New to cooling

[simonc1978]

I've just bought an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb (256bit) OEM card in order to play HL2 and Sims2. After about an hour or so of playing on HL2, the game crashed and I opened the case to see how hot the card was and I nearly burnt my hand.

Therefore, I've been looking at some possible cooling methods. The ATI Arctic Silencer 1 seems to fit the bill. But I'm a bit worried about space. Does the cooler go on the front or back of the VGA card? If it has to go on the front (i.e. in contact with the GPU itself) then I've got a bit of a problem because that would mean having to remove one of the PCI cards and they're all needed. I've also seen some sort of cooling made by Zalman but I can't decide which would be best.

Can anyone help? P.S. I don't intend to overclock the card.

TIA,

Simon

 

[15th Warlock]

I've just bought an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb (256bit) OEM card in order to play HL2 and Sims2. After about an hour or so of playing on HL2, the game crashed and I opened the case to see how hot the card was and I nearly burnt my hand.

Therefore, I've been looking at some possible cooling methods. The ATI Arctic Silencer 1 seems to fit the bill. But I'm a bit worried about space. Does the cooler go on the front or back of the VGA card? If it has to go on the front (i.e. in contact with the GPU itself) then I've got a bit of a problem because that would mean having to remove one of the PCI cards and they're all needed. I've also seen some sort of cooling made by Zalman but I can't decide which would be best.

Can anyone help? P.S. I don't intend to overclock the card.

TIA,

Simon

Sorry to tell you this, but all GPU coolers have to be placed over the GPU itself, and most of the aftermarket coolers will take up one extra slot in your PC.

 

[simonc1978]

I've realised I can use the onboard sound on the Mobo so I can remove one of the PCI cards. So... which cooler do I need? Is it the ATI Arctic Silencer 1? Or should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks

 

[ReconCX]

I think that your card is overheating and that's a manufacturer's defect. Better for you to exchange it rather than you spend extra money trying to fix the thing.

 

[C&C Freak 2K]

Zalman fanless heatsinks are huge in order to compensate for less air moving past the fins at one time.

Also, you can buy better-but-not-really-excellent HSFs such as the Vantec Iceberq4.