inexpensive video card fan fix

[keakar]

my fan went out on my video card and even though i could get a free warranty fix i didn't want to wait for sending it off to be fixed. to me the shipping costs plus the trouble of disabling my computer for a week or more over a $4 fan wasn't worth it. none of the aftermarket fans would be quiet enough to make me happy so i decided i would just mod the heatsink to attatch a case fan to it.

i have a geforce 7600gs bfg card shown here:

http://www.bfgtech.com/7600GS_512.html

as you can see, the card has a square aluminum heatsink with solid corners that is perfect size for mounting a 60mm case fan onto. all i did was drill two holes in the corners to screw the fan onto it. adding the fan on top of the heatsink blocks the pci slot next to the card but i have no clearance issues to deal with. i also went with a quiet style fan so higher cfm, noisier fans may cool even better. i ended up using a 16 dbl 60x25mm fan @ 18cfm so it will be nice and quiet and the 25mm size was used insted of a 15mm to get better cfm @ low dbl level. my stock fan was rated at 20-25 dbl noise level, but IMO it was really much closer to 30 dbl.

i think the stock fan on this heatsink was 12 cfm since using a 14 cfm 60mm fan and a minor lapping of the heatsink gave me temps of 45 idle - 65 load versus the stock temps of 50 idle - 70 load.

i tried using a 60x80 adapter and a 24 cfm 80mm fan to get more cfm without higher dbl levels but it appears the blades need to be right next to the heatsink to cool better. i believe the fan swirls the air in the void where the stock fan was which you dont get from adding the 60x80mm adapter due to fan and heatsink being further apart you get a more steady flow of air and less swirling. i actually got higher temps using the 24 cfm 80mm fan (53 idle - 79 load) so i got the 18 cfm 60mm fan and it cools much better. i now have temps of 40 idle and 60 load.

this is a simple fix if your not looking to invest in a nice GPU cooler.

the entire cost of this mod is just the price you spend on the case fan.

i did end up with two extra fans i'm not using but left over parts is all part of modding lol.

 

[EviLZeD]

nice can you show some pics ?

 

[keakar]

ok, will do

 

[tkpenalty]

... I think u voided the warranty dude.

 

[keakar]

If it ever failed under warranty i don't have extra video cards laying around so i would have to buy another card anyway, so i could still use my computer waiting till they fixed this video card and mailed it back to me. i figure the warranty isn't worth being without it for that long. that's why they give you those warranties anyway, they know very few people will ever disable their computer for a month and spend money on shipping costs to ever get it fixed by them, thats what they are counting on. for the most part unless your overclocking it, it's safe to say that out of the box it either works or it doesn't work. under normal use and proper case cooling the odds are against anything ever failing other than the fan anyway so the failure risk is there but IMO very very low. yes i did void the warranty, but i don't consider losing the warranty is of any concern given the low cost of buying a replacement video card if it ever did happen to go out.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Where the pics man?

 

[Carcenomy]

That's a pretty slick piece of work, how are you powering the new fan? You could always check the current draw difference between the new and old and if close, swap the cable from the old one over so the new fan can be software controlled too

 

[keakar]

That's a pretty slick piece of work, how are you powering the new fan? You could always check the current draw difference between the new and old and if close, swap the cable from the old one over so the new fan can be software controlled too

i snipped the wires from the dead stock fan and soldered it to the new fan leads leaving the rpm wire capped off. that way i still get the reduced fan voltages and quieter fan till the card gets warm, then it goes up to full speed as the card gets hotter just like the stock fan used to operate.

 

[Carcenomy]

Right on, precisely how I woulda done it. Very nice

Got any more pics?

 

[keakar]

thanks

 

[aximbigfan]

huh. interesting. why not just buy a nice Zalman?

chris

 

[Carcenomy]

Because a simple fan swap is cheaper and almost as effective. For instance, if it were my card that had died, I coulda grabbed a spare fan from my stockpile and mounted it up in a few minutes, at basically no cost to me.

Sure beats buying a Zalman, having to dismantle the stock cooling, remove all the existing thermal paste etc, repaste the GPU, bolt the Zalman up, and still have to do the wiring... when all you have is a cheap card anyway.

 

[keakar]

thank you carcenomy, i couldn't have explained it any better myself