Page 1 of 1

AGP Cooling - How much is necessary?

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:04 am
by SebKG
I have a Geforce 4 MX440 w/TV-out & 128 DDR. I don't plan on doing any overclocking and am wondering how much cooling is necessary? Is the Zalman ZM-NB32J sufficient if I have a fan above the card or would it be wiser to use a Zalman ZM17CU with fan above? I would prefer to avoid the more expensive and very large heat pipe setup.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 1:48 pm
by Keel
The Zalman northbridge would do a good job but you'll lose a pci slot or two and a few bucks. I am surprised that your mx440 came with active cooling though. Most manufacturers just slapped a passive heatsink on. Hmmm...the only thing I would do is disconnect the gpu fan. Cheap and effective.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:34 pm
by davidhooper
Hmm, I tried doing that with a GF2 MX440 and the temps went past 70C. Shame really.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:13 pm
by Keel
davidhooper wrote:Hmm, I tried doing that with a GF2 MX440 and the temps went past 70C. Shame really.
Geforce 2 MX400 or Geforce 4 MX440?? Doesn't really matter b/c most versions of both of them are passively cooled. How did you manage to measure 70 deg C?

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:25 pm
by cliche
Keel wrote:
davidhooper wrote:Hmm, I tried doing that with a GF2 MX440 and the temps went past 70C. Shame really.
Geforce 2 MX400 or Geforce 4 MX440?? Doesn't really matter b/c most versions of both of them are passively cooled. How did you manage to measure 70 deg C?
he put the Doom 3 demo on it and it fainted :lol:

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:36 pm
by SebKG
Well mine definately isnt passively cooled. So does everyone agree that I should be fine if I just remove the fan (or turn it off) from my Geforce 4 MX 440 (TV-out) with 128 DDR?

And also, how can I check the temp of my AGP chip?

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:48 pm
by Keel
Just to be sure, I checked gf 4 mx440 cards at newegg

There are passively cooled versions from:
Abit
Aopen
Apollo
Asus
Biostar
Chaintech
Evga
Gainward
MSI
Palit
PNY
Prolink

The only way you can check your video card temps is buy using an external sensor :( unless your manufacturer decided to put in monitoring (not in any mx cards i'm aware of).

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 12:51 am
by davidhooper
Hi everyone,
My card is an Inno3D GF2 MX440. It's got a little whiny fan. I measured the temps with the external sensor on my Soltek DRV4 mobo. They rose fairly slowly to 70C with no CPU load but I guess that might be understandable since I have no case fans but just a CPU and PSU fan.

I then tried underclocking it and but DVD playback suffered a lot with even a little underclocking. Does anyone know how to undervolt a GF? That might cool it sufficiently to disconnect the fan.

Actually, I've just realised that I only disconnected the fan earlier and didn't remove it. Would the fan being on the HS cause the temps to be much higher?

SebKG, what is your computer set up? Let us know how you get on anyway...

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:54 am
by SebKG
Ok here it is.... my setup =)

XP 1600+ (Barton core) with the Zalman 3100GP HSF
Geforce 4 MX440 w/TV-out & 128 DDR (and a whinny fan)
Leadtek Win Fast TV2000 XP capture card
512 MB DDR ram
80 gb 8 mg cache 7200 rpm Western Digital HD
60 gb 4 mg cache 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda HD
40 gb 4 mg cache 7200 rpm Western Digital HD
I currently have some old case, with a completely silent PSU (since I just discovered the fan in it doesnt work) but will have an Antec Sonata within 2 days. Currently I have the case open to help with my PSU withouth fan.

I run cable TV through the system which brings my CPU usage up to 99% so most of the time I am at the computer this is the case. I have been testing out the Zalman fan that comes with the 3100GP in silent and normal mode. Here are the results I get:

Silent Mode:
idle - 47o C
full load - 52o C

Normal Mode:
idle - 42o C
full load - 47o C

The silent temps seem safe enough to me (everyone agree???) so I have been leaving the system like this lately. In silent mode the AGP fan is obviously the loudest component. The Zalman fan is basically silent (even with the case open). The HDs make a bit of noise but not much and I am hoping that will decrease significantly with the Sonata setup. Anyway, I currently have the case open so noise should be a lot less noticeable once I have the Sonata so I may not need to get passive cooling for the AGP but then again I might so I'm looking into it.

Anyway let me know if u have any comments/suggestions.

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 8:43 am
by pingu666
get the 17 m8 :) its good..
dunno how much u will pay for it tho. where u live?

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:38 pm
by SebKG
Whats the 17 m8? And I live in Australia.