Videocard heatpipes.

[!mitationRust]

I'm trying to stress this old FX5900 (family) card to its max and while online I ran across this cheap passive cooler with heatpipes, so I had to try it out. To my amazement it did its job with a purely passive solution! Depending on how hard you run your clock on your cards memory will determine if you need to sink the RAM. You could let the RAM ride bare, but I ordered some small RAM copper sinks and fixed them with arctic silver thermal compound.

Core load with 3Dmark it maxed in the low 60's. I'm trying out this new camera as well. Well untill I get that badass mofo Cliff recommended.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6357/104lc.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3576/10008278ln.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/474/10008282mv.jpg

Quality thermal compound from the good people at PNYtech.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9810/42008mz.jpg

And if you ever run into that pink thermal gum that's usually under your crummy Northbridge sink, make sure it's warm before you pull. Because when it's cold it's like superglue.

[Tim_axe]

BTW, which camera did you decide on? Either way, I'd recommend reading up on some common photography tips. I found this article that has some good tips to improve your technique with the camera in the outdoors. Not the "core" tips, but useful ones nonetheless. ( http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...hoto_tips.html )


I need to squeeze something out of my Radeon 8500LE...it's fallen behind a little bit. It doesn't have a temperature probe so I don't know the temps it is at. All I know is that it won't OC very far even if I put a fan on it.

I really need to go through and clean my heatsinks again...after moving around for college (off-campus) it has gathered a fine dust collection...

[SirDice]

I have a Radeon 9700Pro.. Worked flawless but after a couple of months the fan died. The card just had the cheapest fan I'd ever seen. Instead of returning the card (it was still in warranty) and having the same problems after some time I opted to install a zallman heatpipe. It was a bit of a fiddle to put it all together and I had to give up 1 PCI slot. But all in all the card functions flawless again.. I'm even able to overclock it more then with the fan that was on it. Lost my warranty though..

[UAnimosity]

I Opted for a NV5 For my 6800gt, rather then a heatpipe system. I dont really midnt he noise and had one before (long story). A few friends of mine had heatpipe systems and their temps were about 5 'C lower then mine, but they overclocked a lot more.

Still, in most cases, anything is better then stock, just have to do a bit of research.

[nihil]

Well I have never tried with video cards but I have always had a good result with heatpipe system CPU coolers. Makes me wonder what would happen if you added a decent fan to it?

And if you ever run into that pink thermal gum that's usually under your crummy Northbridge sink, make sure it's warm before you pull. Because when it's cold it's like superglue.

Hey !mitationRust I agree with you mate, I always use silver thermal compound. Over here they supply the white gunk as standard. The silver is 20x (2000%)! more efficient.

I nave never seen pink compound, but we do get pink thermal patches .................first thing to get rid of, but they are as bad a getting mealie bugs off my cacti

[!mitationRust]

I used the camera someone loaned me which looks almost like that A520, same brand I believe. I'm going with that A520.

There is a sweet little hard mod for that 8500 of yours, well if you want to call it that, you can do it a few different ways. I found it over at Modskkrimpz, I love this site.
http://www.madshrimps.be/gotofaqlink.php?linkid=1684

http://translate.google.com/translat...language_tools

That is one way to do it, but over time your mod can fall off with the pencil. I suppose you could spray a sealer on it. I would do it like a true volt mod and solder a resistor there. Any good with an iron? If not I have some simple techniques that make soldering quick and clean. I pretty damn good with a hot probe as I have done a lot of soldering. I just completed a droop mod on my mobo. I have already flashed that card from a 5900 to a 5950 but I don't need to do a volt mod yet. Usually people only do it because they can or because they need to squeeze every last bit of performance out.


Color Code Table


I really need to get a rework station with the tiny pin and blade probes.
http://www.heinc.com/jbc/images/AM6000SMD1.jpg
Process
http://www.heinc.com/jbc/repair.html


But you could go over the top and get the micro ultra-hardcore modder equipment like this below and replace even the smallest of components with ease.

FINEPLACER® Micro Rework Station
http://www.finetech.de/enid/b8a18001...tation_34.html

http://www.finetech.de/enid/6c853557...ssives_a4.html

nihil
On the core I used regular AS5....... if you do a tint first it always works out better. I used the white epoxy, because the silver has the potential to bridge two close-proximityelectrical paths if you get a little messy. AS5 makes extremely great products. I recommend buying the big tube as well, as I'm almost out. Though there is a better product in another country that's a little better. Can't quite recall it.

