ZM80C-HP on MSI FX5900 - initial impressions.

Herodotus · Post by **Herodotus** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:45 pm

Well, I took the plunge and decided to give this a go. Getting the existing HSFs off the card was a doddle, but revealed a rather worrying characteristic from the point of view of my upgrade. The existing copper heatsink has special projections designed to contact with the memory chips surrounding the GPU. Obviously, there's nothing of this sort on the Zalman. Is this a problem people have encountered with this or other cards? Does it matter? I went ahead with the upgrade anway, and everything seems to have gone fairly well - the two HS are at about the same temp, and I haven't had any problems yet... On the other hand I haven't really given it any sort of a workout (I think I'll wait till I attach a fan to it for that one

) Those memory chips do seem pretty warm when I poke a finger at them though

Kind of worrying since I'm not really exercising the card that much at all....

Now I just need my SP-94 and accompanying Panaflo to turn up so I can get rid of this decidedly non-"Silent" Nexus CPU cooler, and I might actually have a tolerably quiet system.... Although I'm starting to actually hear my NX3000 now that the GPU fans have gone

Lifecycle · Post by **Lifecycle** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:53 am

How have you been getting on with this setup?

The FX5900 looks pretty nice in terms of price/performance, seeming to be similar to a 9800Pro (depending on the benchmarks) but very cheap: sub-£200 depending where you look, verses £210+ for 9800np.

I am worried about how hot this chip gets though and whether the ZM80C-HP is enough to cool it effectively?

I have a secondary rear exhaust fan on my case which pulls air directly over the back of the graphics card, but I'm not sure if this is enough for an FX5900 coupled with a ZM80C-HP.

I'm also half tempted to wait for the next version of the ACVS which supposedly will support FX boards, due out in a couple of months (?) and just live with a noisy card until then... although I really don't want to.

Any experiences appreciated.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 7:04 am

I have this setup (5900 Ultra + ZM-80), and so far haven't experienced any problems with the graphics card.. The thing idles at about 50C, and hits 75-80 under pretty serious load, but these temperatures are childs play for these chips (the default shutdown temperature for NV35 being 140C, for reference).

The downside is that the whole kaboodle warms my case up quite a bit, but I can't see how the choice of cooler would make any difference. Short of going to an external exhaust system like the ABIT OTES thingy (which I'm guessing will be noisy) or watercooling or whatever, a GFFX is going to dump lots of thermal watts into your case, period.

The whole unit (card+heatpipe) is very big and heavy though (I also have the optional fan thing attached), and I dare say it's not helping the airflow in my case.

But it is very nearly silent!

Lifecycle · Post by **Lifecycle** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:22 am

The thing idles at about 50C, and hits 75-80 under pretty serious load, but these temperatures are childs play for these chips

I thought my Ti4600 was hot!

The downside is that the whole kaboodle warms my case up quite a bit, but I can't see how the choice of cooler would make any difference.

Does the card still get very hot even with the stock cooler, then? I am a bit concerned about heating the case up too much, which is why I'm particularly attracted to coolers like the ACVS.

The whole unit (card+heatpipe) is very big and heavy though (I also have the optional fan thing attached)

Do you really need the extra Zalman fan for this card? I'm thinking most probably "yes". Does the card need any extra mounting because of the weight though? i.e. is a single screw/clip enough?

The main problem I have at the moment is that my Ti4600 is faulty and so I need a replacement card. My budget is really no more than £200 tops. A 9800np with an ACVS is around £240+, putting it out of reach. So far, a 9600pro Ultimate seemed the way to go at around £150, but isn't much of an upgrade for me.

Then, this morning I saw this Sparkle 5900 (scroll down to near the bottom) for £187, and seems to be very powerful. I'm even tempted to get this card and look for other ways to quieten it, if it really is that noisy. I'm also not quite sure if this is a cut down FX5900 or something, as I can't find much in terms of specs for it and most of the other FX5900 cards are at least £240+. Specs list as 400core/850mem though.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:03 am

Lifecycle wrote:
The downside is that the whole kaboodle warms my case up quite a bit, but I can't see how the choice of cooler would make any difference.
Does the card still get very hot even with the stock cooler, then? I am a bit concerned about heating the case up too much, which is why I'm particularly attracted to coolers like the ACVS.

These beasties do have an auxilliary power connector because they need more juice than the AGP port can supply (75W is a figure I've seen bandied around, though I can't vouch for the correctness of my memory there). So, yes, even with the stock cooler, a lot of heat will get dumped into the case (modulo using an external solution as I said before).

The whole unit (card+heatpipe) is very big and heavy though (I also have the optional fan thing attached)
Do you really need the extra Zalman fan for this card? I'm thinking most probably "yes". Does the card need any extra mounting because of the weight though? i.e. is a single screw/clip enough?

I have the extra fan, and I run it in "silent" mode, contrary to the recommendation (which says for my card run in non-silent mode). I haven't tried running without the fan, but I don't think I'd want to try. Note it might be better to use an undervolted 92mm Panaflo or whatever than the rather small Zalman fan.

As for mounting, the single screw/clip seems to be sufficient to me. It's just a bit big and takes up a lot of space in the case, and makes access to eg. jumpers on the mobo a bit of a pain. It also interfered with the drive cage in my case (Antec SLK3700), but I've moved my drive to a 5.25" bay and removed the cage now, which has helped airflow a lot i think.

Lifecycle · Post by **Lifecycle** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:28 am

So, yes, even with the stock cooler, a lot of heat will get dumped into the case (modulo using an external solution as I said before).

