My custom 8800GT cooling solution

Justed wanted to throw out a heads up.

I had to rma my XFX 8800gt Alpha Dog Edition Card.

Just got it back today and the entire board layout has been revised.

Heres some pictures of the biggest changes.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/230...54largeqf4.jpg
Voltage Regulator Area

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1...44largeyc9.jpg
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1...c3b5b49613.jpg
Area Around the core. And yes, the card came with the thermal paste like that O_o

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/9...57largezo7.jpg
Backside of the card near the power connector. Seems to be where they relocated nearly all the voltage regulating components.

Just wanted to throw that out there and let you guys know that newer revisions of the 8800gt's will not be compatible with at least part of iandh's sink kit.

Heres a picture of my original card for reference

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2...82largevx3.jpg

It might still fit... on the backside, dunno what kind of contact the heatsink would make, but it's possible it miiight still fit using the same mounting holes. I don't own the heatsink nor your revised model of the 8800GT to find out for myself.

What does the stock cooler on that revised alpha edition look like?

For the most part it's identical to the first one I had. Aside from the edges not being rounded over on the front and back nothing has changed. I found it amusing that they left the contact pads for the voltage regulators complete with thermal pads on this card when they aren't even touching anything.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/186...66largepm6.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1...67largeyh3.jpg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1...eb368c6648.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2...68largelx4.jpg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2...856a970f08.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1...69largesf6.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4...70largelm4.jpg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4...2cf247a02e.jpg

That's odd, it still has the thermal pads where the old voltage regulators were, yet, they are on the other side of the pcb now or so it appears... hmmmmm weird stuff

Why would they trouble themselves by putting the pads on when the server no purpose? Oh well, why'd you RMA anyway if you don't mind my asking?

Was there any kind of heatsink on the back at all?

None whatsoever. Had it running under water for a couple hours so far, and they did get quite hot so I stuck a 120mm fan a couple of inches above the top.

Might I direct you to this thread as to why it was rma'd

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=175805

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspire.comptech

Just wanted to throw that out there and let you guys know that newer revisions of the 8800gt's will not be compatible with at least part of iandh's sink kit.

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Just wanted to add that AFAIK this applies to newer revisions of XFX brand 8800GT's only. I haven't seen any of the other major manufacturers using non-reference boards besides the Galaxy cards IIRC. :)

Didn't want this to cause any confusion regarding currently released cards, but thank you very much for sharing the information nonetheless. :up:

If I remember correctly Palit also uses a non reference design.

Yeah, there was a thread on the Palit 8800GT recently. it was obviously not a reference design. We should expect to see more now than we did at launch.

The rev. 2 sinks are complete, they will ship to Petra's, Sidewinder, and ChilledPC tomorrow. :D

Pictures tomorrow evening...

Sweeeet. The icing on the cake for me was I just found out Petra's is like 10 minutes away from my house, for some reason I thought it was somewhere else in the country. Silly me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by diabloazul126

Sweeeet. The icing on the cake for me was I just found out Petra's is like 10 minutes away from my house, for some reason I thought it was somewhere else in the country. Silly me.

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Your in UC Santa Cruz? Your right across the bay from me!

I thought Petras was in San Jose...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommithy

I thought Petras was in San Jose...

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Yeah, they are: http://shoppts.com/contact.html

Seems XFX dosen't seem to think the V-regs need cooling anymore (Maybe they are using larger ones that do not heat up as much?). I'd say your lucky IMO, now you could just thermal epoxy sinks on the memory chips 50/50 and not bother to cool those... Maybe re-sell your Iandh sinks, or you could just use them on the memory since you already have them and sell the mosfet part (there is some demand for just the mosfet piece seperately it seems)

My 8800GTS from BFG has some slight covering issues with these sinks too, they still fit but the sink does not fully cover the lowest mosfet mosfet. Seems that EVGA used a smaller mosfet than BFG. However I still think these are the absolute best option for cooling my card overall, any other sinks are not easily removed, or fall off too easily. 1/2 contact with thermal paste might be better than full contact with crappy thermal pads anyways! And it's a larger mosfet to begin with so perhaps it will be more heat tolderant (impossibe for me to determin)...

I'm saving a bag of popcorn for those pictures... And its getting cold...


Just kidding :p:

Looking forward to seeing these bad boys in person.

I'm gunna hold my breath until I see more pix from ianh! Post! Or I'll die. :confused:

I'm buying a set regardless, I'm pretty sure. -- My valentine's day gift to my first love; myself. bwar har har

Stay tuned for sexxxxay pics

your already 12 hours late!

Not that im counting or anything...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspire.comptech

your already 12 hours late!

Not that im counting or anything...

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Packing and shipping 117 sets of heatsinks is quite a task when mixed with a 8 to 5 job. ;)

Not to mention which I have to go to the dentist right now. :(

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5...ge00001rt6.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1...ge00002nq3.jpg

The silver anodized set actually looks nice. Will be checking Petra's again the next few days for these.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IsLNdbOi

The silver anodized set actually looks nice. Will be checking Petra's again the next few days for these.

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They'll be in stock at Petra's on monday.

Best of luck at the dentist, I have to go tomorrow...

I should probably go to the dentist one of these days for a cleaning.

On that note, cleaning the Ceramique off of the old, bead-blasted sinks and the memory, mosfets, etc. on the card is gonna be a PITA.