I like a quiet gaming...err, working environment and those pesky little videocard fans annoy the bejesus out of me. As my system profile shows, I have one 80mm Panaflo fan cooling the entire PC including the PSU. But since I wanted a "real" Geforce4, I decided to make a little modification:
I got the cheapest, lowest-clocked Ti4200 (gainward 64mb version). I also bought a "new" Alpha PAL6035 copper/aluminum heatsink along with Arctic Silver thermal adhesive.
I removed the stock HSF. (Gainward's rounded HSF isn't particularly noisy, but it makes *some* noise and we can't have that! ) I used a flat piece of glass to thoroughly lap the Alpha surface. Once it was perfectly flat, I put the sandpaper on the back of the Alpha and used it as a sanding block to lap the GPU. Once both mating surfaces were flawless, I proceeded to glue them with a thin layer of Arctic epoxy. I'll post some pictures upon request.
I compared results by first measuring temperatures on my "old" videocard, Creative GF2 MX 64-bit DDR. That card shipped without even a heatsink. I attached a thermal sensor to the top of the card, opposite of the GPU, and observed:
-Idle, case open: peaks out at 74.0C
-After playing GTA3 for a while w/case closed (real test): peaks out at 81.0C
Please note that I wasn't overclocking the GF2mx and never experienced problems at these temperatures. There is no evidence that they are too high for the GPU to handle, because I used the gf2mx exactly as it shipped.
Using the same method of measurement, my results from the GF4 Ti4200:
-Idle, case open: 72.0C
-After playing GTA3 (with more demanding video settings--800x600x32 QFSAA) for several hours w/ case closed: 82.0C
-Idle temp w/case closed seems to stabilize at 78.0C after the heavy load
I never experienced any glitches or abnormal behavior, so it seems that everything is working as it should.
So these temps appear to be within an acceptable range. I could get much cooler temps with greater air circulation in my case (which is currently minimal). I'll see if my card will fry in the next week, but things are looking good so far, and sounding even better!
Leo
I got the cheapest, lowest-clocked Ti4200 (gainward 64mb version). I also bought a "new" Alpha PAL6035 copper/aluminum heatsink along with Arctic Silver thermal adhesive.
I removed the stock HSF. (Gainward's rounded HSF isn't particularly noisy, but it makes *some* noise and we can't have that! ) I used a flat piece of glass to thoroughly lap the Alpha surface. Once it was perfectly flat, I put the sandpaper on the back of the Alpha and used it as a sanding block to lap the GPU. Once both mating surfaces were flawless, I proceeded to glue them with a thin layer of Arctic epoxy. I'll post some pictures upon request.
I compared results by first measuring temperatures on my "old" videocard, Creative GF2 MX 64-bit DDR. That card shipped without even a heatsink. I attached a thermal sensor to the top of the card, opposite of the GPU, and observed:
-Idle, case open: peaks out at 74.0C
-After playing GTA3 for a while w/case closed (real test): peaks out at 81.0C
Please note that I wasn't overclocking the GF2mx and never experienced problems at these temperatures. There is no evidence that they are too high for the GPU to handle, because I used the gf2mx exactly as it shipped.
Using the same method of measurement, my results from the GF4 Ti4200:
-Idle, case open: 72.0C
-After playing GTA3 (with more demanding video settings--800x600x32 QFSAA) for several hours w/ case closed: 82.0C
-Idle temp w/case closed seems to stabilize at 78.0C after the heavy load
I never experienced any glitches or abnormal behavior, so it seems that everything is working as it should.
So these temps appear to be within an acceptable range. I could get much cooler temps with greater air circulation in my case (which is currently minimal). I'll see if my card will fry in the next week, but things are looking good so far, and sounding even better!
Leo