8800GT: heatsinks for non-GPU and non-RAM components?

Hi, I am replacing the stock fan of an 8800 GT with a zalman. When I removed the stock fan, I noticed that the heat sink of the stock cooler is quite large, and there is thermal tape attached to various electronic components on the card which are not the GPU or RAM. Should I be worried that my zalman fan doesn't have any heat sinks or anything to account for these non-GPU and non-RAM components?

Thanks.

Ah, thanks for the confirmation! From the pic, it looks like your GT has 3 extra heat sinks on there, so I'll aim for that. And yes, I used the vf900. Again thanks for the quick reply

Does the VF900 work well?

@KPO6969, is that the VF900 your using? and what heatsinks are those for the chips? I want to get aftermarket cooling for my cards but need to know what is good.

I was wondering if it was alright for me, because I have the Accelero S2 and the turbo Module. I have one of the fans Directly over the VRM's/extra non/gpu/ram components. Right now It idles @ 38C. I figured with the fans blowing right on top of them it would easily remove the surface heat off the compenents.

Look at my pictures I posted above and ask yourself:
Why does the stock cooler/fan/heatsink come with thermal tape installed on the chips you don't consider essential to have thermal protection?

The truth is, it varies per card. They don't use high tolerance feedback resistors for voltage sensing, so one card may be a little higher or lower in voltage to GPU or memory.

This means any given card may have slightly more or less tolerance to heat at stock speed. Once you add the overclocking factor, it's an even more mixed bag because higher voltage helps, up to a threshold where the resultant heat makes matters worse.

The generic answer is to take temps. If you don't have a fancy infraread thermal gun, all is not lost, it is reasonably sufficient to touch-test these parts. If you have sweaty fingers, wipe them off first but just touch the parts in question while running a benchmark. If you can do so without it being painfully hot within about 3 seconds, you don't have a thermal problem on that part.

If it is quite hot, get whatever you need for a heatsink, you may have old heatsinks and they can be made into very good smaller heatsinks with a hacksaw. I kid you not, specialized aftermarket heatsinks generally suck at this compared to taking a good leftover passive heatsink and cutting it to the largest size that will fit, and attaching it with Arctic Alumina or Silver epoxy.

Of course, this voids your warranty, but so does installing any 3rd party GPU 'sink. You have have to decide what tradeoff is right for you. Given that thermal epoxy exists, there isn't even a real need to chop up old heatsinks, you can get by ok just buying some small surplus stock from electronics surplus 'sites.

Or you can spend big bucks for brandes mission specific heatsinks, they do work acceptible, just no better and generally at higher cost.

In short, you may not need heatsinks on these other parts, that the original had them can be a matter of convenience as often the interface on these other parts is pretty poor from irregularities in manufacturing and thicker interfaces to the other memory and VRM chips, BUT ideally if you have the means, the budget and/or extra pieces of heatsink lying around and the epoxy to attach them optimally, it is a course I usually take - warranty be damed. Then again, with such a card I also install a side panel fan or fan on a bracket so it stays cooler than average, so I'm less likely to ever need a warranty, especially because I don't rely on high RPM sleeve bearing fans which always seem short lives.

There are too many variables to give a simple yes or no answer, but touch-testing these parts under high load is the place to start. They will certainly be more than just a little warm, but may not be excessively hot w/o added 'sinks.

I, have all of my ram done, But what should I get for the VRM.


Basically anything on these pages.

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g4 [...] Page1.html



http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g4 [...] Page1.html

Damn out of stock. But don't you have to use square as there are 4 spots on the Gt that are in an odd pattern? and different height of chips

Damn, I am confusing my self LOL. maybe I should just get these?

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/ [...] s224#blank

Any opinion on the mosfet/vreg heatsinks

Cool the MOSFETS/Vreg if posible. Here is a DIY:
http://www.fury-tech.com/en/Review [...] -Heatsinks

Cheap, and works well. Costs about $3 (with out Arctic Silver Adhesive cost) I used a stock Intel Heatsink to make these.

I think you guys should at least check this out if your worried about cooling the VR's...

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/inde [...] ;pg;1;pa;5

You will quickly notice they don't even have RAMsinks, let alone sinks for the VR's. And I'm sure a big name like Gigabyte has run many tests (as well as arctic cooling did) before ever even to pondor the thought of selling a product that is highly modified. Personally I truly believe it's probably better without the Stock HS on the VR's considering they were smashed under a thick pad of cheap somewhat thermal conductive bandage, and even if it got through it was buried even more by the cheap heatsink, which reminds me of melted down hotwheels cars. Like nhobo said, it probably is better without the stock HS. Even on arctic coolings website, they mention you dont need VR sinks for the 88GT. It can be read here:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2 [...] ta=7&disc=

A few bullets down. Personally I bought the S2 and it even comes with RAMsinks as a nice bonus. I wouldnt sweat the VR's as the big names out there aren't. But if it tickles your pickle and you have the extra $$$ add the sinks.

nice, but isnt the issue with parts sharing heat? but that is beautiful!!

