X850pro - Arctic Cooling or Zalman

kogi · Post by **kogi** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:09 am

I got a new vid card and Can't decide
It's a gecube X850pro gold edition.
Which will give me the quietest operation.
I've only got 1 x 7v 120 panaflo as system exhaust.

Arctic Cooling ATI 5 Rev 2
Exhausts heat out the back

Zalman VF900-Cu
Quieter fan?

kogi

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:05 am

I'd had an ati silencer 4 on my x800 card for a long time, but I had to modify the fan to run off a motherboard header, since the pwm controller on the video card caused the fan to click. After 8 months of running the silencer off a fanmate with no pwm control, the fan finally started making some terrible bearing noise. I attribute it's early death(not even a year old) to the pwm control on the ati card. I didn't want to hassle with it again, so I picked up a vf900, as it is compatible with everything on the market. Not only is it damn quiet at the lowest speed, it cools just as well as my old silencer. If i ever feel like i need more than the x800 can provide, I'll be able to keep using the cooler, assuming I don't buy a dx10 card.

My case temps did increase, but they were never high to begin with. Just remember, the silencers are model specific, if you ever feel the need to upgrade, you'll either have to stick with stock cooling, or buy another aftermarket cooler.

mits · Post by **mits** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:30 pm

Well, i have an ATI Silencer5 Rev2 on my X850 XT and it's been working ok for 8 months (keep my fingers crossed). However, the fan is not connected to the vga card but it gets 7Volts from a 12V->7V cable. There's been a big debate about Zalman and AC in this site, so by searching this forum you'll get an idea of pros and cons of the two coolers.