SPCR

Why isn't the Aerocool VM-102 the heatsink of choice here?

Runs passive, so no noisy fans but people seem to be pre-occupied with the likes of the VF-700/900 or the Thermalright V-1.

I can understand that the Aerocool probably wouldn't be suitable for the ATI 1800/1900 cards because their power consumption / heat dissapation but surely a VM-102 would be perfect for something like a 7900GT?

Thoughts?

IMO, it's because it's very hard to find it in US. I have one, but i wait for the 7900GTs to appear in stocks.

DG wrote:IMO, it's because it's very hard to find it in US. I have one, but i wait for the 7900GTs to appear in stocks.

Yes, I got this response when I inquired as to US availability:

Hi Kevin,

VM102 will not be introduced to the US market due to a few unresolved
patent
issues.
Have a good day.

Best Regards,

Alex Poh
AeroCool US
http://www.aerocool.us

I want one of these, but importing it from overseas looks $$, and I can't seem to find them in online Canadian shops either. Anyone in the US know how to get their hands on this product?

Patent issues?!? Good grief... I hate it when the reason why you can't get "X" product is because of some petty legal issue that no one seems to really understand...

Thanks for clearing up the mystery of the VM-102 being absent from North America.

They're absent from Australia aswell. I'm interested in buying one of these now. If it's gotta come from os then by the time it's here there may be a few more 7900GTs about. So who sells them and how much are they?

EDIT.
Looks like UK or Germany are the places to buy them.

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=605253 - 21 english pounds ($50US).

I'm not sure if Tekheads will ship overseas but I think they do according to their faq. I've sent them an email and asked them.

EDIT2
No they don't ship overseas. Bummer. Have to find someone else.

The upper part of the VM-102 has less fin area than the VM-101, about 20% less IMO (it's 2 cm longer, but width is about 25% less).
However, the round heatpipes of the VM-102 should make better contact than the VM-101s flattened heatpipes.
The lower part however has thick fins, probably extruded, and I don't think it would work properly passive for a 7900GT.
At least in my room, where in the summer I'm getting 30C (no aircon).
I'm thinking about superglueing two ultra quiet 80 mm fans together (sideways) and to a PCI bracket, which would be used for mounting.
The airflow from two 80 mm 1,400 rpm fans should exceed 30 cfm, which should give a big boost to the cooling capability of the lower part of the VM-102 (BTW the 'AEROCOOL' logo must go, it blocks airflow).
Your opinions about my setup idea, please?

Tzupy:

It seems counter productive to me to buy an expensive passive cooler and add two fans to it. Once a fan is dedicated to a cooler, it is no longer passive. Someone around here is cooling a 7900GT with a ZM80D-HP, passive. A lot will depend on the airflow in your case. If I thought a fan was a must, I would go with a Zalman 700/900, or better yet, one of those coolers that blows the hot air out of the case.

I just have a 92mm Nexus fan @ 6v drawing air through the top fins of my VM-102. It's cooling a 9800pro at stock speed and obviously that's a pretty low end card by modern standards, but that keeps it very cool, no active cooling of the heat sink under the card was necessary. Personally I find that to be a quieter and cooler solution than an Arctic Cooling Silencer, but adding a couple of 80mm fans seems like overkill, and 2 fans at 1400RPM aren't going to be silent.

A couple of points:
1) the fans would be Coolermaster 80 mm, not Zalmans.
2) 2 such fans at 1,400 rpm would generate about 20db.
3) I would use a fan controller, since I wouldn't need the fans to run at all in 2D.

After seeing the Oblivion benchmarks at Firingsquad I think I should get a 7900 GTX and keep its stock cooler. Hmm...

The VM-102 is rated to dissipate 70W, which is more than the rated power output of both the 7600GT and the 7900GT. In a case with decent airflow, the VM-102 should be able to handle the 7900GT without adding fans.

At least, that's what I'm going to try if I can get my hands on a VM-102. They aren't even showing up on eBay. If any of your UK folks want to make some bucks, you should put a few up for sale.

Ozy

b1_ wrote:They're absent from Australia aswell. I'm interested in buying one of these now. If it's gotta come from os then by the time it's here there may be a few more 7900GTs about. So who sells them and how much are they?

EDIT.
Looks like UK or Germany are the places to buy them.

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=605253 - 21 english pounds ($50US).

I'm not sure if Tekheads will ship overseas but I think they do according to their faq. I've sent them an email and asked them.

EDIT2
No they don't ship overseas. Bummer. Have to find someone else.

I'm about to order one from Tekheads or TheCoolingStore. If you're prepared to cover international postage costs, I'd be happy to order an extra one and post it to you in Aus.

(Incidentally, £21 GBP is about $37 US)

Any reviews out for this comparing it to other modern solutions?

it still takes up an expansion slot next to it on the GPU side of the card. so i dont see any major advantage that this has over any other passive vga solutions available to us now.

like the thermalright v-1 ultra.

for that fact alone i'd probably not use it. at least with the thermalright, you have an option to put a fan on it if you need it.

davidstone28 wrote: I'm about to order one from Tekheads or TheCoolingStore. If you're prepared to cover international postage costs, I'd be happy to order an extra one and post it to you in Aus.

(Incidentally, £21 GBP is about $37 US)

Thats's awfully kind of you but as far as I know there are no safe ways to transfer money between strangers on the net.

I've got some family over in England so I might just get them to buy me one.

Aris wrote: it still takes up an expansion slot next to it on the GPU side of the card. so i dont see any major advantage that this has over any other passive vga solutions available to us now.

like the thermalright v-1 ultra.

for that fact alone i'd probably not use it. at least with the thermalright, you have an option to put a fan on it if you need it.

The v-1 ultra is difficult to install, pricey and I'm worried about whether it would work with a scythe ninja on my cpu. And adding a fan to a passive heatsink defeats the purpose of paying for a heatsink in the first place.

It's an option still though because the v-1 ultra is being sold here. If I find some pics of one being used on an Asus A8N-SLI premium that's got a scythe ninja attached, and they're getting good temps, and they're happy with the noise levels of the fan (which is a two ball-bearing fan so should be quiet), then I might consider it.

It certainly looks like a Thermalright V-1 / Ninja combination would be a very tight fit, if it fits at all:-

V-1

Ninja

I also have my doubts as to whether it would be possible to run a V-1 passively on a high end graphics card because of the size of the heatsinks.

The VM-102 is also likely to be tight fit but because the copper heatsink would be so close to the Ninja, but I would expect the P180 case fans to be able to cool it.