First post, by Kodai
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So a couple of weeks ago on another thread A Voodoo 3, Vortex 2, Slot 1 based Glide machine I kept talking about doing a cooling mod for the Voodoo3 using the Evercool VC-RF fansink. I didn't want to take over somebody's thread to post some prelim's, so I decided to just make a new thread. I see that there was a thread last year about cooling the Voodoo3 and KT7AGuy posted his attempt at this same mod. Here is that thread. Oops, I think I killed my Voodoo3
I found out that this is a very easy and effective mod on my V3 3500. I ran a number of temps before and after, using a number of methods. I'll give system specs before test methodology below.
Asus P2B-F
PIII 1.4GHz in PowerLeap PL-IP3/T ver 2
1GB PC133 RAM
AWE32 CT3980 (32MB sinstalled)
Trendnet TEG-PCITXR NIC
HDD and DVD are modern SATA using IDE to SATA adaptors
Windows 98SE with SP3.42
I do wish I had done some greater testing before I did the mod as I forgot to test the back of the board. I will be doing this mod again in the near future and a very special one in the next few months that will be just outright silly. Waiting on some extra parts to get in and time to do it.
Room temp was 23C average:
Anyway, I started with a cheap but reliable little IR temp probe (as I managed to lose my Fluke 62 a few months back when packing tools up to be moved to newly built workshop - doh). I found the center of the stock heatsink on idle was an average 52C and under load from 30minutes of Unreal Gold a toasty average of 70C. The RAM was much better, at an average of 42C idle and 55C under load. The power transistor in the lower left was almost as hot as the GPU at 64C under load (forgot to check idle temp, sorry). The little chip next to the GPU was also about 58C under load and yes I again forgot to check idle. The little chip with the sticker (I think its the cards BIOS) doesn't get that warm at all so I left it alone.
So after that I decided to compare with my calibrated Fluke 87V and a simple, clean K-Type probe. I used a tiny bit of blue painters tape to secure it to the test areas. The 87 read pretty close to the IR probe, but on average about 3 degrees lower. That was across the board on the same tests. So assuming that both units are reasonably correct, then we can see this little card give off some serious heat.
I do not know if this is average for a Voodoo3 3500, or high, or low. All I know is its fairly hot and I wanted to do something about it. The Evercool VC-RF is a single slot solution and I have used it a couple of times over the years to great effect. I had high hopes it would help on this little feller. As it turned out, it was almost perfect. Almost being the operative word.
So first things first, prep the card. I've found more often than not, that freezing parts to remove thermal adhesive is not as effective as direct heat. So I pulled out my rework station and set the temp to 300C. Popped the two holding pins from the board. Grabbed the rework gun and went to town on the center of the heatsink for about 45 seconds. Set the gun down and grabbed a large pair of channel locks. Placed it on the top and bottom edges of the heatsink near the middle. Gave it a bit of a clockwise turn and it popped right off. Very quick and simple. Most of the thermal gunk came off on the heatsink and very little was left on the GPU. I was saddened to see that the GPU was cased in plastic. I was hoping it was metal so I could lapp it, and use a liquid metal TIM. It just wasn't meant to be, oh well.
From there I did a thorough cleaning with Arcticlean to all the chips other than the BIOS. Then I lined up the new copper fansink with the mounting holes only to find that it was slightly to big to be used. To the left of the GPU there is a little clock crystal, while just below is the AGP slot. The holes seem to be about 43 and 1/2MM spaced. The Evercool is spaced at 43mm. Hmmm, I thought. Its still a good chance it will seat firm and level if I can so something about the crystal and AGP slot. So I marked off the areas that were overhang, and used a bench grinder to grind them down. I removed the fan and took the heatsink to the grinder. After 5 minutes of grinding, it was right were I marked it. I went and lined it back up on the card and it was a great fit. From there I used an xacto blade to remove the copper splinters that had come through to the inside via the little ducts in the heatsink. Only took a few minutes. Then I gave it a thorough cleaning with hot soapy watter and Arcticlean to finish it off. Next I reinstalled the fan. From there, I put a little dab of MX-2 on the center of the GPU and installed the fansink using the included spring loaded push pins. The extra half mm spacing was not an issue at all. The fansink was seated firmly and centered on the GPU like it was made for it.
Now for the RAM. The Evercool VC-RF kit comes with 8 aluminum ram sinks (copper colored of course). They are large enough that three of them will cover the top row of RAM and three more will cover the RAM on the right. That leaves two unused RAM sinks. So I put them on the power transistor and the chip next to the GPU. Now I have never ever had a heatsink fall off from using thermal tape when I used Arcticlean and some good old elbow grease. I have indeed had them drom from using 91% isopropyl alcohol. More so on chips that are made with plastic. From what I can tell, its because isopropyl alcohol leaves behind a very thin film layer and on plastic it causes thermal tape to not adhere or helps it to break free over time with heat. So if anybody follows my recommendations for this, I consider Arcticlean to be a key element.
Its now an actively cooled, single slot Voodoo3 3500 for under $15.00 and a total of 30-35 minutes of effort. The temp drops were well worth it. Running the same tests, the GPU under load is now in the high 40's / low 50's and the ram bounces in between the low to mid 30's. The power transistor and chip next to the GPU are in the low 40's. Its a very quiet fan so it will not annoy the user. The only real drawback is the LED. Yeah, I don't like it at all. Its an SMD LED so you can just clip the anode. Oh well. I still have yet to mount this in a case and when I do it will have two 120mm fans on the case door for the system bus. This will provided plenty of directly cooled outside air that will help temps even more. I will report back on that when I build a system with this little card. That may be a few months. I'll just post to this thread to give further details. When the card is installed you cant see the areas of the fansink that were ground off, so it looks good (besides that stupid LED).
The Evercool VC-RF as seen in the pic, has a three pin fan plug that fits right on a three pin mobo header. If you have a mobo that does not have one or its to far away, the kit also comes with a three pin to molex adaptor. So this cooler should work for anybody's system. Again, I cant recommend this little guy enough. I would highly recommend a bench grinder but a vise/clamp and a dremel could be used (would be a real pain as its really thick copper). Here in the U.S. el-cheapo 6" bench grinders can be found on sale for as little as $20.00 and you can find lots of other uses for them. But try to avoid the cheap units and stick to the $60-$80 range and 8" grinders, unless you don't think you will use it that much. When cleaning the chips with the Arcticlean, use some effort. Don't just lightly wipe them down or dab them with a qtip. A coffee filter or better yet a cheap box of kem wipes is worth having to do the cleaning with.
Here is the finished results:
Well let me know what you guys think of it.
***EDIT***
I wanted to point out that I also have a Voodoo3 3000 and while the 3500 is a larger board with extra "bits" here and there, the spacing for the RAM, GPU, power transistor, clock crystal, and other chips is about the same. I don't want to say they are identical, but I cant see any difference with out measuring. So I would assume 3Dfx/STB kept the spacing the same on all the AGP V3's. This would indicate that the same areas would have to be ground down to make the cooler fit, but it should fit all AGP V3's. I wont say its the same for the PCI variants, as I don't have one. But looking at pics online of them, it looks pretty much the same to me. Your millage may vary though.
