New fan for a GF4 4200?

The fan on my Gainward GF4 4200 has started acting up, mainly that it's making abnormal noises. It's hard to describe but it sounds like it's lightly grinding on something. Like maybe it's scraping as it spins or squeaking. It's not a god-awful noise, but it's been bugging me for long enough that I want to do something about it. I'm thinking it either just needs to be cleaned, maybe with compressed air, or replaced.

If it is the second, can someone recommend a replacement fan? Noise level is my biggest concern: I don't want to put something else on and have it sound like a 747, as I've spent a good chunk of change getting the case quiet in the first place. The quieter the better, and I'd like something inexpensive as well.

Any suggestions?

m19

 

Ya dont whant my advice i tend to superglue heatsinks to any thing that gets warm ..........But id try somthing passev but thats my advise .............

 

Gainward puts a pretty good cooler on there.
To equal that cooling passivly you need a Zalman Z80.
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q1/zalman-zm80/index.x?pg=1

They run about $30 around here and are passive.
Check my model on the Zalman, but I think it fits your card. I have used one with great sucess on a 9600 Radeon.
Just be sure your case has good flow.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll look into it. It doesn't necessarily have to be passive, though. I don't mind replacing it with another fan; I just don't want a really noisy one. As for case fans, I've got the standard intake (front bottom) and exhaust (upper rear) fans since my original goal was to get noise to a minimum, so I'm not too confident that a passive solution on the videocard would be good for such a minimal airflow setup.

(EDIT-) Man, that Zalman's sure is tempting, though. And from what it looks like it does support GF4 cards. Hmm...

m19

 

there are several here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...frcode=0&propertycode=&propertycodevalue=3189
and here is a nice replacement:
http://cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=148+0485
and several more on this page:
http://store.yahoo.com/nexfan03/chco.html
and more here:
http://www.crazypc.com/products/cooling/cooling.htm#chipcoolers

I hope these help!

 

Again, thanks! The more options the better.

m19

 

I went ahead and ordered the Zalman's last night after reading a bunch of good reviews on it, and it came out to about $30 even from NewEgg. I'll post results whenever it arrives and I get a chance to install it... I'm getting very tired of the ferret-like noise coming from my videocard.

m19

 

I spent an hour and a half last night installing that beast. It's not that it was difficult, per se, but the instructions are far from clear (there's almost *too* much info in that sheet to follow it correctly) and there was a little too much "make sure you position this piece EXACTLY RIGHT" and whatnot... It seemed a little precarious during putting it together, but now that it's on and running everything seems good. The noise level is (obviously) much lower and I haven't (knock on wood) had any heat-related lockups yet.

m19