ATI reference card fans

[imperialreign]

Anyone know of a site that sells the squirrel-cage blowers on newer ATI cards?

The blower fan on one of my 5970s took a dump and burnt up - last time I had replaced it with a fan out of a 4870 (which fit), but it burnt that one up, too . . .

Aside from simply purchasing a used card off of ebay for the fan, I haven't been able to find any parts retailers that sell them online. I'd prefer to not have to RMA the card simply to have the fan replaced, but can't quite afford the additional expense of setting up an HOH loop for both of these dualies (I'd be looking at close to $400 for just the two cooler blocks for the cards, not including the cost of another res, rad, fans and pump).

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

 

[LDNL]

Id just replace the whole thing with an aftermarket cooler. For example accelero xtreme

 

[Hayder_Master]

How two fans burned in that quick! Did u use it 24/7 with 100% load speed?

 

[Widjaja]

If you have the space, aftermarket will most likely be the way to go unless you can find someone selling a faulty GPU with the same cooler on Ebay for next to nothing.

 

[slyfox2151]

wow.... iv never herd or seen a broken GPU fan.. let alone 2

 

[95Viper]

After exhaustive investigation into the matter and sweeps of the universe with highly advanced experimental scanners... here is the result.

Some are are made by NTK (HK) Limited.

Fan/Heatsink Thermal Solutions

information request:
sales/marketing contact: Raymond Cheung
sales/marketing email:raymond@ntkltd.com

Contact us info for NTK (HK) Limited.

You can try and see if they will sell to public; or, see if they have any distributors.

 

[micropage7]

if you have standard fan and it burned maybe thats indicate you need fan that tougher than standard fan (i skip hardware failure), i mean you could consider after market fan

 

[imperialreign]

How two fans burned in that quick! Did u use it 24/7 with 100% load speed?

No - I've adjusted the fan speeds via BIOS, but I've left speed ramping on. When the cards are idle, they're only moving at about 40%. They'll only go 100% under full load.

Not sure why two fans bit it, either - this card, though, brand new out of the box the fan wasn't fully seated, and I didn't notice that until after I had installed the card (fan wasn't running). I had to press in on the center of the fan to seat it; that might've contributed to the first fan failing . . . but I don't see why the second fan burnt up. I'm pretty religious about cleaning dust out of these monsters - they run hot enough as it is.

If you have the space, aftermarket will most likely be the way to go unless you can find someone selling a faulty GPU with the same cooler on Ebay for next to nothing.

Unless a cooler only takes up the additional slot used by the card, it's not much of an option . . . and as far as I can tell, there's only one aftermarket option for these cards ATM, and it requires a 3rd slot open - not an option as I don't have the additional slot between my x16 slots . . . besides, if I'm going to go to the effort to replace the card with an aftermarket cooler, I might as well purchase an HOH block to really keep these cards cool.

After exhaustive investigation into the matter and sweeps of the universe with highly advanced experimental scanners... here is the result.

Some are are made by NTK (HK) Limited.

http://xtreview.com/images/HD4870xevsother/his 487x2 fan back.jpg

Fan/Heatsink Thermal Solutions

information request:
sales/marketing contact: Raymond Cheung
sales/marketing email:raymond@ntkltd.com

Contact us info for NTK (HK) Limited.

You can try and see if they will sell to public; or, see if they have any distributors.

I want to say I had seen those last time one of these fans burnt up, but the dimensions or amperage was different or some BS . . . I'll double check the fan part number and see . . .

It might be the only option ATM - I'm not thrilled about the possibility of RMAing an effin 5970 . . . lord only knows how long it would take to get it back, considering no one could even get the cards in to sell in the first place . . .

 

[Jan Kyster]

I have an unused fan, if you want it:

Also have an Arctic Cooler Extreme, but that one you'll have to pay for!
Besides it's so "thick" you'll have to mount it on the lowest mounted card...

 

[RejZoR]

The reference colers are great. The only problem is that fans used on them (HD5000 and 6000 series) are absolute rubbish. They either die or more common start rattling like crazy.

 

[AsRock]

I have a few of those fans from 2900XT's if ya interested.

