Silentifying my 8800GT

I mentioned a while back that I bought the Accelero S1 silent cooler for my
8800GT.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=138&data=7&disc

This was mainly because, when playing games such as Crysis or COD4, I had to
crank the fan up to about 45% to keep the temp below 85c.

Despite taking delivery weeks ago, I hadn't been motivated to install it;
until tonight my Northbridge fan started really acting up, so I figured I
would also replace that with the heatsink I had bought at the same time.

Firstly, on my MSI motherboard - which I hate - the 8800GT overhangs the
Northbridge cooling fan, so the silent alternative was out. Bummer, that's
£5 out of the window!

Installation of the cooler took about 1 hour and I am glad I read up about
it beforehand, as you really really need better thermal tape than that
supplied on the ram heatsinks.

I couldn't get both plastic clips that hold the heatsink to the board in any
sensible position, as they were either fouling the ram heatsinks or
something else. Having messed about a bit, I can see how I could have done
it, but it seems to be working fine with just one.

Placing it back into the motherboard, I found that the card's extra width
now obstructs 2 of the SATA ports, so I had to move the existing 2 leads to
different ones.

Firing things up for the first time, there was a loud whistling noise that
sounded like a capacitor about to blow up. After a minute of head
scratching, I realised I hadn't connected the PCIe power lead.

Now, as you do, when I had turned my PC off I hadn't intended to install the
card, so had uninstalled a load of no longer needed device drivers; along
with Starforce which I think was left on from Silent Hunter4.

On rebooting, none of my programmes worked, but I'm not sure if this was the
card or the uninstalls. A quick reboot and "resort to last know good
configuration" via F8 and everything was fine.

To be fair, I can't tell the difference in noise at idle, but playing COD 4
is much quieter. The card also topped out at 57c - very impressive given
that with the fan at 29% it would get over 95c and at 45% about 85c.

Overall, I'm not sure it's worth the time or the money, but I've done it
now, my PC is quieter and card runs far cooler. Result.

Oh, I cured the Northbridge fan with a blast of air and lots of WD40...

"Schrodinger" <no DeleteThis @way.com> wrote in message
news:xYvjj.183$gj2.136@fe10.news.easynews.com...
>I mentioned a while back that I bought the Accelero S1
>silent cooler for my 8800GT.
>
> http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=138&data=7&disc
>
> This was mainly because, when playing games such as Crysis
> or COD4, I had to crank the fan up to about 45% to keep
> the temp below 85c.
>
> Despite taking delivery weeks ago, I hadn't been motivated
> to install it; until tonight my Northbridge fan started
> really acting up, so I figured I would also replace that
> with the heatsink I had bought at the same time.
>
> Firstly, on my MSI motherboard - which I hate - the 8800GT
> overhangs the Northbridge cooling fan, so the silent
> alternative was out. Bummer, that's £5 out of the window!
>
> Installation of the cooler took about 1 hour and I am glad
> I read up about it beforehand, as you really really need
> better thermal tape than that supplied on the ram
> heatsinks.
>
> I couldn't get both plastic clips that hold the heatsink
> to the board in any sensible position, as they were either
> fouling the ram heatsinks or something else. Having
> messed about a bit, I can see how I could have done it,
> but it seems to be working fine with just one.
>
> Placing it back into the motherboard, I found that the
> card's extra width now obstructs 2 of the SATA ports, so I
> had to move the existing 2 leads to different ones.
>
> Firing things up for the first time, there was a loud
> whistling noise that sounded like a capacitor about to
> blow up. After a minute of head scratching, I realised I
> hadn't connected the PCIe power lead.
>
> Now, as you do, when I had turned my PC off I hadn't
> intended to install the card, so had uninstalled a load of
> no longer needed device drivers; along with Starforce
> which I think was left on from Silent Hunter4.
>
> On rebooting, none of my programmes worked, but I'm not
> sure if this was the card or the uninstalls. A quick
> reboot and "resort to last know good configuration" via F8
> and everything was fine.
>
> To be fair, I can't tell the difference in noise at idle,
> but playing COD 4 is much quieter. The card also topped
> out at 57c - very impressive given that with the fan at
> 29% it would get over 95c and at 45% about 85c.
>
> Overall, I'm not sure it's worth the time or the money,
> but I've done it now, my PC is quieter and card runs far
> cooler. Result.
>
> Oh, I cured the Northbridge fan with a blast of air and
> lots of WD40...
>

I just installed the same cooler on my EVGA 8800 GT. The
instructions really seem to be for another model of graphics
card and do not explain very clearly. I found a post on a
forum that had some good pictures and tips for installing
the cooler.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1261100
The old heat pads leave a lot of residue and need to be
cleaned off very thoroughly to get the heat sinks to stick.
Also it helps to apply pressure for a long time (30sec). I
got all my heat sinks to fit on the memory chips, but they
do not give enough for the other small chips (VMR?) so I had
to use some left over from another kit I had.

I had to try a few spots before I came up with a good place
for the plastic clips also, but I was able to get them both
on. It helps to use something like a screwdriver to push up
on the bottom part while inserting the top (heatsink) part.
I had no problem fitting the cooler with my Gigabyte MB, but
I want to try and make a duct with a fan to blow the air out
the back, so I had to move some SATA cable for that. I have
a very quiet PC setup and the 8800 GT stock fan was the
loudest fan even at idle. I have an 120mm 800 rpm Sythe
S-Flex fan to try on the new cooler and its quiet. For me
its well worth it for running a lot cooler and quieter and
can be overclocked and quiet. For some it may be just too
big and not really needed.