chiquita

Hello folks. I just went out and got my late birthday present, a Sapphire Radeon 9700 PRO. I decided after all to get a 9700 PRO instead of the 9700nonpro because it would have been stupid of me to get the nonpro. Anyways, everything has gone smooth so far, but I am very very worried about the discusting amount of heat it puts off. Raised my case temps by 8celcius to a blistering 46c. CPU temps are now @ 54c due to the higher case temps. If I touch the top of the 9700PRO my fingers get burn't, thats how hot its running. Are all 9700's like this or is this just the Sapphire 9700PRO's? I am very worried that its slowly cooking itself to death.

BigAkita

My Sapphire 9500 Pro that is modded to a 9700 is also very hot. Eventually I will be changing the heatsink/fan on it, but for now I have a door fan blowing on it.

I don't believe the heat on yours is unusual.

chiquita

Okay thanks BA. Which Heatsink/Fan would you recommend I change mine to?

Gladiator

Quote: Originally posted by chiquita Okay thanks BA. Which Heatsink/Fan would you recommend I change mine to?

Chiquita, I would get me that Zalman heatsink and mod it so that it would fit a 80mm fan on top. That should lower the temps to a good 35-40 C


Never tried it though, but I would give it a try.

Gladiator

Banana boy, I found you a solution.
Gigabyte makes a great heatsink/fan for their 9700.
Might be worth trying to get one somehow from gigabyte. Like a replacement or something. Heres a pic.

SilentlyViolently

Quote: Chiquita, I would get me that Zalman heatsink and mod it so that it would fit a 80mm fan on top. That should lower the temps to a good 35-40 C

I'd go with the Zalman also. If Sapphire themselves are selling a version of the card w/ it preinstalled, it must do a pretty good job of keeping the card cool. Plus it looks cool & is quiet.
I

chiquita

Quote: Banana boy, I found you a solution.

Looks like a gold version of what I already got, I don't think so dude. As for that zalman, that looks pretty pimp, any reviews on it? Any Canadian sites that sell it? BTW is the 3ns Samsung ram on my card any good? I believe its 3ns anyways. It might be 3.2ns though. It's beyond me why the VPU isn't on the top of the card so you can put on a huge heatsink and fan on them. I think ATi or nVidia should try to put the VPU on the top instead of the bottom and see if it does any good.

neotheducky

As far as I know, the Zalman cooler is wonderful. Some manufacturers use them as the standard heatsink for the card. I nice fan would do wonders with that too.

mirage

The zalman is nice but its not going to lower your case temps. It actually runs a few degrees higher. So far no one else has a custom fan for the 9700/9500 yet. Some people have put cpu heatsinks on there. Go to the video card section of hardocp and look at the show off your video card... You could always water cool it.

Here is a video review of the zalman
3dgameman

Maverick

yeah i think i saw someone mount a alpha pal to their 9700pro. talk about using pci slots. this guy had like only one usable one...lmao i know that doesnt help much sorry...just thought it was funny. id say get the zalman and mount a fan. they have one now with a fan mount but im sure you could come up with something better.

ZENNZZO

I know of one not to get. It's supposed to be designed by thermaltake for OCSystem. They sell it as a stock part on their level 1 enhanced 9700pro. It's thermalfake, worst 20 bucks I ever wasted. Of course it looked good in the ad and all but the fit is rediculous. As if a fat piece of thermal tape that some blind bastard pretended to installed wasn't enough, those hi-tech bicycle tire patch shims that kept falling off the DDR costed me another tube of Artic Sil lll just to get em close.. :Hell I should have set "far to da sum-bit(h" ..prolly cooler What a frecken piece of shizit ...ahhh ,I feel
much better now, Thank you..ZENNZZout

albertj03

www.svc.com has the zalman heat pipe for $25. I think it's a great idea to mount a quiet, low profile fan on the zalman. That way you solve the problem of all that hot air just floating around in your case upping your system temps and probably cpu temps as well. Or i guess you could put a high cfm fan on your side panel blowing right on the video card to push that hot air away.