Apple replacement GF2-card with SMALL heatsink!

[Steffen Barabasch]

>Nope, not a mistake. The GF2 with the monster heatsink was an early rev of
>the card. Subsequent Cube cards all had the smaller heatsink - although I am
>not sure why.

My Cube was build 2-Jul-2001, actually one of the last batch of Cubes 
that were built, so no early revision Cube here.

>the card went out and it was replaced under AppleCare with a GF2 with a
>smaller black colored heatsink.  I was assured that it was the latest
>version.  No problems so far.

I just spoke with the Service Provider, and he told me that he 
wondered as well, but looked it up and it seems to be a newer 
revision.

>There are different revisions of the card itself (and the nVidia chip on
>it). Newer revisions generate less heat because of the thinner process
>(.13nm, I believe). Card revision 161 (firmware not less 1055) is safe to
>run in Cube as-is for prolonged time.

I was hoping for that, if it is indeed a die-shrink, it could work 
with the smaller heatsink. The small heatsink doesn't cover the VRAM 
as well, so maybe the big heatsink did more harm than good by 
*heating up* the RAM with the heat from the GPU, who knows?

>Would you please tell us what's the orientation of the heatsink fins on the
>card you got? Is it in line with the Cube's convection system? If not, then
>Apple is using 'unisex' cards, and my advice - do not mess with the
>heatsink, the glue is tough as hell there. I almost screwed my card trying
>to replace the heatsink with my own design.

They go sideways, that's what makes me really wonder who (if any) 
thought about that... Apparently the just used the same cards for all 
machines. And no, after hearing that it's like that by *design*, not 
*mistake* (like on the upgrade-Cube-Radeons!) I won't mess with 
anything. I got AppleCare after all. If it melts, it's Apple's 
problem. I just ebay'ed a Rage128 card just to be safe in the case 
the GF2 dies (after AppleCare maybe) and I need a working card...

Steffen
-- 
Steffen Barabasch (mailto:TheMirror at westend.com)