silencer ever

Will it support my 9000 AIW (Pro)?

Yep,

Mike C was right. The cooler does not fit the 9600 AIW. It hits a couple caps in 2 different places and on my Asus 800VM mobo it also hits the PCI slot next to it.

It actually takes up 2 PCI slots because it covers one completely and impededes the next one over on my mobo.

I was determined (and a bit stupid) so I took several hours to mill away at it with a dremel (very cool tool).

NOW it fits, but I don't think I did anything good to my video card. Damn folks at ATI also used a thermal pad on the AIW stock heatsink. Not good for a clean swap.

Seems to work, but it was a severe pain and I shudder to think about what I did to my card.

well, at least everything is quiet and seems to be stable.

Hey Gman, though I see you've already fixed up a ACVS to fit on your card, my experience with the 9600 is that you can run it fanless no prob. Just unplug the fan! I did with my old one...no problems for a couple days. I started up a 120mm fan overhead at 5v on the third day just to be safe, but just fyi.

-Ken

I also have some questions about compatability: will it fit on a Visiontek 9100 (probably not) but anyone have an idea on how to mod the silencer so that it will? (ie the locations on the silencer to mod it) Wanna pick one up so that when I get the $$ to purchase a new card, I'll have this thing ready.

And seeing as how it takes up 2 PCI slots, will this thing fit in a Biostar or Shuttle SFF case?

Thanks in advance.

i modded my rev1 to fit my 9800se aiw, still touched the tv box thing, so ended up removing its lid
i couldnt really mill the base much thinner
rev2 is hopefully a bit taller

Just a reply to the last post. The tv tuner still touches the heatsink slightly. I figure the tuner box is grounded anyways, shouldn't harm anything.

System still seems to work and is stable (Eureka!).

As for running my 9600 AIW fanless, I would really rather not. This system is quiet. It's just the pain in modding it.

You just mill away anything that touches (I ignored the TV shield as mentioned earlier).

I have an AIW 9000 and an AIW 9600.

It was decided above that Rev 2 does NOT work with the AIW 9600 (I'll have to wait for Rev 3 in Feb).

But what about the AIW 9000?

Thanks,
Tom.

Hi all, just joined.

I have a ATI AIW 9700pro and just installed the artic cooler on it. i had to drummel the heatsink and the plate in the back to make it fit correctly. it doesnt look the greatest in the back but no one will see it. this cooler really pushes some heat out the back when on high. My case has dropped several degrees but my cpu has remaind the same because i have the fan on very slow so it is quiet.

I highly recommend this cooler, i have been able to squeez out several hundred more points in 3DMark01(03). I run my card at 354/328 without any artifacts or problems. i have pushed it up to 379/331 with no artifacts but i dont need the extra strain on my gpu. I have gained more then 45mhz on the gpu alone.

Hi dukeman,

welcome to SPCR!

Just wanted to beat Ralf to it

Dang, missed by 4 minutes!

Hi,

What are differences between Rev.2 and Rev.3 of VGA Silencer?
MikeC, do You know and have any pictures?

Best regards,
Kolu

The revision 3 will fit on 9600 series cards (?and the 9800XT cards?) without any modding. Beyond that I'm not sure of the differences.

Would someone be so kind as to inform me if there is any temperature difference between Rev.1 & Rev.2? The Rev.2 base is much smoother than Rev.1, so that should improve heat dissipation, right? I ask this because right now I need any one of these coolers for my 9700Pro, and also need a papst 120mm fan. The store here in europe where I can get the papst for cheap is pcsilent.de but they only seem to have Rev.1 of this cooler. If Rev.2 indeed improves cooling I'm willing to pay more for shipping and order these items from two different stores. Thanks in advance for any input.

I Have a rev. 2 cooler on a Sapphire 9800 PRO. Naively I had expected my system temps to drop after it was installed. However the System temperature now measured by ASUS PC Probe is now around 4 degrees Celcius higher, 31-32 vs. 27-28 previously [EDIT] with the stock ATI cooler [/EDIT].

My suspicion is that my board system temp is a synthetic number calculated from both north and south bridge chip temp readings. What I believe has happened is that the ACVS creates an air "dead spot" around the south bridge. The temperature rise does not bug me, overclocking is futile with this motherboard and CPU.

The first picture shows the system with the south bridge (under a small heatsink) in a red circle, the second is a close up of the ACVS intake.

Any comments or similar experiences?

Fat Bunny,

How were you cooling your card before installing the vga silencer? If you had a passive zalman heatpipe cooler, you should see a drop in temperatures inside your case. Is your cpu temperature higher too now? If it is, it must be the effect some SPCR members describe of the vga silencer acting as a huge heatsink dumping heat inside the case(although it should be going out the back?? ) I have the older zalman heatpipe cooler installed on my 9700Pro, and I'm trying to find out if I will see a drop in system temperatures with the vga silencer in the low mode or not.