Cheap ($30, prefer less) cooler for 7600gt?

[Noya]

I'm in need of an aftermarket cooler for my 7600gt. If it's warm in the room the card idles at 57c, load is in the low 70c's. This thing is hot to the touch!

Are these any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887007

How about this one? Like many others, it doesn't mention the 7600 series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186001

I want to order one today, so any help/opinions is appreciated.

 

[jay2tall]

I do not think a 7600gt would be worth putting the money into cooling at this point. An ati x1900 series Xt or XTX hits 90C+ with the stock cooler on load. I wouldn't worry about 70C. That card is about $100 new so my opinion is it would not be worth a $30 for it.

Just my opinion though.

 

[Noya]

Yeah, I didn't really want to, but if $10-20 keeps it 10c+ cooler (and quieter), I'll go for it. Actually, I got the card for $79.99 after rebate. And yes, I did get the rebate from 411 without a hitch.

 

[bigblack]

If you buy something cheaper you will probably regret it because of the noise. You are better of buying something like that

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118117

otherwise sell your 7600GT and buy a 8600GT, the cheapest you can get, around $ 130 by now! It runs much cooler and you can adjust fan speed from the Nvidia control panel.
Anyway, just my 2 cents...

 

[bigblack]

Something like that will cost you $130. It idles at around 46 C. Load temperature around 58 C after an hour of Half Life 2. Almost noiseless too

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/EN-US/Product/VGACard_detail.aspx?ID=en-gb0000028

Good luck...

 

[dj_taboo]

Wow... thats pretty hot!
My Gigabyte 7600gt is at 66c load (4 hours of FEAR) with only one system fan. I have the 2 slot silent pipe II model. I think with an exhaust fan upgrade and some case work i can get it down to 62 or so.

 

[Noya]

I paid $80 for the 7600gt a few months back.

Why would I pay $130+ for a card that has virtually the same performance, just adding DX10 support? I mean the 7600/8600 can't even max out 2 year old games like FEAR or CoD 2 (@ 1024 & 1280)....who wants to play Crysis at low settings and low resolutions? Have you watched that 720p demo highlighting the Crytek2 engine for developers? It looks like it's going to eat cards alive unless DX10 does something really special.

The 7600gt is my first card, and I definitely won't go for anything less than an 8800gts 320mb when I upgrade late this year.

 

[Noya]

@ dj_taboo,

Tell me about it.

I'm also using a crappy Comaq case! It's from a 2004 P4...SR1250nx, bought before reading Toms and Anands of course. I also have an AMD X2, an Opteron 165 with a slight OC (2.25 from 1.8ghz)

I'm thing about taking the Dremel to the case, but I have no clue where to start as the case is small. Is the 80mm rear fan not even comparable to the cheap ($2-5) ones at newegg?

 

[dj_taboo]

You're right about the fans. I think we might have the same case, but i'm sure mine has a 92mm fan on it. The fan is from Foxconn, who knew they made fans? They must be cheap oem, its going to be relocated to intake duty when i get a new fan. Talking about dremels, its either going to be that or my .45 for this case.

 

[Space1Monkey]

...

 

[djcoolmasterx]

I have the aluminium version at 40 idle and 65 on load.

 

[Track]

I paid $80 for the 7600gt a few months back.

Why would I pay $130+ for a card that has virtually the same performance, just adding DX10 support? I mean the 7600/8600 can't even max out 2 year old games like FEAR or CoD 2 (@ 1024 & 1280)

8600 = 7950 GT
2x 7600 = 7950 GT

7950 GT = 8600 = 2x 7600 GT

So yeh, its twice the performance not the same. And it will gladly max out F.E.A.R. with 4xAA.

....who wants to play Crysis at low settings and low resolutions? Have you watched that 720p demo highlighting the Crytek2 engine for developers? It looks like it's going to eat cards alive unless DX10 does something really special.

First of all, those are very old benchmarks, and they have done NO optomisation to Crisis. When its released, an 8600 will be able to run it on high.

The 7600gt is my first card, and I definitely won't go for anything less than an 8800gts 320mb when I upgrade late this year.

Thats a great choice - best choice for 720p.

 

[bigblack]

I paid $80 for the 7600gt a few months back.
Why would I pay $130+ for a card that has virtually the same performance, just adding DX10 support?

You are right of course, but my advice was based on low noise too. If you can sell your 7600 for $70 plus $30 you will be saving by not buying a decent aftermarket cooler, then you only have to spend around $30 more for a DX10 card. It will surely be better than 7600GT with the new DX10 games but do not forget that we are talking about midrange cards here. Maxing out Crysis will take something more than a 8800gts 320mb! Anyway, if you really want to keep your 7600, go for the Zalman, i use it for a couple of years and it is really both cool and silent solution. Only problem is that it wastes 1 pci slot.

 

[Noya]

8600 = 7950 GT
2x 7600 = 7950 GT

7950 GT = 8600 = 2x 7600 GT

Do you have a link to some benchies? The few that I peaked at when it arrived didn't look to great.

 

[bigblack]

@Noya:

It is because the benchmarks are not great! An 8600 GT is just something like an 7600GT with 80nm manufacturing process (therefore it is cooler), GDDR3 @128bit, a little higher clocking and DX10. It gets beaten from a 7600GT by a small margin in some older games, but looks much better with STALKER and the like. It will definitely show the difference with DX10 games. But it is cheap enough right now to consider a small upgrade, especially if you can sell your 7600. Otherwise, wait for ATI's cards and buy a 8800 GTS when it gets around $180 or whatever looks nice at the time. Best review i have read is from anandtech.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970

I bought a 8600GT yesterday, upgrading from a 7600GS and it delivers, for my needs at least. Decent, cheap DX10 midrange card and silent too

 

[Noya]

From the Anand review:

"For users who own 7600 GT, 7900 GS, or X1950 Pro hardware, we can't recommend an upgrade to one of these new parts. Even though new features and higher performance in a few applications is better, there's not enough of a difference to justify the upgrade."

I don't play the newer games where the 8600gt has the small lead, so I think I'm going to have to go with this advice and just grab that $15 vga cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887007

Thanks everyone for all the info and suggestions.