VGA Silencer dangerous without ramsinks!

Erukian · Oct 8, 2004, 04:07 AM

Before you go "wtf?", let me explain. What happens with the cooler is it doesnt allow any airflow over your ram unlike the default cooler that you get from the various manufacturers.

Infact when just running the VGA silencer w/ no overclock you will get hotter memory than with the stock heatsink because, again, the cooler doesnt recycle air, it ducts it out the pci slot and pulls the fresh air not from the ram-area of the card. This can cause crashes when your card's core is amply cooled.

So if any of you are running a VGA Silencer w/o ramsinks, overclocked or not, either way your putting too much stress on the components. I don't know if most of you figured this out, but engineer's set spec's for a reason and warranties do break after switching to the VGA silencer for a reason. Altering how a default cooling solution fundamentally works and then overclocking the card past specs is just not smart unless you think of all the impacts of your changed cooling solution, invest in some ramsinks asap.

Maybe this thread can be helpful to some, especially if your card artifacts or crashes from time to time and you don't know why. Or even if you just want to preserve the life of your card. If you know of any websites that sell ramsinks that can fit over the whole chips while not being too tall to be blocked by the VGA Silencer, help some people out and post below.

Thanks for your time,
Joe

edit. I add the picture below for illustration.

Nicky-chan · Oct 8, 2004, 05:07 AM

intresting but true. I had a vga silecer on my 9500 pro and i had mod it by take a peace off the plastic off so itd suck the air off the board too. It really great after that tho.

dipstick · Oct 8, 2004, 05:09 AM

Weird cause when I had one on my 9800 it allowed for a higher mem OC because the card itself was running much cooler overall. Probably depends on the case a bit also

GutterPunk · Oct 8, 2004, 07:10 AM

iteresting... never used it... i got my custom HS/f on there in which i modded to fit the shims to there is better contact

you do bring forth a valid point, but w/o me having 1 i cannot verify or deny anything

pr0digal jenius · Oct 8, 2004, 07:17 AM

*looks at his TT Giaat III and shrugs*

it seems to make sense, but it also seems to me that this isn't a common problem, meaning A-most people have decent RAMSinks, or B-this sint as bad as you amde ti sound (I'm kinda voting for A)

mkk · Oct 8, 2004, 09:24 AM

I wouldn't worry considering that the standard coolers gush hot air coming from the core onto the memory area, while the Arctic Cooling coolers does not. The exhaust system has a good effect on the temperature of the whole of the card, as the core generates the most of the heat.

Zebra · Oct 8, 2004, 12:50 PM

The standard coolers also do not blow any air over the back side of the card where there are memory chips either. You just need to have ample ventilation in your case before you do ANY overclocking. The latest V4 silencer does integrate memory heatsinks into its design for the front and back of the card, though this is for the X800 series.

Sandok · Oct 8, 2004, 01:03 PM

I got a SILENCER on my card and it really helped overal... Even in my old dell case WITH NO AIR FLOW... Now got the TSUNAMI and running great

inet · Oct 8, 2004, 04:39 PM

What does it matter if you got ram sink when there is no airflow? You still need airflow to remove the hot air around the heatsink.

bug77 · Oct 8, 2004, 05:06 PM

Did you actually measured temperatures w/ and w/o the Arctic Cooler? Because, while the airflow might be reduced, I think having a cool chunk of metal on top should also cool the air around the ramchips (granted, air is a poor thermal conductor, but still...)

Erukian · Oct 8, 2004, 06:14 PM

Well I should of stated that this theory is somewhat based on your case's airflow. If you have say a Xaser case with the two 80mm fans blowing air right in the video card region, compared to an antec Sonata which is completely 90% dead air on the bottom of the case. Your danger levels will vary greatly.

Remember it's not ALL about air too. Maybe I didnt stress this enough. But say you pull the heatsink off your Northbridge on your mainboard and strap a fan there. That's a poor thermal conductor and your system's going to run really unstable. The air flow just isnt enough. An example is my Abit mainboard, i pulled off the stock little heatsink/fan and put that Zalman on there because the fan was dying. Now I my NB core registers at 5C less than when the fan on the stock heatsink was healthy. By strapping a massive heatsink (like what the VGA Silencer does) I was able keep it much cooler.

This is not only something i have thought up from my experiences, it's something i've talked with engineer's about over emails. I guess I overemphasized how dangerous it is when you take into account the cooler core cooling the pcb then cooling the ramsinks. But I dont see how you can count on that when you overclock it, which many do because they think their massiver cooler will keep em safe. Once you push the core on a R9800 pro from 380 to 420 your getting a lot of heat output again, but this time your ram isnt getting any airflow.

