X1900XT -> XTX -> OC nice aircooling mod with photos. Highly recommended!

[IvanAndreevich]

X1900XT flashed to XTX. Silent aircooling. 625/725 -> 740/850 full stability (still tweaking for more). Partially my idea, my friend's nice implementation on his card. I love it :toast: It seems that the soundcard is really restricting airflow :stick: If you take the soundcard out, temp drops A LOT.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7991/img12349wa.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12349wa.jpg)

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6986/img12394sv.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12394sv.jpg)

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4981/img12418uc.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12418uc.jpg)

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2107/img12425jz.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12425jz.jpg)

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4581/img12457xd.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12457xd.jpg)

[SIOUX]

Very nice mod:toast:

[biohead]

NEAT. Some info on what you used could be nice.

Job :thumbsup:

[Kasparz]

Thanks for wallpaper's.

[EnJoY]

That looks like a thermalright heatsink, but yet not? Scythe maybe?

[Kasparz]

That looks like a thermalright heatsink, but yet not? Scythe maybe?
Thats AMD DC BOX HS.

[lawrywild]

wow very neat...

looks like someones been collecting AC Silencer PCI Backplate things :D

[HousERaT]

looks good..... almost like my Dynatron. Did the heatsinks on the mosfets actually help with stability..... anotherwords did you try the card with and without the mosfet sinks to see if you gained anything from them?

[IvanAndreevich]

Thos are 92 mm panaflo's. One is 'high' and one is 'med'. Both are hooked up directly to the card (power consumption of both of them is 5.2W vs 5W of the stock cooler). The RPMs are automatically adjusted :)

The heatsinks are Swiftech MC14's. The heatsink is the AMD Opteron HSF which outperforms an XP-90 but has a much lower height.

Thermal paste under the VRM heatsink has been changed to Arctic Silver Ceramique and that resulted in 9C temp drop there as well. I doubt the second set of heatsinks on the mosfets really did anything, but hey it looks cool :)

Without the soundcard, this thing is running @ 57C under load with silence.

[HousERaT]

With my Dynatron my temps are 35°/60° in normal room temps. What are your temps like?

[Kunaak]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186122

maybe try a fan like this, then your sound card wouldn't be too much of an issue??

[IvanAndreevich]

Kunaak
I don't think that fan would actually fit in there - too thick.

HousERaT
I guess the question is what voltage are you running and what your room temps are? The temps on this is 57C load 1.45V without the soundcard

[ahmad]

Dude you are crazy :D

I don't think I have enough time to that, and your card is bending a little from the zap strap on the right :stick:

[cantankerous]

My card is bent like that from the stock HS.

[Jort]

Very nice mod :D

[Dynasty]

very nice air mod and clean job. :)

[HousERaT]

Kunaak
I don't think that fan would actually fit in there - too thick.

HousERaT
I guess the question is what voltage are you running and what your room temps are? The temps on this is 57C load 1.45V without the soundcard
room temps are usually between 20-25°. highest benches where with 1.5v core when I got my highest temp of 60°.

[chinkgai]

holy sexy batman!

GOOD JOB! *digs up dc heatsink* :toast:

[Daveb2012]

I like how he used the zip tie threw the screw holes on the card to attach those 120mm fan I think i will try that with mine.

[chinkgai]

they're 92mm fans

[Jokester_wild]

what ram sinks are those, they look to be very good quality ?

nice setup reminds me off my ol 9700pro setup i used to have where I bolted a AMD stock heatsink right to the core.

[jrw]

Temps should also improve some if mounted upside-down BTX-style, letting the heatpipes actually work :)

Awsome mod!

[Eastcoasthandle]

I can't be the only one that needs a fan under those mosfets and vregs but don't know how to modify the case to do it. Do you think you would do better putting those fans on this rack?
link (http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-wherever-pci-rack.html)

[chinkgai]

I can't be the only one that needs a fan under those mosfets and vregs but don't know how to modify the case to do it. Do you think you would do better putting those fans on this rack?
link (http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-wherever-pci-rack.html)

how about this?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=vantec%20pci%20fan&sa=N&tab=wi

[Plywood99]

^^
I have the Vantec and it works very well. Noisy at the higher settings but only use them for benching...

[Eastcoasthandle]

how about this?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=vantec%20pci%20fan&sa=N&tab=wi
from what I know its not long enough and for the current OEM HSF it's no good. But I can't see why you can't use it with a Zalman.

