Radeon 9700 Pro heatsink

[Tobalaz]

Let's start off with materials.
Materials:
M3 Pitch 50 items used:
2 lockwashers, 2 screws, 2 hexnuts, 4 flatwashers
Neoprene:
2 5/32 washers (rubber)
Arctic Silver Ceramique, Arctic Silver Adhisive, Tweekmonster BGA Ramsinks, Vantec CCK-6012 heatsink/ fan combo, Radeon 9700 Pro
Tools:
Dremel, 1/8" drillbit, Dewalt drill, hammer, Sharpie marker, steel punch, factory 9700 heatsink, alcohol, Q-tips, washrag, compressed air, Exacto knife
Sorry if the pics are poor quality, I don't have a good digital camera.

[Tobalaz]

1. Pulled everything apart and cleaned it up with alcohol
2. Lined up the new heatsink on the R9700 (I found the indented part of the back worked best toward the bottom since it being raised brought it above a few raised items without needd for further modding)
3. Marked the new holes to be drilled with a permanent marker
4. Used the old r9700 heatsink to make sure the marker dots lined up with the holes (check, check, and check again)
5. Used the steel punch and hammer to start guide holes for the drillbit
6. Used the drill to put the mounting holes in the heatsink (a drill press would have been ideal in this instance, but instead I had to eyeball it up)
*would have put the pics up where I did the marker and punch but the turned out unusable, not enough light in the area*

[Tobalaz]

7. Dremeled out an area for the screws/ flatwashers to set (I know it's a bit ugly and overdone, best I could do with what I had, a drill press would have really been helpful here, I would not have had to take out as much of the copper fins)
8. blew everything out thouroughly with compressed air and cleaned with alcohol

[Tobalaz]

9. used ASC on the heatsink where the gpu would be making contact and on the gpu itself
10. put the screws though the heatsink with a flatwasher on topso the screws would have a nice area to bite down on
11. on the back, put down the rubber washer first so there was no chance for accidental shortage, then a flatwasher for more support, then the lockwasher so nothing would slip, then finaly the hexnut
12. I tightened it till I thought it was secure, even pressure being put on both sides. You can overdue it and it will bend your card, so with the lockwashers on there, adding and taking off pressure is as simple as a turn of a screw
13. Mixed up the ASA and let it set till it was about 2/3 the way set up (already having applied it to my BGA ramsinks) before I put the sinks on the card
14. Having let the ASA mainly solidified, I used an Exacto knife to cut away (without touching the board) the excess ASA

[Tobalaz]

15. Repeated 13 and 14 for the back of the card
16. Threw on the Vantec fan (suprisingly quiet little thing)
Works great (though the heat damage has already been done), I can put my finger on the back of the card where the gpu is mountedd and the temp is about the same as the rest of the card, nice and cool to the touch, even after a half hour of running Needd for Speed: Underground.
I hope this helps some of you before your Radeons are damaged from heat since the stock heatsink and thermal tape are for shit. Mine got cooked a little just from running dx9 games.
Like I said, sorry for the muliple posts, but it's the only way to get in a few pics of the process. It's not that hard, and if you have the same tools as I did (or a drill press) it takes a few hours, mainly grinding, to get the job done.

[Haysoos]

You should write this up nice and proper and I'll toss it on the main page. Kirk would love his baby gettin some lub!

How quiet is that fan? Lately i've been a noise freak. Would it help to just pull my heatsink and toss some AS3 in there?! I'll def have to do the ramsinks.

[Tobalaz]

Give me a format example you'd like me to work with and I will. Noise is about the same as my 80mm vantec 36cfm fans. I'lll get back with the noise in decibles as soon as newegg or crazy pc start working again, but it's not bad at all. And if you really wanted to choke down the noise, you could use a 70mm to 80mm converter and a panflow 80mm fan.

[Haysoos]

Originally posted by Tobalaz@Jan 2 2004, 01:10 AM
Give me a format example you'd like me to work with and I will. Noise is about the same as my 80mm vantec 36cfm fans. I'lll get back with the noise in decibles as soon as newegg or crazy pc start working again, but it's not bad at all. And if you really wanted to choke down the noise, you could use a 70mm to 80mm converter and a panflow 80mm fan.
Format? Type it up and upload the pics and text to somewhere I can d/l from. I'll arrange it and take care of uploading it and making it look right on the website.

