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So I've got an ATI HD 3650 and the fan is trash on it. I'm trying to hunt down an inexpensive new heatsink/fan for it. I know I could get a new card but the person just wants to keep the card and just put a new heatsink/fan on it. Anyone have any thoughts?

What's the style of heatsink on it? If it's nothing fancy I would just bodge on an 80mm fan or something. I don't think there are any economical solutions, at least nothing that wouldn't be over half the value of that card.

tell them it will cost $40 to replace the fan + tons of your valuable time and they can pick up a comparable brand new card called the 5450 for $30. free shipping.

it's a total waste of your time to be messing about with this. for a card way into it's engineered lifespan.

I agree with spigzone. Not worth your time considering how cheaply the board can be replaced with something better.

I'm going to try and glue a fan onto it and see how that works out to keep it very cheap.

Just buy a dead "as-is" 3650 off eBay and transplant the fan from it.

OK.......Gluing on a fan just sounds dumb to be honest. What size fan/mounting does it have? If its something like a normal 40mm fan, and it uses say a 2 or 3 pin fan connector then no problem. You can buy a little fan and splice the wires to fit properly into that other socket. Pull the pins out of the fan connector on the new fan, and insert them into the plastic shroud of the old one.

This only works if...

1. The fan isn't recessed into a cut out of the heat sink and sits on top.
2. The fan uses the same style headers (for the most part)
3. If the new fan is the same voltage.

I've done this on a Dell server for the CPU and a few old video cards back in the day. You can also cut the wires on the new and old one and solder/twist them together with electrical tape, completely up to you.

If the owner is Ultra Stubborn, you can always look to http://www.frozencpu.com for replacement heat-sink/fans.
Something like this... http://www.frozencpu.com/products/11754 ... 02-RD.html
$19.95, if that suits their needs and is acceptable, probably cheaper than buying a dead 3650 on eBay and hoping its fan isn't on the way out.

Figure out the mounting pin spacing and look on ebay for small/cheap heatsink fans with the same mounting dimensions. I did this for a GF 6200LE, the new heatsink/fan cost <$5 shipped from Hong Kong.