Disabling fans on graphics cards

piku · Post by **piku** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:17 pm 0

Someone I know has an ATI 1650 card with 512MB of ram. He says the fan is loud and somewhat irritating.

If he unplugs the fan, will the card suffer damage if he does? If so, can it be replaced with a quieter one?

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:24 pm 0

Yes, the card will die within seconds of starting any 3D application. Possibly permanently.

You can get quiet HSF combos for 'em for about Â£15.

A less recommended option is to unplug the fan and stick a massive 120mm fan blowing over it. But that might still have problems.

Nintendodragon · Post by **Nintendodragon** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:26 pm 0

or a heat pipe?

Dungeon-Dave · Post by **Dungeon-Dave** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:32 pm 0

piku wrote:If he unplugs the fan, will the card suffer damage if he does?

Very possibly. The chip gets hot, the heatsink conducts heat away from the chip and the fan blows the hot air around the heatsink away. If he has a good enough heatsink and a lousy fan then there's a chance unplugging the fan will make so little difference no damage is incurred... but I wouldn't bet on it.

piku wrote:If so, can it be replaced with a quieter one?

Yup. Zalman make replacement fans that are larger and rotate more slowly, thus being quieter. Tom's Hardware and various overclocking forums will have some reported successes/failures with makes and models.

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:55 pm 0

piku wrote:If he unplugs the fan, will the card suffer damage if he does?

Nah...they just put the fans on there to irritate the users. It'll be fine without. For extra quiet computing, get rid of the one on the CPU and the big fat one in the PSU, too. You'll thank yourself for it...

"Ban Request WiteWulf" to save someone else the bother...

adam · Post by **adam** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:06 pm 0

a friend of mine took all the fans out of his home server (already an old machine a p1 i think), and it lasted for 2 years 24/7 use until the hard drive conked out

HippyDave · Post by **HippyDave** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:27 pm 0

Defo seems to be a general problem/liability with some ATI boards - I've got one in my Dell, and Great Zarquon it's loud. I mean, fighter jet over the Middle East loud!

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:33 pm 0

To be serious for a moment, I was reinstalling XP on my Dad's PC at the weekend and he complained that the fan was loud. Turned out it was the one on the gfx card making all the noise so I carefully peeled off the sticker on top of the fan to reveal the bearing inside and put a couple of drops of 3-in-1 oil in there. It ran silently after that.

Nintendodragon · Post by **Nintendodragon** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:39 pm 0

PLEASE HELP!

My PC used to run very quietly and only having been on for a long time would the fans start to go faster and make more noise..

then it started being noisy from the moment you turned it on and the then one day It started smelling like burning.. I tonld my brother not to use it but he's addicted to rune scape and Played it until it died and wouldnt turn on any more..

turned out to be the PSU..

Ok so replaced that and it worked beautifully, very quietly, for a few months. now its making alot of noise again and the fans run at full from the moment you turn it on... Whats going on??

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:58 pm 0

Check the heat sinks and fan enclosures for build up of fluff and dust. If they're mucky give them a clean out with atooth bursh or something, should help.

Dungeon-Dave · Post by **Dungeon-Dave** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:58 pm 0

HippyDave wrote:Defo seems to be a general problem/liability with some ATI boards

Someone told me that ATI just make the chips, it's other manufacturers that make boards (ASus, MSI, etc) and there can be quite a difference in final quality.

When I bought my nVidia card, I was warned off certain brands due to noisy/inadequate cooling systems. Think I went with Gainward in the end.

Purple Grapefruit · Post by **Purple Grapefruit** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:08 pm 0

POOTER CARNAGE!!!!

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... &plindex=1

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:18 pm 0

Yeah, there's plenty of quiet ATI boards - even the very high end ones are typically good, I've got a 1950XTX in a near-silent PC. It's quieter than the Sky+ box except when really nailing the 3D, and even then it's 'a bit of fan noise'.

chris4500uk · Post by **chris4500uk** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:27 pm 0

you could always run it at 5v instead of 12v, this would slow the fan down,

i wouldn't try it like...... booom

piku · Post by **piku** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:01 pm 0

Purple Grapefruit wrote:POOTER CARNAGE!!!!

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... &plindex=1

Cool, I could heat my bathwater with some of those.

YakYak

Disabling fans on graphics cards

Disabling fans on graphics cards

Re: Disabling fans on graphics cards

Re: Disabling fans on graphics cards