I bought an MSI ATI 4850 and the fan isn't so much loud as annoyingly high pitched. Can anyone suggest an alternate heatsink for the card? I've heard good things about the arctic passives but I'm not sure what will support the card.

Sarissa Candyangel

For the 4850 get an ThermalTake DuOrb cooler. It is very simple to install and will drop your temps down to the high 20's low 30's. AND it is super quiet.I installed one on my 4850 before I even put the card in the first time.

After you remove the stock fan clean the GPU with ArctiClean and prepare the surface with ArctiClean Surface Purifier. Then apply a thin layer of either Arctic Silver 5 or
Arctic Ceramic (what I prefer for GPU's). Then install the DuOrb cooler.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Just be aware, that with the DuOrb, which is a phenomenal cooler btw, you need to take account case size, custom module/nb cooling, etc BEFORE putting this thing on, or you could end up with an ugly surprise.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. Anything is better than the high-pitched whine of that fan.

I have a pretty large case (P-182) and it's the only card in there. The only other devices apart from HDD are a couple external IC programmers and a UV box. I don't have to run them from the case supply but it's damn convienient.

Sarissa Candyangel

Oh, I almost forgot, get a Zalman fan controller, costs about $5 so you can regulate your fan speeds.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Well, it's all set up and running great. Ended up not using the fan controller due to a space issue, but the temps inside dropped at least 15 C with the DuoOrb.

Redid my CPU with the Arctic Silver as well, it's about as cool as before but the paste hasn't set yet so it looks promising.

Thanks again for the tips.

Sarissa Candyangel