Cutting Off The Fan on a 5200 PCI

One of my computers has this horriblely loud PNY 5200 PCI express video card.

I want to know if it'd be safe to deactivate the fan (cut the fan wire) without the card overheating.

I'd only use it in its 2D mode, and nothing too intense at that.

I have the exact same card...and problem

mine is the "dual head" card with two VGA out-puts
I use it to run two 15" displays on either side of my 19" which runs off a 6600GT

the CPU has a ZALMAN 7700...and the power supply is also very quiet

I'm getting a ZALMAN VF-700 for the 6600GT...so that leaves the smallest worst sounding fan in the whole system running on that PCI FX 5200

I did look...and you can buy a new 5200 with a passive heatsink on it now(no fan)

anyone know of a really cheap little heatsink I (we) could get to replace the loud little fan on these cards

I don't game on my 5200 either....so major cooling is not needed

the only thing I have found that I think might work is a ~$7 "chip-set cooler"

like this ...


but I would rather find something that was made for the job...because if I mess up this card...I'm screwed...I use my multi displays for work..

is the fan that loud be default, meaning did it come out of the bomb screaming, or did it start doing it recently?

If recently, just use some sewing oil, or even WD40 on the fan. Peel up the sticker and drop it in the hole.

If by default, then just epoxy a heatsink on it....preferably larger then a NB(north-bridge) size heatsink. But I think that you could get away with a NB heatsink.

Like the Zalman shown above, I have that on my NB chip, works great as long as you have at least some air moving over it.

My question is would the card be safe totally cutting off the fan?
Not replacing one, just totally doing away with the fan.

You might if you have some reasonable airflow in your case, but if you want to take out the fans and worry a little less you could lap the heatsink a little and use AS5 to reduce the temps. I know it's from bad contact, but my old fx5200 would stay pertty cool under load, because the gpu doesn't make that much heat and the heatsink doesn't pull too much of that heat away. An alternative to completely taking out the fan is to just stick a 5-volted 80mm fan right below the heatcink, which would probably give more airflow than the stock fan anyways.