GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"Whats the best VGA cooling device?"

The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Sat 14/02/04 at 17:41
Regular
Posts: 10,489
I am looking for something to significantly cool my graphics card down as I am getting frequent crashes after a while due to the extreme heat and poor air flow in my case. Would this do the trick?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/ eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3460121833&category=3673

Any help and links would be appreciated, cheers!
Sun 15/02/04 at 19:11
Regular
"Jim Jam Jim"
Posts: 5,626
C&C does make the PC hot. I remember when I was playing it I could stick my hand round the back of the PC and it was blowing out very hot air.

The best thing is to deal with the whole air flow problem. The 9800XT you have should be ok if it is at stock levels with its current cooling, if it wasnt then the card maker would have some serious explaining.

Maybe get a nice new case which is big and has enough room, especially if you case is a tiny case at the moment. The other thing is to make sure that all cables are tied back neatly. As a case full of cables restricts air flow. The 2 fans you have should be arrange so that one sucks air in a one sucks out. Typically you will have one at the bottom of the case at the front and then one at the rear. Of course the rear blows out and the front sucks in.

Depending on what your case is and how new it is, maybe buy a nice new case which has better cooling. The case I have has 7 internal fans which keeps air moving. At times the hot air has been flowing out the back after a gaming session and within 20 mins the air flowing out is alot cooler.
Sun 15/02/04 at 17:37
Regular
Posts: 10,489
It was a new and sealed copy from a shop in London that dealt specfifically with ATI cards. I know the card is meant to run at high temperatures but coupled with the fact I have a sh*t case, poor air supply and only 2 inteneral fans I think I need something like a VGA cooler or a couple of 120mm fans to generate some cold air. The problem is the fans are jus**t pushing hot air around the case as there isn't anything to blow the hot air out due to a lack of air supply and fans. The temp reading around my GPU has to be reading from the s**tale warm air which is why it is so high.
Sun 15/02/04 at 17:02
Regular
"Touched!"
Posts: 4,910
Where did you get the card? can you RMA it? sounds a bit screwed to me mate.
Sun 15/02/04 at 14:35
Regular
Posts: 10,489
I quit C&C Generals and checked the temp straight away and it was 87 degrees C. Far too high.
Sun 15/02/04 at 14:20
Posts: 15,443
That's actually a hot temp if idle.
Sun 15/02/04 at 14:19
Regular
Posts: 10,489
At the moment its 69 degrees C idle.
Sun 15/02/04 at 14:18
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Its the ATI 9800 XT with only one onboard fan. It only crashes and has problems when its being stressed with high power games. The biggest problem is C&C Generals when running on full settings as it really does get hot.
Sun 15/02/04 at 14:13
Regular
"Jim Jam Jim"
Posts: 5,626
What 9800XT have you got? As you shouldnt get any problems with the standard cooling especially if its stock. I have a Hercules 9800 Pro which comes with copper heatsinks and a copper fan. The 9800 XTs I have seen come with 2 fans in some cases.

In the origninal post you said you have poor airflow in your case. Well personnally I think you should put the money to getting good airflow and a overall low temperature in the case rather than getting just the graphics card lower temp. If you can reduce the case temp by 5c then the card will be at least 5c cooler.

Can you measure the sort of temps your getting now? Also is it the graphics card. I had a problem due with my last PC which I thought was the graphics card getting too hot, but it wasnt as it would crash with a different graphics card.

Does the PC only crash in games, or does it crash when the graphics card is only doing minimal work?
Sun 15/02/04 at 13:56
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Cheers for the help. I'm not keen on messing around with heatsink paste so I am going to have think about it. I definitley have a serious overheating problem but I was hoping for something that ouldn't require modding of my current configuration.
Sun 15/02/04 at 13:52
Regular
"Eff, you see, kay?"
Posts: 14,156
ÂLІÂÎR wrote:
> I have managed to find some information but it doesn't say anything
> about fitting to an 9800 XT but refers to this fitting on standard
> graphics cards.

It'll fit on a 9800 XT.

You need to remove the original fan from the card and replace it with this.

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

Very pleased
Very pleased with the help given by your staff. They explained technical details in an easy way and were patient when providing information to a non expert like me.
Impressive control panel
I have to say that I'm impressed with the features available having logged on... Loads of info - excellent.
Phil

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.