Cooling a Diamond Stealth

[jlach]

I have a Diamond Stealth ATI Radeon 9250 that is (i'm pretty sure) running way too hot.

I actually have the card in a laptop dock that has a PCI slot and picked the card based on availability/pricing. Well that was a terrible idea. Since the space inside the dock is so tight, the passive heatsink isn't doing nearly enough cooling to keep the card running well. And there is only 1 small fan at the back of the dock and no room to improve (I dont think the manufacturer was anticipating people throwing in anything generating heat).

Now I understand that I should upgrade out of a PCI card system and that this is far from an ideal situation; however, at the moment I'm strapped on money and can't buy a new system (I got the card from my brother who just upgraded to a Radeon x1800xt).

Sooo essentially I want to know if it's even possible to put a fan on the Stealth card and if it is i'm going to need something pretty low profile to fit in the case (most of the fans i've looked at seem big, but maybe it's just because there isn't a point of reference in the pic).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[illinikevin]

Can you put a higher flow fan in the case? If it a standard size getting a new one would be easy but installing it may be tricky. Plus a higher flow fan will make more niose. The other thing you can try is getting generic heatsinks that attach with adhesive(these are common for memory and small BGA devices) and try upgrading your current ones. Or just look through the VGA coolers at newegg and see if you can find something that will fit in your case.

Good Luck

 

[jlach]

Well, fitting a fan into the case wasn't nearly as much a problem as I first thought.

The real problem is the fact that the Diamond Stealth card doesn't have a "plug" for the fan! Luckily I realized this before I pulled off the stock heatsink as that would have been a pain for no reason.

So pretty much I have a fan that I can't power. I looked around the inside of the case for somewhere to plug it in and failed to find anything :?

Actually, I only saw one plug anywhere in the case and it was being used (not sure by what since I couldn't tell where the wire ended up). The wire looked identical to the wire for the fan so I'm thinking the socket might just be the same. Is there maybe some way to split the socket and plug both the current wire and the fan into it? Is that even possible since the voltage (or some other electric measure that I should be concerned about) will be divided? My electrical knowledge is fairly limited and I can't really see myself doing any custom wiring, but if it's a possible solution I'd look into it.

Other than that, the fan in the case is maybe 2 or 3 cm and impossible to get to (and really just cools the PSU, now that I look at it), so that's out of the question, unfortunately.


Thanks for the helpful suggestions, maybe these new developments will spark some solutions.

 

[jap0nes]

I have a Diamond Stealth ATI Radeon 9250 that is (i'm pretty sure) running way too hot.

I actually have the card in a laptop dock that has a PCI slot and picked the card based on availability/pricing. Well that was a terrible idea. Since the space inside the dock is so tight, the passive heatsink isn't doing nearly enough cooling to keep the card running well. And there is only 1 small fan at the back of the dock and no room to improve (I dont think the manufacturer was anticipating people throwing in anything generating heat).

Now I understand that I should upgrade out of a PCI card system and that this is far from an ideal situation; however, at the moment I'm strapped on money and can't buy a new system (I got the card from my brother who just upgraded to a Radeon x1800xt).

Sooo essentially I want to know if it's even possible to put a fan on the Stealth card and if it is i'm going to need something pretty low profile to fit in the case (most of the fans i've looked at seem big, but maybe it's just because there isn't a point of reference in the pic).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

does this dock have some sort of ventilation opening? it probably has..... you can put a fan outside the dock, right in front of the ventilation duct pulling hot air from the inside. To power it up you can try to split that wire you said. Oh, and make sure it really is a fan wire before cutting it

by the way, if you could post some pictures would help a lot

 

[illinikevin]

They make USB powered fans.

 

[jlach]

Well I found 3 pin Y-Splitters for $2 on newegg, so I'm going to investigate the plug I found and see if it really is a 3 pin power plug. If it is I'm going to go ahead and buy the splitter and see if that will work. If not, I'll look into the USB fan idea.

Thanks for all the help!

On a side note, I'm going to pay $5 in shipping for a $2 cable... seems odd to me, but I guess that's the cheapest they can ship something for...

 

[Crashman]

Look up the SysOpt article "Six Small Sinks Solve Chipset Cooling Calamities"

 

[jlach]

Look up the SysOpt article "Six Small Sinks Solve Chipset Cooling Calamities"

Amazing article, thanks! Now I can comfortably buy a new fan instead of reusing the one I ripped off my old card.

Much appreciated.

 

[Crashman]

BTW, 3-pin is just 2-pin with a tachometer wire. That is to say, it still uses the same positive and negative wire.

 

[jlach]

BTW, 3-pin is just 2-pin with a tachometer wire. That is to say, it still uses the same positive and negative wire.

I'm really glad to read that, I read a similar statement and getting confirmation is a great relief.

I'm pretty sure the plug is a 2-pin, but my hack-job solution would be to buy a 2-pin to 3-pin converter then use the 3-pin Y cable... That's assuming the plug isn't 3-pin to start with (Murphy's law and whatnot).

Since I'm at work and can't actually check everything, I'm just kind of hypothesizing and trying to plan for possible scenarios.

Thanks again!