zm80-C VS zm80-A Which is better?

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 9:21 pm

Im a little curious, the zm80-A has a little bit more more surface area 1300 cm^2 as apposed to the zm80-Cs 120 cm^2. Wouldnt the mean that the zm80A performs better, or has it been redesigned to where it doesnt matter?

Also the ZM-OP1 slim fan for the 80c is supposidly pretty silent. But is $10. Would it be possible to fit a panaflo L1A on it instead? Im a little worried about weight and also the distance between the wall of the case antec 3700 might interfere with the airflow. I imagine you could get more airflow from the L1A at better noise levels than the slim fan, but it might not be worth the trouble?

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 9:48 pm

Yea from my guestimations. There will be about 2 to 2.5inches of space between the wall of the case and the card. 80mm L1A's are 1 inch thick, while the slim fan is .6 inches thick. So the question now is how much space do you need on the intake side of the fan? Is an inch and some change enough space?

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 10:31 pm

I bought the C but haven't installed yet. I did notice the slightly less dissipation area but the fact that I had a recommendation, it was newer, and the dark silver color would look $100 better on my red ATI card made me buy it even though I don't plan on opening my case up much.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 4:09 am

I THINK I've heard the C is a better HS due to the material vs. the A. I've put one on yesterday on my 9800 Pro, with the optional fan. Ran a 3D game for an hour and it seems perfectly fine.

I wasn't sure if I could get a Panaflo or not, which is why I got the zalman fan. In theory you can put anything on there... you just need a long enough screw and a nut. Basically, you slide the screw heads into a groove on the HS, then screw a metal nipple onto the end of the screw, and you're done.

I think you'll need a longer (or shorter) screw for a Panaflo, depending on whether you have it go through one hole or two (i.e. - Just going through the front hole, or going through both the front and the back hole).

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 2:29 pm

Ill probably buy one of those slim fans even though I think that a panaflo would work better and be cheaper. Mainly because newegg doesnt carry L1A's and I dont want to order 1 fan from directron because shipping would kill me. What do you run your fan at 5v? What does it sound like at 12v? I might hook a fanmate to it and set it to 6-9v (whatever my noise threshold is).

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 2:53 pm

What do you run your fan at 5v? What does it sound like at 12v? I might hook a fanmate to it and set it to 6-9v (whatever my noise threshold is).

Basically, the fan comes with 4 3-pin connectors. 2 run at 5v, the other at 12. The fan is quite audible at 12v. I currently have four fans plugged into my multi-fan controller, and I need to redo some of my fan hookups (i.e.- Make/buy some extension cables for my 120mm fans so I can run them into the switches on the MFC, since I only run them at 5v anyway).

The nice thing about the extra fan plugins for the Zalman fan is that I can plug in a nearby Panaflo into the other 5v connector.

Anyway, once I have room on my MFC, I'll probably play around with slowly increasing the power to the Zalman fan till I can get maximum airflow at minimum/no noise.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 3:22 pm

I just read a review that said that the slim fan produces 20db at 5v. Thats about the same as a panaflo L1A at 12v. So you could probably get almost twice the airflow at the same noise level with a 80L1A. Tell me how the fan sounds at 6-9v when you get around to experimenting with it.

Oh I just noticed on the zalman page they recommend leaving the top pci slots cover off to allow cool air to enter onto the zm80c. They claim it can drop temps up to 5 degrees. Has anyone tried this?