how to remove the cover and hsf from evga 8800gt

[HonestJohn]

alex, have a evga superclocked coming in on Thursday, which model did you get? Also did you do anything to mod the fan speed settings? Just wondered as it would be nice if I could keep a single slot solution as mine is going into a MicroFly (DreamCatcher in sig).

Long time no see Jeddi. Last time I ran into you was on the Sapphire Forum I think. I have the same card as you're getting and if you haven't heard, EVGA has a new BIOS for the card which ups the fan speed to a max of about 45%-50% under-load. The old BIOS would start at 29% and max at 35%. Even after applying the new BIOS though, I still went back to using Rivatuner, as most 8800GT users are doing, and have the fan speed adjusted to 55%. On my rig that's the best balance between heat and noise levels, at least for my ears anyway. . There is also supposedly a new cooling design in the works, so if you lucky you may get one of those.

New BIOS: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=...1&key=&#176929

Rivatuner 2.06: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

Good Luck

[jedihobbit]

Thanks guys, just need to get it past the wife when it comes in!

and hj......think we first met over at http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=114830, and then Sapphire, good to see ya over here!

Be interesting to clean all the ATI stuff off and reload the nvidia....last time I had to do that was going the other way.

[HonestJohn]

Thanks guys, just need to get it past the wife when it comes in!

and hj......think we first met over at http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=114830, and then Sapphire, good to see ya over here!

Be interesting to clean all the ATI stuff off and reload the nvidia....last time I had to do that was going the other way.

Yeah, you're right. Starting with the X1950 Pro AGP Frenzy. Good Times.

As far as you're Wife goes, when the package arrives just tell her it's a present for someone special. You can't use this one too often however, because when I say this now, my wife responds with "So what did you get yourself?"

[UncleBob]

At least your wife still thinks you're someone special, HJ....that's a good thing indeed!

[Brandito]

it's really easy to set the fan up so it turns up when you start gaming or when the card starts getting warmer (usually associated with gaming) and when it's in just 2d you can have it set to the bare minimum speed.

http://home.comcast.net/~boogieman19...ed%20guide.htm

there's that guide and i believe there's another on guru3d's site.

that's what i do with my video cards, keeps em inaudible when in 2d, and when they get hot you can have the fan ramp up to as many speeds as you like. it's probably best just to do one threshold at around 70c and make that force the fan to 100%, or whatever you find is the minimum needed to keep things stable. you can however have multple threholds though, say one at 60c to set the fan to 50% then another at 75c to go to 80% or whatever you like.

[alex666]

As far as getting packages, there isn't a better time. You just say "It's for Christmas" (but don't tell her whose Christmas).

[Brandito]

evga shafted me again with the old cooler, thing is a screamer for sure, gets hot too.

gonna definitely look elsewhere when i buy again.

[jedihobbit]

OOPS, didn't mean to "pirate" you thread alex!

[alex666]

OOPS, didn't mean to "pirate" you thread alex!

Never even thought of it as so. Brandito, I'll post with how well the Zalman VF900 does on my 8800gt. Yeah, that little fan is pretty pathetic, and the card runs hot. I knew that going in, but in retrospect, it's amazing these manufacturers put out these cards with these tiny loud fans on an otherwise great card. This is probably the worst gpu fan I've had since the one that came on my Geforce4 4400 Ti from PNY back in 2002, which I ultimately replaced as it kept rattling really bad like it was going to fall off. Put a vantec cooler on that card and it is still running strong, been getting daily use at my son's school for several years now. Hope the Zalman and this 8800ft do as well.

marty

[HonestJohn]

Never even thought of it as so. Brandito, I'll post with how well the Zalman VF900 does on my 8800gt. Yeah, that little fan is pretty pathetic, and the card runs hot. I knew that going in, but in retrospect, it's amazing these manufacturers put out these cards with these tiny loud fans on an otherwise great card. This is probably the worst gpu fan I've had since the one that came on my Geforce4 4400 Ti from PNY back in 2002

marty

Marty, really sorry if I gave you a bum-steer about the card. To my ears the fan is hardly noticeable at 55% or under and it isn't until 65% that I start to hear the noise you described as an "electric shaver" and it's still not that bad to me. I'm really starting to wonder if some of these fans "whine" worse than others? As half the Net seems to be saying, it doesn't bother me at all, while the other half are saying it sounds like a leaf-blower. Anyway, good luck with the Zalman VF900, you're gonna love it ...

