The ATI Radeon Cooler Mod Guide

[Chai]

Originally Posted by Slonik

In the review you mentioned hacked drivers to turn the card into a 9700, the only hacks I've seen are hacked BIOS flashes and not simply drivers.

Could you please elaborate on that? And maybe provide a link?

I have the exact same card (Powercolor 9500Pro) that I purchased about a year ago.

Thanks.

Nope, it's not Radeon 9500 Pro. It's the regular 9500 Non-Pro version. But since you asked, you can check here, http://www.omegadriver.com

Only the regular Radeon 9500 can be modded into something. Radeon 9500 64MB to a Radeon 9500 Pro 64MB, or Radeon 9500 128MB to a Radeon 9700 128MB.

Mitz: Yeah, I lose a more overclockable Radeon 9500 too...

[Chai]

Email from 'conan':

Originally Posted by conan

I just read your ATI Radeon Cooler Mod Guide........that has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever witnessed. I honestly have to say only a moron would slap a cpu heatsink on a video card for a 10-20 MHz gain. You lose the use of 3 or 4 PCI slots for 10-20 MHz. Maybe you think it's "really neat" to have a cpu heatsink on your card, I don't know. How this shit gets any attention is amazing. Congratulations on your 10-20 MHz gain on your 9500, you are without a doubt revolutionary.

My reply:

A moron? http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthre...eadid=33699540 Maybe there are thousands of moron out there.

Sorry, I didn't mod just for extra 10-20MHz gain.
1. This card runs at stock of 275MHz. I did manage to hit 370MHz with stock cooler, but it was extremely hot.

2. Using a CPU cooloer didn't gain much, but I gain a lot of 'peace of mind' knowing that my card runs a lot cooler when overclocked. (And yes, running at 385MHz means my card is effectively running 60MHz faster than a Radeon 9700 Pro, no complain about that)

3. The 15MHz gain is one thing. That could be the limit of the GPU itself.
Equally as important is the temperature of the GPU. Using the new cooler, you managed to keep it VERY MUCH cooler. That goes a long way in keeping your GPU ticking for a long time to come.

4. The stock cooler was a little noisy. Now I can run this CPU heatsink with a slower fan for a quieter system.

5. The "loss" of 3 PCI slots is no loss if you do not even use the slots. And most highend motherboards comes with onboard sound, NIC, Firewire, RAID Controller. So why do I need the slots for?
What's a loss of a pair of skates if you do not even skate?

6. The "loss" of the 3 PCI slots is easily reversible. Unmod and you will have your precious PCI slots back. Switch to a thinner fan and you will have one PCI slot back. Easy, no? Maybe not for a moron.

We have written a few guides, and many of them requested 'before and after' results, which is why I mentioned in the article. I didn't say that 10-20MHz is revolutionary, but since you 'agree' with that, I take it as a compliment.

And if you still think I'm dumb, take a look at this.
http://www.rojakpot.com/chai/5900u/5900u.htm
Since you think I'm a moron for doing this, you are probably not aware of the existance of this highend cards by NVIDIA. This is a reference FX5900 Ultra card directly from NVIDIA. Yes, this card blocks one PCI slot and it's by the manufacturer! They are using a big heatsink to gain 50MHz too. So I highly recommend that you should email NVIDIA telling them they are bunch of morons for doing the same too.

So you are probably the same group of people who thinks that putting a turbo charger into your car is a moronic thing to do as well.

My reply sounded a bit harsh, but since he started name calling...

[Max_87]

ARP's member hah?

[Chai]

Email from Peter:

I really like how the huge heatsink makes the entire backend of the video card warp and bend in a very bad way. This puts a huge amount of stress on the card, the AGP slot, and the connection bracket. Is there any way you could support the heatsink, like installing an unused PCI card below it with some risers to "prop" the heatink up a little? It looks like the fan on the heatsink is very close to a PCI slot, so adding support should be easy!

Ok, this is a good question, which is brought up by Tungstenboy as well.

Even though this heatsink is rather light, probably about 150 gram, but for AGP card, it's still a little too heavy, so there's some slight bending on the card. It wasn't too serious, and it didn't worry me much.

I took a picture of the card in action. This is a tough shot, so I'm sorry about the quality. As you can see, there's a small gap in between the PCI slot connector and the heatsink. If you want, you can use a solid object and place it there. This is a simple and effective solution. Hope that answered your question.

[Geeky1]

Nice article, but I'm afraid I beat ya to it:
http://www.short-media.com/forum/sho...15&postcount=2


You may want to add a note to your article that bolting the cooler to the card is a real good way to kill the card if you're not careful. If you overtighten those bolts, you risk killing the card. I tried to make a mounting system that's similar to the setup used by the SLK-x00U heatsinks, and other heatsinks that mount directly to the motherboard, but unfortunately, I could not find compression springs that were both small enough to not interfere with SMD components on the back of the board and strong enough to hold the cooler firmly onto the GPU.

Also, I'd recommend that people not only stay away from heatsinks that are much larger than 60x60mm, but also from heatsinks that are smaller than that. A 50x50mm square heatsink may not handle the GPU's heat output. Since ATi won't release the thermal dissipation specs of their GPU, I don't know that for sure, but I for one, am not willing to risk killing one of my 9700 Pros to find out.

The only other thing I saw is that there was no mention of the weight of the heatsink assembly. That aluminum thing is fine, and even the aluminum & copper hybrid heatsink I used is fine, but someone may try to attach a solid copper heatsink to it, which may be heavy enough to snap the PCB. I'd recommend that people use heatsinks that weigh no more than 400g, which is how much Zalman's ZM80A-HP weighs.

Other than that, though, it looks great.

[wildfrogman]

For blowers I was meaning those smallish blowers like a nidec gamma 28 or 32...those are the model numbers I beleive. The heatsink really isnt too heavy. Its just aluminum, if you stuck somthing like a large thermalright heatsink on it though....yes I have seen it before, then maybe a little support would be a good idea.

[Chai]

Yup, I have the Nidec Gamma 28. But it's still too big, and it's quite heavy too.

[curley60]

Radeon 9700 Pro This mod got me 350/650. I don't think this is a huge gain, but my card was heating up the whole case. Just the fact that my card is now running literally cool, I am happy.

I did not use as big of a fan and I permanently affixed the heatsink with artic silver epoxy.
Radeon 9700 Pro

Radeon 9700 Pro

[Chai]

Ok, this is wildfrogman's idea, but it looks extremely similar to FX5800/5900 Ultra cooling design! Who cares! But this fan is quiet, so it's far from being a dust buster! And it blocks 1 PCI slot on Abit NF7, or 2 PCI slots. And yes, the fan is quite heavy, and the metal supporting bar bends a little!

[Max_87]

Chai where can i buy a blower like that?