Zalman vs PALiT Cooling

[wolf2009]

FOREWORD : The cooler is tightened as tight as possible. It was a hard job figuring out which holes to put the screws in,

because the guide on the zalman website says that no. 5 holes are for 8600GTS. That is not the case. You have to put 2 screws into hole 2 , and 2 into hole 1 to mount the cooler . Way to go ZALMAN, had me doing all sorts or Permutations and Combinations for 30mins .

Yesterday I put on the Zalman VF-900 on my card . Now I don't know whether to say job well done to Zalman, or be surprised at how good Palit cooling is

Used MX-2 , also put the RAM sinks . Will try to go for a higher overclock than PALiT cooling today .

Idle temps went down by 4C.

I did a 3min Furmark test on both .

PALiT cooler 100% - 60C

Zalman VF-900 Cu ( Connected to MB, spinning at 2560 RPM) - 57C .

This is the card (8600GTS) and cooler

 

[Mr. K6]

Wish I could of stopped you before you bought the cooler, but I'm not surprised. The card doesn't put out a lot of heat, so a better cooler isn't going to do much. Still, it was probably a fun project .

 

[twoeyes]

Honestly if you want to squeeze more out a volt mod is always the best route for the mid range cards IMO.

 

[magao]

The exact same cooler is being used by Palit (and XpertVision, and several others) on much higher-end cards - 9600GT, HD3850, HD3870, HD4850 ...

With the fan at 35%, my 9600GT with that cooler sits at around 35C at idle and 40C under load (ambient around 20C at the moment).