S1 Cooling Voltage Regulator - Does it work?

S

Syndacate

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
93
Hey,

I had to pull my Nvidia geforce 7600GS out of my desktop due to a winey fan. I've been using my backup (an ATI Radeon Rage 9800SE). I'm really at my witz end with it, though, as the ATI drivers for linux (my main OS) blow, and won't support the newer X server, nor my screen resolution (1920x1200, they top out at 1600x1200). Not to mention it's simply less of a card with less, older, RAM, and a slower GPU.

In any event.

A member on here, when I made an original post 1 month ago (yeah, I take time to get to things :p) pointed me in the direction of the S1, and passive cooling. I feel this is a good idea as this will probably become a headless server in the not too distant future. I had a few questions before I purchase it though (which I'd like to be today).

1) Has anybody purchased the S1 before? Does it come with thermal paste on it already (I'd expect it to, but who knows, I'd hate to waste twice the shipping time because it didn't), and if not, what kind would you recommend for this application? (for the love of god not that dual compound arctic silver (no compounds at all), I got tricked into that when I bought a new CPU HSF and still got it.

2) From what I've read, and what I've looked at, this S1 cooler should fit my GeForce 7600GS no problem, right? It lists 7600 as a compatible card, not quite sure what the "GS" changes though.

3) Most importantly, I've heard from a few sources, including the one that directed me towards passive cooling, that the downfall with passive cooling is that it relies on the stock air flow, and nothing more, for the voltage regulator's heat. I don't know anything about the voltage regulator, not even where on the board to find it. I have a very large case, but when I convert this to a dedicated server, might get a regular standard size ATX case, assuming that case, from what I hear, the S1 will be more than enough to dissipate the heat on the GPU, but will it, in a regular ATX case with the side on, have enough air flow to cool the voltage regulator? I'd really like to not blow out my card (or even stress it) because I decided to go for a passive cooling system. I'm assuming if the voltage regulator goes the GPU will eat itself or trigger inconsistently and glitch. I figure it's stressed under gaming, but I don't game much on it (though I'd like to know that if I do, it's not going to overheat on me). Would just the S1 do the trick? Will it cool both the voltage regulator and the GPU in a closed, standard ATX case, in ~70-74 tops degree temperatures? I know it's only a $90-$100 dollar card, but I don't want to buy a new one.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you, sorry for the long posts.
 
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Well the S1 kit comes with small aluminum heat sinks for the ram and voltage regulator chips. It doesn't get to hot in my case, but if you're worried you could just point some low speed 120mm fan at the card. A low speed, low noise fan will be more than enough to keep that card cool.
 
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=105

It comes with MX-2 pre-installed.

Neither the AC site or Newegg show the contents of the package. Mine that I got for Christmas (not sure where the girlfriend ended up buying it from) did not include VRM heatsinks. It included a single long VRM heatsink made for a specific ATI card(s). The installation instructions PDF now shows several smaller VRM sinks similar to the RAM sinks.

I've heard more about VRM heat with ATI's cards, but had heard it mentioned as a possible issue on others as well. I put the fan on mine just to be safe.

If the card looks just like the pic you linked in your other post, don't worry about it. The newer heatsinks cover multiple components on the video card, which are left without a heatsink when you switch to the GPU-only S1. The heatsink pic that you linked to only covers the GPU, which the S1 will cover. Any other cooling of the card from the stock HSF would just be the warm air that's exhausted from the GPU. If you have enough airflow to keep air from stagnating around the S1, I would think that should be equivalent to the small amount of heated air that the stocker would've been blowing over the card.
 
It doesn't look like the one in the picture, I was only illustrating the fan.

There's a separate, smaller heatsink for what I believe is the VRM, next to the GPU.

It looks like this:
See below post for images

As you can see, the other HS, what's possibly the VRM HS, is diagnal to the GPU. This creates some possible problems. ie. If it's one long HS, either the S1 would have to fit diagnally on the board, or if you could get the base to swivel 45*, then it could sit parallel and barely clear the VRM. That'd be why I'm a bit unsure, the GPU sits in there on a 45* offset of any one side. I'm a bit concerned about that.

How can I be sure what I'm getting (HS wise) if I buy from newegg? Also, anybody have any recommended fans? I saw yours, InvisiBIll, but it required purchasing of an entire diff component just for the fan. I feel the S1 should be enough to cool it, but at the same time I'm not sure :-X. I'm kind of confused about this. Looking at the design I feel a regular HSF would fit better, or just the fan, but if i can provide a passive cooling solution for it (that is effective) I rather do that.
 
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Okay, wow.

I just realized how stupid I am playing this image search game saying "it looks like this, not like that" 'n such.

I just took some damn pictures.
Picture 1
Picture 2

Sorry about that. That is my exact card, so as you can see, the geometry in both the diagonal nature of the GPU, and that second heat sink, concern me.
 
shadow_419 said:
That small heatsink is for the pci-e to agp adapter chip. The Acellero S1 will not work with your card. The agp model you have is not listed as compatible. Maybe you could try something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118117
Click to expand...

Not that I don't believe you or anything, but could you tell me:
A) How you know what it is
B) It lists the 7600 as a fit model, how do you know it only means the PCI-E version and not the AGP version
C) How you know the fan you linked me to fits the AGP version, and not the PCI-E, or vice versa?
 
Yeah, I would agree that the S1 most likely won't fit that. It mounts with screws at the four corners of the heatsink base. It might be possible to stick it on with thermal epoxy, but I'm pretty sure you couldn't use the standard screws to mount it. If you did get the S1 on there, you may or may not be able to keep the other heatsink installed (possibly with some tweaking), depending on the exact sizing.

