Cooling for Gecube 9550XT

[Lanchadan]

Hi everyone!

My first post
I own a Gecube 9550 400/500 card (with 2.8ns Hynix RAMs), and I want to OC it.
The RAM is highly friendly in this, its max is about 690 (2*345). My problem is the CORE. Its max is about 440, and I think it is quite poor performance... With Atitool the freq. goes up to even 480, but with heat up, it is decreasing I want better stability with a superior cooling, I hope it will help me out.
I tried to read as much articles as possible, but I could not make a good choice. I read that the best cooling is the Glacialtech Northpole 1000 cooling (several degrees lower than Zalman), the second is Zalman with OP1, the third is the AC Silencer. I can send the link of this test, but it is in Hungarian, so there is no point of it. Please if you own any information in this subject, or you know tests on the net with these products (especially Northpole) please write it.
My second question is: anyone knows if the Northpole fits to my card. It is essential to know it before a buy
The PCB is 9600XT reference design Rev 2.0

PS: I don't have much money, so that is why I want to avoid Zalman, and want that Northpole cheaper (with better perf.)

 

[bim27142]

GeCube's 9550 is already heavily overclocked and tweaked by GeCube itself(already comes on a 9600XT PCB and cooling solution)... i would personally not recommend OC'ing(core) it further...however for the memory, the specs(data sheet) speak itself that there is still some headroom to OC it...

and to add it, IMO, i think the BIOS is also already being flashed with 9600 because ATITool natively detected mine as RV360 and NOT RV350...correct me if i'm wrong though...

 

[Lanchadan]

GeCube's 9550 is already heavily overclocked and tweaked by GeCube itself(already comes on a 9600XT PCB and cooling solution)... i would personally not recommend OC'ing(core) it further...however for the memory, the specs(data sheet) speak itself that there is still some headroom to OC it...

and to add it, IMO, i think the BIOS is also already being flashed with 9600 because ATITool natively detected mine as RV360 and NOT RV350...correct me if i'm wrong though...

You might be true, but I read somewhere, the flashing to Sapphire 9600Pro FB cause better performance and OC ability.
If I don't want to OC the GPU, it is still advisable to strengthen the cooling for more stability, isn't it?
And for more: as I see, cooling of the RAMs on the GPU side is blocked by the stock cooling (some rubber tape is between the two parts, and I don't think it conducts the heat quite well...)

 

[bim27142]

well, the cooler the system the better...but GeCube 9550XT's cooling solution is already good...IMO, it's not worth the hassle to incorporate additional cooling, but unless you really want to push it a bit further then additional cooling is advisable and/or required...

that could not be rubber tape, it must be a thermal compound or something...though i'm not sure of because i did not remove the cooling of my card...

 

[Lanchadan]

Well, as I see it could be hardly a thermal compound, but: let it be, altough it is not connected perfectly to the cooling, therefore useless...

 

[Lanchadan]

Anyone has knowledge in the Northpole-9550 pairing?