Help deciding on OEM 7800GTX Heatsink or Zalman VF700Cu?

[Dynamix3D]

Okay I just installed my 7800GTX today, along with my new Asus A8N SLI Premium motherboard. I am very happy with the results so far. Now someo of you may know I am pretty much a silent freak, I like to have a nice quiet system. Well all along I was planning that I would have to swap out the 7800GTX OEM heatsink for the Zalman VF700Cu that I currently have on my 6800 Ultra that was just replaced. My inital plans were to take the VF700Cu and put it on the 7800GTX, assuming that the factory heatsink was going to be loud. Well, I was in for a bit of a shock, when I powered my system and booted to windows. I couldn't even hear the 7800GTX. And remind you, my system is very quiet. I cannot even hear it running unless I put my ears up to it, when the fans are on low settings with the fan controller. Now I'm debating if I should even put the Zalman on. I know the Zalman would give me better temps, but this card is amazingly cool already. My 6800 Ultra was idling at around 57C on the highest fan setting when I have my Zalman VF700Cu, this 7800GTX which idles at 47C and I cannot even hear it. The Zalman at its highest setting is certainly audible. To get it as quiet as the 7800GTX, I would have to drop it to around 5-7v.

Really this is just a question of, is it worth it to kill my lifetime warranty to put on the Zalman just to get a few FPS increase? Because noise obviously isn't a factor here anymore, cause the 7800GTX is amazingly quiet to my surprise.

EDIT: I decided to replace the OEM Heatsink today (8/22) with the Zalman. See the outcome in my post on page 2.

 

[Bona Fide]

Don't bother. Companies are coming out with better and better retail heatsinks. The X2 heatsinks have heatpipes and 100% copper bases. Also, aftermarket cooling for a video card is a bit extreme, unless you have serious temperature issues.

// Nice job with the case silencing. Ever consider an Antec Phantom or Seasonic S-12 to replace that Coolermaster?

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Don't bother. Companies are coming out with better and better retail heatsinks. The X2 heatsinks have heatpipes and 100% copper bases. Also, aftermarket cooling for a video card is a bit extreme, unless you have serious temperature issues.

// Nice job with the case silencing. Ever consider an Antec Phantom or Seasonic S-12 to replace that Coolermaster?

I actually ordered a Phantom 500 about a month ago, but it was out of stock twice, in both places I tried from. They both wound up canceling my order. So... I decided to hold off for a bit. But, my Coolermaster has an orange Yate Loon in it now, and never ramps up. It's completely in audible unless u put your ear to the back of the PC case. That will hold me down till I have some extra money to upgrade my power supply (which I am looking to replace soon anyway).

 

[Fistandantilis]

NO! dude being a noise freak, you should leave it you got a good card and cool cooling/sound solutions for it, dont void your warrenty.
If it is quite enough for you stock then it must be quiet...but we all know that you prolly already have it taken apaert and doing the switch

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Fistandantilis
NO! dude being a noise freak, you should leave it you got a good card and cool cooling/sound solutions for it, dont void your warrenty.
If it is quite enough for you stock then it must be quiet...but we all know that you prolly already have it taken apaert and doing the switch

LOL... nah I actually think I might leave it. The real test will be when my Scythe Ninja that I ordered, gets here. And I can take out the high rpm Zalman 7000B. Then my system will be even more quiet than it was when I had the MSI K8N Neo2 and the Zalman installed. The Neo2 has that loud chipset fan, and the Zalman is only quiet when it is undervolted. At 12v spinning at 2,400rpm, its far from quiet. Zalman tricks you into thinking they make quiet heatsink/fans by adding that fan controller along with it. But technically its still loud unless you use a fan controller.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: Dynamix3D

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Don't bother. Companies are coming out with better and better retail heatsinks. The X2 heatsinks have heatpipes and 100% copper bases. Also, aftermarket cooling for a video card is a bit extreme, unless you have serious temperature issues.

// Nice job with the case silencing. Ever consider an Antec Phantom or Seasonic S-12 to replace that Coolermaster?

