NEW ZALMAN VGA COOLER...what do you think?

If you got that and a Zalman 7000+....you would see nothing but fins! But you wouldn't hear much either! ;)

And I just got my Silencer today....*shugs*
 
It looks pretty nice, but why keep the heat in the case if you can pump it out (Arctic Cooling VGA silencer reference)? I bet it's a good product but I like to help cool my case by removing hot air as opposed to swishing it around. Just my 2 bits worth.
 
I've had the all copper version running on my 6800u since just before christmas and I'm very pleased with it.

In silent mode I'm getting nearly exactly the same temps, 55/70, as the copper stock cooler that came with my card (gainward golden sample 430/1200), but with only a whisper.

It's also considerably cooler and quieter than the nv5 I had (but that had a borked fan which may have made it unrepresentative).

I'm suprised by the apparent large drop in performance to the al-cu version evident from the ARP review.
 
MartinX, you have a glh card?

What temps you get when running the zalman with full speed?
 
justacow said:
MartinX, you have a glh card?

What temps you get when running the zalman with full speed?
Click to expand...

I think the GLH branding postdates my card (I got it back in July)
I can't even remember the full name of my card it was "Gainward Powerpack 2600 ultra golden sample" or something stupid like that, helpfully Gainward had three cards with nearly the same name at the time, the model number is 6015 though, it runs at 430/1200 out of the box.

The cooler it came with was the copper version of the nvidia reference one, like the one you can buy from evga.

I was mostly concerned with low noise so I tried that first, and the temp was so good I just left it, I might give full speed a try later and get back.
 
Meh, looks cool but I'd rather have the air exhausted from the case. It's just not my style I guess.
 
Right now im havin 55°Idle and 63-66°load if the Zalman would keep it like 5° cooler ill maybe fit it on my card.

Rewievs only show temps of "normal" gts, but those gainward beasts have higher temps than the most gts.
 
I just installed an ATI Silencer 4 on my XT PE or should I say X800pro Vivo softmodded and overclocked to 560/590, but thats a mouthfull. The temps went down dramatically! from 41c idle to 35c ~ load 74c to 56c. :D
 
Well, I may have to eat my words here pretty soon. I've stuffed a NV6800 in my HTPC which is housed in an Antec Overture case. The case height is just *slightly* larger then the height of a full size PCI card. My 6800 is the Gigabyte GV-N68128DH (large passive heatsink w/o a fan). The heatpipes as they curl above and over to the other side of the video card rise too high and make contact with the case "lid" not allowing me to close the computer. So then I thought I'd just get an NV5 silencer...but then after ordering I got the bright idea that maybe the fan shroud sticks above the card too so I checked it out on my other computer that has an Asus V9999Ultra Deluxe (6800U) with the same NV5 silencer on it and it, too, rises above the PCB of the video card. So when the NV5 comes in I might have to return it - DANG IT! :mad:

So, question is: Does the Zalman VGA cooler once installed, rise above the PCB of the video card? Or is it flush/lower?
 
That cooler looks pretty impressive. But as my experience with Zalman goes, they're meant for silence, not overclocking.

I've fitted the Zalman ZM80C-HP this one with the optional fan onto my 5900 Ultra flashed to 5950 Ultra and it gave almost the exact same temps as the reference cooler did.

It was a fair bit quieter but didn't allow me to overclock any further than the reference design... With the Arctic coolers however with there unique design to take air and flush it out the back of the case, always gave me awesome overclocking capabilities. I put one on my 9800Pro and it was sooo much better than the stock cooler on that thing.

I guess my point is, the zalman may look fancy, but you didn't buy your video card to stare at it all day, you want results. Unless your going for silence, you should stay away from the zalmans, as they don't improve OCing potential by very much for what there worth, the NV5 does a much better job.

my 0.2$ - Winston
 
Looks to me that the assembly on this unit is much more complicated than the NV Silencer 5 /ATi Silencer 4.
 
i personaly think it wont fit NV cards cause of the RAM coolers coliding with the cooler....
Click to expand...
you all think this is true?

the cooler rises above the card like about a half a inch..and might fit..but with all the ram on the top of the Nvidia cards it might be a close fit
 
Warrior said:
you all think this is true?
Click to expand...

