My Experiences With Two VGA Coolers

[WobbleWobble]

My video card is a ATI Radeon 9500 Pro, slightly overclocked. Antec Sonata with 2x 120mm fans running at ~5V. PSU fan replaced with a Panaflo running at ~7V and a Zalman CNPS-7000A running at ~5V. All hooked up to a Sunbeam fan controller.

Both fit nicely without any conflicts with the card or components around it. Both are pretty silent, well, the Zalman is dead silent. The VGA Silencer is definately much easier to install than the Zalman. The VGA Silencer is also much less messy with respect to thermal compound. If you have to remove the Zalman you'll know what I mean as you need plenty of compound at many different places compared to the one on the VGA Silencer.

I did not notice any temperature drops in my low airflow system. But then again I didn't do any real tests, but it does not seem like it helped temps. Noise is low enough that it doesn't add to overall system noise. Note that my system now is so quiet that you can't hear it a few feet away.

If I were to buy only one I'd buy the VGA Silencer because it's cheaper and it's much easier to install. I haven't tested overclocking yet, but I don't really have the time to

 

[wkwong]

yea, the rev2 is much cheaper. does the zalman cool the ram too?

 

[aSnipingPenguin]

Originally posted by: wkwong
yea, the rev2 is much cheaper. does the zalman cool the ram too?

No, although the main heat dissipation plates are kept far enough from the PCB (~5mm) so that you can add separate ramsinks.

 

[Nebor]

I've had both. Switching from the Zalman to the VGA Silencer dropped by case temps by 6C. I used ramsinks with both of them no problem. The Zalman is a b!tch to install, I hate it.

Of course, the VGA Silencer makes more noise, I might switch back...

 

[aSnipingPenguin]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Of course, the VGA Silencer makes more noise, I might switch back...

Heheh, I'm heading the other direction.. after all the time spent wresting that Zalman on, I'm swapping it out for a Silencer this weekend. The Zalman's silent and spiffy-looking and all, but yeah, don't really like the heat it radiates into the case

 

[M0NEYSH0T]

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556058045.html

I use that... Works nice on my 9800 PRO.

 

[MegaWorks]

I heard that Arctic cooler rev.3 is out

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AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B DLT3C 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.775v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nForce2-U400)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Antec TrueBlue 480W
Thermalright SLK-947U with 92mm Vantec Tornado @2800RPM
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1

 

[Granorense]

Originally posted by: Nebor
I've had both. Switching from the Zalman to the VGA Silencer dropped by case temps by 6C. I used ramsinks with both of them no problem. The Zalman is a b!tch to install, I hate it.

Of course, the VGA Silencer makes more noise, I might switch back...

Same here!