Tom's Hardware > Forum > Overclocking > Cooler and Heatsinks > Quiet VGA cooling
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bront   02-28-2006 at 07:55:02 AM

I'm not worried about my video card's temps as much as the noise the stock cooler generates (My 7800 GT maxes out under 65).

Is the Zalman fan a good fit? I've read it's loud. Also, does it come in a blue coloring? I've got a blue theme building in the case (well, I do on the outside, working on the inside eventualy)

Are the Silencers bigger? I'm not realy worried about space (I have 1 slot open below the card, I can move the Midi port I have plugged in there).

Please help. The PC is silent (Stock 3800 fan, 120 MM case fan, and a temp sensitive fan in my PSU (120 MM fan in the Antec Truepower 550)) except the stock Nvidia cooler on the card, and If I fix that one issue, that would help tremendously.

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chuckshissle   02-28-2006 at 10:22:51 AM
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Well the Zalman and Artic Cooler vga coolers are great but its not much of a difference in heat. The great advantage is that it is a lot quiter than the stock 7800 cooler. But if you're running sli then you might wanna check the cards space. The artic silencer takes 3 slot including the pci-e, its pretty huge, so I have returned mine cuz it did not fit in my sli setup. I don't know much about the zalmans size but I heard it pretty outstanding vga cooler as well. So right now my case is not silent due to the stock cooler.

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bront   02-28-2006 at 05:17:59 PM
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Not running SLI, but my VGA card is above the 3 PCI slots, 2 of which are occupied.

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ak47is1337   02-28-2006 at 05:45:28 PM
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Zalman is quite large, keep that in mind.

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bront   02-28-2006 at 11:40:00 PM
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Quote :

Zalman is quite large, keep that in mind.


Large enough to be in the way of the sound card 2 slots below it?

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ak47is1337   02-28-2006 at 11:50:31 PM
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Are they directly behind it, or is there a PCI slot you can spare?
I just checked in my case; you certainly need at least a spare PCI slot for the Zalman VF700 series.

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bront   02-28-2006 at 11:57:37 PM
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My slots go-

PCI-E
PCI-E
PCI-E 16X (7800 GT)
PCI (Currently the Midi port header)
PCI (Sound Blaster Audigy 2)
PCI (3Com Netcard)

I guess I could pull out the network card, as I'm not using it at the moment (I was going to use it and disable the onboard)

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ak47is1337   03-01-2006 at 12:37:42 AM
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Well, I suppose you'll have to with that motherboard. Unless your due for a mobo upgrade thats your only choice unless you plan to remain stock, as the Arctic Silencer, Zalman VF700 and Thermalright V-1 all need 2 slots ><

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hongkongphuey   03-01-2006 at 01:16:58 AM
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One good thing about the Artic Cooler is that it blows Air OUTSIDE the case.... something worth noting... Also, you can get simular temp drops by getting a PCI fan $10 newegg.com (don't remember if you have the room) which also exhausts are OUTside the PC but that will eat one slot right below the card, and when used with your existing GPU cooling it does a good amount of cooling. The only upside IMO, to the Zalman and the Artic Cooler is the Copper base on them. My BFG card has one (stock! Yay!) so I just use the PCI fan in conjunciton and I get great OC's!

Cheers. 8)

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ak47is1337   03-01-2006 at 02:12:09 AM
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what is your video card and temperatures with pci fan and zalman? im considering buying one.

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hongkongphuey   03-01-2006 at 05:18:50 PM
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Well my BFG 6800GT came at stock 370/1000 and now I run at 400/1100 and under a full load of gaming @ 4 hours I never go past 61*/43*. A 10% gain is not bad for $10 (PCI fan) or $30(Artic Cooler, should go higher), considering you could pay $100 and just buy the Ultra... I know compared to Asus Vento cases and water cooling can do better, but this is a DIY project so I was somewhat limited in my resources as to what I could put in and $$... Anyhow, the BFG Card (68GT) comes with a dual fan and copper heat sink cooler on the card. So it is meant to run as an Ultra (16 pipes) without the extra 4-pin molex, extra power needs, and two slot real estate. It's a great deal IMO. So if you buy a PCI fan, make sure you have some good airflow in your fragbox, it helps.

Cheers and Best of Luck.
HKP

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bront   03-02-2006 at 05:59:37 AM
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I'm thinking of going with the Accelero, and then putting an intake fan in the system (currently it only has outtake fans). While I'm in there, I may replace the stock CPU cooler, or at least put some AS5 on it.

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hongkongphuey   03-02-2006 at 05:08:45 PM
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Intake fans make a good difference.. If you figure you add one at 45CFM
and your outtake has 60CFM, you get better and cooler air flow in your box as opposed to just pulling the warm air throught out your computer. Even though there might only be a 5* drop, that 5* may allow you to further push your system or just make it more stable, which in turn is more FPS, and hopefully, more victories. So I really believe that $10 investment makes itself back time and time again, if performance is really your thing... :wink:

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bront   03-02-2006 at 10:43:25 PM
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Quote :

Intake fans make a good difference.. If you figure you add one at 45CFM
and your outtake has 60CFM, you get better and cooler air flow in your box as opposed to just pulling the warm air throught out your computer. Even though there might only be a 5* drop, that 5* may allow you to further push your system or just make it more stable, which in turn is more FPS, and hopefully, more victories. So I really believe that $10 investment makes itself back time and time again, if performance is really your thing... :wink:

Actualy, I had a 75 CFM fan on intake, and that didn't help much of anything :( Chipset got a degree cooler, HD got 5 degrees cooler, not much else. I have great airflow in my case. But, if I have the Accelero dumping hot air in the case, I'll probably add the extra fan just to keep the air moving, and cooling the HD isn't a bad idea.

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function9   03-03-2006 at 06:20:03 PM
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Quote :

Actualy, I had a 75 CFM fan on intake, and that didn't help much of anything Sad Chipset got a degree cooler, HD got 5 degrees cooler, not much else.

Been my experience too. I have a p180 with a fan in the front, back and down the PSU. Turning off the intake fan while running 2 instances of F@H did nothing to temps. I don't have the upper HDD cage installed either, so nothing is in the way of the front intake. Pics and specs can be found here if you're interested.

Front intakes are good if you have HDDs sitting right behind it, definitely want a little air blowing over those. Also if you're so inclined as to duct the front fan to target a specific area.

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bront   03-03-2006 at 10:21:42 PM
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I've got the P160W with Truepowere II 550, so must be an Antec thing, because this was Not the case with some of my other computers. If I put my hand in front of the intake, I can feel lots of air moving, which is pretty impressive for a case with only 2 exhaust fans.

I like how you routed your cables, that's pretty cool. I think my case is a little bigger, as I was able to run them between the motherboard an the drive chassis with no problem. Even the ribbon cables are pretty flush and don't impede airflow enough to worry about.

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