Need some cooling fan advice

Qbe · Post by **Qbe** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:39 am

Visiontek used to make some great GeForce video cards, but their cooling fans were crapola.

The day after Morrowind was released I bought a Visiontek GeForce3 Ti200 card. It's now on its third cooling fan, and that one is dying a slow death just like the previous two. I believe that dust is getting into the bearings of the fan; the fan speeds up and slows down and hums loudly. The symptoms will get worse and worse until the fan finally stops forever.

Visiontek (or what's left of it) can't supply me with any more replacement fans; I'm supposed to send the card back in exchange for a new card. I'm not willing to do that. I'd rather replace the fan with a brand which will actually work for more than a few months.

The advice I need is this: will any brand work, or do I need to find a specific brand/model? Any recommendations? I know that this card was fairly popular a few years ago, so maybe someone still remembers this.

Thanks!

martindemon · Post by **martindemon** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:39 am

If the geforce 3 card is standard, then any geforce 3 fan could be mounted. Or you could just buy yourself a zalman passive rad (ZM80c), then you would never have to change the fan because there is no fan

Or just buy an Arctic cooling VGA Silencer for something like 15$.

Arcanis · Post by **Arcanis** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:29 pm

try taking a look at www.1coolpc.com they have lots of cooling supplies, including some for just video cards. Even if you don't order from them it allows you to see what kind of choices there are and gives you an estimate on priceing.

Qbe · Post by **Qbe** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:35 pm

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I'll swing by CompUSA tomorrow and see what they have.

egrudzin · Post by **egrudzin** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:46 pm

I had the same problem with dinky fans on two separate cards. I just bought a PCI slot blower instead. You attach it in a PCI slot and it pulls air from the case and exhausts it out the back. I just stuck it in the slot next to the vid card and tore off the crappy little fan and threw it away. With the heat sink still on the card the blower works great. Plus it's easy to take apart and clean. You can get one for cheap online. Go here:
http://www.newegg.com/
and search for "slot blower."