AlphaWing wrote:

I got a couple of those there to big to actually fit between the Coolmaster tower cpu cooler and the vcard, and my other brackets don't reach it either. Gonna have to figure out how to mount a small fan on the passive cooler, but its a pin type so thats gonna be hard 🤣. May end up switching it for another cooler entirely.

Didn't Thermalright or AeroCool make a tower-style heatsink for NB/SB chips specifically to address the problem you're having? (so it stands the fins up in-line with a tower CPU sink) 😊

I know thermaltake did, there is some Xigma ones too. Pretty sure the thermaltake one is to big, as it can hold an 80mm fan. There is maybe 55mm 60mm of clearance bewteen it and the one PCI-E slot the system needs as this board is also, a jerk towards all its PCI cards. They all insist on sharing the same IRQ with the PCI-E x16 slot. I have a spare Sound blaster Xfi PCI-E I am using in the first PCIx1 slot that doesn't get blocked by the southbridge heatsink.

Also just got those cheapy knockoff china zalmans gpu coolers today from ebay. Pretty sure it ruined one of my Radeon 9800 pros. Thing boots up with a rainbow snow pattern now everywhere. Replaced it with the stock sink, and it still does 🙁 . The mounts for it are dangerous, I should not of dared it after looking at it closer.

I do not recommend getting one of those for your 5500 Boxpressed.

Here are my 5200 Ultra, 6800 Ultra, 8500 128MB and 9800 Pro 256MB with various China heatsinks. I really like how quiet they are..... I'm also pretty sure the 6800 Ultra is cooler this way than with the noisy stock blower and its little heat sink.

What sort of trouble did you have with the ones you got?

Broke washers are paper not a consistent circle, metal to PCB contact possible with flexing which is probably what happened.
Also broke 2 of the actual rear screw holders, they snapped in half when installing it.

Whatever it did that Radeon is broke now when it wasn't before. Sucks really there not easy to get.

This is the model in question, none of the four above are it.

back

The washers are the paper washer type. I don't think kept the PCB out of contact with its metal mounting nuts when it was under pressure.
They should of been nylon or some other malleable plastic.

There are traces right next to the mounting holes on the Radeon 9800 pro probably not even a full millimeter away.

Hmmm I don't have that variety of base. The ones I have use rubber washers and a mounting system like the Zalmans. The little cooler on the 8500 uses plastic push pins though but it's lighter weight so it's fine.

I recommend staying away from this model.
I bought three of these 🙁 .

AlphaWing wrote:

I recommend staying away from this model.
I bought three of these 🙁 .

+1 I also got a few and I immediately didn't like it.

This is the one to go for:

That looks nice, but think I'm gonna just replace the fans on the remaining ones now tho.
The only High powered card I wanted a quiet fan for was that 9800 pro and thats off the list now.
The rest are mostly older Geforce 1,2,3,4 cards with small sinks anyway.

swaaye wrote:

I'm also pretty sure the 6800 Ultra is cooler this way than with the noisy stock blower and its little heat sink.

When I replaced the Leadtek A400 GT/Ultra cooler on my 6800GT with the Zalman sink it did reduce temps a little bit; not surprising at all honestly - big 70-90mm fan vs a puny 40-50mm fan. I have that Zalman on a WildcatVP right now and it runs cold to the touch with the fan running. 🤣

AlphaWing: Sorry to hear about your 9800Pro. I've "buried" a few Radeon 9 series cards over the last decade that have all demonstrated the same phenomenon eventually. 😢

I still have one left, and a 9700 pro, neither of them have problems other then loud fans still, both are also using the reference coolers too.
So i'm not to upset about losing one.
But, they are pretty much the only ATI cards I have other then the R270x that is in this machine 🤣.
3dfx and NV cards have always been what I gravitate towards.
Ah forgot about my x800, its sitting in a PC that isn't meant for gaming anymore tho, just web access.