 

[wolf]

Ive found that a fan ramping up and down constantly over its life kills it faster than say forcing 40% at idle then 80% at load. its the constantly changing that burns it out faster.

of course i could be completely and utterly wrong about that its just my experience.

 

[imperialreign]

I have an unused fan, if you want it:
Also have an Arctic Cooler Extreme, but that one you'll have to pay for!
Besides it's so "thick" you'll have to mount it on the lowest mounted card...

I'll keep the stock fan in mind - not trying to install an aftermarket air cooler, as space is an issue with two 5970s, lol

The reference colers are great. The only problem is that fans used on them (HD5000 and 6000 series) are absolute rubbish. They either die or more common start rattling like crazy.

Agreed that the coolers are great, and the fans not so much. Both times I've had a fan die on this card it's just all of a sudden - no early warning signs like excessive noise, just kaput. Only tip-off I get is the higher than normal card temps . . .

I have a few of those fans from 2900XT's if ya interested.

I appreciate it, man - but I'm not sure they would fit. I had gone through my plethora of aging cards, and the fans from the 3870s were a slightly different style, as were those on the 4870x2s . . . IIRC, the 2000 series were slightly different as well, but I'm not 100% sure on that . . .

Ive found that a fan ramping up and down constantly over its life kills it faster than say forcing 40% at idle then 80% at load. its the constantly changing that burns it out faster.

of course i could be completely and utterly wrong about that its just my experience.

I'm not going to say you're wrong or that I disagree - it could very well be the case . . . but, this is the only card I've ever had problems with in regards to the stock fan - even with speed ramping on. Even more strange, this card resides in the seocnd x16 slot, where it has better airflow readily available to it . . .

The first fan dying I thought a fluke . . . the second has me wondering if there isn't a problem with the card's fan control or something. If it happens to kill a 3rd . . .

. . . but, if I ever get around to affording HOH cooling on these, then I guess there'd be nothing to worry about. Only reason I've never considered it an option is that upgrading GPUs can sometimes render aftermarket coolers worthless as they don't always fit new board designs - even more-so with dualie cards. But, considering the firepower two 5970s are capable of, I really don't see a need to upgrade to a newer series any time soon . . .

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Sorry to see you are having issues, if it's still in warrenty; RMA is the only way

atb

Law-II

 

[imperialreign]

Hi

Sorry to see you are having issues, if it's still in warrenty; RMA is the only way

atb

Law-II

It's still under warranty, Sapphire like to slap a nice 3-year plan on their hardware . . .

. . . but, my concerns with RMA are how long it might take to get the card returned. Typically with RMA, most manufacturers prefer to throw you a replacement unit as soon as they have yours in and verified there's a problem. But, the 5970s were low-stock items (still are), so it's highly unlikely they've got one laying around to simply replace it with . . . which would mean they'd have to repair the unit. If a manufacturer does decide to repair instead of replace, there's no telling how long it will take for them to obtain parts (if they don't have them laying around), and then get around to fixing it.

The RMA process is a PITA. You might be out of your hardware for anywhere from 2 weeks, to 4+ months (depending), if not sometimes longer. I've got two low-end economy motherboards, ATM, in the middle of the RMA process, and it's been 6 months since I've sent them out . . . :shadedshu

 

[Law-II]

Hi

I agree the RMA process can be a pain; your choice at the end of the day

atb

Law-II

 

[imperialreign]

Well, I've been gaming on a 30" for awhile now (just realized I still haven't update my SYS specs, lol), and prefer having as much IQ enabled as possible, while maintaining at least 40FPS (higher prefered) at my native resolution.

From my past experience with numerous different crossfire setups, actual in-game performance is quite different than what benchmarks would have you believe. Sadly, not many sites do actual benchmarking of multi-GPU setups that really reflect the peformance of the setup . . . the synthetic benches and game demo-runs are fine and dandy, but to see how the setups really perform everything needs to be running "on-the-fly" . . . which, you can't use for benchmarking as there's no standardisation/repeatability. Every time you actually play a game it'll be different, so it's not a good (nor fair) comparison for hardware reviews.