I'm not trying to cause a panic, i'm just bringing something out that I've never seen brought to the table, and hopefully--potentially save some cards from frying and have people upgrade to sinks or yet, improve their case cooling.

Louie6666 · Oct 9, 2004, 05:56 PM

No problems here been running a 9700Pro oc'd 380core 342mem for quite a while, before I sorted airflow case was reaching as high 37oC which would have added to impact of not having ramsinks on graphics card and silencer would have been sucking in air at around 35oC! so I'm not sure your therory has wieght to it, as the core always seems to suffer first, when airflow is poor.

twangman51 · Oct 9, 2004, 07:49 PM

I bought one to put on my Hercules Prophet 9700pro (fantastic card btw)
The rear fitting would not go over the ramsink and I had to put the screws in without the bracket.

It was well seated on the core and I switched on. The Silencer fan was knocking on the side of the plastic cover and making a racket, so much for being quieter. I took it out to see where the problem was, pushed it a bit and generally got pee'd off. Put it back in and hey prest no noise. The only problem (a big one though)was that the screeen display now has pink lines running down it and I guess I must have squashed something.

The moral is - if you've got a good card but mess with it!! and dont get a VGA silencer unless you're 100% sure it will fit properly.

Oct 8, 2004, 04:07 AM	#1
Erukian DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 36 Rep Power: 0	VGA Silencer dangerous without ramsinks! Before you go "wtf?", let me explain. What happens with the cooler is it doesnt allow any airflow over your ram unlike the default cooler that you get from the various manufacturers. Infact when just running the VGA silencer w/ no overclock you will get hotter memory than with the stock heatsink because, again, the cooler doesnt recycle air, it ducts it out the pci slot and pulls the fresh air not from the ram-area of the card. This can cause crashes when your card's core is amply cooled. So if any of you are running a VGA Silencer w/o ramsinks, overclocked or not, either way your putting too much stress on the components. I don't know if most of you figured this out, but engineer's set spec's for a reason and warranties do break after switching to the VGA silencer for a reason. Altering how a default cooling solution fundamentally works and then overclocking the card past specs is just not smart unless you think of all the impacts of your changed cooling solution, invest in some ramsinks asap. Maybe this thread can be helpful to some, especially if your card artifacts or crashes from time to time and you don't know why. Or even if you just want to preserve the life of your card. If you know of any websites that sell ramsinks that can fit over the whole chips while not being too tall to be blocked by the VGA Silencer, help some people out and post below. Thanks for your time, Joe edit. I add the picture below for illustration. Last edited by Erukian; Oct 8, 2004 at 04:35 AM.

Oct 8, 2004, 05:07 AM	#2
Nicky-chan formally Elclair Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Arizona,Pheonix Posts: 360 Rep Power: 0	intresting but true. I had a vga silecer on my 9500 pro and i had mod it by take a peace off the plastic off so itd suck the air off the board too. It really great after that tho. __________________

Oct 8, 2004, 07:10 AM	#4
GutterPunk I = Greatest Dood Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Nebraska Posts: 5,949 Rep Power: 71	iteresting... never used it... i got my custom HS/f on there in which i modded to fit the shims to there is better contact you do bring forth a valid point, but w/o me having 1 i cannot verify or deny anything __________________ Rock On \m/ Thank you Mousey for the Sig! --------------- Intel Core2Duo E6660 (3.4GHZ) ~ Tuniq Tower 120 ~ Enermax Galaxy 1000W ~ Corsair Dominator @ 1090MHZ 5-5-5-15 (OCZ XTC Modded Cooler)~ EVGA 8800GTX W/ HR-03 Plus 120MM ~ Asus DVD-RW LiteScribe ~ LG DVD-RW ~ Corsair Voyager 2GB ReadyBoost Drive ~ Vantec Nexus Fan Controller ~ ThermalTake Armor 25CM fan ~ Personal Finance Blog: Dent Your Debt

Oct 8, 2004, 12:50 PM	#7
Zebra DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: California,USA Posts: 198 Rep Power: 0	The standard coolers also do not blow any air over the back side of the card where there are memory chips either. You just need to have ample ventilation in your case before you do ANY overclocking. The latest V4 silencer does integrate memory heatsinks into its design for the front and back of the card, though this is for the X800 series. __________________ My current system as of 04/20/06: M/B: ABIT K8U Socket 754 RAM: 1024MB Corsair Select CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Clawhammer) VIDEO: ATI Radeon AIW X800 XT 256MB AGP8X AUDIO: SB Audigy 2 DISK: Maxtor 7200rpm 200GB 8MB cache SATA drive DVD/RW: Sony DRU-800A DL Dual Format DVD/CD Burner CD/RW : TEAC 48X CD Burner OS: WIN XP PRO w/SP2 VID DRIVERS: Latest Omega Radeon Drivers PSU: ANTEC 500W

