Add VF3000F coolers or wait

N

Nirad9er

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
Messages
2,956
I was wondering if its worth adding the Zalman VF3000F coolers to my GTX 470 SLI. I'm seeing temps in the high 80s. It'll cost roughly $130. These coolers would obviously tone down the fan noise and allow me around 10% additional overclock from where I'm at now (currently 750core / 1800mem). I know there are some new GPU's coming out soon and I don't know if its worth upgrading my current GPUs since I can max every game out right now.

Basically, is the added cost worth the lower fan noise and additional 10% overclock?
 
do you think the reduced noise is worth 130usd? I'd rather get a pair of ATH-A700 headphones to mask the noise, though that may be an unattractive option for some?
 
I had the same dilema and I went with a single GTX 580. Its that Asus one with the triple slot cooler and while its miles and miles quieter and cooler than my GTX 470 SLI, I can tell its not nearly as powerful. So I would say that if you like the performance you have now and you just want to kill sound then spring for the Zalmans. If I had it to do again that might be what I would do.
 
I thought the Zalman wasn't meant to be used in SLi...
The Arctic Cooling Xtreme Plus has an open-intake design that works when the card's butted up right against another one, but the Zalman isnt that open - the fans would be struggling to suck air...

At the same time, those AC Xtreme Plus's are behemoths that I don't really want hanging in my case. I like Zalman's one plate design for all of the memory cooling better than AC's individual sinks that all have to be (permanently) atached.

Ugh, I don't know. My 570's need some queiter.better cooling. Wish the Zalmans would work in tight SLi...
 
the problem with 470s in sli is that there is no room between the cards.. i put to aftermarket coolers on mine and the temps where great just one card but when you put the 2nd in there the top card has no room to push air and the air it gets is hot air from the bottom card. there only way i found around it is to have the card spaced out more if you have the motherboard that will let you and get a long sli bridge. how i had to solve the problem and my temps never go about 77c under heavy load in furmark for 10 min. it idle's at 36c

http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/vga-cooler/setsugen-2.html
coolers i used but i put bigger fans on them.
 
bdavis24 said:
the problem with 470s in sli is that there is no room between the cards.. i put to aftermarket coolers on mine and the temps where great just one card but when you put the 2nd in there the top card has no room to push air and the air it gets is hot air from the bottom card. there only way i found around it is to have the card spaced out more if you have the motherboard that will let you and get a long sli bridge. how i had to solve the problem and my temps never go about 77c under heavy load in furmark for 10 min. it idle's at 36c

http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/vga-cooler/setsugen-2.html
coolers i used but i put bigger fans on them.
Click to expand...

Watercool them, its well worth the expense and you can reuse the blocks if you get MCW80's. You will be able to buy the blocks for less than the Zalman or AC air coolers and then pair it with one of these kits.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...e_IandH_Silver_Kill_Coil.html?tl=g30c321s1310

Here's what mine looks like, full load temps on my 470's at 800mhz folding is 46C. Note that I bought the extra custom heatsink kits but if I had to do it again I would just leave the stock metal baseplate on and only remove the gpu heatpipe section of the stock sink.


 
Brahmzy said:
I thought the Zalman wasn't meant to be used in SLi...
The Arctic Cooling Xtreme Plus has an open-intake design that works when the card's butted up right against another one, but the Zalman isnt that open - the fans would be struggling to suck air...

At the same time, those AC Xtreme Plus's are behemoths that I don't really want hanging in my case. I like Zalman's one plate design for all of the memory cooling better than AC's individual sinks that all have to be (permanently) atached.

Ugh, I don't know. My 570's need some queiter.better cooling. Wish the Zalmans would work in tight SLi...
Click to expand...

The VF3000F can be used in SLI if you have enough PCI-E slots spaced properly, with say a 4 way or 3 way sli mobo, but just a normal sli motherboard it wont work since you need 3 slots between them.
 
Its obviously possible.

dsc0082w.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top