Naw, I don't think that's true or else Zalman wouldn't be able to market this to ANY NV cards. Plus if you look at the flash installation video, you'll see the cooler rise above the RAM coolers. It'll fit. It's another way of getting around the problem with the NV5 coolers from A.C. when the RAM heatsinks don't make proper contact with the RAM.
 
ok..i might use this cooler for my older cards..not my 68GT...
 
I can't say how close the ram sinks come to the fins on mine (I'll check in while, when I'm switching over to loud mode), but I can say that I don't know what the clearance is like because it never crossed my mind when installiing them, so it obviously wasn't an issue.

I do remember thinking that the ram sinks were very small, the base is exactly the same size as the ram chips.

But the fan blows through the fins right on to them, so I guess they don't have to be that big.
 
Doesn't look like it's a performance based solution to me... As someone already mentioned, it appears to be geared towards noise reduction.
 
in the review the older zalman beats the newer one..why would zalman briung out something new...and not have it beat its current vga cooler?

it would be as if Intel just brought out a new 1.8ghz CPU
 
Warrior said:
it would be as if Intel just brought out a new 1.8ghz CPU
Click to expand...

Way off topic but that might just happen...

It will be dual core though.
 
I'm going to have to backpedal on how good the zalman is at cooling, I've run some fresh tests, and the results are not nearly as impressive as first time round.

I put it down to a combination of environmental factors (the ambient temperature was way lower than it is right now) and possibly drunkeness (I was mostly wasted that whole week) that skewed the original results.

Anyway New results:

6800U @430/1200

Silent mode: Idle 55/ load 80.
Noisy mode: idle 52/ load 75.
Passive mode: lost my nerve at 100.

I can also confirm that turning off the fan entirely made no difference at all in terms of noise in my case, which isn't very loud to begin with.

In noisy mode, it was about the same as the stock cooler when it was idling.

The RAM sinks have decent clearance, they only come about halfway between the board and the bottom of the sink.

Installation wise, it went on easier than any sink I've ever applied, and it's prettymuch impossible to over or under tighten (it's the same sort of tension bar deal as their cpu sinks, only much less pressure is needed). That said, my nv5 was one of the ones where the ramsinks prevented proper core mating and required "adjustment", so I'm biased.

My only real complaint is that I don't like the way the fan cable is mounted, it's held in a little bracket that puts it too close to the fan for my liking.

So yeah revised evaluation, it'll happily cool a 6800U@430/1200 in near silence, but not really a stellar performance piece (although 80 degrees, at that speed, with almost no noise is acceptable in my book).
 
Warrior said:
nice review..btw what board manufacture is your 6800?
Click to expand...

My card is the daftly named "Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2600TV-DVI-DVI Golden Sample" ,or "6015" to it's friends (I particularly like the "!" stuck right in the middle).

I got it about the first week of August, and for some reason it had a different cooler to the one that ships on the same model now, they come with a big dual fan sleeve thing now, but mine had the copper version of the nividia stock cooler.

I have good reason to believe that only 8 cards identical to mine were shipped, but that's another story...
 
too many OC'ers on this forum for anyone to say its good.

zalman makes coolers for quiet pc's. so obviously its not gunna be good to oc with. thats not who its marketed to. its marketed to ppl like me who dont want to hear their computers.

its better than the previous vga cooler they had, and thats good enough for me. my only concern is if its NOT quiet enough. im currently running my 9800pro completely passivly cooled. i just hope when i upgrade to a x800 xl that this new cooler doesnt make my computer too noisy for my liking. if it is i might have to try and see if i can run the old zalman cooler passivly on it.

we'll see.
 
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