Modding a Video Card with a CPU Heatsink

Discussion in 'Links' started by Royicus, Feb 26, 2006.

  1. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Well, it seems like that heatsink would work fine. But you'd really have to just try it and see. You could cut a piece of cardboard to size (the size of the heatsink bottom) and place it on your card. Do that to see if it would interfere with any of the components on the card. If it doesn't, then you are good to go.
     
  2. kerpunkin27

    kerpunkin27 Master Guru

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    Yea i did that on my old ti-4200 few years ago and it overclocked with kickass results,but it did take up alot of room,It was worth it with the results though,as a matter of fact my brother is still using it on his comp and plays alot of new games with it on low settings but it works great.
     
  3. bellringr

    bellringr Member Guru

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    I was wondering if anyone has tried a p3 heatsink for this mod. That and I own an agp version card. Is there a way to cool the bridge chip after modding the card?
    BTW Good article, I never would have thought of it.
     
  4. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Which kind of a P3 are you talking about, the slot or socket? Also, I'm not sure what cooling the bridge chip does, as far as increasing stability, the life of the card, or overclocking.

    If you have the tools, time, and craftsmanship (and space in your case), this mod is a great way of cooling your video card on the cheap. Thanks for the compliment on the article too!
     

  5. bellringr

    bellringr Member Guru

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    The socket type. I have like three of the socket p3 coolers. I had just read on guru3d that the ( I forget the name) bridge from pci express to agp needs to be cooled. Like a north bridge for a motherboard . I am not sure if it aides overclocking but it might. I read it on guru but cant find it.
     
  6. Arash

    Arash Member

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    Well ive done something like that, befor
    as u can see...
    [​IMG]
    Not as neat as u have done it,lol u can see i used a hammer to make it fit, its a intel cpu sink n fan on a 9800pro which i had flashed to XT
     
  7. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Yea, it isn't too hard to do the mod, but it is kind of hard to do it and make it look decent at the same time. My first mod was pretty messy. It was on a 9800 Pro flashed to XT. It worked just fine, but it looked terrible with hacked away fins, bolts with nuts, and twist ties.

    This one was written so people could do it, and if they followed the instructions, do something that looked half decent too!
     
  8. Extreme

    Extreme Guest

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    My modded card

    I've also done that sort of mod about 2 or 3 years ago which I have a pic of. Worked out quite nicely... Infact I've done that mod another time before the first time I actually did I bolt in heat sink mod was about 4 years ago but it didn't look so nice as my later mod because I had to moddify the heat sink a lot in order to fit.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2006
  9. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Nice mod. Do you know what the weight was of that heatsink. It looks copper to me, and I'd imagine that warped the card a bit whilst it was in the computer.
     
  10. aircool

    aircool Don Aircooleone Staff Member

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    thats wat im scared of is there a good weight you could reccomend as a max?
     

  11. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Well, I really dont' have a max weight kind of recommendation. It depends on the video card that you are doing it to. Some card will allow you to put four bolts in for a better and more secure mount, others will only allow for two. But in the end, I'd recommend people stick to aluminum heatsinks. But if you are going for the gusto. Well, you are kind of on your own. I'm not sure what the max weight of a heatsink should be, but you could always try it and see, I guess. If it warped your card too much, have the stock heatsink or an aluminum one as backup, I suppose.
     
  12. Preid

    Preid Master Guru

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    why not just buy a zalman instead of having bent cards in your system?

    i want to know how to do this mod when runnin sli :p
     
  13. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    I have a wee bit of a feeling that this mod cools better than a Zalman VGA heatsink. Would you put a Zalman VGA heatsink on your CPU to cool it? Probably not. Yet here, we are taking a heatsink from a CPU and slapping it onto a video card.

    Stock heatsinks with 70mm fans (I think) will fit on most video cards.


    As far as getting this to run with SLI, it isn't really too much of an option. You'll just have to use a heatsink that fits, which will probably be one of those server heatsink and fans that are really noisy and small.
     
  14. Preid

    Preid Master Guru

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    Dammit!
     
  15. chris_clark

    chris_clark Member

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  16. UnclePappi

    UnclePappi Banned

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    So this mod will bring my temps(x1800xt) down from 85c to around 45c? I just happen to have a hsf from an athlon xp3200 laying around. Also i do a little machine work so I can get this thing to fit within a very small tolerance. Wonder what kind of overclock I'd get from temps like that! :nerd:

    Well look at that! My 800th post! I'm a Maja Guru!
     
  17. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    You can bring your temps down something terrific with this mod. Since you are familiar with machining and whatnot, then I'd recommend you give it a shot. I mean, it isn't that bad for a machinist. Some drilling, tapping, lapping (if you care that much, I don't). Not much to it. And if you can get accurate measurements, then I suppose you could go all out and get it accurately machined. I'd imagine measuring everything very accurately would present a problem unless you have some pretty nice calipers.
     
  18. UnclePappi

    UnclePappi Banned

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    Yeah, I guess it doesn't have to be all machined out to perfection. All that really matters is that the heatsink is making good contact with the chip. Which shouldn't be too hard.
     
  19. 3d!

    3d! New Member

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    Nice tutorial, i am going to try it first on my old video card ^^
     
  20. Royicus

    Royicus Ancient Guru

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    Sure. That sounds like a great idea, but keep in mind that you may not be able to use that heatsink on your newer video card if it works. You'll have to get another one, though you may have one sitting around, or it may not be that expensive to just get another one.

    At any rate, best of luck! Remember, take your time.
     

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