SPCR

Why are people using Arctic Silencers and not Zalmans on their ATI cards?

Seems to work pretty well here:-
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... 0d-hp.html

The one big advantage that the Silencer has over the Zalman is that it exhausts the heated air outside the case, rather than dumping inside. All that heat is going to have to be removed by some noisemaking fan somewhere in the system later.

For low-powered cards, the zalman is probably the quieter solution, since it can be run fanless, and the case fans won't have to be ramped up much to deal with the VGA heat.

But for higher powered cards, like the X800 in the Xbit test, the Zalman requires an additional fan to get the cooling back to even stock levels, plus you'll need more CFM flowing through the case to remove that heat. At that level, the Silencer's fan is doing double duty: both cooling the VGA, and the case. One fan doing the work of two should get you quieter results.

Lots of other variables involved, obviously, but that the general rationale for why people pick the Silencer over the Zalman.

I use the older version of that heatpipe on a ati 9500. Its totally passive with no fan.

I think it depends on the card and what the users setup is. The vga silencer has the advantage of exausting the video card heat outside of the case. This allows the power supply to run at a lower rpm in some setups. The passive heatpipe obvious advantage is no fan.

So if I was to guess choosing between the 2 would have to take into consideration the current ambient temp inside of the case and the amount of heat output of the video card.

Alot may choose the silencer because lower ambient temps inside the case allow for everything else to run slower quieter and cooler.

bah rusty beat me by 4 minutes. I got to stop editing posts 25 times.

You need to just accept the typo's, and learn to love them.

I'm using Zalmans. After two failed attempts with Arctic VGA Cooler I'm off them for life.

If the fan develops noise, you just have to throw away the complete thing (happened twice on me, rev2 and rev5).

I'd love to get the head outta case easily with ZM80D, but for me it's just more reliable silencing option right now, even if it is more hot (and even that depends on circumstances).

halcyon wrote:I'm using Zalmans. After two failed attempts with Arctic VGA Cooler I'm off them for life.

If the fan develops noise, you just have to throw away the complete thing (happened twice on me, rev2 and rev5).

I'd love to get the head outta case easily with ZM80D, but for me it's just more reliable silencing option right now, even if it is more hot (and even that depends on circumstances).

If you need to remove a little bit of case heat there is something you can do and still use the passive heatpipe. Now this is going to sound wierd but what I did was remove 2 rear slot covers directly under the agp port. I experienced a 3 degree ambient temp drop. Doesnt sound like a huge temp drop but a little here a little there helps.

i'm using a zalman single heatpipe on a 9600xt, and it was sorta hot to the touch, but i didn't take a temperature reading [due to the fact that i don't have a thermometer]. i ended up taking it off, and i'm going to reattach it later when i have the time (and no finals ). I think a major problem that comes with the zalman is that if you don't mount it correctly, things aren't properly aligned, and it doesn't work as optimally as it should. however, with the artic cooler, the installation is much easier, and as someone said above, the added fan removes more hot air, rather than having it just sit around inside the case.

Having a passive cooler on a hot card requires that you have excellent case airflow - and unfortunately, despite all that's been said about the subject in these forums, I can consistantly see people ignore the subject or not give it the attention it deserves.

Come on, how many in the forums have really dremelled out their exhaust vents? Don't answer "I did" but look at the percentages, read the forums and you'll easily get the impression that getting rid of exhaust grills is among the most distasteful silencing effort. After much experimentation, now, that's among my first things to do to silence a case. Which is why I graduated from Silencer rev2 to passive cooling

halcyon wrote:If the fan develops noise, you just have to throw away the complete thing (happened twice on me, rev2 and rev5).

I don't have any hands-on experience with VGA Silencers, but can't you just take the fan out, grease it, then put it back in?

hmm, just noticed a major point going for arctic silencer was the fact that it exhausts air.

what about just takin off 2 PCI slot covers and running positive air?
this is what I am doing at least. gf4 ti4200 + zm80D. I think it has a positive effect but it depends on fan positioning and setup.

My video card fan has become noisier in the last few months. I need to replace it despite it running at only 5v.

Is it possible to attach a panaflo to the zm80c using silicone or something? I have a 5900 XT which I am sure cannot be passively cooled. Maybe if I do the bluefront mod with the angled fan blowing air towards it passive would be ok.

I cant use an NV-3 silencer without removing the OEM ramsinks. Any ideas as to how hard removing them would be? Should I simply freeze and pry off? I did this with a Voodoo3 a long time ago, but the BGA ramsinks are rather small to work with. If someones done it I'd like to hear their opinions.

The aerocool vm-101 is out of my pricerange/availability while the coolermaster coolviva is another option.

thanks in advance

What I did for a ZM80A that I had was use zip ties.

Put an 80mm fan angled 45 degrees to the parallel, and then space the bars that go in the grooves to fit the fan corners.

See the little spacer bars here: http://www.pcmech.com/fullimage.php?image=3685

Take some zip ties, and zip through the fan holes and around those spacers.

I've done this to two ZM80A's and they've worked very well

Ahh zip ties! Perfect. Thanks

I tried both the Zalman ZM80D and the Aerocool VM-101 with an X800 Pro. The VM-101 was about 7-10C cooler.

Of course, it works well with a 120mm ducted fan.

-Ed

All i have to say is:

Before VGA Silencer: Case temperature 45
After VGA Silencer: Case temperature 35

Not an exaggeration.