noisy radeon 9600SE fan

[Dukat]

Hey all

My graphics card fan has been getting steadily noisier for a while now, I reckon the fan is dying.

I've been doing a bit of searching here and was wondering a few things:

1. Will it run safely without the fan operating?

2. If not, how hard would it be to replace a fan?

3. Are there easier, foolproof ways of cooling the card without spending lots of cash or doing alot of technical stuff?

Any help much appreciated!

 

[Kryten]

I'd not risk running it without a fan - passive systems are often very large and specially designed to run without fans (take a look at Zalman's passive GPU coolers and you'll see exactly what I mean).

Depending on how the fan is currently attached, you may be able to slap on another one - you might even be able to use a CPU fan for instance.

If it's one of these jobs that covers the GPU and the memory it will be more difficult. If you can let us know the make and model I might be able to make a suggestion.

Looking at Overclockers.co.uk you can pick up some semi-decent coolers for between 10-15 quid inc VAT - not sure if those come with the correct attachments or adhesive though.


OOoh breif edit - googling around a little, most 9600se's are just a single small heatsink and fan assembly. That means you may be able to smile nicely at a local PC supplier (not PC World) and ask if they have an old 486 heatsink/fan assembly to hand, or something similarly sized. Coupled with some correct adhesive (epoxy from Arctic Silver for instance) this could come to less than a fiver and provide the same cooling.

 

[Dukat]

I'd not risk running it without a fan - passive systems are often very large and specially designed to run without fans (take a look at Zalman's passive GPU coolers and you'll see exactly what I mean).

Depending on how the fan is currently attached, you may be able to slap on another one - you might even be able to use a CPU fan for instance.

If it's one of these jobs that covers the GPU and the memory it will be more difficult. If you can let us know the make and model I might be able to make a suggestion.

Looking at Overclockers.co.uk you can pick up some semi-decent coolers for between 10-15 quid inc VAT - not sure if those come with the correct attachments or adhesive though.


OOoh breif edit - googling around a little, most 9600se's are just a single small heatsink and fan assembly. That means you may be able to smile nicely at a local PC supplier (not PC World) and ask if they have an old 486 heatsink/fan assembly to hand, or something similarly sized. Coupled with some correct adhesive (epoxy from Arctic Silver for instance) this could come to less than a fiver and provide the same cooling.

brilliant, thanks alot ^^