MSI NX6600GT AGP Installation & Review

[Kage]

Originally Posted by Deer Slayer

Most manufacturers decided to be buttheads and disable temperature monitoring on 6600GT cards. Probably because they didn't want anybody to know that their rinky dink heatsinks they started putting on their cards won't cool the GPU good enough. I can't see a good reason to disable the temperature sensor in the GPU other than just plain being total bungholes! They don't want you to know your GPU temp, and any possible reason for that makes me mad . You can flash your bios to enable temp monitorig, just go look it up on http://www.mvktech.net/ . There are guides for enabling temp monitoring, and lots of people have EVGA cards, and have done the mod. Good luck, hope that helps.

Actually DS its not the GPU that makes the heat. Its the HSI with the inadiquate, POS, little HS that gets no airflow.

[Deer Slayer]

Originally Posted by Qxp

Actually DS its not the GPU that makes the heat. Its the HSI with the inadiquate, POS, little HS that gets no airflow.

I'm still using the stock HSI heatsink on my card, and it's decently cool, it gets a little warm. It wasn't hot with the stock heatsink either, my GPU makes all the heat with my card. I DID notice that if I turned up the AGP voltage it did absolutely nothing for the OC of my card (it used to give me a better OC with my TI4600), but it DID make the HSI get HOT! So I have my AGP voltage set to 1.5v (1.6 is default with this mobo because of Bigtoe's modded bios), and my HSI runs slightly warm, I'd say about 110f/44c or so. The GPU on my card stays nice and cool with that Logisys CF206 on there . The HSI doesn't get hardly any airflow either, just what the front 92mm case fan blows in, because the logisys cooler blocks it. I forget whether I used AS5 or ceramique on the HSI, but I did replace the original white goop. :o So, if you're using higher than normal AGP voltage, you may want to back it down UNLESS it's needed. It abuses the HSI chip unnecessarily.

[Kage]

My AGP voltage is stock, I never mess with that stuff. I can touch the HSI and burn my finger, thats with a 120mm fan blowing cool air at it. Of course that is also after a few hours of gaming. Also according to NVtemplogger I managed to hit 146C at stock speed playing MOHAA(although that was probably an error on NVtemplogger's part).

[Kage]

Wow that is a nice cooler DS, anyway i took the HSI HS off and put on some new thermal paste. I also removed the GPU HS and replaced the thermal paste just because I was there. It seems to be running a few degrees cooler now so I feel a bit better.

[Deer Slayer]

I like it a lot, I got it when it first cam out for $20, and I bought some AS5 and some ceramique with it. I think it cost me a total of $32 for everything. I was almost out of AS3 too, so it worked out good. I dunno, I like it a little better than the Zalman, a little more effective anyways. I've seen it under a bunch of different names now, jetart is the actual company that makes it, it's called the JACSH1 with them. It's also labeled the Vantec Iceberg 5, and newegg has it for $23. I've seen it labeled a few other things too, can't remember them all now. I't goes from $20-$30 and works great on 6600GT cards. The Zalman is about the same, just the ramsinks don't fit with it (you can put the ramsinks on with this), and it's more $$$. It doesn't quite keep the GPU temp as low either, but it's VERY CLOSE! The tape that comes with the logisyss SUX, I used some ceramique to temporarily hold the heatsinks on, (stuff is like peanut butter) and used a tiny dab of hotglue to hold them permanently. They fell off trying to use the tape.

[Kage]

Costs less and performs better...always a good combo!
How much does it weigh though?

[Kage]

Oh nevermind I found it, 320g. It weighs less too...
I found the img at a review site "King Of Coolers" is the title.

[Kage]

And while i'm on the subject check this cooler out.
Linky

[Deer Slayer]

Originally Posted by Qxp

And while i'm on the subject check this cooler out.
Linky

My GPU temp hit a max of 55c with this thing, but that was before I modded my case, and stuffed a 120mm fan on the back, and a 92mm on the front. Not only that but I got a PSU with a 120mm fan, and cut the stock fan grills out of the case. The CPU temp dropped a couple degrees, I have no idea what it did to the GPU temp. It's 35c idle though, which is a LOT better than the 43c it was when I first got the card, and 70c + load!!! It got to almost 80c before I took the stock heatsink off and put AS3 on there! The stock cooler SUX on most 6600GT cards, your card is INSANELY hot! I should HOPE that's an error, what's the average temp load with your card??? It should plateau around 75c-80c, anything over 80c is too hot IMHO. I'd say if your card hits that regularly, it needs a better cooler. I run a 570/1160 OC on my card all the time, and 580/1180 for benching. I figure no need to stress it all the time, backing your card off a few MHZ seems to make them last a LOT longer than running them full tilt all the time! :o

[Kage]

It depends on the game, during 3dMark sessions @ 570/1197 it will only hit 86C thats because AA and AF are off. If I max quaility out I might hit 87-95C. I have the alarm set to 90C in NvTemplogger so when I hear the long beeps coming from my pc speaker, I turn the quality down.

[3 of 7]

I just did the temp mod on the bios on my EVGA 6600gt and this thang is idling at 67c!!! Case temp is 34c and cpu is 38c..... No overclock!

Methinks it's time to look at the heatsinks on this thing!......

[3 of 7]

So I cleaned the waxy goop off the heat sinks and applied AS5 that dropped the idle temps to around 60-62...however it still hit 90c after playing one level of FEAR.... seems pretty high.... I can see why they disable the temps on it.

NVlogger will only let me set the temp warning to 99c and the warning in the properties seems permanently set at 145c

I wonder if polishing the paint off the bottom of the sinks would be worth the bother?

[Kage]

I just used the standard white goop that came with my VGA Silencer and Copper Silent. It dropped my ave. load temps down by ~15C. I applied it to both GPU and HSI after smoothing the heat sink surfaces with 1200grit sand paper.
Acorrding to NvTemplogger my max temp today was 78C.

[Kage]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

I wonder if polishing the paint off the bottom of the sinks would be worth the bother?

I wouldn't, its a POS aluminum cooler. I think its time to invest in a cooler like DS's.

$30 at NCIX. Its lighter than the Zalman VF-700, costs less, and performs better!

[Deer Slayer]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

So I cleaned the waxy goop off the heat sinks and applied AS5 that dropped the idle temps to around 60-62...however it still hit 90c after playing one level of FEAR.... seems pretty high.... I can see why they disable the temps on it.

NVlogger will only let me set the temp warning to 99c and the warning in the properties seems permanently set at 145c

I wonder if polishing the paint off the bottom of the sinks would be worth the bother?

The Vantec Iceberg 5 is the same cooler, available for $23 from newegg with $5 shipping, and $30 from ZipZoomFly with free 2nd day air. So, if you want my cooler, those places would work OK, newegg ships to canada now. I dunno what they charge for that though, maybe see if you can find it there. Tiger direct canada has it for $40.99 canadian (I hope that's canadian $$$!). I dunno where else to buy it in canada, but Xoxide will ship to canada from the USA. They also have the cooler under the logisys name but it's out of stock. It's $20 USD though, so if they're going to get it in stock, that would be a way to save some $$$. I think the Logisys is better, because the plastic is clear on it, and the LED would look better in the fan on it. The blue tint on the vantec plastic kills too much light from the LED. Plus, I see no reason to pay $4 so vantec can slap their name on it!!! Jetart is the actual maker of it, I dunno how Logisys is making any $$$ on it, unless that's Jetart's house brand or something. It's a really good cooler though, and for the price, you can't beat it!!!