Guide to quietening fan (x800xl)
Ok I have an X800XL from Asus and the fan noise was really bad. It appears to have a thermal sensor built into the Heatsink/fan (even with wires to the fan!) but i never heard it slow the fan down. This was getting unbearably noisy and would sometimes even rattle.
I used the latest (beta) ATITool to try and keep temps at 54 degrees. This worked wonders and the fan would now idle @ 20-60% in windows. Incidentally I looked for a BIOS mod to lower the fan stock speeds but i couldnt find anything, so ATITool currently seems to be the only way to do this.
Of course, hit BF2 and the temps would hit 55-56 and the fan would drive me nuts. So today I thought 'screw this' and decided to oil the bastard. Little known fact; almost all modern PC fans have a sticker over a brush/bearing/spindle on the side with the wiring. Taking this sticker off and oiling the bearing with normal oil (like cycle oil or whatever) often noticeably improves the fan noise, life, and even speed.
So here's how you do this on the Asus X800XL. This has a copper cooler and a big plastic (Thin) fan behing a metal plate. You will need to remove the heatsink and fan (probably) from teh card which might well invalidate any warranty as you have to replace teh thermal sticker on the GPU core. Do this at your own risk and if in doubt, stop. I'll try and help if i can. Read it all first.
Unscrew the 3 screws on the back of the card on the outside, and carefully unscrew the 2 near the GPU on the tension bracket. Do these slowly, and in turn, not 1 at a time. This lil bent metal thing puts a LOT of pressure on the core > heatsink interface as you will see.
Now take the heatsink/fan off the card. The fan header connection too, it only goes on 1 way so really easy to replace. Note the condition of the thermal stuff you will need to clean off / replace the GPU stuff in most cases. Also the stuff for the ram is REALLY thick but thats probably by design i wouldnt mess with that. My card is a bad overclocker anyhow (2-3% max).
Take the 3 main screws from the metal plate on the front of the HSF unit off. Now remove the (different!) machined screw near the edge where the fan is. This should give you full access to the fan (which you cant remove yet lol).
Now remove the 3 screws holding the fan to the heatsink unit. Be aware, you have 4 or 5 different types of tiny screw by this point, remember which is which and keep em seperate and with care!
Finally, the plastic fan unit will now be somewhat removable. Pry it away but note the wires to the sensors; you wont be able to get it more then a few CM from the heatsink. On the back of the fan is a sticker (mine was greenish); NOT the asus one (on the front) there is nothing to oil on the front of the fan.
Take off the sticker from the back around 60% of the way to expose the (crappy plastic) bushing and the spindle. You shouldnt need any glue or anything to reaffix this.
Little point to note, on my fan, here there was visible yellowing of the sticker due to the heat / friction of the fan near the bushing. My card is only like 2 weeks old lol already the heat was startin to show. So glad i did this.
Add a generous drop of oil to the center, and reaffix the sticker. Turn the fan a few times, if you like try and put some oil in the edges (i did) but be careful of the PCB.
Ok now put it all back together. If you changed the thermal compound on the GPU, be *very* careful when doing this. I did this when i first got the card, and found that the bracket on the back had put so much pressure on the stuff it had all squeezed out to the edges and very little was helping the GPU cool. This was AS5 type stuff (geil). I put a big dollop on the core this time, and DIDNT TIGHTEN THE BRACKET SCREWS FULLY!!! Very important, bear in mind the bracket is designed to be used with a pad, which could never flow away from the contact point like a liquid under pressure. You might wanna put it together fully, then take the HSF off again ** a couple of times ** just to be sure you have this ok with whatever paste you are using. Make sure there are no areas of the core which would not be in contact with the HSF via your paste.
The fan (mine at least) will have a pleasing highish pitch whirr at full speed and will be quieter. At lower speeds it changes speed more smoothly and is even quieter. Not a magical difference, but certainly noticable! It sounds a lot more polished then it did lol, imo.
I hope this mini guide helps some of you out. The heatsink is a nice copper block jobbie but the fan without oil is a piece of cr*p, this should help. Enjoy your graphics.
PS I really hope this works on x850s too !