[chinkgai]

its not long enough, but its a viable solution...since the air should hit the heatsink (stock) then it has to go somewhere right? so then it flows to all directions around the card, including the power area.

the zalman works too...but jes figure a way to ghetto rig it like the OP

[IvanAndreevich]

I'd love to see somebody else try this setup vs water in terms of overclockability :) Anybody planning on trying this out?

The memory heatsinks are Swiftech MC14's

chinkgai
The thing is, the fans in that Vantec card are probably of sub-part quality. However, it's possible to take some old PCI Card and cut holes in it for good fans, just using it as a mounting device.

[chinkgai]

ivan, i did the mod last nite after i saw this thread since i've been thinking for quite some time now on which cpu cooler to ghetto rig...lol

but one thing i didnt do was use 92mm fans...i used the stock amd fan and with an additional 80mm side along it just like shown in the pics..side by side and for the ramsinks, using some copper vantec iceberq ones that have zero clearance issues (but the thermal tape it comes with sucks)

results are:

no more whining!!! :p:

stock volts/stock cooler (50% fan speed) = 688/873 temps in the low to mid 70's
stock volts/amd sink (full fan speed) = 702/900 temps low to mid 60's

all overclocking using octool rather than atitool and stock voltage. stock fan w/o increasing fan speed saw temps in high 70s and low 80s depending on ambient

3d looping stable overnight

some notes worth mentioning:

1. i only had the amd hsf w/o the additional fan at first and the power area got super hot (70-80c), after additional 80mm fan, dropped it to low to mid 60c

2. the amd heatsink is concave...so it is recommended to lap it before u do this mod...or u might be to lazy to remove this mod later to lap it...like i am...lol

3. not much tension can be had...pulling too tight yanks the zip tie right through the fins and i tried using bigger zip ties..but then ran into the problem of the zip ties being to fat to fit through the holes on the card

summary = silence, went from 688/873 to 702/900, silence, cooler power area, free mod ftw!!

[MaxxxRacer]

fascinating use of zip ties

[IvanAndreevich]

chinkgai
Got some pics for comparison?

[chinkgai]

i would...but its such a b!tch to take the damn card out cuz i gotta plug in two fans to the two fan plugs near the bottom of the dfi


and its kinda hard to reach in there cuz my hand's too big...also the ghey water pump and hoses are in the way....lol

if i decide to reseat it or something i'll snap pics...but really...it looks almost identical to ur pics cept im using stock amd fan with a 80mm on the side..wire tied jes like urs

[rick_fx]

Interesting mod, I got my x1900xt yesterday and already can't stand the NOISY stock cooler, it sounds like a turbine engine :eek:

My ears are telling me to do this mod :p:

[ken]

nice mod, looks identical to my old 7800GTX :D

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/4057/x21yg.th.jpg (http://img44.imageshack.us/my.php?image=x21yg.jpg)

[psy^]

Awesome stuff :)

Inventive and effective it seems!
How are you going for weight though?

The stock x1900XTX cooler isn't light for sure, but atleast the heft of it is spread out over the body of the card.

[IvanAndreevich]

It's not too heavy. The box HSF is damn light.

Nice avatar, whatever it is :)

[perkam]

I smell some new single card air WRs :D

GO for it !!! :up: Very neat mod there :)

Perkam

[uwackme]

Anyone try dismantling the stock HSF, taking the plastic off, and fan off, leaving just the heatsink.... then using a normal fan blowing over the heatsink fins?

[IvanAndreevich]

uwackme
Yes. Not that great.

[IvanAndreevich]

Has anybody else tried this on their card?

[blind_ripper]

here is my box venice cooler the x2 cooler is on the venice ;)
not tested yet :(
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/blind_ripper/DSC07247.jpg

[IvanAndreevich]

Can you show the mounting?

[blind_ripper]

i dont have pics of the mount , there speceal mount bolts from jort for;)

[n00b 0f l337]

Grr I want to buy a stock heatsink or two!

[grishnakh]

Ivan, could you tell more about the mounting, how did you exactly do it? I would also be interested in doing this mod, as I also have the stock HSF....

[Eastcoasthandle]

what HS will fix on the x1900xtx?? can someone link me to newegg?

[IvanAndreevich]

Ivan, could you tell more about the mounting, how did you exactly do it? I would also be interested in doing this mod, as I also have the stock HSF....
What do you mean? The pictures really show everything you need :rolleyes:

This is the AMD Opteron stock HSF. It can be had for 15 shipped on egay, I think.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I googled and can't find that HS???!!!