Zalman ZM80D-HP on a 6800 GT :)

Sniper_Merc

Sniper_Merc

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
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Well, just spent a few hours putting a ZM80D-HP on my BFG Tech 6800 GT.

9 C drop in temps vs stock cooling. Stock: 78 C, Zalman: 69 C

This is under the massive load using that rthdribl demo.

One big thing of note is that the cooler will not fit on a 6800 GT using the screws provided, however, using a combination of the stock X backplate and the stock screws I was able to mount it with two of the nuts on the X holding the front GPU core plate and using the other two nuts on it to hold the rear plate. Also I had to elongate the holes on the two crossbar pieces.

Here's the raw numbers for anybody interested. Pics to follow.

Stock

Idle Temps
Ambient Room: 76.5 F
Ambient Case: 89 F
Ambient Nvidia Sensor: 36 C
Core Nvidia Sensor: 53 C

Load Temps
Ambient Room 76.5 F
Ambient Case: 91 F
Ambient Nvidia Sensor: 51 C
Core Nvidia Sensor: 78 C


Zalman

Idle Temps
Ambient Room: 75.5 F
Ambient Case: 87 F
Ambient Nvidia Sensor: 35 C
Core Nvidia Sensor: 49 C

Load Temps
Ambient Room 75.2 F
Ambient Case: 93 F
Ambient Nvidia Sensor: 47 C
Core Nvidia Sensor: 69 C


Core Clock 420
Memory 1130

Something else of note, a few days back I yanked the stock cooler off and put some Coolermaster Shin Estu on the core, replacing the stock Arctic Silver 5 that BFG Tech uses. Right off the bat there was a 4C drop in temps, and a further 2C after it cooked for a few days. I will likely see a similar drop after a few days of the Shin settling in again. Great stuff that Shin Estu.

Edit: location of pics has changed but there all in here, http://snipershide.free-universe.com/remote/zalman_zm80d-hp/
 
I apoligize up front for the quality of these pics, my camera sux.

zalman_front_installing_3_close.jpg


zalman_comlete_on_table_backside_1.jpg


zalman_installed_side_2.jpg


And if anybody is interested, heres a bunch more http://snipershide.free-universe.com/remote_pics/zalman_zm80d-hp/

And yes you see an ATI Radeon X800Pro card there without a sink on it, was in process of putting a ZM80C-HP on it, got so tired by the time I finished fabricating new parts I fergot to take pics of it completed. I'll get some pics up of it when I do my own X800Pro vs 6800 GT review ;)
 
DigitalEmperor said:
man .. thats awesome :)

what'd it clock to before the heatsink upgrade?
Click to expand...

Was running the same clock, I haven't tried to push it further, I litterly had just gotten it in when I made that post.

I am rather pleased with the temp drop tho.

I'll clock it up here and see what happens.
 
Absolute max clock is still 435/1150

This is about the same as before, and likely would not finish a run of 3D Mark 2003/01, it will pause before the end.

I honestlly didn't expect to get any higher clocks out of it, I did it mostly for my own piece of mind in regards to the massive heat that the GT's are seeing.
 
Sniper_Merc said:
Absolute max clock is still 435/1150

This is about the same as before, and likely would not finish a run of 3D Mark 2003/01, it will pause before the end.

I honestlly didn't expect to get any higher clocks out of it, I did it mostly for my own piece of mind in regards to the massive heat that the GT's are seeing.
Click to expand...


Yes I found that the GT is not so much limited by the cores as it is with power. If they had two molex connectors < I am willing to bet we would all be able to get these puppies to near EE speeds

PS: Your are a mad man dude ,.....nice work
 
Hey Sniper,where did you hide all the wireing? How much ya charge to clean my case up?
 
haroldmeyer said:
Hey Sniper,where did you hide all the wireing? How much ya charge to clean my case up?
Click to expand...

he he

Most of its hidden behind the rear panel and some comes up for the motherboard from under it.

Would probably charge $100 to hide the bulk of it, and thats just with a wire twist job, which wouldn't include any supplies, IE spiral wrap, cable sleeving, etc etc.

I also go in and remove any unecessary Molex connectors from fan Y and passthrough splitters splice fans together etc etc.

Wire ties, splicing terminals and wire tie mounts would be included in that.

Here's what it looks like without hiding the wiring, before and after in a decent wire twist job.

Before
http://s91019022.onlinehome.us/images/scoop/scoop_1.jpg

After
http://s91019022.onlinehome.us/images/scoop/scoop_2.jpg

Thats about a $60 job there, in my particular case I took the extra steps to hide as much wiring as I could behind the panel obviously.
 
jacuzz1 said:
Yes I found that the GT is not so much limited by the cores as it is with power. If they had two molex connectors < I am willing to bet we would all be able to get these puppies to near EE speeds

PS: Your are a mad man dude ,.....nice work
Click to expand...


Thks :)
 
One thing I did notice when I had it all apart is that the core is actually marked as a GT, figure IBM/Nvidia must be speed binning them, keeping the best ones for Ultra and EE cores.

