Silencing a GeForce4 Ti4400 - Worth spending the money?

ct991 · Post by **ct991** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:12 pm

I just built a brand-new silent system based on the P180. Now I want to take the jet-engine out of the old system and make it run quiet as well so I can run them side-by-side and still sleep in that room.

The old system is an AthlonXP 1800 based in an In-Win Q500 tower case. So far I've swapped the power supply (I had an old 450W Power-Win with a jet turbine in it). I had the Power-Man 300W that came with the In-Win case so I stuck in in there as it is much quieter.

Now the major issue (apart from suspending the HDDs) is ripping the fan off the vid card. I want to replace it with the Zalman ZM80D but is it worth the money? Are there any cheaper solutions that I could look at?

ct991 · Post by **ct991** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:15 pm

What about the Zalman NB47J heatsink? Would this be enough to cool that card on its own? Space would not be an issue.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:15 pm

you sound like me, i put a 80D on my old GF3Ti next to my new system. doesn't even matter because it's going into the basement in the next week or so. however i paid 26$ for the 80D from newegg, which i think is allready pretty cheap, and was easy to assemble.

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:25 pm

A Zalman ZM80A-HP was more than enough for my previous GeForce 3 TI200 card. The ZM80D-HP is a variation of the same cooler, but it uses two heatpipes instead of one. The TI4400 is really not a power hungry card, so I'm pretty sure both coolers would perform without a glitch if you maintain a good airflow inside your case.

I checked at newegg for the first one and it's no more available. But the ZM80D-HP is available for $36.99.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:31 pm

The heatsink is almost worth more than the card...

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:06 pm

I think it's worth it to silence a GF4. I agree that a ZM80D is quite expensive for that, but, this one's cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835124006
so are the newer zalmans (assuming they fit)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118117
there's thermaltake's version
http://www.anitec.ca/?mode=product_deta ... 33&mcid=17
and there's aerocool's passive cooler, or if you have some thermal adhesive and free PCI slots you could just use a CPU heatsink.

there's an NV silencer that fits, and it's cheap:

http://www.anitec.ca/?mode=product_deta ... 82&mcid=17

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:50 pm

Yes, I also agree that the ZM80D-HP is an expensive solution. I had the chance to get my ZM80A-HP for free!

A similar solution (as mentioned by mathias) is the Aerocool VM-101. There are a lot of threads about this passive cooler on SPCR, and newegg is selling it for 24.99$. IIRC, EdwardNG used one of them on a 6600GT, but I can't find that thread right now...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835127101

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:55 pm

Judging by what I'm seeing on eBay now, looks like you'd be able to grab a used, older-gen ZM80x-HP for $10-20 shipped. The Aerocool VM-101 also sounds like a pretty good option, just make sure it's compatible with the GeForce4 Ti series. My ZM80D-HP came with a mounting bracket for only GF4 Ti cards, and another for all other cards, so I'm assuming the GF4 Ti have very oddly placed mounting holes, and maybe not all heatsinks would fit.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:06 am

Newegg doesn't ship to Canada. Here a VM-101 is no cheaper than a ZM80C or a dual heatpipe thermaltake. And with AGP, you can't put a card with one of those in a lower slot if it interferes with the CPU heatsink.

Surrey is a suburb of vancouver, right?

ct991 · Post by **ct991** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:40 am

mathias wrote:Surrey is a suburb of vancouver, right?

Yep.

I don't think I'd want to go near eBay for this, and I guess NewEgg is out as well. I'll look at NCIX and Anitec again and look at those other items.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:41 pm

I think most of the stores in the canadian sticky are in vancouver, not just those two.

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:31 pm

ct991, sorry about the newegg stuff, I hadn't noticed that you were in Canada

Another store you could look is FrontierPC, also in Vancouver. And yes, the VM-101 is about the price of a ZM80C-HP in Canada, but it comes with 2 heatpipes.

http://www.frontierpc.com/ProductDetail ... =950017502
http://www.frontierpc.com/productList.a ... ID=CA-1504