Replace Saphire x1900xt cooler?

[corvetteguy]

I wasn't planning on it but i figured i might do some overclocking on it sometime in the future, and plus i heard it was noisy.

What do you guys think about this?

Zalman VF900-CU LED Copper Dual Heatpipe 1350-2400RPM 18.5-25.0DBA VGA Cooler W/ Blue LED

I think this will take up the same amout of space as the stock cooler but will it blow air out of the case or just into the case away from the chip?

 

[Anoobis]

That's a decent cooler, but according to Firingsquad the Accelero X2 is a better cooler for the money. There's no OC results (??) but techPowerUp tested them as well and included some overclocking results. Impressive. I'm thinking about getting one for my X1800XT.

I don't understand Zalman. They make decent gear, but their pricing is insane.

 

[raven_87]

I got a VF-900.

Not bad. Havent' reach 60C load on the X1800XT it's fitted too. Thats around half fan speed. So I consider it a decent product.

 

[corvetteguy]

That's a decent cooler, but according to Firingsquad the Accelero X2 is a better cooler for the money. There's no OC results (??) but techPowerUp tested them as well and included some overclocking results. Impressive. I'm thinking about getting one for my X1800XT.

I don't understand Zalman. They make decent gear, but their pricing is insane.

Yeah toms did one just recently on five vga coolers and they gave the zalman the lowest mark. But according to their results i thought it did very well, especially on the noise test. I'm starting not to like many tom's reviews because they are always so harsh but i guess its good to have at least one harsh review.

PS> When it comes to coolers i don't care too much about price since the highest price isn't that much. I just care about performance. I've chosen the zalman 9500 for my x2 3800 on that crosshair board and a good cooling case so this pc should be very cool. Plus all of them come with leds which is always good. 8)

 

[function9]

I don't understand Zalman. They make decent gear, but their pricing is insane.

Because they can. Zalman is probably the most known name hs/f business. While their products do offer lower noise and better thermal performance compared to stock parts, their stuff is more for "mainstream" users- People that are looking for something thats more quiet than the stock hsf they got with their cpu/video card/etc.

If you don't want "more quiet than stock" but instead want "as quiet as possible", my opinion is there are usually better solutions than Zalman and most times cost less.

 

[newsk-1]

I tried the 900 but I was not happy.With stock I could do 680/820,
with Zalman,...660/801.Plus it ran hotter overclocked.
There is just no way the little RAM heatsinks,even with Arctic5 and an extra fan on them,can out cool the 1.5Lb. leaf-blower :lol:
Just do like I did and lap the stock one.It now cools great and rarely will it's
fan go past 40% speed,still reasonably quiet,and I can OC higher than ever.
Looping 06' will get me to 77C. Idle is 60C with ambient tempe around 77F.
Just save your money and time.
The problem with the x1900 series is that, not just the chip's get hot,but the WHOLE CARD gets pretty hot,andthe problem with cooling the 1900xtx isnt just cooling the gpu and memory,... its cooling the entire card.. the whole thing get far to hot for my liking... an extra case fan blowing on it at least stops it burning my fingers when I touch the voltage regulators at the back.. he he

 

[function9]

an extra case fan blowing on it at least stops it burning my fingers when I touch the voltage regulators at the back.. he he

Well there are things I wouldn't do even if I could, licking my own butt I think fits nicely in that category :tongue:

 

[newsk-1]

What can I say,..I am a masochist.But just remember,..you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose,...but you can't pick your friends nose.
I figure I am just as good as anyone when it comes to posting something that is completely irrelevant to topic. :roll:

 

[function9]

posting something that is completely irrelevant to topic.

Not entirely true. You made a comment about something that I would say is on the same level as what I stated. Your original comment is no more on topic than mine was.

Oh, EDIT: :roll:

 

[newsk-1]

Not to be any more off topic, but are you saying,..licking ass is as off topic as a hot video card in a thread about hot video cards??

no edit but no more emoticons,I promise.

 

[function9]

No, I'm saying that licking ass is as much on topic as touching something you're probably not supposed to. Those regulators are there for a reason, but I don't think being touched is one of them. My first statement was a light hearted poke at what you said.

But back on topic, I would check out Madshrimps and Silent PC Review for heatsink fans. From my experience with past products from Zalman (vf700) and Arctic Cooling (NV Silencer) is AC's fans are much better as far as noise goes and it also exhausted out of the back of the case. Case temps between the two rose slightly when using the Zalman, but if you have decent airflow in your case it's nothing to worry about.

Depending on the airflow in your case you might want to check out http://www.aero-case.com/. Granted I don't know if I would OC with this, but they have some interesting products. I'll probably go with their Condor when I get a 1900xt.

 

[Anoobis]

Accelero X2s do not vent to the outside of the case.

 

[newsk-1]

"My first statement was a light hearted poke at what you said. "
OOOOHH...I see,a light hearted poke,...I would hate to see an actual sarcastic remark from you if inferring one lickes his own butt is light hearted!

I still think the best and most cost efficient cooling option for the x1900 series is to get out your Dremel,buy some metal polish,{remember to buff with pure arctic-5 on final buff to fill the microscopic pits with thermal paste instead of compound and air}and buff till a mirror finish.Took me like 25 min.to do it all.
Use some Arctic-5 on gpu and heatsinks.
Since my thermal paste has solidified,my idle and load temps. have dropped even more. 45C Idle and the highest I have observed is 70.
Ambient being around 70F.
PS..any contact between my skin and any elecrtonic device is purely coincidental.
PPS...hey Function9,..If you go with the Condor,what will you use to cool your ram chips?

 

[corvetteguy]

Accelero X2s do not vent to the outside of the case.

And this is also not an issue if you have a case with halfway descent airflow. My Accelero X2 by itself dropped my peak temps on my X1900XT from 85c to 70c and despite it not ventilating out of the case my motherboard and processor temps stayed exaclty the same.


I now have my X1900XT at 39c idle and 60c full load and thats with a overclock of 730core and 832mem. I will be glad to post a pic of how I am doing this if anyone is interested.

HLY CRAP! What kind of benchmarks do you get with that? I guess you raised the voltage pretty high? How did you do it?

 

[function9]

OOOOHH...I see,a light hearted poke,...I would hate to see an actual sarcastic remark from you if inferring one lickes his own butt is light hearted!

Hey I can get pretty saucy if the right kind of alcohol is involved

With the Condor I would look at something like this for the ram. My understanding is those chips really don't get hot unless you're OCing which I wouldn't do with the Aero-case cooler. But I'll have to wait and see when I get the card to know how it'll work in my setup.

 

[corvetteguy]

What was your mark before overclocking. If you don't know thats alright, just looking for a comparison. How about games? 40fps in oblivion at 16x12 at max detail? :lol:

 

[corvetteguy]

What was your mark before overclocking. If you don't know thats alright, just looking for a comparison. How about games? 40fps in oblivion at 16x12 at max detail? :lol:

Im thinking before I overclocked the CPU and GPU my 05 score was like 11,200 marks.

In Oblivion I have everything at max details including 8XAF 2XAA with HDR and the lowest point my frames get outside in the dense forest is 37fps. My LCD only goes up to 1280X1024 btw.

When Im not in the middle of the forest and dense foilage 45-65fps is the norm 8)

Sweet... you should tell that to the guy in cpu's trying to get 60fps outdoors at max with a cheap card :lol: