HD4870/4890 VRM heatsink

[Binky]

A couple of weeks ago Zalman announed the ZM-RHS90, which is a VRM heatsink specifically designed for reference 4870/4890 cards.

I saw in a forum post about the Zalman unit that Thermalright was also working on something...and they fomally announced something a few days ago:
http://www.thermalright.com/ne...roduct_vga_cooler.html

Of course, neither is widely available. I could only find the Zalman unit at quietpc in the UK. Anybody know where to find one?

 

[AmberClad]

Haven't seen it yet. PerformancePCs has the 4850-only and 4870-only versions (smaller and thinner). The only place I know of that has it, actually, so that might be the place to camp to see if they get a shipment of the 4870/4890 FET sink.

The Thermalright solution looks...interesting...(read: awkward).

 

[yh125d]

The thermaltake just looks like bad engineering. I'm sure it works fine, but based on looks alone it would seem that thermaltakes engineers are like kids playing with LEGO.


As far as 4890 owners, just remove the metal heatsink mount/base thing (with the pads for mem/VRMfrom the actual heatsink, fan, and shroud and re-mount it to the card. That way the mem/VRMs stay cool and you can still mount an aftermarket cooler like a Musashi or Accelero

 

[Binky]

Well, I ordered one of the Zalman's from quietpc after figuring ou that they do actually ship to the US. This is a bit odd though, since they have a separate US website that doesn't have these in stock (or listed anywhere), but they have the UK/Worldwide website that has them in stock and they do actually ship to the US.

$10.78 total shipped to the US. Not bad. If anybody else is interested, just make sure you order from the UK/Worldwide website at www.quietpc.com. The USA version at quietpcusa doesn't stock these yet. Accounts are not shared between the sites.

 

[thilanliyan]

THanks very much for the heads up. I just ordered the Zalman one to fit with my watercooling along with some Zerotherm ramsinks. I'll post a mini-review once I get them.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: Binky
Well, I ordered one of the Zalman's from quietpc after figuring ou that they do actually ship to the US. This is a bit odd though, since they have a separate US website that doesn't have these in stock (or listed anywhere), but they have the UK/Worldwide website that has them in stock and they do actually ship to the US.

$10.78 total shipped to the US. Not bad. If anybody else is interested, just make sure you order from the UK/Worldwide website at www.quietpc.com. The USA version at quietpcusa doesn't stock these yet. Accounts are not shared between the sites.

Thanks for the update. Quiet PC was the place I could find them online, but didn't know they shipped to the US.

Any idea about the UK to US shipment time?

 

[error8]

What the hell it took so much to design a good vrm heatsink? Ever since the 4870s were released, people complained about overheating VRMs and yet it took them one year to design such a thing.

 

[Binky]

For anybody thinking of using this Zalman heatsink on a 4890 with an Accelero S1 - it won't fit without modification to the heatsink. The right side heatpipe on the Accelero (which runs up/down) hits the heatsink. The fins of the Accelero appear to mesh ok with the Zalman heatsink (which also runs up/down). It's hard to tell for sure if the Accelero will seat properly until I get the heatsink modified.

I'm currently working on cutting a groove down the length of the heatsink to fit the heatpipe. Once this is done, I believe that the fins of the Accelero will mesh with heatsink fins and allow the Accelero to seat properly. Although, a lack of proper dremel attachments and my own lack of sobriety (had a few glasses of wine) is preventing me from finishing this right now. More on this later once I sober up and go to the hardware store...

 

[Binky]

I got the Zalman heatsink mounted with the Accelero S1. Here's how it works.

The bottom black plastic part of the Accelero has to be removed (easy). The lower two fins of the Zalman heatsink also have to be removed. These are only partial fins so no big loss - cut them away with a dremel cutting wheel. All other fins on the Zalman have to be machined to make a grove running up the length of the Zalman. I made a groove of about 5mm deep by 10mm wide. Of all the Dremel parts I had, the small sanding drums worked the best. Since I was partialy drunk and didn't have the right Dremel attachments, it's about the ugliest work I've ever done. But...it worked.

Other notes: The push pins of the Zalman are very crappy. I'd be surprised if they survived more than one removal - be carful. The bottom fin of the Accelero meshes between the 2nd and 3rd FULL fins of the Zalman (if you cut the groove right).

With a 120mm fan running at about 7v, the temps for the core/shader/memoryIO are about 55c-60c, which is about 5-10c lower than stock. The VRM's stayed near 55C which is much lower than stock temps. I don't remember how I had the fan set with the stock cooler, but it's much quieter now with the Accelero.

Curiously, the high pitched whine from this card is now completely gone. This noise was extremely obvious even when scrolling down a webpage. It was midly annoying while playing games. This is a very odd and unexpected bonus.

 

[thilanliyan]

I think a picture of how you mounted it would do wonders for this thread.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: thilan29
I think a picture of how you mounted it would do wonders for this thread.

Yes please.

 

[Binky]

I refuse to publish pictorial evidence of my hack job!