While I love my S1, it just doesn't seem like a good solution for your card. The Zalman that shadow_419 linked is more generic and would probably fit ok, while still leaving room for the other heatsink as well. Older cards and HSFs were simpler and many just used two screws or clips at opposite corners. It's a lot easier to get one of those HSFs to work on a 2-hole video card like that. You might try searching and see if you can find details of which coolers other people have put on the AGP 7600GS - that should at least give you an idea what fits and what doesn't (or requires modding). If you don't like the exact one they use, you can at least use it for measurements to find other compatible coolers.
 
InvisiBill said:
Yeah, I would agree that the S1 most likely won't fit that. It mounts with screws at the four corners of the heatsink base. It might be possible to stick it on with thermal epoxy, but I'm pretty sure you couldn't use the standard screws to mount it. If you did get the S1 on there, you may or may not be able to keep the other heatsink installed (possibly with some tweaking), depending on the exact sizing.

While I love my S1, it just doesn't seem like a good solution for your card. The Zalman that shadow_419 linked is more generic and would probably fit ok, while still leaving room for the other heatsink as well. Older cards and HSFs were simpler and many just used two screws or clips at opposite corners. It's a lot easier to get one of those HSFs to work on a 2-hole video card like that. You might try searching and see if you can find details of which coolers other people have put on the AGP 7600GS - that should at least give you an idea what fits and what doesn't (or requires modding). If you don't like the exact one they use, you can at least use it for measurements to find other compatible coolers.
Click to expand...

Okay, but how exactly do I find other people who have put coolers on AGP 7600GS's? That's why I posted my original post in the first place, though the chances of somebody else having a computer with the same card with the same fan crapping out are kind of low :(.

I've been googling the hell out of stuff like "7600GS replacement fan" - but to no avail.

The one shadow_419 linked me too seems decent, but I don't like how the fan is exposed like it is, with no protection, it doesn't have an "impeller" design, which I like.

Though regardless of that, is it a pretty safe assumption that all VGA coolers with the 2 hole mounting holes that claim to support 7600 cards have the same distance between holes, therefore pretty much all will fit as long as it follows that design?

I really don't like the exposed nature of that fan but that's pretty much all that's floating around, like the 50th time I've seen it.

Assuming that Zalman cleared all board components (capacitors, transistors, heasinks, etc.), am I pretty much guaranteed that it'll fit as long as it follows the 2 hole at either end design? Or are there different distances?

Also, the fact that the GPU is at a 45* offset of the 2 holes worries me, I don't think it'll matter for the zalman because it appears to have a circular heatsink bottom, do most 2 hole configurations sit on the corners of the GPU, by the edges? (I don't want to find one with a square bottom that doesn't cover all of the GPU).

I realize there's a lot of stuff here, just want to make sure I get the right part.

Thanks for reading & help thus far.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

If you search on newegg for VGA coolers with 2 pin power connectors, that's all you get, those three fans there.

I didn't realize having a 2 pin power connector was such a big limitation...

It doesn't even have any compatibility list. It's either the B, which runs 500RPM faster for +3DB (fine with me), or a passive cooling solution.

Any input?
 
Syndacate said:
Not that I don't believe you or anything, but could you tell me:
A) How you know what it is
B) It lists the 7600 as a fit model, how do you know it only means the PCI-E version and not the AGP version
C) How you know the fan you linked me to fits the AGP version, and not the PCI-E, or vice versa?
Click to expand...


A) I know it's a pci-e to agp because the geforce 7 series was made as a pci-e design from the onset.

The connector on the bottom of your card is for an agp slot (compare to pci-e picture)

Pci-e card

agp card

B) I bothered enough to look at the actual design of the heat sink mounting for the S1 and S2. Both use the similar mounting and S2 is listed as not compatible with agp version. Probably due to the orientation of the gpu and the extra pci-e to agp chip

C) I don't know for sure that it will fit your card, but that series card is listed as compatible with the zalman cooler.

You could do some of the research yourself and e-mail zalman to see if your card is compatible.
 
EDIT:
Nvm, I didn't realize I could plug 3 pin fan plugs directly into the wire harness coming off of the PSU.

So I guess the only thing that remains is are the two holes for the older style mounts (like mine) basically the same distance apart for all of them (like a standard)?

So is it fair to say that any (or most) of the fans with two mounting places like that will work?

Thanks.
 
Best way would be to measure your card's cooler mounting holes and compare to cooler you are looking to buy.
 
shadow_419 said:
Best way would be to measure your card's cooler mounting holes and compare to cooler you are looking to buy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I just wish more of them put that actual statistic on their specifications :(. I feel like this is a stupid problem to have, but it is a problem, none-the-less.
 
i had a PNY 7600gs AGP a while back. i too was concerned about heat buildup and the fan was starting to get a little louder. i didnt find much for cooling because of if being agp.
 
Smiththers2 said:
i had a PNY 7600gs AGP a while back. i too was concerned about heat buildup and the fan was starting to get a little louder. i didnt find much for cooling because of if being agp.
Click to expand...

Well the fan's pretty damn noisy and I don't want it to just crap out and fry the GPU when I'm not here, so I stopped using it and put in my back-up GFX card (an ATI Radeon Rage 9800SE), although I'm a Linux user, and the ATI proprietary drivers won't get any higher than 1620x1200, and the OSS ones are even worse, so I wanna get my nvidia back in there ASAP.

I'm stuck in 1600x1200 resolution, on a monitor who's default res is 1920x1200 - my circles look like squished ovals :(
 
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