VF700-Cu with a Sapphire X800 GT0?

[boe]

Hello,

I recently replaced my 6800 sapphire (no fan) with the x800 GTO - while the fan on the x800 is not very loud, it is MUCH louder than my old silent video card. I'm wondering a few things. Will the x800 GTO from Sapphire with the Zalman VF700-Cu? I realize the VF700-Cu is rated to handle the x800 GTO but not all cards have been tested so I'm not sure how easy/difficult it would to be to remove the housing on the Sapphire x800 GTO. BTW I have the AGP version if it makes a difference in regards to this question.

I have a Zalman for my CPU and it is nice and quiet - that is why I'm curious about the VF700-Cu for my video card. Anyone try the VF700-Cu? Is it reasonably quiet compared to the stock ati fans?

[Operandi]

From my experiance the VF-700 sounds about the same as the Zalman 7000, not quiet at 12v but pretty good at 5v.

[boe]

From my experiance the VF-700 sounds about the same as the Zalman 7000, not quiet at 12v but pretty good at 5v.

Thanks I have the 7000 for my processor and it is nice and quiet - the only sound I hear from my system is my video card. I'm not sure where to check my card temperature. I'm using the ATI 5.11 drivers/control center but I don't see the temp there. Any guess if I'll need to run it at 12v or does it auto switch from 5v to 12v?

[gbohn]

Hello,

I have a Zalman for my CPU and it is nice and quiet - that is why I'm curious about the VF700-Cu for my video card. Anyone try the VF700-Cu? Is it reasonably quiet compared to the stock ati fans?

I have the Sapphire X800 GTO2 PCIe version, and changed the fan to use the VF700-Cu (so I don't know if it's physically similar to the 'plain GTO'/AGP version or not).

At least on my setup the conversion was fairly easy. The trickiest part was changing the fan connector on the VF700. It came with a three pin socket for plugging into the style of fan connector you see on motherboards.

I changed this to use a 'JST' style connector so it would plug back into the connector on the video card (so I can use ATITool to set the Temp/Fan speed profile...).

My X800 GTO2 is overclocked to 490 MHz Core/ 560 MHz Memory and it is unlocked to 16 pipes (So it's more like an overclocked X800XL or a somewhat slow X850XT). The point being that this should run hotter than a plain X800 GTO.

I've tried this in two cases, one which is noticibly cooler than the other. When it was in the 'hotter' system, I observed that for a given fan % (as specified in ATITool) it ran about the same temperature as the stock GTO2 fan, but was much quieter. (I don't know how the RPMs for each cooler compared for a given percent setting though...)

The Stock fan mostly had an 'air whoosing' type of noise, with not much else noticable. The VF700-Cu seems to have a little 'bearing' noise if I stick my ear next to it (at the 54% fan speed setting) and a little air noise. But it still seems much quieter than stock to me.

When I moved this to a cooler system (with 120 MM Intake/Exhaust fans, the case fan grills cut out, the intake cover replaced with open mesh, etc.), the video core runs much cooler (for the same max load and fan speed setting)- About 8-9 degrees F.

(The 8-9 degree temp difference is comparing the modded video moving from the hotter to the cooler system. Since I never tried the stock heatsink in the cooler system, I don't know if the stock verses modded temp. differential would be greater in that system or not...)

In my current (cooler) system, I can run full load 3D games with the fan speed running at 54% and get about a 65 Degree C video core temp. (Ambient room temp. about 66 degrees F).

Hope that helps. As always, your mileage may vary.

[boe]

Thanks for the feedback - I now have a Sapphire 800 GTO agp and an 850 Pro AGP ATI card for my other PC.

[gbohn]

...

In my current (cooler) system, I can run full load 3D games with the fan speed running at 54% and get about a 65 Degree C video core temp. (Ambient room temp. about 66 degrees F).

...

.

I just checked my notes, and make that 59 Degrees C (Video GPU Temp) at 53% Fan setting (as specified in ATITool). The memory temp was reported as 44 degrees C.

The 'hot' system ran the same card at 70 Degrees C GPU/ 55 C memory under the same conditions (fan fixed at 54% setting).

So, what a difference a case can make...

This is running the ATITool 3D 'fuzzy cube' display which heats up my card as much as or more than any other 3D app. I've found...