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This decision is REALLY driving me crazy.

rambow

Banned
I really really want it to be quite (and pretty) so I'm leaning towards the accelero, but it recycles air back into my computer (not much of a problem, but then I could just get the silencer thought it might be a little bit louder than the accellero). Unfortunatly, my evga 7800gt is very ugly so I would love the vf700, but it also recycles air into the case and I'm not sure about its noise.

😕
 
tbh any of them are good and they are all rather quiet at low speeds. You could get any of them and feel happy (except i didn't know the accelero worked on 7800GTs).

I prefered the NV silencer 5 rev 3 because of the way it simplifies and improves airflow. Noise wise it's very quiet at low speeds, full pace it's audible from under my desk but not loud. I can just tell it's there in the first place. If you're OCing or paranoid about temperatures i'd go with the AC one as it does (in effect) remove a noticable heat source from the machine. Otherwise go with whichever you like the look of most and comes cheapest.
 
The vf700 will fit any number of cards, it is not card specific like the NV is.
The Zalmans fan is near silent at 5V plus the fan seems to last longer than the NV's.
The Zalman is easyer to clean if you run in a dusty enviroment.

If you got the buck$ look at reviews of the Zalman VF900.

We have VGA cooler reviews stickied at the top of this page.


...Galvanized
 
Typically the Zalmans have a edge in both performance and noise level. They also seem to a step above in quality as well; smoothed polished bases and all metal construction as opposed to AC's liberal use of plastic in everything them make feels a bit cheap in comparison.

The Silencer doesn?t really move enough air for it to make a significant difference in system temps so it's not much of an issue. Both the VF-700 and 900 have the advantage of fitting almost every card currently out as well as cards in the foreseeable future.
 
Originally posted by: Operandi
Typically the Zalmans have a edge in both performance and noise level.
The Silencer doesn?t really move enough air for it to make a significant difference in system temps so it's not much of an issue.


Not according to this: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=525
Then again this one almost completely contradicts the above: http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=743&pid=2930

Any more comparative reviews to break the stalemate? 🙂

You're missing the point of the exhaust, it's not there to act as a 120mm exhast fan, it's there to stop the graphics card dumping heat into the case, a 7800GT uses somwhere around 60W of power, that's 1/4 to 1/3 of most systems, not to be sneezed at.
 
Originally posted by: Bobthelost
You're missing the point of the exhaust, it's not there to act as a 120mm exhast fan, it's there to stop the graphics card dumping heat into the case, a 7800GT uses somwhere around 60W of power, that's 1/4 to 1/3 of most systems, not to be sneezed at.

And it's not removing all of that heat out, a good portion of it is going to stay in the case. Apparently AC doesn?t think it's that important since they dropped it from their Accelero.
 
I don't think Zalman is quieter, their fans (especially with the LED) tend to be whiny and at 12V my VF700 was quite loud. On the other hand, the difference between 25% and 100% on the Silencer is hardly discernible. I highly recommend it, it will improve your video card temps AND your other temps buy a nice amount.
 
I used a zalman vf700cu on 3 of my older cards, and even at 12v it wasn't loud, and provided a nice temp imrovement over the stock coolers.

x800xt @ 500/500, stock cooler: 75C load
x800xt @ 560/560, zalman vf700cu 12v: 60C load, and quieter than stock cooler

The advantage of the zalman is that it can be used and reused on a wide range of cards. The advantage of the AC coolers is that they plug into the video card fan header, so the fan can be adjusted dynamically. The silencer exhausts the hot air, but the difference in case temps is only a few degrees, so if a crappy cpu coler chokes with the zalman or accelero, it will likely also choke with the silencer. A high performance cpu cooler would have no problem in either case.
 
Originally posted by: Operandi
Typically the Zalmans have a edge in both performance and noise level. They also seem to a step above in quality as well; smoothed polished bases and all metal construction as opposed to AC's liberal use of plastic in everything them make feels a bit cheap in comparison.

The Silencer doesn?t really move enough air for it to make a significant difference in system temps so it's not much of an issue. Both the VF-700 and 900 have the advantage of fitting almost every card currently out as well as cards in the foreseeable future.

I recently purchased a Silencer and was less than pleased with it (especially since I ordered the wrong one for my R430 card 😱). It had a poor finish, was not really flat, and was large and bulky.

I have an SFF case so I thought the exhausting air idea sounded good, but in the end I ordered another VF700. You can't beat their quality and price/performance ratio.

They also look nice :laugh:
 
I'll vouch for the NV Silencer 5. I ran it on my 7800GT and @500/1200 with 100% fan speed I was getting idle temps of 38C and load temps of 56C . . . with the stock cooler I was getting 70C load temps. Even with the Silencer @ 100% it was very quiet and definitely quieter than any of case/PSU/CPU fans, or even my hard drives. Yes it is bulky but it exhausts all that hot air outside your case. The VF700 renders the nearby PCI slot useless as well and isn't exactly small so if you're gonna take up the nearby PCI slot, you might as well have it exhaust the heat outsdie your case. As for temps, yes the VF700 will likely keep your GPU a little bit cooler but will warm up the rest of your components.
 
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