There's a Zalman VF900 on it too.

Thats why I invested in some schweet Turbo module fans that attach to the S2.

Oh snap, crackle, pop my 8800GT memory is 2Mhz faster(700/2000). I have Neo-Vision so I can see the .00001FPS gain. Cmon your jealous like jelly in a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.

I would think that someone as "knowledgable" as yourself would make wiser hardware choices for himself. The X2 5000+ based Dell speaks volumes about your knowledge. Hope it was an amazing deal. Instead of so quickly spouting off about how voltage regulators need more cooling than recommended by aftermarket vga cooler manufacturers, do a little research. I have none on mine and stably run a higher overclocked 8800GT than you do. Is that enough "cuth"?

And to bring a little support to your theory, I quoted from the man who designed and built these heatsinks. This is taken from the forum of the website from where you get them.

"Also, the ram on 8800's is somewhat limited... for instance my ram tops out at 980 on the stock cooler, 980 on Zalman ramsinks, and 980 on my Unisinks. It isn't a heat issue. The two reasons for these sinks are: 1) they look sweet, and 2) no screwing with stupid annoying thermal tape, they are hard mounted."

So in reality they seem to more eye candy than functionaility. Also anybody can check the link I posted a few posts above to the pcworld gigabyte 8800GT review. That unit has nothing for extra component cooling, not even the RAM modules. So I think in a Mythbusters type of conclusion it's confirmed you really dont need the extra component cooling.

Wow, the name attacks are harsh... Maybe I should just choose a non-sensical one such as yourself... lol. I was just stating that you are incorrect in saying that voltage regulator cooling on the 8800GT is necessary with a cooler such as the Accelero S1/S2 and that someone with a Dell on an enthusiasts' forum clearly doesn't have the knowledge to make such bold statements. I guess it was the "cuth" comment that sent me over the edge. I'm 25 and took offense. bildo123 was clearly be affable.

If you replace the stock fan with TT DuOrb, it comes with the VRam and memory heatsinks so you don't need to worry about it

HI! Just in case ppl are still interested in this issue, heres my xp with this card so far.
I just picked up 1 of these cards, previous owners had serious heat issues.... gave to somebody else who couldn't get it to even boot, then eventually to my nephew who traded it to me for a 8600gt.

I got it running right away and it benched a 12200 in 3d06 several times....temps @ 60c /idle, 90c+/load stock settings...fans 100% thru riva reduced temps to 50c /idle, 80c /load(still to hot for me)

Cranked up the pressure with 3d o6 demo(Which btw puts most cards thru a serious workout at the end while listing off the creators and affffliates names) most cards fail at this point if overclocked to heavily, or have heatissues. guess what froze!

So to the point....since i wanted to see it running solid, and wanted it now(rather then order new heatsink and wait).
Took it apart, cleaned off thermal blankets with alcohol, after doing this i noticed the feet on the heatsink without the thick thermal blankets on, where holdinng it a good distance away from the ram and GPU(gap big enough to stick a butter knife thru).
I took it to my drill press, grinded the feet for the screws that hold the original heatsink to the board, to half their original height. (a small grinding wheel works, heatsink aluminum is very soft, takes very little pressure)
Tapped the tops just slightly with a large drill bit (twice size of screw holes) to round the holes just enough so the screws go back in smoothly.
Put thermal grease on all parts originally covered with that sad excuse for thermal pads,and slapped it back together!
Gaps gone and thermal paste in place, this thing idles 43c/idle, 60c/load( time to see if it can handle some serious overclocking )

Not actually a design flaw, more of a sloppy, slackers job, that is seen in all of the 8800gt using reference design(probably most 8800 & 9800) .
The huge gap is meant to give enough space for those blankets( thermal pads ) they put over the chips. Meant to smash em down, but not completly.

Shaving the feet down and using non conductive thermal paste is the one extra step nvidia (and it's affliates) found too hard to do.

Sad too, cause the actual design isn't half bad for a heatsink(decent copper sink for gpu)...when applied correctly

Cards are fine, as is, for most users, but gamers have to crank up fans, and will probably see shortened life span if they don't adress the heat issues(maybe a year ..more or less)!

Thermal shutdown is at 105c if your knocking on 90c all day.... better get busy !

Passing thought..." Maybe if they keep the heat up they keep your clocks down, and your new dream card 1 hot day away!