How far should I OC?

[Dedodido]

Hi, I was thinking today about OCing my card when if FINALLY arrives, and began to panic a little bit.
I have ordered a fan as well which slots into the PCI slot just below the fan, sucking the hot air from below it and then blowing it out the back of the case, but I'm a little unsure about how much I should OC.

As I see it, there are two main options, use ATI Tool to find maz OC for memory and clock, WITHOUT the fan installed, then install the fan to cool, it down while it's at this OC.

OR

Intall the fan, then find max OC.

If I do the second option, by mow much is this likely to reduce the life of the card?

[ati.bob]

The PCI slot fan was a bad idea.. it would not help cooling much... if not worsen it.. this is because the card was sucking the air from the area of the GPU fan where air was supposed to be sucked into the GPU cooler to cool the heatsink.. maybe you should try to reverse the fan and instead of sucking the air from the inside, try to blow cool air from the outside of the casing into it..

[Dedodido]

from what I've seen, the Radeon 9550 doesn't have a heatsink, so it'd just be sucking air that's already being blown away from the GPU wouldn't it?

[INSTG8R]

well I would say you have an okay solution seeing as it has a passive HS another solution would be to find a fan and mount it(I took an old GF2 fan and the pins slot right into my old 9600AIW) either make it pull hot air away from the GPU or make sure it can blow cool air onto it

[Dedodido]

anyone got any ideas about the OC side of things?

[wazzledoozle]

Well does your 9550 have a fan on the heatsink? If it does, dont use that PCI slot cooler, it will make the card hotter. If it doesnt have a fan use the PCI slot cooler. USe the find max featurers for about 2 hours each, and then create a new profile and save it with your OC'd clocks, then set that profile to load for 3d and set the default profile to load for 2d.

[Dedodido]

well from the way you say that, it sounds like all cards have a heatsink, but isn't it possible to have a fan directly on top of the GPU?

If there is a fan, which is ontop of the heatsink which is on top of the GPU, why will the fan make it hotter?

EDIT: well, after looking at some pictures, I've found out that it does have aheatsink with a fan on top, but why does adding a PCI fan make it hotter?
what if I put the fan in one of the lower PCI slots to just keep the case cool?

[wazzledoozle]

well from the way you say that, it sounds like all cards have a heatsink, but isn't it possible to have a fan directly on top of the GPU?

If there is a fan, which is ontop of the heatsink which is on top of the GPU, why will the fan make it hotter?

EDIT: well, after looking at some pictures, I've found out that it does have aheatsink with a fan on top, but why does adding a PCI fan make it hotter?
what if I put the fan in one of the lower PCI slots to just keep the case cool?

the fan already on the heatsink on the gpu sucks air upward towards the heatsink, PCI slot coolers usually suck air OUT of the case so if you pointed it at the video card, the fan would not be able to pull in as much cooler air and the gpu would heat up.

[Dedodido]

aaah, I see, I didn't realise the fans blew air towards the heatsink, I always thought they sucked air away from it.

What if I put the PCI fan in one of the lower slots, to reduce the overall temperature in the case so that cooler air is being blown onto the heatsink?

[wazzledoozle]

aaah, I see, I didn't realise the fans blew air towards the heatsink, I always thought they sucked air away from it.

What if I put the PCI fan in one of the lower slots, to reduce the overall temperature in the case so that cooler air is being blown onto the heatsink?
Wouldnt reccomend it, just return it and see if you cna get a normal case fan.

[Dedodido]

well, I'm going to try reversing it so that it blows cool air at it when it arrives. failing that, I'll just keep it saved up somewhere, it was only £1.30 afterall.

[Dedodido]

ok, I've found a fan that can replace the one on the actual card, what d'you think of this one:
http://www.epcbuyer.com/products.asp?recnumber=1571