Oct 9, 2004, 05:56 PM	#12
Louie6666 Just One Sick-Lizard Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bristol, UK Posts: 501 Rep Power: 0	No problems here been running a 9700Pro oc'd 380core 342mem for quite a while, before I sorted airflow case was reaching as high 37oC which would have added to impact of not having ramsinks on graphics card and silencer would have been sucking in air at around 35oC! so I'm not sure your therory has wieght to it, as the core always seems to suffer first, when airflow is poor. __________________

Oct 8, 2004, 05:09 AM	#3
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Weird cause when I had one on my 9800 it allowed for a higher mem OC because the card itself was running much cooler overall. Probably depends on the case a bit also

Oct 8, 2004, 07:17 AM	#5
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	looks at his TT Giaat III and shrugs it seems to make sense, but it also seems to me that this isn't a common problem, meaning A-most people have decent RAMSinks, or B-this sint as bad as you amde ti sound (I'm kinda voting for A)

Oct 8, 2004, 09:24 AM	#6
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,481 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	I wouldn't worry considering that the standard coolers gush hot air coming from the core onto the memory area, while the Arctic Cooling coolers does not. The exhaust system has a good effect on the temperature of the whole of the card, as the core generates the most of the heat.

Oct 8, 2004, 01:03 PM	#8
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	I got a SILENCER on my card and it really helped overal... Even in my old dell case WITH NO AIR FLOW... Now got the TSUNAMI and running great

Oct 8, 2004, 04:39 PM	#9
inet DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 109 Rep Power: 0	What does it matter if you got ram sink when there is no airflow? You still need airflow to remove the hot air around the heatsink.

Oct 8, 2004, 05:06 PM	#10
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	Did you actually measured temperatures w/ and w/o the Arctic Cooler? Because, while the airflow might be reduced, I think having a cool chunk of metal on top should also cool the air around the ramchips (granted, air is a poor thermal conductor, but still...)

Oct 8, 2004, 06:14 PM	Thread Starter #11
Erukian DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 36 Rep Power: 0	Well I should of stated that this theory is somewhat based on your case's airflow. If you have say a Xaser case with the two 80mm fans blowing air right in the video card region, compared to an antec Sonata which is completely 90% dead air on the bottom of the case. Your danger levels will vary greatly. Remember it's not ALL about air too. Maybe I didnt stress this enough. But say you pull the heatsink off your Northbridge on your mainboard and strap a fan there. That's a poor thermal conductor and your system's going to run really unstable. The air flow just isnt enough. An example is my Abit mainboard, i pulled off the stock little heatsink/fan and put that Zalman on there because the fan was dying. Now I my NB core registers at 5C less than when the fan on the stock heatsink was healthy. By strapping a massive heatsink (like what the VGA Silencer does) I was able keep it much cooler. This is not only something i have thought up from my experiences, it's something i've talked with engineer's about over emails. I guess I overemphasized how dangerous it is when you take into account the cooler core cooling the pcb then cooling the ramsinks. But I dont see how you can count on that when you overclock it, which many do because they think their massiver cooler will keep em safe. Once you push the core on a R9800 pro from 380 to 420 your getting a lot of heat output again, but this time your ram isnt getting any airflow. I'm not trying to cause a panic, i'm just bringing something out that I've never seen brought to the table, and hopefully--potentially save some cards from frying and have people upgrade to sinks or yet, improve their case cooling.

Oct 9, 2004, 07:49 PM	#13
twangman51 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 50 Rep Power: 0	VGA silencer beware! I bought one to put on my Hercules Prophet 9700pro (fantastic card btw) The rear fitting would not go over the ramsink and I had to put the screws in without the bracket. It was well seated on the core and I switched on. The Silencer fan was knocking on the side of the plastic cover and making a racket, so much for being quieter. I took it out to see where the problem was, pushed it a bit and generally got pee'd off. Put it back in and hey prest no noise. The only problem (a big one though)was that the screeen display now has pink lines running down it and I guess I must have squashed something. The moral is - if you've got a good card but mess with it!! and dont get a VGA silencer unless you're 100% sure it will fit properly. __________________ twanger