News - ZALMAN releases premium AMD Radeon HD 5800-series cooler

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VF3000A ships with dual 92mm fans and five-heatpipe cooling.

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Read more.

the question is: is it better than the Prolimatech MK13 or Thermalright Spitfire?

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Originally Posted by HW_90

the question is: is it better than the Prolimatech MK13 or Thermalright Spitfire?

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...or the other cards with enhanced cooling solutions such as the Vapor-X or the Powercolour PCS editions?

There was a period of time around 5 years ago when Zalman practically meant quiet effective cooling, however they seem to have lost this crown quite a while ago.
I'd personally quite like to see if they can still bring something effective to the scene.

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Originally Posted by GheeTsar

...or the other cards with enhanced cooling solutions such as the Vapor-X or the Powercolour PCS editions?

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except both of those use non-ref PCB's

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Originally Posted by HW_90

except both of those use non-ref PCB's

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Yup - I'm (vaguely) interested to know if it is better to buy a standard 5870 and an aftermarket cooler such as this Zalman one or a prebuilt non-ref PCB/cooling system 5870 in terms of cost, noise and thermal performance.

These aftermarket cooling options have one flaw - I want the air going OUT my case, not circulating IN.

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Originally Posted by borandi

These aftermarket cooling options have one flaw - I want the air going OUT my case, not circulating IN.

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except doing this involves fitting the cooling to just one type of card and PCB, and causes a problem in itself that more hot air will be circulating in the case due to use of multiple fans

My MSI Radeon HD 5850 has zero problems with noise and runs quite cool. A major plus is that the stock cooler exhausts most of the hot air outside of the case.

This Zalman heatsink doesn't seem to do that at all. Complete failure.

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Originally Posted by HW_90

except doing this involves fitting the cooling to just one type of card and PCB, and causes a problem in itself that more hot air will be circulating in the case due to use of multiple fans

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Don't understand either of your points there.

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Originally Posted by snootyjim

Don't understand either of your points there.

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+1 (i thought it was just me)