Zalman ZM80C-HP performance?

[DsW]

Right guys,

Anyone got experience of the performance of the latest Zalman VGA cooler (or the ZM80A-HP)?

I've recently seen some overheating problems in the 'Call of Duty' demo (using catalyst 3.7), and I was thinking of upgrading from the stock fan on my 9700np.

Apart from the advantages of silence - does the ZM80C (or A) provide better cooling than the stock fan?

The ZM80C can also be fitted with a silent fan, which is another option I suppose.

cheers,
dave

[SilentDeath]

i had the zm80ahp, its not worth the money imo, the vantec iceberq4 should be good enuf and half the price.

im using a vantec iceberq1 on my 9700np temporaly, and the fan on this pushes about half the air and it cools fine, both iirc are silent.

also consider underclocking ur gfx card, for most gaems atm it wont make any differnce, and makes the most in dx9 games. on mine max payne 2 with everything on max, 6x aa 16x af, in 1600*1200 still gets 40fps at 200 core and 270 mem, my card is capable of 400 core and 313.5 mem...

[CrapshoT]

i put one of these on my rad 9700 and it only lasted a week before i put the standard heatsink back on if your not overclocking your card and want a silent pc it would be ok but i found it a bit crap as a cooler i had to make a bracket and aim a blowing fan on to it cos i was o/cing my card

[Aaron]

I've got the original version on my GeForce 4 Ti4600.

The cooling power of the heatsink was roughly equivelent to that of the original heatsink and fan, but raised my case temperature up several degrees.

I guess if it was used in conjunction with a fan it would provide superior cooling but I was more interested in silence.

[SmileyUK]

my colleague sat next to me has one in his home system...well the gold coloured one anyway. He has his card slighlty oc'd with no fan. As long as you have a decent case/airflow then it will do the job just fine. His in in a Lian-li pc65 with only 3 of the 4 case fans on. Is a better option than listening to the whine of the stock radeon coolers and i was llloking at getting one myself at some point..

[SilentDeath]

CrapshoT, u dont need a bracket, the fan can be rested on the back heatsink, on of the top of both, itsgoosd idea not ot have fan on front cos that would counter the heatpipe.

the max anmount of heat output by gfx card is always same unless u overclock it, if ur case temp rised it means that the zalman just had better contact with teh care, and took away more heat, so ur core was probly running about 10*c cooler. the cooling power of this heatsink is imo about the same as the original without using a fan on it, with a fan, the zalman is capable of a lot more heat. a silent fan (80mm) would cost about £5, and would make this cooler a LOT better than the stock cooler due to huuuuuuge airflow, and huuge surface area. cards atm dont need this much cooling power though, and an iceberq4 would be just as good and ull be overclock just as far with it (these are silent, and 1/2 price)

[DsW]

Thanks for your replies.

I think I'll go with the Iceberg4.

cheers,
dave

[CrapshoT]

thanks for the info |SilentDeath| these Iceberg4s will fit straight on to a rad 9700 as well do they ?

[Stewart]

Apparently, with the optional fan, it does a top job. I've seen a good few reviews, and most reccomend it, but only with the fan.

Still, both of them will set you back about £35-£40 the pair, so it may be a bit pricy.

Works though, with the fan.