@pl4tinum, u r rite, according to nvidia website, the max temp for 8800gt is 105c. and for your kind info, i am the one use tat 8800gt before i gave it to my real brother pcwork. my pc room condition is airconed (try to reduce the temp so that lower the fan speed to less produce freaking high pitch noise) and the floor is ceramic tiled. cleaning the room once a week. wat i can say is the nvidia engineer who came up with this single slot design is "good", it do the cooling job, at the meantime help me keeping the dust ..

@johan-n, maybe u can try to remove ur 8800gt from mobo/casing, and suck out the dust from the heatsink fan with vacuum cleaner ... see it is working or not?. but u must be very careful while handling ur VGA. don do any physical damage on the component. or else u will

This post has been edited by ahwolfy: Dec 5 2009, 06:22 PM

can use vacuum cleaner??? i thought cannot use vacuum cleaner with computer parts

just need to be extra careful. but i am not sure whether the vacuum cleaner able to suck out the dust from the air inlet or not. never try tat before. i am just assuming only

imo, the best way is spend abit of $$, swap the stupid stock heatsink with aftermarket one, i.e. zalman vf2000. u will have nice led fan, silent and efficient cooling, no need to worry about the dust anymore.

This post has been edited by ahwolfy: Dec 5 2009, 03:08 PM

ya planning on getting cheap one.... but for now i have to be stuck with this stupid cooler

lol.... i have "enjoyed" the high pitch noise for about 2yrs ...
good luck to you ... lol

2 years ....but i think the pitch noise will only occur if u put the fan speed to 70% and above

tat time i was using the bunded software "smart doctor" to auto control the fan speed based on the gpu temp.

i hardly stand the noisy when the fan is 50%.

with tat zalman which pcwork currently using, even putting 100% u will hardly hear the fan noise.

I have heard from various technicians that the vacuum cleaner is not the safest way of dust maintainence as it will cause a build up a static electricity or something like that. Lol i lost interest in the topic as i was having my old graphics card RMA'ed.

Anyways if you must insist on a more powerful cleaning agent, i personally use a cotton bud to clear up the more obvious and bigger pieces of dust before i blow it all off with acan of compressed air. Been doing it for a few years now and have yet to see any problems arise as a result of this method.

where to get compressed air thing?

i seriously don't understand what you are trying to express here.
1. though u having ur card RMA'ed. doesn't means that your OTHER card might not having the same problem.

2. trying to clean up the dust by cotton bud? how? as you can see that the FAN is clean from above pictures, but the heatsink itself WAS stucked with dust. and the heatsink is HIDDEN underneath a metal hood, you can'e even see it unless you pry open the metal hood. it's not heatsink that with naked fin. if it is with naked fin, the problem won't exits. u can easily use a brush to clean it. But it can't be used in this case imho. Do you actually poke the cotton bud inside to clean it? if you wanna make a statement, do tell us that how can u actually clean dust with cotton bud, for heatsink that have similar structure with the type i showed in the example of picture.

3. and how on earth that a vacumm cleaner can built up static on your graphic card? even if vacuum cleaner itself produces static, the air inlet hose itself is PLASTIC / PVC. how to conduct the static? by sucking air fast passing through all the electronic component, it will produce static? then all stock cooler fan for heatsink will produce the same amount of the static as the vacuum cleaner.


This post has been edited by PcWork: Dec 6 2009, 06:41 PM

MMM need to clarify myself here :

1.) I was having my card RMA'ed and the technician was explaining to me the hazards of cleaning with a vacuum cleaner, i lost interest as i just wanted to just get the thing over as i was in a hurry.

2.)As for cleaning with cotton buds, when dust accumulates to a certain degree, there will be some "larger and more obvious" pieces as i said in my previous post before i blow the whole thing down with compressed air. The cotton bud is just sort of like the prelim to the real job which is cleaning with compressed air. I don't think there is a need to show how to use compressed air to clean a GC is there?

3.) Like i said, this was a statement made by the techinicians and not a direct statement. I quoted it as a reference so maybe it may be wrong and maybe it's correct. ANyways for your benefit i have googled the matter and here, Static Elec from Vacuums.

I do hope this clarifies things for you PcWork

@Johan-N I don't stay in west malaysia but i hear Ace Hardware carries them or you can find workshops (esp woodworking ones) around your place and ask if you can borrow their smaller air compressor to just blow the dust out.

I'm using 8800GT Gigabyte Zalman Edition. Not sure which Zalman cooler but it was already preinstalled.

Anyway, my temps during idle was 70Degrees..And sometimes when I play Street fighter 4, it would just turn my whole LCD into Purple / Green while I can still hear my character in the background.


Without further checking, it was the dust accumulated between the fins.

Who said we can't use vacuum cleaner?

All I did was 1 small brush, 1 vacuum cleaner.

of course, I cleaned my case at the same time since the vacuum and brush was with me

Results? My graphic card idled at 55 Degrees
Load ah? didnt really check but no more hangs nor issue.


Your motherboard doesn't have loose screws...so why worry about alittle vacuuming?

Dust flying through the air creates a lot of static which is bad for the computer circuitry

Btw i have tryed cleaning my GC with a Small thin piece of metal with a piece of thin cotton at the end.

but i only managed to clean several of the heatsink fins.


i really need a new cooler.

my Temp now is 64c in aircond room



This post has been edited by Johan-N: Feb 26 2010, 10:02 PM

I just Opened the Heatsink and Cleaned up all the dust and i also re apply some Performance thermal paste....and guess what...the Temperature has drop by 15c!!!!!!!

mine 8800gt oso got probs like this
very think dust on it -.-"

LOL... u should clean it once in a while, put a dust filter on your case intake and close your casing would reduce dust builtup inside your components

and those dusts in ur 8800GT, those are fabrics
fabrics are one of the main killers in heatsink and radiators, better get some filter before it clots up your other component