PNY 6600GT cooler replacement

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

Hi all,
I removed the stock GPU cooler and ramsinks on my PNY 6600GT and put in
a Zalman VF700-AlCu instead. The results were immediately obvious from
the reduction in noise compared to the stock cooler, and also in the GPU
core temp readings while running a D3D animation. Previously, I had
noted temps like 85 C in the control panel on load, and about 60 C idle.
Now I get 42 C idle and between 55 and 58 C on load, with no OC. I
bumped up the GPU core to 520 MHz and the memory to 1.04 GHz (double),
and there was only a 2 C rise in temp
Can someone give me hints on how high I can go with this setup? Thanks.
One more thing, the PNY stock RAM coolers had more metal in them than
the Zalman ones, but were too tall to use along with the GPU cooler.
Then again, the main benefit of more metal in a heatsink is to give it
thermal inertia. Since the RAM chips don't change temp suddenly, this
should not be such a big deal.
I also noted down the markings on the memory chips, these are 2.0 ns
versions (not 1.6), so the memory overclocking abilities of the PNY
6600GT may not be so good.
-Jim

 

[jimbob]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

Jim George wrote:
> Hi all,
> I removed the stock GPU cooler and ramsinks on my PNY 6600GT and put
> in a Zalman VF700-AlCu instead. The results were immediately obvious
> from the reduction in noise compared to the stock cooler, and also in
> the GPU core temp readings while running a D3D animation. Previously,
> I had noted temps like 85 C in the control panel on load, and about
> 60 C idle. Now I get 42 C idle and between 55 and 58 C on load, with
> no OC. I bumped up the GPU core to 520 MHz and the memory to 1.04 GHz
> (double), and there was only a 2 C rise in temp
> Can someone give me hints on how high I can go with this setup?
> Thanks. One more thing, the PNY stock RAM coolers had more metal in
> them than the Zalman ones, but were too tall to use along with the
> GPU cooler. Then again, the main benefit of more metal in a heatsink
> is to give it thermal inertia. Since the RAM chips don't change temp
> suddenly, this should not be such a big deal.
> I also noted down the markings on the memory chips, these are 2.0 ns
> versions (not 1.6), so the memory overclocking abilities of the PNY
> 6600GT may not be so good.
> -Jim

I have the same card, is it difficult what you did?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

"Jim George" <jimgeorge_@_gmail.com> wrote in message
news:cbKdnYGQB6FjHq_fRVn-vA@comcast.com...
> Hi all,
> I removed the stock GPU cooler and ramsinks on my PNY 6600GT and put in a
> Zalman VF700-AlCu instead. The results were immediately obvious from the
> reduction in noise compared to the stock cooler, and also in the GPU core
> temp readings while running a D3D animation. Previously, I had noted temps
> like 85 C in the control panel on load, and about 60 C idle. Now I get 42
> C idle and between 55 and 58 C on load, with no OC. I bumped up the GPU
> core to 520 MHz and the memory to 1.04 GHz (double), and there was only a
> 2 C rise in temp
> Can someone give me hints on how high I can go with this setup? Thanks.
> One more thing, the PNY stock RAM coolers had more metal in them than the
> Zalman ones, but were too tall to use along with the GPU cooler. Then
> again, the main benefit of more metal in a heatsink is to give it thermal
> inertia. Since the RAM chips don't change temp suddenly, this should not
> be such a big deal.
> I also noted down the markings on the memory chips, these are 2.0 ns
> versions (not 1.6), so the memory overclocking abilities of the PNY 6600GT
> may not be so good.
> -Jim

Youre more likely to encounter rendering artifacts and crashes before
temperature problems, so keep going till something goes wrong then clock it
back a tad

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

Jimbob wrote:
> Jim George wrote:
>
> I have the same card, is it difficult what you did?
>
>
Hi,
Jimbob, no, it was quite simple to get the GPU cooler off, I just had
to use a pair of small pliers to release the pins holding the cooler in
place. The RAM sinks had thermal tape, so it was a bit of a struggle to
get them off. The new ramsinks were easy to mount, just peel off the
backing paper and put them on. Note that these are designed for BGA
packages, but if you have TSSOP RAM chips, mount them in the center of
the package (that's where the chips are). I then wiped off the extra
thermal grease on the 6600GT, applied a fresh coat and put in the AlCu
sink according to the instruction leaflet.
I would have preferred to keep the stock RAM sinks (slightly bigger and
more surface area), but they would bump into the main GPU cooler, so I
removed them.
I will try pushing the card higher, I usually play UT, so I will try a
botmatch to check how the card fares. Before I put in the new heatsinks,
the game used to crash after a few minutes of play, when the card was
overclocked. There were no "warning signs" like rendering artifacts
before the crash.
-Jim