I do however think that the GT would benifit from a little more core and memory voltage.
 
sucker, and here i was about to say you're my new hero for passively cooling a 6800gt
 
Heres the setup I used to allow me to get the Zalman mounted, I did have a couple of extra rubber washers from my previous ZM80C-HP so you'll have to find a couple of extras at hardware store, or just come up with a different config than I used.

front_side_layout_1.jpg


back_side_layout_1.jpg


top_side_layout1.jpg


Oh and the reason for using the brass washer on the backside is so the backplate would clear the screwheads, if you don't use it, the screwheads stick up too far and hit the back plate.
 
damn, you must have been freaking out a bit when you found out the included screws didn't work? Nice work! That's a real job, and your case looks fantastic. I have a pretty good case, but no where near as clean as yours. KUDOS.
 
oozish said:
damn, you must have been freaking out a bit when you found out the included screws didn't work? Nice work! That's a real job, and your case looks fantastic. I have a pretty good case, but no where near as clean as yours. KUDOS.
Click to expand...

Thks ooz :)

I knew they wouldn't work before I ever bought it, I had some Zalman screws left over from my previous two installs from the spare parts bags and had already tried them before hand. Thus the reason it took a few hours to come up with that particular configuration.

I do intend to head for the hardware store and find some smooth shanked screws, and some replacement threaded bosses (the small threaded cap pieces that come in the zalman package) so It will be of a more standard configuration without the need to elongate the holes on the crosbars.

I also want to use 4 mounting arms per side instead of just the two on each side for a more even pressure. There are 4 more arms in the Zalman package, i just checked it, also found 4 more rubber washers in there too, so it actually isn't necessary, as I pointed out in my review above, to go out and get more at the hardware store.
 
I was thinking of doing the same thing, just am alittle concerned about crushing the core,
With just the two diagonal screws causing unequal pressure.
A while back some people were having problems putting the Zally on the radion cards,
Do you think a shim might be in order?

You gotta have the biggest jockstrap around :eek:
 
You won't crush the core, there is equal pressure between the two arms that are on it, I do intend to use 4 arms on it eventually tho. I just need to come up with a good way of doing that.

I don't think a shim is necessary, just finding a good way to attach 4 arms instead of 2 would be better

I did put one of the single pipe versions in an X800pro using only two arms as Zalman suggests, the thing with it is that you either have to use the smaller block included in the kit or trim the corners on the arms to get the arms to fit with the larger block which is what I did.

Also on the x800pro you have to either use no ramsinks or get short ones, i had actually had my friend that bought it pick up some OCZ copper sinks and they were too tall on the backside to clear the backplate and the heat pipe. What I did there was just use some longer screws so it offset the back plate taller, and bend the heat pipe a bit to get it over the ramsinks.

I also manufactured two crossbars from some scrap aluminum, just elongating the holes on the ones included wasn't enough.

Now having said all that, on the ZM80D-HP (the new version) includes short ramsinks which you can see I used here on my card, using them on the backsided of the x800pro would negate the necessity to do all the extra crap that I wound up doing, (I didn't know about the new versoin when I did the x800pro).

I have an idea in my head right now on how to use 4 arms on my GT but I need to try it out before I go posting about it.
 
When I did my 5950 Ultra I had the same problem with the ram sinks, so I left them off.
With that nice big flow of air going over it, I'm not sure sinks are needed. AH.....what am I saying of course they are, I just couldn't wait to mode something!
Nice work, Now I'm bound to do mine tomorrow,thanks alot :D
 
How about some voltage mod on that 6800gt? that should let u o/c higher now that u have decent coolin..
 
OPUS1 said:
When I did my 5950 Ultra I had the same problem with the ram sinks, so I left them off.
With that nice big flow of air going over it, I'm not sure sinks are needed. AH.....what am I saying of course they are, I just couldn't wait to mode something!
Nice work, Now I'm bound to do mine tomorrow,thanks alot :D
Click to expand...

YW :)

Btw, I just spent the last few hours tearing the card apart and did find a way to use 4 arms on both the back and front side to hold the GPU core slug and the thin backside plate.

I'm so tired right now im not going to upload my pics just yet, but basicly what I did is use the 4 stock chrome plated screws with there springs to hold on the front with 4 of the spring arms screwed through to the stock X plate, I then backed the screws about halfway out and forced 4 of the ramsink screws from the stock heatsink into the threads from the other side, pulled them back out and then used 4 of the brass bushings, that are normally used for the cross bars, on the back of the X plate, put the back Zalman plate on with its four arms and screwed them down till they were tight, backing out the frontside screws as necessary to be able to get the back screws in.

Note that the 4 black screws from the stock ramsinks are actually a different thread than the X plate but the screws are soft enough that you can jam them in there and they will grab well enough, and I removed the springs off them.


Don't quite know if I've explained that right, too tired. Heres the short version of the sequence.

Front side GPU slug, 4 arms, going through the arm holes are the 4 stock chrome plated screws with there springs in place, 4 rubber washers, just to hold the screws on while mounting. Screw them in till they stop then back them out by half.

Back side small Zalman plate with 4 arms on it rests on top of 4 Zalman brass bushings 4 of the black stock screws from the ramsinks then go in and screw them in till they stop, if you have to back out the front side screws do so, just enough untill the arms on the back plate are tight with the bushings.

The rest is as before, you'll still need to elongate the holes in the cross members with a small round file, especially now that the mount is a hell of a lot more secure and barely flexes at all.

At any rate, im going to bed, i'll post up the pics of exactly how I did it whever I wake up tomorrow afternoon ;)
 
Chaballaman said:
How about some voltage mod on that 6800gt? that should let u o/c higher now that u have decent coolin..
Click to expand...

If I knew of an easy volt mod I would probably do it ;)

Nvidia is only about 7 minutes from my front door, mebe I can go have one of the BIOS enginers write me a bios with a higher core and ram voltage ;)
 
Heres the raw pics of what I did last night if anybody is interested.

This is with using 4 arms instead of just two on both sides of the card.

http://snipershide.free-universe.com/remote_pics/zalman_zm80d-hp/zalman_layout_2/

I'm not quite happy with this configuration as it doesn't apply as much core pressure as I would like due to the front side screws needing to be backed out a bit, but it is a more even pressure across the core vs the two arm config.

Oh overall though, using the 4 arm config with the X plate is an assload more solid than just the two arms per side. That sucker don't move at all.

I guess I'm going to have to break down and either drill 4 holes in the backside X plate and come through it with some flat head, counter sunk screws to mout the back Zalman plate, or just get some longer shanked screws and cap nuts that will fit through the holes in the card better.
 
Here's the 4 arm and screw config that I came up with last night. Note that you will have to use 4 of the 6 brass bushings included in the Zalman kit to perform this, so you will have to save two off the shorter screws included in the kit to mount 1 of the 2 cross bars, normally the bushings are used there with longer screws. And you will still need to elongate the holes in the cross bars.

You should be able to do this with just the parts included in the Zalman kit.

The black ramsink screws don't really fit the threads in the X plate but they are soft enough that you can jam them in there and they will fit. Just takes a good screwdriver and a steady hand, do this OFF THE CARD, in case you slip, don't want to jam the scredriver into the PCB. This can all be mounted and finished off the card and then the frontside slug attached.Oh and be sure to remove the black springs.

zalman_backside_screwconfig_1.jpg


zalman_backside_screwconfig_2.jpg


Front side slug is pretty much self explanitory, just screw the chrome screws in with there springs to hold down the GPU slug, the screws will stop when they hit the black screw ends.

zalman_frontside_screwconfig_1.jpg


zalman_frontside_screwconfig_2.jpg
 
Kenbo said:
This is great!! Exactly what I wanted to see, you da man!!
Click to expand...

Thks :)

I still intend to find a way to get more pressure on the core but what I have there now is adequite.

My origional intention was to see if it could be done without having to buy any extra parts, just use whats on the card and what comes in the Zalman kit, Now that I've accomplished that, I'll probably just get like 8 washers and put two of them between the stock spring screws and the Zalman spring arms, just to increase the tension on the core.

My temps are pretty much on par with what I had before. 52C on the core at idle, 70C at full load using that rthdribl demo.
 
I wanted to bring this back to the top for a while since I just did this 6800GT mod myself.

I installed it normally per the instructions with the Zalman screws and hardware. In order to do this, I had to slightly enlarge two of the heatsink mount holes. Unless you have a steady hand and can afford to replace your 6800GT, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! There are traces within a few mm of these holes. :eek: If you slip, or let the bit walk, you're going to have a dead card. I used a new sharp drill bit (7/64 i think, check the size carefully yourself before you begin) in my fingers and slowly worked the holes. Do not use a drill, dremel, or any other power tool for this job. It's too delicate. I didn't install the optional fan, but only because I have a side case fan perfectly positioned to blow across the video card.

I also mirror polished the mounting surface of the main heatsink that attaches to the GPU.

It works great, and I'm very happy with the cooling. Around 62C idle in a 79 degree F room. Load temps in Farcry and Doom3 were not quite reaching 90C.

At this point my system is complete, an all air cooled, reliable, and still very quiet overclocked system. I can't believe how quiet it is considering how hard I push it.

Thanks again Sniper for the idea of using one of these in the first place. I had one of the single pipe versions on my 9800pro but sold it with the card. I just assumed it wouldn't work on the 6800GT, but this new dual pipe version is quite awesome.

General Specs:
P4C 2.8 @ 3.5 Cooled with a Zalman CNPS7000A-Alcu, and 6800GT w/Zalman heat pipe cooler. Thermaltake Butterfly 480w Power supply running low fan RPM. Motherboard: ASUS P4C-800 Deluxe. Case: Chen-Ming style aluminum tower.
 
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