My 7800's fan is really loud; is yours??

i too have a dual core with a 7800GT and it is very noisy.

does anyone know where in Germany I could buy one?

-f

(i mean a Zalman Alma VF700-**)

I've just installed the Zalman vf700** fan. The original 7800GT fan noise was too much for me. After suffering for two years with a 'windtunnel' G4, I expected the G5 to be silent. I've got a G5, dualcore 2.3mhz, 10.4.5, w/7800GT. The 7800's fan has never done anything other than full blast, loud, no speed variation at all.

I got the Zalman fan from newegg.com. Many retailers have it too. @ $35. Shipped fast. Removing the old fan wasn't too hard. Cleaned off the GPU's thermal paste with alcohol. Attatching the new fan was also easy. The instructions were well written. But, this is where it gets tricky.

The new fan has an adapter for 5volt (silent) mode, and 12volt mode. The adaptor doesn't fit anything in the G5, so I had to frankenstein the old fan power connector from the stock 7800GT fan and splice it to the adaptor. I was then able to connect the new fan's power to the same source on the card that the original fan used.

Then, problem #2. The bracket that the Zalman requires, attached to the back of the GPU card, sticks out far enough that it won't fit into the 16x PCIX slot. The bracket bumps up against the metal plate that rides through the whole case. So, more Frankenstein'ing. I unscrewed a few more parts inside the G5 allowing me to completely remove the plate. Then, wince, I hammered a some dents into the plate so the Zalman's bracket screws would have enough clearance. All went fine and the whole thing fit back together nicely.

So, yes the Zalman vf700** is very quiet. Much quieter than the 7800's original fan. I can still hear it a little, but I'm very happy with the results. Also, using the app "Hardware Monitor", I see I'm getting cooler results too. This includes graphics intensive gaming (Enemey Territory, man what a game.)

The only curiosity is that I wanted to try the 5volt mode, but the old fan's power, off the GPU board, says 12volt, so I'm asuming thats what my new fan's getting. I've seen benchmarks elsewhere online that imply the 5volt silent mode is still adequate colling for the 7800. I'm not sure where to find a 5volt connection in the G5 and I assume I'll have to splice up another connection. BTW, of course, the new fan does no speed variation either.

So, in short, a little bit of work, but nothing extreme. As mentioned before, it might not be for everyone. I'm very satisfied.

Chris McLay : You didn't mention power or fitting issues. Did you not have similar problems?

G5, DC 2.3Mhz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 7800GT

I didn't mention the power or fit issues because they were covered in the Macbidouille and Accelerate Your Mac articles.

- both articles suggest leaving the back of the Zalman fan so it will fit properly. The reason given is that the card is well built and well supported so it should not need it. I've had to trust this, but have seen no problems only good things so far.

- both articles suggest using the cards own power supply either by replacing the connecter on the cable, or removing the plastic support around the connector - I went the cable option for safety. The Macbidouille article also states that the card supplies variable power so you shouldn't need to hunt down a 5v line. I haven't gone to the effort to confirm this is the case as the fan is basically the same volume as the others in the G5 now - quiet.

(I think your a very brave - maybe foolish - man denting the CPU casing.)

i just found a store in Germany that sells the unit for €22,99. for those in EU interesetd, here here is the link.

if that link doesn't work. try the shop's main page.

Funny, I managed to completely overlock the bracket issues mentioned in the article. I'd say that puts me far on the foolish side of brave.

I've read that the card outputs variable power, but my original fan never varied. I assume this means the new one won't either. It's so quiet anyway that it's hard to audibly discern if it's occilating over the other variable fans in the case.

so from what i've read the new zalman fan takes 2 slots up, instead of the (noisy) one that requires only a single space. elsewhere on this post someone says it takes up "only one" space, but i think he was quoting out of context from the article, which says it only requires one additional space.

could you confirm?

cheers

Yes, it occupies the space above the 7800 card, making the next slot up unusable. That is, the card takes up one slot, and the Zalman fan is big enough that it blocks a second slot from being usable. The original 7800 fan is low profile enough that it didn't do this. The Zalman is depicted accurately in the xlr8yourmac photos, even though it's a 6800 card in their example:

http://xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/mac6800ZalmanVF700.html

You can see that one slot is used for the card, one is blocked by the fan, leaving two remaining unoccluded slots.

well i got my zalman today and it's already in. installation was easy.

i guess my 7800GT fan was one of the better ones, as the noise factor, though reduced now, is not that much different. but i was working on a dual 2GHz G5 this week and it's about the same. i think the room size makes a difference too. that and the fact that i am pretty sensitive to sound in the first place.

my GFX chip is now running 44 degrees celcius.