Better Cooling for the 7800GTX - Page 20

This thread is a great read, thanks Mr. K6 and others (^_^).

AS5 mine, but still close to 100c in AOE III with high ATL 89 on low. and a half hour on ATI tool and I get 95. with no OC. I'm going to modify my laptop cooler, add some fans near the stock fans and see if that helps any. I love my 7800 but it just runs so dam hot, i'm thinking of calling Dell and see if a replacement card runs any cooler.

That sounds too hot man. You only putting a THIN layer on the GPU? Make sure that you're cleaning it with cotton swabs and alcohol. It literally needs to be free of all dirt, oil, and anything else that could get on there. The heatsink needs to be really clean too.

What you should do is clean both surfaces and put on an untra thin layer only on the GPU with the edge of a credit card or something, so thin that you can see the black GPU under it in tiny spots. Crank down the heatsink, then take it off again and see where the AS5 is on the heatsink. Maybe you're not getting good contact. Then when you know where it's touching, put some extra AS5 in those spots so that it'll touch. I must have put AS5 on my CPU and GPU 15+ times trying to get it right and each time I got better and better. I tried thick layers, medium, and thin layers. I always got the best result on the thin laters. Btw, I never had good results with the plastic bag over the finger thing. The layer was always too thick this way.

..and just for reference, my card is overclocked to 440/1250 and I ran Oblivion for over an hour and I maxed out at 91c (Nvidia temp). If I didn't get the AS5 right, I'd easily go up to 96-97c. Another thing, make sure that the laptop isn't obstructed with stuff behind it or on the sides. That heat will build up and go back in the laptop. I realized this and now I do my testing on the kitchen table with nothing around it so I can have a consistant ambient air temp and nothing around the laptop to give false readings.

I hope this helps.. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yea followed the guides fairly close, thin to medium layer, clean with alcohol spread with a razor. Removed it made sure there was full contact, cleaned and started over wiggled it around ETC...... I’m in the process of making the copper shim, and I’m sure I’ll get lots of practice removing and replacing. Anybody had any problems with the numerous wire connectors by taking them on and off so much? They seam real weak when I play with them.

With all those great new M170 going out we better keep this one near the top………LOL


Seriously, though I use the word lightly, has then been a clear winner in the cool down race? AS5 alone, Vs AS5 and a copper shim. I need something to work on my stock 7800GTX. 100C is too much for an half hour of AOE III gaming.

i don't know if that idea has been proposed or not, but what if somebody took some copper and used it to direction all of the air coming out of the fan to go directly out of the vent. the more air flow the better. i bet about 20% of the air just goes back into the case meaning we are recirculation some hot air. and what are u guys using to cut your copper? i might see if i can set up some sort of device to control the air.

I tried making a heatsink for the ram as well as putting a shim over the GPU. All that did was delay the temps. If you waited long enough, the temps still climbed up to what they were before. The best I was ever able to do was do a kick ass job at applying AS5 on the GPU alone. A super thin layer with a straight edge. This is what worked the best for me. I tried thick layers, etc and they all made for higher temps. I didn't even rotate the heatsink. I just put a thin layer on the GPU, nothing on the heatsink, and tightened it down. I also made sure everything was clean with alcohol first of course.

I think the main problem were having is that we need another way to remove heat from the case. If you can't get the heat out of the case faster, the heat will eventually be the same. I think heat removal from the case is key here. If we could get that GPU fan to go faster, thats one way. Just don't know how to do it.

..and to be honest, I'm done with playing around with it unless someone finds some ground breaking method to remove heat that works well.

yeah well i just took my laptop apart for the first time (yay). no instrucitions and all went to plan but the airflow situation looks as good as it can get. i am gonna stop talking now.

Well I now have a 20-degree drop in my temps. And of all the things that I did, it looks like maybe a driver had the best effect? I did a better job of AS5 in the GPU that helped about 5 degrees then I bought two aluminum bytecc laptop coolers http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834999336 (when they were $17) took the fans off one and then modified and added them to the upper right and left corners of the other, (very close to the stock Dell fans). That helped for anther 5-degrees. Then I dumped my Windows MCE (because is was giving me to many troubles) and loaded plain XP pro. Used a new driver from Laptoptogo http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...showtopic=9485 (that says made by Dell). AOE III temps stock 101 AOE III temps now + 6% Overclock. 79 Looks like the driver helped get another 12-degrees. I don't know how, but i'm a happy camper now

uber modding, it giving you some reasonable temp drops? ^^

Where are you guys purchasing the copper shims from? Onlinemetals.com wants $25 for a small piece of copper.

yeah, basic shipping is $10 though. Kind of kills the deal

My local Ace Hardware had those 4" x 10" sheets for about $6. I think it was .025" thick as well.

How do you guys find what max temps you hit? You can't alt tab out of a game and pull up the Nvidia panel because it drops a few degrees right?

How did you get that temp tracker to work? Since I flashed the XPS2 bios into my i9300 only the CPU temp reads, all others are "--" and "not supported".

Yes! Finally what I've been looking for. So there's a newer XPS BIOS I can install on my 9300? I have the A01 which is what Irobertus's original guide went for.

Also, what kind of 130W power supply do you have? Is it the A00, A01 or A02, and did you ever own one that didn't work for you, or do you know what the limitations are for the i9300 hack/power supply (besides the fact that you can't use the 90w originally shipped)