Quiet(er) Cooling for HD4850?

Jadis · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:54 am

Hello,

I have an ATI HD4850 in my computer and it is like the only thing that really makes a lot of noise. My case fans are near silent, my CPU fan isn't loud. Anyway, what I want to do is a get a quieter cooler for my VGA card. I game a lot, so I think I don't want to try going Fanless, but maybe someone can convince me otherwise.

I was looking at the Accelero L2 Pro. Waiting to hear some opinions before I pull the trigger.

edit: I actually just read a review with temps for the Accelero S1 Rev2 (the passive cooler from AC). It looks pretty good! I might have to try that out...

thejamppa · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:30 pm

I recomend Accelero S1 + 120mm fan ziptied. It keeps my HD 4850 very good temps with 800 rpm fan.

coreyography · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:08 pm

thejamppa wrote:

I recommend Accelero S1 + 120mm fan ziptied. It keeps my HD 4850 very good temps with 800 rpm fan.

I wanted to do the same, but my 4870 card won't start up unless it sees the fan RPM on the card's fan port during the POST. If I plug in the stock heatsink fan it works fine.

This has been an annoying showstopper for me, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more complaints about this. The card (a Sapphire) appears to be a reference design. I am apparently going to have to buy a PWM fan and then cut the connector off the stock heatsink and graft it onto the PWM fan, or modify a non-PWM fan to send the RPM signal to the GPU (and I don't know if the latter will work, because the board may want the RPM to "track" the PWM signal it is sending).

Wedge · **Posted:** Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:08 pm

coreyography wrote:

I wanted to do the same, but my 4870 card won't start up unless it sees the fan RPM on the card's fan port during the POST. If I plug in the stock heatsink fan it works fine.

This has been an annoying showstopper for me, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more complaints about this. The card (a Sapphire) appears to be a reference design. I am apparently going to have to buy a PWM fan and then cut the connector off the stock heatsink and graft it onto the PWM fan, or modify a non-PWM fan to send the RPM signal to the GPU (and I don't know if the latter will work, because the board may want the RPM to "track" the PWM signal it is sending).

Wow what an interesting dilemma - it never occurred to me that a video card may not start if you unplug the fan.

I have a brand new (still in package) Accelero S1 that I had intended to use on a 4850, 4870, or my current card, an 8800GT.

Why haven't I heard of this problem before now? Do most vendors allow their cards to start even if the fan is unplugged?

Meato · **Posted:** Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:29 pm

Reposting this from Anandtech forums..
4850/4870 AC S1 installation instructions

Jadis · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:28 pm

Hey guys!

I got everything together. I have an Accelero S1 Rev.2 on my 4850, and I got a Yate Loon 120 mm ready to put on that too!

I am wondering, can I plug my 120 mm into the 4-pin fan power port on the video card?

Thank you!!

Jadis · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:27 pm

Ok ignore my above post, considering my 120 mm has a 3-pin connector

I just used a regular 12v.

Anyway, WOW. What a difference in noise! My computer is so silent now!! Not to mention, Stock load temps were 110 C, now after 5 minutes of running Furmark, it was at 50 C !! WOW.

Also, I'm pretty sure I pointed the fan the wrong way. I have it so the label on the 120mm fan is facing away from the heatsink. Should I worry about this? I mean... I'm getting awesome temps, so I'll prob just leave it as is.

Thanks for the advice guys

Quiet(er) Cooling for HD4850?

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