Putting a fan on the older version of the Zalman ZM80

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 11:07 pm

I have a spare fan, which I have slapped onto my Zalman VGA heatsink (the first, passive version) which cools a 9700 Pro. I put it on the upper sink -- the one on the card's backside. My idea is that by cooling that part, the heatpipe will be able to work with a larger temperature gradient, and thus improve the cooling.

Could someone with adequate knowledge about physics and/or heatpipes tell me if -- and why -- this setup is good or bad? Should I put the fan on the other heatsink part instead?

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 1:10 am

If you can, mount the fan like this:

http://www2.ko-soku.co.jp/partskit/KD_ZM80OP1.jpg

(the image above is from ZM80C, but there should be ways to do similar mountings on ZM80A-version as well).

In my experience it offers the best cooling benefits (core block, both big heatsinks, heatpipe and memory chips).

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:11 am

Halcyon,

thank you for the answer. Out of curiosity -- does someone know the answer to my original question (which HS should be fanned)?

Nowhere_man · Post by **Nowhere_man** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:41 am

Are you seeing any temp/performance difference with the fan on top?

juansolo · Post by **juansolo** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:14 am

I had the same issue. I got around it by using a Zalman bracket and 92mm fan. This way you can mount the fan the same way that the later ZM-80's do and cool both heatsinks.

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:41 am

Cool, thanks!

IceFire · Post by **IceFire** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:47 pm

I don't remember from where, but I read about someone putting a fan on the bottom and than switch to the one on top. The cooling was better with the fan on the backside (top) heatsink. The card was vertical and not horzontial like you had it.

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:42 pm

The cooling was better with the fan on the backside (top) heatsink.

Logical reasoning tells me it should be correct. By cooling the backside, the temperature difference between the frontside and the backside should increase, and thus the heatpipe would work better. Anyone against?