Replacement XFX GeForce 7900 GS 450M (AGP) cooler

[OdeonDeathstalker]

I have an XFX GeForce 7900 GS 450M that has a bad fan bearing (or two) as it doesn't spin most of the time anymore. This causes the card to overheat after only a few minutes of anything but Windows only use and my computer locks up completely when I run any game, causing me to do a cold reboot. I'm currently using my old GeForce FX 5900 XT just to run Windows and play some older and non-graphics-intensive games.

I spoke to XFX Customer Support and found out that even though they offered a Lifetime Warranty with the card, I somehow missed the fact that I needed to register the card within 30 days of purchase to qualify for this warranty. They also do not sell replacement fans and I was told to search eBay for a replacement, but this is not as straightforward as I had been hoping for.

I've removed the fan/heatsink enclosure shroud and the plastic housing that also holds the fan and found that the fan is an Evercool EC5015H12B-B model, which is 55mm wide by 10mm high and is rated at 13.74 max CFM at 5000 RPM. The only site that I've found listing this particular fan is Evercool's and there is no information on what the price would be. Their site links to two different US resellers, but I can't find any evidence that they sell this fan either.

So here (finally!) is my question: what's a decent, cheap replacement either for just the fan (which I can install into the existing enclosure) or a full fan and heatsink that will work on my card? I don't want to spend a lot since I plan on replacing the card with a PCIe card in the near future, but I can't lay down the upgrade price right now. The current enclosure sends the heat into the case, but I'm not opposed at all to a cooler that will send the heat out of the case via an expansion slot, I just want to know what will work best and not cost much at all.

Thanks in advance!

 

[OdeonDeathstalker]

Anyone have any ideas and/or suggestions?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118001

What about spending 30$?

 

[OdeonDeathstalker]

I was really hoping that one of the cheap-o $10 coolers would work, but after more searching I've found that the placement of the chips and mounting holes for this card are far from standard. There is an old thread on another forum about modding the card to use a Zalman cooler, but it's more work than I'm comfortable with doing and the price of that cooler, plus a cheap-o northbridge heat sink, plus the tools necessary to do the job makes it cheaper to just buy a new card.

My AsRock motherboard has one AGP and one PCIe slot on it, so I think that my best option is simply to buy a better PCIe card for about twice the price of the cooler linked to above. I now get to see how much I might be able to get for this card on eBay, though the fact that it has a non-working fan means it won't be much.

Thanks for the suggestion Aneesh@4GHz.

 

[OdeonDeathstalker]

Interesting update here: I was able to get the fan disassembled and it turns out that the two small bearings around the fan's drive shaft has simply dried out. After applying some 3-In-One oil to the bearings, they move free and clear again, almost as if they were new. I'm going to allow the fan assembly to dry out for a few days since some of the oil made contact with the fan's small controller board, but I have total confidence that it will work wonderfully once again.

So, does anybody know someone that is looking for a nice AGP card? 8-D