Replacing 9500 Pro Fan?

[Roots]

I've been trying to build the quietest system I can, but it still sounds REALLY loud to me, and I think its the fault of that damn fan on my VGA card. Someone introduced me into looking at the Zalman ZM80-A and I want to get it but I'm afraid I don't have any room. There is plenty of room on the side of the PCI slots, but my mobo's power connector is right next to the AGP slot on the other side, and I also have a big Zalman CNPS 7000Cu making space very hard to find. My motherboard is a SiS 655 Max, I might be able to upload a picture of what my setup looks like later. Assuming I can't get this massive passive cooling unit to fit, what are my other options? I have a side intake fan that blows air right onto the VGA card, so I was thinking about taking out the fan altogether.

Also is it safe for me to unplug the power connector on the 9500 Pro to see what it sounds like without that fan? Someone told me they thought that the board uses that power connector too, not just the fan. Thanks

 

[mechsiah]

Whatever you do, ensure that the new HSF has good contact with the GPU. When you take the old fan off, you will be surprised at how much thermal goop ATI used to make contact with the GPU. The reason is the metal shim around the GPU, which is slightly higher than the GPU and nearly impossible to remove.

I replaced my fan with a waterblock and had a hell of a time making decent contact. In the end I used a piece of foil to make up the difference- cheezy, but it worked.

 

[Auric]

Yes, the fan can be unplugged. If it overheats it will lock up and you can shut it down without any damage occuring.

The side fan is likely providing more airflow than the dinky one on the card. I ran mine like that for awhile before getting the Zalman (actually mine was mounted in front of the card and the PCI1 slot cover was removed so the air would go straight out the back). If the Zalman will not fit, I suggest replacing the dinky HSF with a large heatsink but as mechsiah sez, it may be difficult finding one that is designed for use with the shim when not using thermal tape (the Zalman is designed with raised center so fits perfectly in this regard when using thermal compound). So you could either use tape at the risk of slightly lower performance or have a common heatsink machined to fit.

 

[Roots]

Thanks, for now I unplugged that stupid dinky fan and my system is already a lot quieter. I haven't done any stress testing yet though, so I will see how it performs without that fan. I'm hoping that I won't need to spend any extra $ replacing the heat sink with the Zalman or anything else. I'm amazed at how much noise that stupid little fan produced.