[alex666]

No bum steer. I had my eye on that card from day 1. It is a pretty obnoxious fan sound for me, but I always intended on replacing it with something, which turned out to be the Zalman, so it's no big deal. The zalman should arrive tomorrow, but I won't have a chance to mess with it until Friday night. I'm hoping it will fit, as at least one nut that goes on the back of the card to attach the zalman may run into my nb hsf. But I think I can tweak it, though I may have to bend a few fins on the nb hsf.

I'm so looking forward to installing FSX on this system and running it on the 47" LG LB5D HDTV. We have FSX installed on the DS3 system, which currently is attached to the LG, but the 8800GTS 640 is just a bit short of having the oomph to run decent framerates with good quality at higher resolutions. I'm pretty sure the 8800GT will be better (along with a faster cpu). My son was playing Legos Star Wars tonight on the DS3 + LG 47". My wife got her first view of what a game looks like on the LG and she was genuinely blown away. I must admit, it was very impressive.

marty

[jedihobbit]

......and running it on the 47" LG LB5D HDTV. We have FSX installed on the DS3 system, which currently is attached to the LG,.............. My son was playing Legos Star Wars tonight on the DS3 + LG 47". My wife got her first view of what a game looks like on the LG and she was genuinely blown away. I must admit, it was very impressive. marty

Show Off!!! And I used to be impressed when I got my dell 24" and then went from a BFG 6600GT OC to my current X1950 Pro Ulimate....

As far as fan noise the small fan are "loud" just from the mechanics of the thing...smaller size x speed = volume. Kinda like a jet engine! The difference in "noise level" between manufatures could be the actual layout of the cooling shroud?

BTW here's why I'm trying for a single slot solution, but could go your route if necessary, so I'll be watching!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...yLftSideSM.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...dAssyLFTSM.jpg

[alex666]

Preliminary results of the zalman vf900 are in and they are terrific. Wow. As baseline, this card used to idle at 56C - 57C after say 15' - 20'. After running 3dmark 06, the temp was usually 79C - 80C. Installed the Zalman, went pretty easy actually. Let is sit for a couple of hours while we went out to dinner. Came home and initially it idled at about 40C, then I ran 3dmark 06 after which the temp was 56C (that's a 23C difference, and now about 10 minutes later it's idling at 44C. This is with the fan at probably 50% and totally quiet.

I won't push it tonight, as I want the memory heat sinks to cure over the next 24 hours (per Zalman), as I've heard of people reporting that they fall off. But wow, what a difference. I can't wait to try that Crysis demo now.

For anyone reading this, I ran 3dmark 06 before removing the original hsf, so as to warm things up and facilitate its removal. I just unscrewed all those springed-screws on the back and it came right off. I was amazed at the white goopy stuff they used for thermal paste for the memory modules. I have no idea what it is. It's like the worst thermal paste I've ever seen. I'll take a picture and post it.

I would think the cost of this cover plate with the fan and heat sinks built in are is probably more than the cost of the vf900. Maybe, maybe not. The built-in heat sink covering the gpu is copper.

How do you post pictures again here without going to an external site? I'm a mod, I should know this, but I can't remember.

marty

[Brandito]

you can't, amdmb doesn't host files.

[alex666]

Hmm, I swear I've done it in the past, posted a picture of my biostar board. Oh well, off to decorating the Xmas tree.

marty