I'll say it thus, though: below 1680x1050, with modern GPUs, there's not much of a need for dual-GPUs. 1920x1200 is where two GPUs shine. Resolutions above the 24" mark are really the only ground where more than 2 GPUs has a point. If you're running only one dualie, or two cards in crossfire, you'll see a big performance dive as soon as you move a resolution size up from 1920x1200. The larger the screen resolution, the more and more dependent performance is on your video hardware, more-so than the rest of the system.

 

[RejZoR]

Ive found that a fan ramping up and down constantly over its life kills it faster than say forcing 40% at idle then 80% at load. its the constantly changing that burns it out faster.

of course i could be completely and utterly wrong about that its just my experience.

I'd say this isn't the case here. NVIDIA is also using centrifugal fans for their exhaust coolers and i'm not hearing any complaints over their lifetime. Sure here and there some have problems but i doubt they have as much as those on HD5000/6000 series. They are changing RPM all the time as well. They should just use better quality fans. I'm sure no one would mind something from Delta Corporation. They are the experts for fans and despite the fact they are best known by 5000 RPM turbines, they can make slower but still quality fans...

 

[Jan Kyster]

I'll keep the stock fan in mind - not trying to install an aftermarket air cooler, as space is an issue with two 5970s, lol

Tell me about it :shadedshu
Was planning to add a 5870 to my 5970 - both equipped with the Arctic Extreme coolers - and ran into that exact issue

But you avoided the offer. Don't you want me to unscrew the fan and post it to you?

...the squirrel-cage blowers

Forgot to ask, but how did you get the squirrel part into this?
In my book this is a squirrel, and I somehow completely fail to see any resemblance

 

[RejZoR]

I think you could easily sandwitch TwinFrozr II / III cooled cards into SLi/CrossfireX. Though i don't remember many aftermarket coolers that use exactly 2 slots. Most of aftermarket stuff is overdone.
And they don't take much time dealing with the PWM cooling and VRAM's which is a shame as well.
What good is it pushing GPU at 1,2GHz if PWM just can't keep up because of poor cooling.
Where we are again back to reference coolers which have a masive VRAM plate which is also cooling PWM. And it does that exceptionally well.

 

[imperialreign]

Tell me about it :shadedshu
Was planning to add a 5870 to my 5970 - both equipped with the Arctic Extreme coolers - and ran into that exact issue http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z15/subject_rod/smilies/rolleyes.gif

But you avoided the offer. Don't you want me to unscrew the fan and post it to you?

Sure, if you're up for it. I'll PM ya in just a bit . . .

Forgot to ask, but how did you get the squirrel part into this?
In my book this is a squirrel, and I somehow completely fail to see any resemblance

I guess it kinda depends on one's region . . . at least, here where I live, squirell-cage is a common term used for centrifugal blowers. I'm not 100% clear on how that term came about, though, but it's quite a common usage around us rednecks. Along with using the term blower to describe these types of fans exclusively - we don't tend to apply that term to any other style of fan.

 

[Jan Kyster]

Thanks for the explanation! Always nice to be enlightened!


Fan will be shipped tomorrow!

 

[Peter1986C]

About the reference to animals in a cage, let's say hamster cage and it's clear for everyone, I think. Than it's clearly referring to the shape of the fan being in resemblance to a treadmill like those you often see in hamster/guinea pig cages.

 

[Jan Kyster]

Smallest package ever shipped!

Btw. the fan used by Sapphire on my card is made by Foxconn, but I haven't been able to locate it anywhere on Foxconn's site?
Or anywhere else for that matter...

Perhaps imperialreign can make a search with complete model number, once he have it in his hands.


Always wondered why these +$700 cards comes with such cheap fans...

 

[wojg]

Anyone wants to save my life by selling HD5870 fan ? I am from Poland and of course I will pay all costs. Unfortunately one of blades damaged. Do not ask how :-/
I will be very obliged for help.
I wrote also to NTK (HK) LIMITED, but I doubt if they response at all.

I forgot to mention that I have non-reference board which is XFX 5870 black edition (this one with 7-blade cooler placed in the middle of the card).
This is the picture of a cooler: