XFX Radeon HD 5850 taken apart

ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
edited April 2011 in Hardware
I haven't even fired this thing up, and I already knew I would have to mod it.:vimp: I can't in good conscience put that ugly batmobile like red hunk of plastic in my rig.

I started to take it apart, and although I had absolutely no intention on taking the cooler off, they are intertwined. :grumble:

Now I'm at work and my Arctic Céramique is at home and so is my Black Krylon Fusion..... sigh. I must tape it off and get to painting the ugly red parts.

Pics will follow, as the fun unfolds.:tongue2:
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Comments

  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    I have the exact same card, so I am quite interested to see how your mods go.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    I really can't stand red in coolers, fans, pcb, so that has somewhat delayed any thought of going ATI!! ;D
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Here is the first round of pics:rockon:
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2010
    I am following the thread too. Looking at the stock heatsink of HD5850 under the cover the first time, it does not look like a very efficient one. Why don't you just replace it with something like AC Accelero S1? It is a cheap and excellent heatsink, I think you can overclock much better after you strap a 120mm fan on the Accelero.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    HAd looked at that earlier myself and was wondering why it appears thte fan doesn't even blow directly on the cooler. It looks like the air is supposed to "travel" through it on the way out the rear exhaust.

    Zuntar as I haven't looked at that unit before, how close to the pcb does the edges of the shroud come?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    (The Radeon 5000-series cooler is actually quite effective.)
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2010
    Really? I was judging the quality of heatsink just by the appearance apparently.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    I have the XFX 5850 and the HSF is wonderful. Cools quietly but can be really cranked up if you feel the need to overclock or are in a warmer environment.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Thrax wrote:
    (The Radeon 5000-series cooler is actually quite effective.)

    Thrax is right. The 58xx stock cooler is designed with performance in mind. The tradoffs? Its heavy for one, but most performance stock coolers are, and when you ramp it up for overclocking it will be the loudest fan in your system, but if solid air cooling performance is what you want and the weight and the noise have no reason to put you off, your just as well leaving the Radeon 58xx coolers recommended stock cooler.

    Saphire makes a model with their "Vapor X" cooler, and overclockers are not finding it to be significantly more effective, but it is much, much quieter when the fan is ramped up for overclocking.

    The stock heatsink cools great though, I'd really struggle to load my card past the high 50's C, and thats running stock fan speed which is not too loud. If I ramp that fan up the card gets downright chilly, I'm talking single digit deltas from room temp chilly, but its freaking loud when you get it there.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    Well engineering and appearances can indeed be deceiving! LOL

    Glad to see black pcb instead of red too. :wink::rockon:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Cliff_Forster wrote:
    Thrax is right. The 58xx stock cooler is designed with performance in mind. The tradoffs? Its heavy for one, but most performance stock coolers are, and when you ramp it up for overclocking it will be the loudest fan in your system, but if solid air cooling performance is what you want and the weight and the noise have no reason to put you off, your just as well leaving the Radeon 58xx coolers recommended stock cooler.

    Saphire makes a model with their "Vapor X" cooler, and overclockers are not finding it to be significantly more effective, but it is much, much quieter when the fan is ramped up for overclocking.

    The stock heatsink cools great though, I'd really struggle to load my card past the high 50's C, and thats running stock fan speed which is not too loud. If I ramp that fan up the card gets downright chilly, I'm talking single digit deltas from room temp chilly, but its freaking loud when you get it there.

    The sad thing is that design did not carry over to the 5970. Stock temps on those cards sit around 64C+ and under load reached an easy 85C+
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Here it is painted!!:rarr:
    Much better eh?

    Does anyone want to see any other /different views of the raw card or cooler before I stick it together?
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    Much better!!
  • clifford_cooleyclifford_cooley Arkansas, USA Member
    edited March 2010
    Do you have a pic of the card back together?
    Anyway, I gree that does look better. :)
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    That is awesome. Looks much better without the red.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Gotta say, that black is a sexy. Any tips for taking off the HSF?
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Thanks for the props!:D
    clifford_cooley wrote:
    Do you have a pic of the card back together?
    Anyway, I gree that does look better. :)

    Not yet, it is still in pieces.;) I'll post more pics when I'm done.
    pigflipper wrote:
    Gotta say, that black is a sexy. Any tips for taking off the HSF?

    On this card it is all or nothing. There are a bunch of tiny screws on the back of the card, and all of them have to come off. there are two on the end of the card that is toward the outside of the case as well. All that will loosen the heatsink for the memory, but you have to unscrew the 4 main heat sink screws to remove any of it. Be careful on the fan connector, the wires are very short!! Then you can unscrew the plastic shroud from the memory heat sink and you are done!:cool2:
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Here is the final product!:bigggrin:
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2010
    Good job! Looks better for sure.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Zuntar wrote:
    Here is the final product!:bigggrin:
    Awesome!
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Left the fan red? Nice accent.

    Well done, sir.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    That certainly makes a big difference - for the better!! Now for the sticker on the front............. :crazy:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Zuntar. You can try Vinyl Black on the fan which is absorbed into the plastic, which should evenly apply itself not causing issues in the long run.
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    jedihobbit wrote:
    That certainly makes a big difference - for the better!! Now for the sticker on the front............. :crazy:

    Already on it bro, I have a bunch of this left over from other parts of my case!:vimp:
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    Zuntar. You can try Vinyl Black on the fan which is absorbed into the plastic, which should evenly apply itself not causing issues in the long run.

    I might still do that, but I am way paranoid about unbalancing it.
  • clifford_cooleyclifford_cooley Arkansas, USA Member
    edited March 2010
    Zuntar wrote:
    but I am way paranoid about unbalancing it.
    That is exactly what would happen if you painted the fan. Another thing would be making the blades heavier and less RPM for cooling. It looks great the way it is.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    Zuntar wrote:
    Already on it bro, I have a bunch of this left over from other parts of my case!:vimp:

    Now that would pick up the bling factor!! :rockon:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    the vinyl black absorbs into the plastic so their would be no direct unbalancing. But it would make is heavier.
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    clifford_cooley wrote:
    That is exactly what would happen if you painted the fan. Another thing would be making the blades heavier and less RPM for cooling. It looks great the way it is.

    This hater of red agrees!! ;D
  • OptixOptix New Brunswick, Canada
    edited March 2010
    Batmobile? You haven't seen this then...

    GV-R577UD-1GD.jpg
  • jedihobbitjedihobbit Central Virginia, USA New
    edited March 2010
    "PUG UGLEY"!!
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