What would be the fastest safe overclock with a V5500 AGP?

I have the stock cooling still, and as someone recommended me, i've put some thermal paste on chipset heatsinks and placed them on those little things on the back of the card behind the GPUs, to help with the cooling.


Also, i would like to know which fan i can use to replace those now-noisy AAVID fans? (i don't really want to remove the stock heatsinks for now and risking of breaking the card)

In case you want to keep the look of the V5500 you can choose any small (40x40mm?) fan. The VSA-100 doesn't need much cooling so pretty much any small fan will be alright. If you want more cooling you can mount bigger fans but in my opinion this will affect the looks of the card...

Raptor, there is a really easy way to remove the heatsinks without damaging the card.

put it in the freezer for about an hour, then take it out, put a creditcard or alike near the heatsink, place screwdriver between creditcard and edge of heatsink and twist the screwdriver.

the heatsink incl thermal crap should pop off without too much problem

ok, but while i have the original heatsinks on it...can i still use a Scythe Mini-kaze 40mm fan on each of them to replace the AAVID original fans that are on them?

info:
http://www.quietpc.com/mini-kaze

Yes but because of the voltage of the fans (12V) you must connect them to the system PSU; Voodoo5 require 5V fans feeding direclty from the board.

this is not a problem, i can plug them on a 4-pins Molex connector.

So you're saying this fan is good enough and it won't make my V5500 overheat? I heard about peoples saying it would overheat because the fan doesn't spin fast enough or something...but then you said the fans run at 5V on the card, so that probably mean they spin slower than 12V fans, right?

Nope. You can't compare 5V fans with 12V fans or any others at different rated voltage. There are 5V fans that spin as fast as 12V fans or not, it simply depends on the specs. The rated voltage is not an absolut value but relative to the fan specs.

Now, the original fan is from AAVID, model 1447122 that is obsolete and discontinued. I can't find datasheet anymore, but from a site I found the following specs, but I don't know if they are accurate:

Volts: 5VDC. <-ok
Amps: 0.13A. <-ok
Speed: 6000 RPM. ?
Noise: 25dBaAir. Flow: 4.8 CFM. ?
Dimensions: 40mm x 40mm x 7mm. <-ok

The Scythe fan specs are:

12V
0.06A
3500RPM
14dBa
4.11 CFM
40x40x10mm

So it spins slower and quieter, CFM is smaller but not a huge difference if you ask me, since it is also higher than the AAVID.

IMHO it is a fine replacement but if are not sure you must go for something else.

i'll see if i can have a 2nd one (i just have 1 Scythe Mini-Kaze fan right now) ...or 2 x as-fast but quieter 40mm fans for the card.