Hello.
Which passive (or _VERY_ quiet) cooler would you recommend to put on an
Asus GF 7600GT (not overclocked)?
Thanks.
The best solution, is to buy a video card already fitted with a
passive cooler. There are cards that have passive coolers already.
One big problem with fitting after-market coolers to video cards,
is knowing whether they will fit or not. Arctic Cooling has a
large number of products, but I don't see anything explicitly
listed for 7600GT.
www.arcticcooling.com is supposed to have the
S3 product in Oct 2006, but no signs yet that it is ready. That
product might work, but I have no details.
http://www.pcmoddingmy.com/comment.php?comment.news.1612
This is an older product. There is no compatibility list for this
one, except that it claims to work with all cards. It has an
attachment block for ATI and for Nvidia cards (different block
for each type). For this product to work, there would have to
be diagonal holes with the correct spacing, and a video card
with no HSI/Rialto bridge chip. Looking at the layout of
7600GT, it looks like this _might_ work. But you really need
to seek confirmation from the manufacturer. It helps if
mechanical drawings are available from the manufacturer, as
then you can measure the holes and see whether purchase of the
product is worth the risk.
ZM80D-HP (two large plates, joined by two heatpipes - cooling
fan fitted to top is optional but recommended)
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=138&code=013
A review of the product, stored at the Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040719011514/http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=zalmanzm80d-hp
You could sell your current card, and purchase a passively
cooled card instead. That is a lot easier. You might still
need to purchase a fan, in case the passive cooler really
isn't enough. For all the reports I've seen, of cards with
totally passive coolers, they always report either a very high
operating temperature, or instability of the card. Which makes
me wonder why the companies making these cards even bother.
I have a passive FX5200, which is a very low end card. And to
make it stable, I had to mount an 80mm fan next to it. Now,
it runs fine.
Good luck,
Paul
