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HD4870 Noisy Fan

beedster

beedster

beedster

Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2009
Posts
30
Hi guys. I bought a 'Titan Krypt' pre-built PC from OC a few months back, although I see they've beefed it up a little since I bought it so don't go looking at the new specs! :D

Anywho, I really like the computer, it handles everything I've thrown at it so far perfectly. The only problem I have is the high pitched fan on the graphics card (HD4870). It's a minor niggle but I figure if there's a cheap solution it I may as well sort it out.

According to the ATI Catalyst software the fan is running at 10% speed on idle at the moment and it's still fairly annoying to my ears. Its 2 degrees outside here in Glasgow, so I hate to thinjk what the fan might be like in the summer.

I was looking at some of the graphics card coolers on OC, but i'm a bit lost on what I might need, or if thats even the best solution? I don't want to buy something that will lower temps but still has a noisy fan, I just want something less high pitched/less noisy.

Thanks for any advice!
 
Funnily enough the 4870 I had was also extremely noisy even at 1% speed, and the 4890 that I later upgraded to was extremely quiet in comparison even when under load. (Of course nowhere near water)
 
Ok, so my cooler turned up today and it clearly isn't compatible with the 4870 even though it says it is, here is a picture...

dscn0652p.jpg


I've read that other 4870 owners have had to take a couple mm off the aluminium part on the right to get it to fit in. The old fan didnt even have anything to cover the RAM chips so I dont see why this one would need one.

But it looks like the black thing at the end is going to also get in the way when I try to screw it in.

Excuse my obvious lack of knowledge on this, but do you think I should continue with it? If it DOES fit but its sitting tight over top of that black thing at the end is that a bad thing?
 
Update. Yup, as I thought. I unscrewed the aluminium part to see how it would fit if i shaved a bit off. The black bit at the end is too high and prevents the cooler from sitting on the chip, its a few mm higher.

What should I do?
 
Hm...it does look like the pins ain't in the right positions...

I think if you are not comfortable with proceeding further, you could try to contact OCUK or whoever you bought it from, explain the situation to them (attach your picture too) and see if you can get a refund.

This is so strange, cause OCUK is not the only place listing this GPU cooler as compatible with 4870. Can't believe this is happening...
 
Another quick photo, side by side with the old one...

dscn0659l.jpg


As you can see the paste seems to have touched ok when I applied some pressure around the screws. So basically, do you think I should go ahead and remove a few mm off the aluminium strip, screw it down and see if it works? My only concerns are how tight it will be against the black thing, and if partially obstructing the black thing is a bad thing?

I'm not sure what the black thing is, some sort of heat sink maybe? Here is a photo..

dscn0660.jpg
 
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It does seem to be a heatsink...but I ain't 100% certain. Is that bit detachable from the board do you think? If there's no wires connected to it whatsoever, then it should most definitely be just a heatsink and you could probably get saw or sand it shorter to allow the cooler to fit without blending the board.

On the sidenote...do you think the amount of thermal paste apply is enough? Is it covering the entire surface of the chip itself after the paste spreaded?
 
It does seem to have thermal pad stick under the heatsink looking at the picture from the side.

I don't think having the heatsink touching the GPU cooler would be a good thing. I think it would probably be best to saw off or sand a bit of the tips heatsink so there is at least a small gap between the heatsink and the GPU cooler.

As far as I know I doubt cutting down the heatsink could damage the graphic card itself (unless you damage the graphic card itself in the process). If you can't detach the heatsink, may be you try sandpaper or the tools for sanding down the heatsink?

beedster...just a reminder that to do it or not is entirely your choice. While we try our best to give you suggestions and advices to the best of our knowledge, we can't decide what you should do for you, as it is your personal interest that's at stake here.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I've gone ahead and put the old fan back on for now, I'll wait and see what OC has to say. I don't want to risk scrapping my graphics card over this.

Hopefully I can get a refund or a replacement that is compatible. This 4870 that OC put in my PC seems to be the only model with this extra heatsink at the end :S
 
I found this in the user review tab for the cooler...

"Read other xfx 4870 owners having to mod this cooler. So expected to hack saw a couple mm off aluminium plate surrounding the central copper heatsink, 'cos of caps being in the way. Someone said they had problems with memory heatsink on the 4870 getting in the way, and they "bent the fan housing". Don't know what that means, because you can't bend the plastic on this cooler, it would just snap. You have to take the heatsink off the memory on your card and hack saw about 30 percent off the top of it. This is easy, because it's aluminium, it's very soft."

So yeah, if only I could get that extra heatsink off...
 
On both of my Sapphire HD48** cards (blue PC), I had no problems taking it off by just pulling. (It is sticky so requires a bit of force but nothing directly attached to it, shouldn't break)

On the 4890 I had to remove the screws first though, on the 4870 there were none.
 
Vortex Neo sat on my XFX HD4870 1GB absolutey fine out of the box with no messing. Still have it sat around here doing nothing as I sold the 4870 ages ago

Anyone want it for free? :)
 
I took the plunge and grinded down the heatsink and part of the metal plate. Seems to be all working ok now.

At first I had the fan plugged directly into the PSU and it was noisier than before but I tried it into the motherboard and it seems fine now, definitely quieter.

I think OC definitely need to revise the product page because their definition of 'compatible' seems a little loose :D Compatible after 30 minutes at a bench grinder sounds better!

I'm not sure if it's a little hot tho, the ATI software says 71 degrees and the only thing I have open is firefox.

Edit: I just opened a demo of tomb raider I have and it went up to 100% fans and 103 degrees. How does that sound?
 
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