ATI X1300 overheating problems

[doogle]

Anyone had experience with the HSI X1300 graphic card ?
( http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=233 )

I was using a nvidia 440mx card but found that the VMR9 performance was inadequate, so after looking around decided to give the ATI X1300 a try.
I'd never used ATI, always nvidia, so thought a change was in order.

Purchased the HSI because it was passively cooled, as it was going into a HTPC http://www.arisetec.com/products/HT-201.htm case in the lounge room I wanted it quiet.

BUT.
It overheats, and then either reboots the PC or locks up.
If I place an extra fan in the case blowing over the card it improves things but I'd like something more permanent and a little bit more "elegant".
Going to try a slot fan when I get the chance.

Main issues here are A) Noise, and B) The htpc uses a micro ATX board with only 3 pci slots and they are all populated.
If need be I can free up one slot, but would rather not.

Also considered cutting a hole in the case lid above the graphics card to allow heat to escape but don't really want to hack into a $400 case!

Any Ideas Anyone?

[nitrogen_widget]

When you say it improves things does it stop causing problems or are the problems less frequent?

I had a problem with an AGP ATI card a little while back.
I would leave my PC on all day & come home to find it had rebooted.
It would also reboot while playing games.
I tried a bigger PSU & that seemed to work for a little while.
In the end I found dropping the AGP port speed to 4x fixed all my problems.
And to tell the truth I didn't notice any performance hits either.

you might want to try that & see how it works.

[gEd]

it's a pretty case but it looks a bit lite on air intakes anywhere. Just those slots on the side and at the bottom. No fan actually pulling air in.

As nitrogen_widget mentioned, it is very important to establish if heat is the issue here. Whether the additonal fan fixed the problem 100% or not will pretty much prove whether you have a cooling problem. Ditto running with the case lid off for a while. The current hot weather can easily cause system instability, particually if air flow is marginal.

I assume that you have a psu with a fan to extract hot air from the case, rather than a passively cooled psu such as I have.

Passively cooled graphics cards do require good case airflow, which oddly enough can sometimes mean more fans, but you have got to extract the heat somehow.

Use a temp monitoring program such as speedfan to monitor cpu and case temps.

If it is heat, you may have to consider a case mod to add a fan on the left hand side.

hth

[doogle]

Yep, its definitely a heat issue.
When I started having the problems I took the lid off the case and placed a 90mm fan near the cards heatsink.
I use a graphics demo that really exercises the card to get it hot.
Running with the lid on the PC would reboot in < 30 seconds, with the lid off and the fan on it would run for at least 40 minutes.
I have a 500 watt power supply with a 14cm fan in it, so the power supply is OK.
The CPU has a zalman cooler, so it stays reasonable as well.

In fact case temps don't change much.
The main problem is the case. The AGP and PCI slots area have no cooling near them at all, and the air flow bypasses them, so you get a air flow "dead" zone around the graphic card heat sink.

I've tried underclocking the card and it seems to help a little bit, but unfortunatley the X1300 doesn't have a thermistor on it (unlike say the 6600GT I have in another machine) so its all a bit hit and miss in determining what affect changes have. Just have to run the graphics demo and see how long it takes for the pc to crash.

So looks like I'll try the slot fan (and sacrifice my gigabit lan card, back to 100 mbits sigh!). Failing that start hacking at the case.

[gEd]

I found the slot fan (supplied with my previous antec case) a little noisy.

Also a slot fan is only going to provide another fan that pumps air out, rather than pulling coller air (from the front) in.

The general concensus (amoungst overclockers) is that you should have more air blowing in than out.

good luck

[nitrogen_widget]

If you get desperate, you can always attach a small fan to the heat sink using zip-strips.
It won't be pretty, but it may help your heat problem & save you a slot.

But the main concensus that more cool air in is needed sounds like the best advice.