Thermalright SI-97 GPU Cooler Mod Guide Posted!

[PsYkHoTiK]

I'm sorry if u failed to notice that the temperatures used by Max_87 is celsius and not in "Fahrenheit" (spelled correctly .) The article showed an improvement of over 50F (how much improvement did you get again?)when pitted against a aftermarket cooler. So owned? If you had bothered reading the article properly as well as this thread, Max has clearance issues with his CPU cooler.

I'm really sorry that you have shown very poor attitude (think 8th grader.) I hope you may live on happy as you are. But take it somewhere else as I will not tolerate this behaviour.

Thank you and good day.

[zy]

nice mod MacTweker.. but i dont think modern PCs can accomodate that thing due to the heatsinks and NB heatsinks .. they are pretty big this days for P4 & AMD

[MacTweker]

I’m not running some boneless system in some super cooled apartment. It’s not possible for me to loose 50C. My house is 75-77F right now about 25C. The computer case well ventilated as it my be is full of hot equipment and is 98F (36.66 C) when it’s been on for a while. This is what I consider ambient temperature because it’s what the video card lives in. The video card runs 136F-143F (say 60C) with the stock heatsink/fan and depending on the core speed of the 9800 Pro. As you can see no heatsink or heatsink/fan is going to drop 50C. With the modded SI-97 the video card is 106F (41.1C) with a quiet but slow silenx fan, and 112F (say 44.4) without a fan.

You’ll notice these are nice real numbers not some too fudgable and out of context delta number.

I don’t think modding the foot really took away any heat carrying capacity. The heatsink it works as well as it did before modding, it just fits much better now without blocking PCI slots or interfering with the two CPU’s in my system and their big cooling systems.

Looking at Max’s setup for the “typical pc” it’s clear this modded heatsink would be well clear of the CPU as the modded heatsink is less tall in wraparound mode, the only obstacle would be the tall heatsink on that northbridge chip on the mobo. I think he could have figured it out it would be more impressive and still as megalomaniacally excessive.

[PsYkHoTiK]

Allow me to explain the deltas. You see during testing, temperatures will never remain the same. So what we do is we take the delta (Temperature - ambient temp = Delta .) This is so that it can than be comparable regardless what the ambient temperature becomes. Any changes in the ambient temperature has a direct impact on the CPU/GPU temperature. If ambient goes up 1 degree, so will the CPU. So with delta, regardless what the ambient is, the delta will remain the same and therefore more accurately shows the performance of the cooling. So fudgy and out of text?

I must say that your mod does work if the person is using a smaller cooling solution for their CPU. But it wont work with max as he's using a large heatsink and fan on his CPU. Max's system is not typical as everything is voltmodded and pushed to the very edge.

[Dashken]

The guide has just been updated!

The stock coolers on most graphics cards barely do the job. If you are into overclocking, you would most certainly opt for a third-party cooler from the likes of Zalman or Arctic Cooling.

But for a select group of extreme overclockers who enjoy voltage-modding their cards for the extra edge, even third-party coolers just won't hack it.

Today, Max_87 shows us just how easy it is to mod a Thermalright SI-97 CPU cooler into an awesome GPU cooler capable of handling even voltage-modded cards!

Here is the update:-

- Added sbohdan's SI-97 mod on the GeForce 6800 LE.

Link : Thermalright SI-97 GPU Cooler Mod Guide Rev. 2.0!

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by PsYkHoTiK

I was suprised when Max told me about this a while back. But man it can really go... Too bad its not an option for my hot 6800Ultra...

as my venture proves it (based on Maxe's mod), you can do it on any 6800 card for sure.
it works on any 9800 (SE, vanilla, pro, xt) and any 6800 (LE, vanilla, GT, Ultra)
not sure about the GS but it seems the PCB is the same size so I assume it would fit also on new 6800GS cards and since those are said to OC tremendously even with stock cooling - imagine what they could do with this mod

[Dashken]

The guide has just been updated!

The stock coolers on most graphics cards barely do the job. If you are into overclocking, you would most certainly opt for a third-party cooler from the likes of Zalman or Arctic Cooling.

But for a select group of extreme overclockers who enjoy voltage-modding their cards for the extra edge, even third-party coolers just won't hack it.

Today, Max_87 shows us just how easy it is to mod a Thermalright SI-97 CPU cooler into an awesome GPU cooler capable of handling even voltage-modded cards!

Here is the update:-

- Added sbohdan's memory heatsink mod on the GeForce 6800 LE

Link : Thermalright SI-97 GPU Cooler Mod Guide Rev. 2.1!

[Cocaine]

I noticed that on both mods, the heatpipes positioned incorrectly.

When positioned in tower mode, the situation becomes even worse becuase the video cards sits upside down; forcing the heat exchange liquid inside the heatpipe to sit where all the fins are. When the GPU heats up, all it is heating is a hollow pipe. This makes for extremely poor heat exchange. See below:



The heatpipe is supposed to heat the liquid inside to where it starts evaporating; traveling upwards. The fins are supposed to catch this heat and cool it down. Once cooled, the liquid will go back down and the process starts all over again. To achieve better performance, one should position the pipes parallel to the ground or when possible, have the liquid sinking down towards the GPU contact point. in other words; get a reversed case like the Lian-Li PCV1000 series cases or invert the cooler so that the fins are above the video card. I'm very interested in seeing the temperatire results if anyone does this. In fact, just flip your system over and post results.

[zy]

hmmm .... i guess it will loose its effeciecy

[Chai]

Originally Posted by Cocaine

I noticed that on both mods, the heatpipes positioned incorrectly.

When positioned in tower mode, the situation becomes even worse becuase the video cards sits upside down; forcing the heat exchange liquid inside the heatpipe to sit where all the fins are. When the GPU heats up, all it is heating is a hollow pipe. This makes for extremely poor heat exchange. See below:



The heatpipe is supposed to heat the liquid inside to where it starts evaporating; traveling upwards. The fins are supposed to catch this heat and cool it down. Once cooled, the liquid will go back down and the process starts all over again. To achieve better performance, one should position the pipes parallel to the ground or when possible, have the liquid sinking down towards the GPU contact point. in other words; get a reversed case like the Lian-Li PCV1000 series cases or invert the cooler so that the fins are above the video card. I'm very interested in seeing the temperatire results if anyone does this. In fact, just flip your system over and post results.

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about the heatpipe! You are completely right! It will not work for a heatpipe! The heatsink should be facing upwards in order for the heatpipe to work!