[Max]

Howz about some before pics? Or just some pics of the old, inferior cooling stuff? Ja capitan

[crackajack]

Ill go off topic a tad bit to ask, but has the 9800pro been known to run pretty hot also? My Hurcules 9800pro seems to generate alot of heat, and it has the copper hsf and ramsinks. I kind of feel bad for the people with the generic ati hsf and lack of ramsinks. Oh well, I might try this little mod sometime, sounds easy and useful.

[Haysoos]

Whats the noise on that thing? Also, I thnk mine has the reference ATi cooler on it, could you (tob) post a pic of your stock heatsink for a little comparo?

[Tobalaz]

36.5 decables. I'm thinking of going with one of these (http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=120199&Product_Code=5721) instead, a little quiter, moves more air (21cfm at 36 dec, vs 30cfm at 33 dec), and since it's tmd, it eliminates the dedeadzone over the gpu where there isn't any air movement.

[crackajack]

If you could be so kind as to tell me where you purchased this hsf, or a model and location where I could buy myself one of these nice combos, it would be greatly appreciated.


I thought that Jesus was going to beat my ass when I asked about getting an Iceberg cooler. Now Im 'scurred' of him :unsure:

[SupermanJnk]

Originally posted by crackajack@Jan 6 2004, 08:18 PM
Now Im 'scurred' of him :unsure:
It's better that way.... I think. :blink:

[Haysoos]

Originally posted by SupermanJnk+Jan 6 2004, 09:57 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (SupermanJnk @ Jan 6 2004, 09:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-crackajack@Jan 6 2004, 08:18 PM
Now Im 'scurred' of him&nbsp; :unsure:
It's better that way.... I think. :blink: [/b][/quote]
:devil: :ph34r:
I scare people. Cool.

[Smithmeister]

Only in this twisted world would someone fear Jesus so much.

[Haysoos]

Originally posted by Metalhed4@Jan 6 2004, 11:53 PM
Only in this twisted world would someone fear Jesus so much.
:angry: beware the killer death penguin, he will kill your loved ones in the night and you will awaken to their horrid screams, drenching the air with DEATH! :ph34r:

Or I could just admin your account and change your name to "ilikegoatsecks". ;)

[Tobalaz]

You can get that exact heatsink/fan combo (plus tmd fans as well) at Crazy PC. (http://www.crazypc.com/) They're good for all things cooling and charge shipping by total weight, not individual item (like New Egg). Plus they ship just about every order the same day, without having to pay "Extra" for rush items.

[Haysoos]

Tob, what kind of stock cooler did your card come with? was it the sapphire one or the refence ATi one? Cause I think mine has the reference ATi cooler and I'm wondering if I should worry about overheating...

hmm, after some thought, think I could find a way to pull the stock fan, not HS, and mount a 80mm panaflo L1A right above (or below, whatever) the stock heatsink and get better results than the sotck system?

[Tobalaz]

Mine was the stock ATI heatsink, and it was crap. I'm pretty sure it was some metal carbide that didn't dissipate heat for shiat. I'd at least pull it and put some decent thermal goop under there since it's just tape and boils away if it starts to get too hot.

[Smithmeister]

Originally posted by Jesus+Jan 6 2004, 11:55 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Jesus @ Jan 6 2004, 11:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Metalhed4@Jan 6 2004, 11:53 PM
Only in this twisted world would someone fear Jesus so much.
:angry: beware the killer death penguin, he will kill your loved ones in the night and you will awaken to their horrid screams, drenching the air with DEATH! :ph34r:

Or I could just admin your account and change your name to "ilikegoatsecks". ;) [/b][/quote]
NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo :o :o :ph34r: :ph34r:

[Haysoos]

Originally posted by Tobalaz@Jan 7 2004, 01:01 AM
Mine was the stock ATI heatsink, and it was crap. I'm pretty sure it was some metal carbide that didn't dissipate heat for shiat. I'd at least pull it and put some decent thermal goop under there since it's just tape and boils away if it starts to get too hot.
Then how about that 1U heatsink, drop the noisy fan and try to mount a 21DBa 24CFM panaflo 80mm on top. This could be done by hooking it onto a PCI blank (things that cover the PCI holes on the back of the case), right? And that should be more than satifactory and better than the stock solution I would think, no to mention it might have some spillover air hitting any ramsinks I put on it...

[crackajack]

You could always get one of those 80mm to 60/70mm ducts and attach it directly to the heatsink


Then again....it would be really bulky and weight alot


I just might try this little mod after I find me some satisfactory case fans.