Help me find a replacement fan for my VGA heatsink

October 28, 2008 12:16 AM

Help me find a replacement fan for my VGA heatsink. The base of the fan is mounted onto the copper plate with 3 screws (in the shape of a 'Y') instead of the typical rectangular shape with 4 screws. This is an after-market heatsink for the 9800pro so I couldn't find any place that still sells it. The size of the fan is approx 2.12in which is about 53mm which is not typical either.
posted by parttimeninja to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I'd check Central Computing (in San Francisco) or NewEgg. I don't know anything about your card, but if it's more than a few years old, or low end, replacing the card might be an inexpensive option.

Also, this article has some useful info.
posted by zippy at 12:59 AM on October 28, 2008

The fans tend to be custom to the heatsink. It's probably a lot simpler and not much more expensive just to replace the entire heatsink. 3rd party coolers that work with a 9800 pro are still available; I'm personally a fan of the zalman VF700 or VF900 for that era card.
posted by ArkhanJG at 3:18 AM on October 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also, the VGA silencer rev 3 and 4 are compatible; but since they've been discontinued, they might be a bit tricky to find.
posted by ArkhanJG at 3:19 AM on October 28, 2008

I'd just buy a new cooler. The fan is probably some custom OEM part that's going to come at a premium. You can find video card coolers pretty cheaply nowadays. Lets say the fan costs you 10 dollars plus 8 shipping. That's not unreasonable. A new cooler runs around 29.99 and can be found at your local Fry's or Microcenter.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:06 AM on October 28, 2008

Another alternative is getting a PCI slot cooler. Just put in the slot below your video card and it blows air on it. My card ran much cooler (and more quiet) with this than the onboard fan.
posted by Kupo? at 7:23 AM on October 28, 2008

Agreed that you want to replace the entire cooler, and seconding the recommendation for Zalman. I've used Zalman VGA coolers for years and recommend them highly; they're well made and very quiet. They tend to be a bit pricier than others, but you're getting a complete kit with mounting hardware, thermal grease (though I usually throw this out in favor of Arctic Silver), and some little stick-on heatsinks for your video RAM. The VF700 that ArkhanJG recommended is listed as compatible with all 9800 Pro cards and is $23.99 on Newegg right now.
posted by [user was fined for this post] at 9:29 AM on October 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Agree with the above posts - you want a new heatsink. The links I posted are good places for them. I have a passive (silent) heatsink on my graphics card that I love - completely silent. Zalman by the way has an excellent rep for CPU and graphics card heatsinks. They're quite well made and beautiful (to this engineer).
posted by zippy at 11:42 AM on October 28, 2008

Thank you all.
After extensive searching with no result, I'm getting the Zalman VF700. Now the question is what to do with this big chunk of copper heatsink?
posted by parttimeninja at 12:45 PM on October 29, 2008