Nvidia Stock Replacement Fan

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Weaksauce
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Mar 5, 2009
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Hey,

Awhile ago I was having problems with a CPU fan (P4) making noise. I finally got around to replacing it (and have been very happy with the noise and functionality of the new one), though when that stopped making noise it unmasked that my video card's fan was also making noise. I pulled it for the time being and replaced it with this crappy Radeon Rage 9800SE w/ 128MB.

This is a PNY Technologies card with a Nvidia 7600GS chipset on it, an AGP card.

I'd like to put it back in there because it's a lot better than my radeon, but I can't find a fan that's guaranteed to fit. I don't need the whole HS, just the fan.

Can anybody provide me with some direction?

- Greg

PS: Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure if it belonged here in the video card forum, or in the cooling forum.
 
If you've got the room in your case, another option is the Accelero S1 or S2. The S2 is a little smaller and has two heatpipes for $19.49. The S1 is a little longer and has four heatpipes for $25.99. Both list the 7600 as compatible, but the S1 can handle more heat and works with more cards, so it might be a little more future-proof for a few bucks more. You could easily spend half that (or more) buying a new fan, and both of these are passive so you'll never have to worry about the fan dying again (as long as you have a little airflow in your case).

On my 9800GT, the S1 without a fan attached (just a 120mm side case fan near it) dropped my temps 15°C+ (both load and idle) and was completely silent vs. the whiny stock fan. With a quiet fan attached, it dropped another 5°C at idle and 10°C at load.

I love my S1. It was a lot cooler and a lot quieter, for pretty cheap. If I could put one on my GTX285, I would. The worst thing about it is that it's big. It'll take up the slot next to the video card, plus it's a couple inches taller than the card itself so it won't even fit in narrow cases. I had to take the plastic trim piece off the end and remove the wire grille from my side case fan for it to fit. If you want to attach a fan (either AC's Turbo Module or a custom slim fan), that'll fall into the next slot too. The pics at http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1387702 will give you an idea how big it is.
 
Depends on how long you plan on keeping that old card for and how much effort and money you want to throw at it.

For short term, have you tried cleaning it and adding a small drop of silicon oil to the bearing? If you blast the fan with a can of compressed air (via nozzle attachment), the high speed can sometime free up the bearing and make it run better.

For longer term, I agree with above comments.
 
@ Technophobe:
I did try it with compressed air, but to no avail. I haven't tried silicon oil, yet, I need something longer term, as although I plan on getting a new computer in the next few months, this is going to be my new server, so I'd like to keep it running better with a more permanent fix.

@ IvisiBill:
You're running your 9800GT with no fan, just the S1 HS?

------

I'm not looking to keep it more cool than it was, or something "extra" that's going to be bulky (although I have the room).

I'm simply looking to get this card back in there as cheaply as possible. I'd like an OEM or OEM style replacement fan if at all possible. It's similar to my iC7-G northbridge fan, but the mounting points are differently spaced. Just want to get it back in there.

Also, what do you guys mean by "passive cooling?"
 
Passive means without a fan.

I ran my 9800GT with just the S1 and no fan at first. Even without a fan, it was much cooler than stock (plus 100% silent). I added a fan to get even more cooling, and because there was talk that the other components on the card (like the voltage regulators and stuff) didn't get enough cooling just from case airflow. I don't think it was really needed, but it was partly a project I wanted to play with.
Temps at idle/load:
Stock: 60°C/75°C (whiny fan audibly ramping up and down as I played games)
S1: 45°C/58°C (no moving parts, 100% silent)
S1+fan: 40°C/48°C (still as quiet as anything else in my case)

The S1 cut my temps by about 1/4, while the S1+fan cut them by over 1/3.


Does your card look like this one? The first pic I found of a PNY 7600GS yesterday looked more like my 9800GT's stock cooler. If it looks like the Newegg one rather than the first one I saw, it should be fairly easy to find a fan to fit for a few bucks. Even if you can't find just a fan, you can probably get a generic VGA fan/heatsink (something like the Vantec Iceberq) that fits the 7600GS and plugs into the stock connector without spending too much. I'm not sure exactly how much heat the 7600GS puts out or the mounting details, but there should be something pretty generic out there that fits it.

I was basing my Accelero recommendation on the pic I found yesterday of the more custom cooler, and thinking that you'd end up spending $10-$15+ on a fan or whole new stock cooler, in which case you might as well spend $20 and get an S2. The Accelero has the benefit of not having a fan at all. If it's just sitting in a server in a closet somewhere, you won't have to worry about the fan clogging up with dust or dying again. It's definitely not OEM, but it may end up being a reasonably priced, easy (just order and install it, no searching around trying to find something that matches the stock dimensions) option. It also fits a wide variety of ATI and nVidia cards (though the S2 can't handle as much heat as the S1), so you may be able to move it to a new card if you upgrade (not just throwing away money on an old card).
 
No, the fan looks like this:
http://www.enet.com.cn/ediy/z/xkpc/images/IMG_000000040.JPG

As you can see, just the fan is replaceable inside the HS. That was my original intent of purchase, although I am willing to look into similarly (or low) priced alternatives.

Basically, this computer is my daily desktop, I play some games, but I do realize that the computer, with it's 3.06Ghz P4 and 1GB DDR1, AGP slot, etc., isn't much of a gaming monster, hence, the games don't exceed portal/HL1/HaloI/II quality, in which, it runs fine. In fall of next year I intend of building a new computer, which will replace mine as a daily computer, which will have an I7, 6GB DDR3, 9800GTX, etc. When that happens, this computer will go in a corner as a server, probably headless, dealing with legal torrents, backups, etc. For that reason I'm not really looking to upgrade the graphics card, though the passive approach sounds interesting. As of now, I have the largest case, I've seen (gaming case), I was thinking of transplanting the guts of this into a regular size ATX case when I make it a server, as this case is shot to shit, though I am not sure. I am not sure how badly the change in case size will affect air flow & ventilation, so I am not sure if I need a fan or not. Also, right now my computer sits with the side off of it, when I pack this up as a server, I will put a side on it.
 
I'm not sure if anybody was interested in the solution, but in case anybody else is having the same problem, I'll post it here.

There is no solution. Everybody keeps jerking you off and you get no guarantee what-so-ever that a cooler is actually going to fit in that damn heat sink due to the weird ass location of the screw holes (they're not equa-distance apart).

Solution: Buy a 60mm slim (15mm or so) case fan, I opted for one that had a high CFM output to make sure I kept it cool (about 35cfm, opposed to the 5-8 of a stock VGA cooler). I then ziptied it tightly around the heat-sink of the board, in which it fit, perfectly. A 60x15 fan is perfect for this job.

I then discarded the voltage control wire (yellow) by just tucking it. I then cut the fan plug off of the old fan, because it was a 2 wire plug, and the new fan was a 3 wire plug. I then simply crimed the red to the red, black to the black, and it worked. I haven't had any problems with my computer since I've put it back in, but I'm assuming it's been cool. I haven't ran the gfx card hard through games or anything like that.

Link to the photo album:
P7120119.jpg


Rest of the photos here:
http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/SynForumPhotos/GeForce 7600 Rig/

Yes, it's very ghetto rigged. But it's fully functional.
 
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