Passive Cooling Radeon 9000Pro

[Carl]

Passive Cooling Radeon 9000Pro

[Carl]

I have a Sapphire 9000 Pro AIW fitted in a SS51G, and I can't take the fan noise any longer. Does anyone have any experience of passively cooling it, there is an site here:-

http://forums.sudhian.com/messagevi...&threadid=33628

Where a Radeon 8500 AIW is fitted with a Zalman ZM17U passive heatsink, though I note that Zalman's site recommends fitting the ZM80A to cards with DDR memory. I can't do this, as I can't lose the PCI slot which is being used for a Audigy 2 soundcard.

[felixthecat]

You may want to try to get in touch with Robin who posted on June 14, 2003 in the thread.  He mentions doing the same mod to a 9000 Pro with satisfactory results.  Good luck!

[Carl]

Help, the archived forum does not go back that far !!!

[lovespuddy]

try the Zalman ZN50 I passively cool my 9600 pro with it and it's fine even when way overclocked =o]

in a modified SN45G and it's perfectly fine =o]

[Carl]

Only probelm is is that I want to use the PCI solt
Surely by using the ZM50 you are going to lose it

[felixthecat]

Here is the link for the thread.  Actually it looks like Robin used the ZM50, which will definitely interfere with the adjacent PCI slot.

My advice: try the zm17cu.  Measure the space from the back of the existing fan to the bottom chassis to determine that you have at least 17mm of clearance.  Buy the zm17cu and compare it to the 9000 to see if any card components will interfere.  Get a thermal sensor and measure temperature under load with the stock fan.  Pop the stock fan off and apply the zm17cu with frag tape.  Check the load temperature again and subtract 5 degrees celsius for use of the frag tape -- the resulting temperature is what you will like see when the zm17cu is permanently mounted.  If the temperature is less than 60 celsius, everything should be fine and you can safely use the zm17cu.  Use a Arctic Silver adhesive to affix the zm17cu to the card, and take card to clean and mask the GPU beforehand.  Good luck!

[Robin]

ZM50 interferes with the opposite PCI slot but I don't know whether it totally blocks it. TV tuners and stuff are out but you could probably fit another NIC in. I've now got it running on a 9600Pro no probs.

ZM17Cu should cool fine as well, but you want to make sure that you position it a little higher than central so it doesn't interfere with the cabling down there (on the SS51G). Of course you're not going to be able to take it off easily. Btw, on a 9000Pro Actic Silver adhesive is just an extra expense. I'd stick with the standard Zalman stuff.

[Lugonn]

I modified an p3 retail heatsink to fit my sapphire 9000 pro, had to cut the fins a bit lower,
it runs a bit warm at stock settings, but it worked ok in my SS51G box  

[Robin]

That's probably a cheaper option