I actually ordered a Phantom 500 about a month ago, but it was out of stock twice, in both places I tried from. They both wound up canceling my order. So... I decided to hold off for a bit. But, my Coolermaster has an orange Yate Loon in it now, and never ramps up. It's completely in audible unless u put your ear to the back of the PC case. That will hold me down till I have some extra money to upgrade my power supply (which I am looking to replace soon anyway).

On second thought, I have my doubts about whether or not a Phantom 500 would even FIT inside the PSU compartment of the P180. You'd have to remove that 38mm fan for sure, and it still might not fit.

Seasonic S12 600W w00t! :beer:

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide

Originally posted by: Dynamix3D

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Don't bother. Companies are coming out with better and better retail heatsinks. The X2 heatsinks have heatpipes and 100% copper bases. Also, aftermarket cooling for a video card is a bit extreme, unless you have serious temperature issues.

// Nice job with the case silencing. Ever consider an Antec Phantom or Seasonic S-12 to replace that Coolermaster?

I actually ordered a Phantom 500 about a month ago, but it was out of stock twice, in both places I tried from. They both wound up canceling my order. So... I decided to hold off for a bit. But, my Coolermaster has an orange Yate Loon in it now, and never ramps up. It's completely in audible unless u put your ear to the back of the PC case. That will hold me down till I have some extra money to upgrade my power supply (which I am looking to replace soon anyway).

On second thought, I have my doubts about whether or not a Phantom 500 would even FIT inside the PSU compartment of the P180. You'd have to remove that 38mm fan for sure, and it still might not fit.

Seasonic S12 600W w00t! :beer:

The Phantom 500 does fit inside the P180, even with the 38mm fan, but it is a very tight fit. But considering that I do not even have the 38mm fan installed, I would be straight if I decided to get one.

But I am no longer thinking of the Phantom anymore because I want a SLI certified power supply. So basically I have been debating between the Antec TruePower II 550w and the Seasonic S12 600w. I am actually leaning towards the Antec though, because of the longer cables. The Seasonic's cables are very short, which is not good for a P180, or wire management. And as most of you know, I like to keep my case extra clean without wires everywhere. So I dunno if that Seasonic would be the right choice for me.

Also even though the Antec has 50 less watts than the Seasonic, it has more amps on both 12v rails than the Seasonic, which is good to know considering amps is whats really important, because no one is really ever gonna utilize all 550 or 600watts anyway.

 

[Fistandantilis]

Originally posted by: Dynamix3D

Originally posted by: Fistandantilis
NO! dude being a noise freak, you should leave it you got a good card and cool cooling/sound solutions for it, dont void your warrenty.
If it is quite enough for you stock then it must be quiet...but we all know that you prolly already have it taken apaert and doing the switch

LOL... nah I actually think I might leave it. The real test will be when my Scythe Ninja that I ordered, gets here. And I can take out the high rpm Zalman 7000B. Then my system will be even more quiet than it was when I had the MSI K8N Neo2 and the Zalman installed. The Neo2 has that loud chipset fan, and the Zalman is only quiet when it is undervolted. At 12v spinning at 2,400rpm, its far from quiet. Zalman tricks you into thinking they make quiet heatsink/fans by adding that fan controller along with it. But technically its still loud unless you use a fan controller.

Your right about that, I had originally used the 5v lead and thought it was good but I really got my zalman for cooling, I am like that, it can always get cooler, right now it is a bit warm here in my house all the windows are shut and the ac is off and my GPU (6800gt) is sitting at 46 and has been there for the entire 2-3 hours i've been on the net...I love it!

 

[entropy1982]

Damn i just ordered a powerstream 520w for my new comp to put in the p180... is it gonna be really loud?

 

[Elfear]

You should be fine entropy. I don't think the OCZ PSU is that loud. My chipset hsf drowns it out.

 

[entropy1982]

cool thanks

 

[Banzai042]

I don't have any problems with my powerstream 520, but i've heard that it's too long to fit in the 180, you'll need to ask around about that one though

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Banzai042
I don't have any problems with my powerstream 520, but i've heard that it's too long to fit in the 180, you'll need to ask around about that one though

The powerstream will fit in the P180. It will just be a tight squeeze if you have the 120x38mm fan installed.

