That's not a bad idea there... I've got a buddy that works on pieces of 'black project' aircraft that has access to some serious equipment and scrap materials...CnC machines, waterjets, etc... I was thinking of having him custom up some solid chrome shims for the memory under the hs/f and then mod some small memory heatsinks to allow mounting a case fan for all the chips on the rear-side (under that d^mned black cover) - removing the thermal tape would be an improvement in itself, but if you could mod some little heatsinks for each of those chips and still mod in a fan to blow across them...as well as create a more 'flush' contact on the chips under the hs/f, you'd be in business! (as you can see, I'm *all* about mods! ) But, I think you've got a great idea there...something to work with for sure! Psychlone
honestly guys with this card my investment of a 145$ gpu waterblock is the only thing that keeps it cold enough for me to be happy with it. once i get proper volts adjustment for vista ill have my fun
I dont think I have a big problem with heat. I have a 120mm fan blowing straight on the card from the side of my case. Never saw my temps go past 72c and I leave my card oced @ 840/1900 24/7. You guys should manually up the fan speed when running gpu intensive applications or games.
At what point do the memory timings loosen? I've currently got mine at 853/900, how much higher could I go?
i hear its at 999 to 1000 but i tested somewhere and my performance still went up, even by a really small amount, it didnt seem to care. so i honesty cant say. but your best bet is to find some memory intensive benchmark and just retest it every 10mhz and see where it would obviously jump down at
Ok here are some pics of my fan mod. All I used was some ~1.5" long screws and mobo risers of the same diamter and screwed the fan on.....supported by one side. You can actually attach two fans if you really want....they could cool the VRMs. I would do this if you're overvolting. This drops your core temps, ambient (according to rivatuner, PCB temps I guess), as well as VRM temps. I have a silverstone FM92, but it's too loud.....I tested it and it pushed an INSANE amount of air across the PCB, but it was just too loud. I was at point of diminished returns at stock voltage. I may just bite the bullet when an app is released with voltage control for the 1Gb models... Sorry about the poor pic quality...it's from my GF's cell phone. Why don't you just get these? THey are of superior quality...I used to own them. http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mc14.asp
Those would be perfect for the RAM chips on the bottom, removing the black backing so they would get some air across...but for the chips up under the stock hs/f, I think that some simple polished copper shims with some AS5 would be perfect - I realize there would be some thermal resistance going from the chip to AS5 to the copper shims to AS5 then to the underside of the hs/f, but it's *got* to be better than the ATi reference design! By the way, great idea you've got there...I bet it would do better without that damn black backing and the crap thermal tape!!! Psychlone
Yes it is. Here is some more info in the full post at another forum: http://www.overclock.net/2808673-post34.html
I've really been thinking about getting a 2900xt 1gb. Has anyone tried putting some coollab liquid pro TIM, or AS5 on their R600? Maybe that will help drop the temperature. I sold my 8800GTX, and I realized I can't be without a high end GFX card for too long. I've read reviews, but they are all old, and I know that the performance of the 2900s is increasing with each new driver. Can the 2900 compete?
the 2900 series can really compete now with newer drivers, however i suggest waiting until mid november for the rv670 to come out, as it will be on 55nm instead of 80nm. It has a lot higher clocks. Also, in Jan/Feb timeframe the R600 is coming out, which is two RV670s on the same PCB.