Now I only used the heatpipes on this card because of the sound of the cards stock cooling. I believe it was the loudest they've ever put out. As for the fans blowing through the fins I have some big ones. But to control them I have a rheobus. Sunbeam rheobus is the cheapest workhorse out there and as long as you don't overload one of the channels with more that 20 watts you'll be all right. I have two 120mm panaflow's running whisper quiet, they're both on one channel.

And yes, heatpipes are the cheapest most effective way to overclock with just "air" if you will.

With Thermalright's XP90 anyone can overclock their CPU with high V-core for under $30 bones. http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/pro...1&cat=0&page=1

Now watercooling IMHO cost too much for 10-20 lower degrees and I'd advise to stay away from it. Save your money up and go with a used or new pr0my or something for $800. Then you can experience the benefits from cryogenics -40's c. Then you can show off your frosty pics!

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/pro...1&cat=0&page=1

.

[nihil]

Hey !mitationRust the Peltier is the way to go..............but it is a real bugger to stop icicles forming inside the box?.............dehumidifier + ack phtt! damn good fun but cheaper to buy stuff that was made to do it in the first place?

It is still a lot of fun though

[Tim_axe]

Hehe, Peltiers. You'd generally want to watercool the hot side because air just won't pull heat away fast enough to net cooler temperatures. Oh, and definately avoid the regular AS5 grease with those - although the ceramique stuff is safe.

If you use AS5 or other (real) silver compounds held in a grease on a peltier you can actually end up with the peltier shorting itself out because the silver will bond to the peltier.

If you want to know more on this (I've summarized it) read this thread, post #9 by Straight_Man - http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8977


--------------------

As for the videocard, I've only seen the Rojak's Pot Radeon->FireGL mods. I couldn't find the 8500 Pencil-Mods. Thanks for the link.

Not sure if I'll do it because I don't have any decent cooling on my video card right now and anyways I couldn't afford to replace it if I broke it now. I just bought a $700 printer for $400 along with about $250 for a portable CF card copier w/ 40GB HDD (compared to buying ~2-4GB of high-speed CF media...much more bang for the buck)...so definately over $3,000 into photo stuff now

IIRC, I'm supposed to get another $2,000 in scholarships this month...I sure hope I don't spend it all on camera-related equipment, darn it!

[!mitationRust]

One day we can all own pr0my's for under $100 and we'll overclock vintage 2.4 chips to 4.0's.

Cliff, what are you studying?


Hard modding .........I know man, takes some serious nuts to do a hard mod on your only card. I flashed this card andd had a little trouble the first round. I know some very experienced people and they say it's not worth it.

[Tim_axe]

I'm studying Mechanical Engineering. So chances are I will be doing the mods at sometime anyways, simply because it is in my blood, haha.

It is an awesome major...nearly everything comes back to a Mech. Eng. or is somehow related to it. I think the thing I really love however are the programs my university competes in.


I'm hoping that for my senior design project I'm with the University of Idaho Race Car design team...build a race-car from the ground up (design & build it) and have major automotive companies rate us, and then race it and see who wins. I'd just love to design & race this beast...personal goal to build a vehicle from the ground up.

Right now our Snowmobile Team is working on modifying a 2-stroke engine to be Turbo/Super-Charged and still having it pass emissions to be driven in National Parks. Right now it is illegal to drive a 2-stroke vehicle in a National Park due to emossions, but they're working on fixing that...cool stuff.

Finally we were in the future truck competition. They took a Ford Explorer, IIRC, stripped it to the frame and applied some paints to the frame/body with special properties to reflect heat, moved the radiator out of the engine compartment and onto the roof (insane how much this helps prevent engine overheating), and worked on getting rid of the 12v Lead-Acid battery, and of course make it a hybrid vehicle with a computer and other cool stuff. That was 2 years ago...didn't win in the desert for some reason, but it was cooler in the car that was off than in the shade, and it was the probably the only vehicle that didn't overheat... Last year they took a pickup truck and made a hybrid hydraulic car...ie storing potential energy in hydraulic power instead of electrical power. Not sure what is up this year...


Anyways, Mechanical Engineers....yeah! Use those videocard heatpipes that use a form of phase-change heat transfer to keep that card cool...similar to how they keep the ice under the oil pipeline through Alaska frozen but on a smaller scale and at different temperatures