Quieting the XFX 6600GT AGP - Phase 1

destroid · Post by **destroid** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:06 am

I have been enjoying this card but the small gnome running a vacuum cleaner in my system has been annoying. I was inspired by this post and until there is a good passive system dedicated to the 6600GT AGP I went with the following low-cost upgrade:

Stock heatsink removed and GPU thermal paste cleaned. Note the flexible pad around the core.

Horrible machineing marks on both sides of the copper slug between the core and HS. The slug is attached to the HS with a lot of thermal paste. Note the 4 circular pads that seperate the HS from the card.

A tiny screwdriver is required to remove 4 screws in the top plate and 3 fan screws. These are tight but do not seem to use any loctite. Be careful not to strip them!

I polished both sides of the copper slug with 220, 320, 400, and finally 600 grit sandpaper for auto refinishing. Not a perfect job but MUCH better than the craters it shipped with.

Installed. I used AS Ceramique for the core-slug interface and some generic paste for the slug-heatsink interface.

I am using a Nexus 120mm as a temporary fan. Idle temp is up slightly to 51C and under HL2 load the temp goes up to about 75C.

Much, much quieter - of course now I can hear the hard disks ....

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destroid

Tyrdium · Post by **Tyrdium** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:09 am

Loctite on heatsink screws? Now that would be evil...

Anywho, great mod! What size fan is in the cooler, anyway?

destroid · Post by **destroid** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:15 am

Thanks.

The fan is about 48mm diameter. Its a screamer. I considered mounting a better fan to the heatsink but it seems stable with passive cooling from the case fans.

Tyrdium · Post by **Tyrdium** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:22 am

In other words, no fan-swapping to keep it a single-slot cooler. Ah well.

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:19 pm

Actually, Tyrdium, with the 120mm fan on the outside edge of the case, no other slots are blocked, so it is a 1-slot cooler, kind of. That's better than my solution (the thread destroid linked to in his first post), which gobbles up two PCI slots and probably wants a third.

destroid, how fast is that Nexus fan running? My setup doesn't seem to be 100% stable with the 80mm fan at 5V (it seems to artifact after a couple hours of play), but it looks like your setup gives the heatsink even less air, since it doesn't blow directly onto the card. If so, that would suggest re-mounting and re-finishing the heatsink aids cooling a great deal.

Tyrdium · Post by **Tyrdium** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:37 pm

Heh, true. I was thinking for a Shuttle case, though, where there isn't room for a 120 mm (let alone a 80 mm) fan.

destroid · Post by **destroid** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:46 pm

I'm running the Nexus 120mm at the stock 12V. Speed is 1110RPM.

I have had no stability problems and have been playing HL2:DM for a couple hours straight. The GPU reports 75C and the AMD64 3200++ with XP120 cooler reports 46C.

Solve · Post by **Solve** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:49 am

Hi!
Im thinking about buying an XFX 6600GT AGP because of the dual-dvi
but the loudness scares me.
How about this fan?
Arctic cooling NV Silencer 5

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40
Anyone tried it?
It dont look so impressing but maybe do the job?

Solve