Overclock a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 w/ Zalman Heatpipe + Fan?

[MrBurns]

First I have to say that I am from Austria (Europe), and so my English maybe isnt perfect.




I have a Creative GeForce 4 Ti 4800 (4600 w/ 8x AGP) w/ 128MB RAM. I couldnt overclock it yet, because the GPU has a very bad cooling and the RAM-chips arent cooled at all. My Qustion: Do you think, I should use a Zalman Heatpipe ZM80C-HP VGA-Cooler + Fan ZM-OP1 (mounted directly on the cooler) or a conventional cooling soltion? What do you think cools the GPU and RAM better?

How high do you think I would get w/ the Zalman w/o getting artifacts?


I also have found a conventional cooling solution: The Thermaltake G4-Copper-Cooling set. The problem is, the RAM coolers in this set are 63,48 mm X 21mm X 13,5 mm big, but I only need 48x12mm to cover two RAM chips at once (they are 12x12mm big and there is a gap of 24mm between two chips). So I dont know, if It is safe to stick the coolers on the chips or if there is a risk that they drop down on some day. I could also use 20x12.6x8mm Aluminium RAM-coolers if they stick better.

How far do I think I can get w/ the G4 cooling set w/o getting artifacts? Do you think, it would make a difference when I use the Aluminium RAM-coolers instead of the copper?



My Graphics card:


Creative 3D Blaster 4 Ti 4800, GeForce4 Ti4600 8X AGP

http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?prod=432



Cooling solution w/ Zalman:


Zalman Heatpipe ZM80C-HP:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM80C-HP.htm


Fan Zalman ZM-OP1:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM-OP1.htm



Conventional Cooling:


Thermaltake GeForce 4 A1349 copper cooling set:

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/chipset/g4.htm


20x12.6x8mm Aluminium RAM-coolers (German):

http://www.xtrem.biz/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=537

 

[Nebor]

I have a Zalman Heatpipe on my GF4ti4400 and one on my Radeon 9800 Pro. Both can overclock like mad w/ the heatpipe, and I've found that the OP1 fan doesn't help much at all in cooling the card, you just need good case airflow.

 

[MrBurns]

I have 2 80mm intake fans in the fron, 2 outtake fans in the back (not including PSU fan) and one intake 80mm side fan. The fans I have in the front and in the rear have 26.2 cfm per fan, and and the side fan pushes 23 cfm of air. The Zalman OP1 has 27 cfm and I dont know how much cfm power fan power fan has. Do you think, that this is enough airflow, or should I get better fans?


I have found a benchmark, where it the OP1 helps more than a 120mm side fan:

http://www.bigbruin.com/html/zalman_vga_heatpipe_2.htm

 

[Nebor]

Yeah, your airflow is fine.

I didn't measure my temps or anything w/ using the fan and not using the fan. It didn't change my case temps at all as reported by mobo. And the card is stable w/ no artifacts or anything, even overclocked.

BTW, I got my heatpipe + fan from excalibur PC. 2 day shipping for only 10 bucks. Came out to like $48.