Yeah, this is the feeling I am getting from digging around reviews and such. 75W is a hellavah lot of heat though, that is more than a lot of/most CPU's!

haven't tried running without the fan, but I don't think I'd want to try. Note it might be better to use an undervolted 92mm Panaflo or whatever than the rather small Zalman fan.

Perhaps. This is certainly an option, anyway. I've been thinking of possibly converting a low-profile CPU cooler and wacking on a 7v fan, which while not being "silent" is a lot quieter and less annoying than the standard 40-50mm stock fans on most graphics cards.

I'm just really really tempted by the FX5900 purely based on the price I've seen it for... I was all ready to go and get a 9600pro Ultimate and then I saw the FX5900, which is significantly faster and not much more expensive. I'm just really worried about the noise though. Perhaps I will live with the lower performance of the 9600p in exchange for some silence... so difficult to decide!

It also interfered with the drive cage in my case (Antec SLK3700), but I've moved my drive to a 5.25" bay and removed the cage now, which has helped airflow a lot i think.

FWIW I have a pretty similar case layout, with my HDD in a drive bay in a Zalman heatpipe mount, so the air draw through the front is unobstructed (at least, temps dropped a fair bit when I moved the drive).

Thanks for your help.

ColdFlame · Post by **ColdFlame** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:36 pm

Just a data point, not sure how legitimate it is.

I've installed that thingie and run it with optional Zalman fan. I don't have a thermo probe so I have no idea what temps look like. I run the fan thru the Sunbeam controller at approx 7v. Everything works fine - and I play quite a bit of games, usually every night

. Call of Duty, Neverwinter Nights, you name it.

The only culprit is that I was playing Uru (next Myst) with all settings on high (I assume that stresses the video card even more) and had 1 lockup. I upped the voltage on the video card fan to 12v and haven't had a problem in Uru since. Fan is obnoxiously loud at 12v though.

ljs1987 · Post by **ljs1987** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:39 am

Jeez! 140 celcius as the shutdown temperature?!?!! I can't bring myself to believe that! Someone please make me!

Lifecycle · Post by **Lifecycle** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:55 am

Well, FWIW I broke down and ordered a new 9600Pro Ultimate instead.

I saw a couple of reviews which stated it runs cool, and I don't quite fancy having some 70+W of heat to dissipate off the FX5900... plus it's a bit more wallet friendly too. I figured that if it's around the same speed as my Ti4600 then it'll be just fine in terms of performance.

Also, I was reminded of where I used to work where we used dual PCI CPU cards for speech recognisers. There, we had a dual PowerPC card that put out over 70W of heat - when we put one in a Dell desktop, it blew the PSU and caught on fire in the office...

I've since developed a healthy fear of any expansion card that draws that kind of power...

brianstretch · Post by **brianstretch** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 4:15 pm

Lifecycle wrote:Also, I was reminded of where I used to work where we used dual PCI CPU cards for speech recognisers. There, we had a dual PowerPC card that put out over 70W of heat - when we put one in a Dell desktop, it blew the PSU and caught on fire in the office... I've since developed a healthy fear of any expansion card that draws that kind of power...

Or a healthy fear of Dell PCs. They do use nonstandard power connectors so you can't just swap in a decent power supply, though I see that Silicon Acoustics has an adaptor. Between the nonstandard power plug they don't warn you about and their refusal to sell AMD CPUs, Dell is on my Evil list.

Back on subject: I put a Zalman ZM80C-HP on my BFG GeForceFX 5700 Ultra successfully, without the optional fan, giving me temps under load in the mid 70C range. I see that I could have bought a GeForceFX 5900 card for less money had I been paying attention (d'oh!), but that would certainly require a fan and I'd be less certain of getting the Zalman cooler mounted properly. Has anyone put one on the 5900's from eVGA, BFG, or anyone else? I assume the stock fans on those cards are noisy, even when the GPU is idle?

Also, any suggestions on how to get a regular 80mm (or 60mm? 40mm?) fan mounted on the ZM80C-HP? Rubber cement, maybe?

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 7:18 pm

Also, any suggestions on how to get a regular 80mm (or 60mm? 40mm?) fan mounted on the ZM80C-HP? Rubber cement, maybe?

Nah. Just blow $7 or so on one of the Zalman fan brackets. When you have it in position, it will also brace the video card, holding it more securely to the motherboard. The fan is best placed on the middle section of the bracket. I have mine blowing air on both sides of the two heatsinks.

brianstretch · Post by **brianstretch** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 8:08 pm

Shadowknight wrote:Nah. Just blow $7 or so on one of the Zalman fan brackets. When you have it in position, it will also brace the video card, holding it more securely to the motherboard. The fan is best placed on the middle section of the bracket. I have mine blowing air on both sides of the two heatsinks.

Thanks! The FB123 kit (bracket plus 92mm fan) is a dollar less than the ZM-OP1 fan (including shipping) at Newegg and I bet it works a lot better. Hopefully the Acoustipack foam I have in place won't get in the way, that'd be my biggest worry (Kingwin KT-424 case), gotta check that. Really wish I hadn't bothered with that foam. Next time I buy from Newegg I'll add the FB123 to my order. Let's see, what else can I buy...

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 8:31 pm

On my card I use a Panaflo. I find Zalman fans to be a little buzzy (at least at 12v). I can have the Panaflo running CLOSE to 12v, and still not hear it in my case. Still, I plan to replace it with a Arctic Silencer, then maybe I'll put the Zalman on my Geforce 2 in my spare rig.

The metal for the bracket isn't very thick, so as long as you have enough clearance for the fan from the video card to the case side, you should be fine. (I.E. - place a fan on top of the edge of your video card, and see how far it sticks out, and look at how wide the case is)