 

[Bona Fide]

Which is why we should stick to Antec PSUs for Antec cases.

Antec Truepower 2.0 for teh win!!!1111

 

[Safeway]

Stick with stock ...

That way, you won't void any warrenty. I'd hate to kill a 7800GTX in process of installing new air cooling.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Zalman vf-700Cu.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Zalman vf-700Cu.

Stick with stock ... no voiding warrenty yet!

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: Kensai
Zalman vf-700Cu.

Stick with stock ... no voiding warrenty yet!

Hell, I can't stand stock coolers.

I guess it's all about preferences.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: Kensai
Zalman vf-700Cu.

Stick with stock ... no voiding warrenty yet!

Hell, I can't stand stock coolers.
I guess it's all about preferences.

Well, I say that now, but I voided my 6800GT warrenty by installing my waterblock and RAMsinks. I would have bought a 6800 series NVSilencer - and more recently, the nice Zalman VF-7000Cu - if I hadn't gone water.

Then again, the eVGA 6800GT cooling is nothing spectacular. A small aluminum heatsink and a dinky blower. The Ultra has a copper sink, slightly larger. The 7800GTX is a much cooler chip with more effecient cooling.

It's end-user preference.

 

[Dynamix3D]

I think for now I'm going to just stick with stock. Because I really would hate for something to happen and kill a $500 video card. I think if ever I decide to use the aftermarket cooling, I'll do it later on when the card isn't worth so much anymore, and it starts to show age, when every few FPS will count in overclocking it. Right now there really is no need to even overclock it. The game I play most, which is CSS runs at 120-200fps with settings MAXED out completely, and my 1680x1050 resolution.

Also I do think the stock cooler looks better than the Zalman, even though it isn't that important on how it looks, its just another reason maybe to keep it on, lol.

 

[imported_Kensai]

It's all about what you want.. We only give ideas.

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Kensai
It's all about what you want.. We only give ideas.

I know I appreciate everyones opinion of course, otherwise I wouldn't have asked. Now what I really want is to add another 7800GTX and a new power supply, and I'll be REALLY happy.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Seasonic S-12 600W.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: Dynamix3D
I think for now I'm going to just stick with stock. Because I really would hate for something to happen and kill a $500 video card. I think if ever I decide to use the aftermarket cooling, I'll do it later on when the card isn't worth so much anymore, and it starts to show age, when every few FPS will count in overclocking it. Right now there really is no need to even overclock it. The game I play most, which is CSS runs at 120-200fps with settings MAXED out completely, and my 1680x1050 resolution.

Also I do think the stock cooler looks better than the Zalman, even though it isn't that important on how it looks, its just another reason maybe to keep it on, lol.

Good choice :thumbsup:

That's why I waited it out. The 6800GT was great from the beginning, and OCed to Ultra Extreme speeds out of the box. I toned it down a bit later on ... but I am definately going to throttle it back up now that my full load temps are less than my old idle temps.

 

[Dynamix3D]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Seasonic S-12 600W.

Antec TruePower II 550W
+3.3V@32A, +5V@40A, +12V1@19A, +12V2@19A, -12V@1A, +5VSB@2A

Seasonic S12 600W
+3.3V@30A, +5V@30A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@18A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2A

I think my choice is going to be the Antec. I cannot see a reason to pick the Seasonic over the Antec. The Antec has more amps on all rails except the +3.3v which its only shy by 2 amps over the Seasonic. I am looking for a power supply that has longer cables because everyone who has the Seasonic and a P180 says they are very short and barly reach the points where they need it to be. For me that would be a huge problem. Also the fact that the cables are twisted doesn't help either, because it is harder to bend the cables when they are twisted that way, and less easy to hide, also the cables do become shorter when you twist them. Also the volume of both power supplies seems to be very quiet. I went hunting in the forums to find out any info on the loudness of the TPII 550w, and I found out from someone who owns it that there spins are around 850rpm-950rpm on idle. That is definately going to be a quiet fan. So that right there made my decision alot easier. Because at first I was scared that the TPII 550w was going to be loud.