Fan mounting on Zalman 123 Bracket

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Fri Feb 14, 2003 12:45 pm

I was considering a purchase of the Zalman video card heatpipe cooler (ZM80A-HP) but then read the Fan Fundamentals FAQ at the top of this forum:

Video cards with noisy fans can be replaced with various fanless HS from Zalman. But fanless doesn’t always work, and the HS replacement is not always necessary. If there's room above the PCI/AGP slots, a low noise 80-92mm fan on a Zalman 123 or 165 fan bracket (or facsimile) will bathe both sides of the VGA card with enough airflow to replace tiny fans, usually w/o any mod of the HS. Often good with a 5-7V Panaflo (80mm, L). This is the simplest, cheapest effective quiet VGA cooling - if you have room. The 123 is an excellent solution for CPU fan mounting, and allows a second fan to be mounted over the VGA card, as John Coyle showed us here.

As I already have the Zalman 123 bracket, I got to wondering whether I could simply remove the fan from my Leadtek GF3 Ti500 and position an 80mm fan over it by attaching it to the Zalman bracket in a similar fashion to this:

So my question is: can one buy a quiet fan that comes with mounting brackets that would allow a fan to be mounted in this fashion, so that it would be directed downwards toward the GPU? Or is this a modified number?

All comments welcome.

Cams

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 5:50 am

The bracket in the picture is a standard Zalman 123 bracket. The only addition to it is the "L" shaped bracket that's attaching the lower fan. That's a standard bracket that you can buy at any hardware store. That bracket and some nuts and bolts and a Panaflo L1A fan would be all you'd need.

Dru · Post by **Dru** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 8:01 am

Ha! That's a nice trick.

It still begs the question why some company doesn't just come out with a slot holder that lets a 80mm fan be parallel with the PCI/AGP cards? Who cares if it takes up a slot or 2.

My guess would be this type of metal contraption to cost (at retail) at most $10? This would be a cheaper solution than buying the Zalman 80A at $30. People would just need to disconnect their stock graphics card fan but still utilize the HS.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 8:15 am

Dru wrote:Ha! That's a nice trick.

It still begs the question why some company doesn't just come out with a slot holder that lets a 80mm fan be parallel with the PCI/AGP cards? Who cares if it takes up a slot or 2.

My guess would be this type of metal contraption to cost (at retail) at most $10? This would be a cheaper solution than buying the Zalman 80A at $30. People would just need to disconnect their stock graphics card fan but still utilize the HS.

My sentiments entirely. It could perhaps dispense with the need for the Zalman 80A entirely, or in the case of those with top-of-the-range video cards, would ensure the efficiency of the Zalman nicely.

In Zalman's favour, they actually do make the bracket so the only thing required is to get those little L-shaped brackets from a hardware store and mount a fan - a journey I'm about to embark upon myself, if only I can find a local online supplier of a Panaflo L1A 80mm fan.

Cams

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 11:03 am

Cams wrote: if only I can find a local online supplier of a Panaflo L1A 80mm fan.

Cams

Check frozencpu You can get 2 panaflo L1As for $11 .. and they ship lightning fast.

Brice

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 11:09 am

BriceB wrote:
Cams wrote: if only I can find a local online supplier of a Panaflo L1A 80mm fan.

Cams
Check frozencpu You can get 2 panaflo L1As for $11 .. and they ship lightning fast.

Brice

Thanks Brice, but I'm actually in Europe so not really local

You wouldn't know of any European suppliers, would you?

Cams

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 11:23 am

i have mounted a quite fan as in the picture above, it seems to cool the board enough, however the top of the board the other side of the gpu is very hot to touch, im not sure if it was that hot when running the stock hsf, but at least its a darn site quiter.
the zalman bracket seems to transmit an awful lot of vibrations to the rest of the case. im looking into damping it.
i wondered if i would be likely to have better cooling if i put the fan at right angles to the card, so it blows air over both sides of the card, has any one tried this? would it be worth putting a larger hs on the gpu?
cheers.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 11:29 am

mynci wrote:i have mounted a quite fan as in the picture above, it seems to cool the board enough, however the top of the board the other side of the gpu is very hot to touch, im not sure if it was that hot when running the stock hsf, but at least its a darn site quiter.

i wondered if i would be likely to have better cooling if i put the fan at right angles to the card, so it blows air over both sides of the card, has any one tried this? would it be worth putting a larger hs on the gpu?
cheers.

What card do you have? I've read reports of burnt-out Radeon 9700s and GF4 Ti cards; if in doubt, I'd fit a heatsink to be on the safe side.

It's interesting that you say you have your fan positioned perpendicular to the GPU but are still worried. I'd have thought it better in that position than at 90º as you suggest and it would be good to hear some opinions.

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 12:32 pm

its a geforce 4 ti4200. the heat sink is cool to the touch even right on top of the chip (though there is thermal coupling with the chip itself. it is only the one patch directly above the gu that could be called hot, it can burn a little if you hold your hand on it for a long time.

i would be interested in those opinions too.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 12:47 pm

Cams,

woops.. I didn't catch your location. Anyway, I've heard Papst fans are easier to find + cheaper in Europe.. They're also highly recommended ( > L1As ) .. Maybe you'll have better luck finding those.

Brice

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 3:10 pm

BriceB wrote:Cams,

woops.. I didn't catch your location. Anyway, I've heard Papst fans are easier to find + cheaper in Europe.. They're also highly recommended ( > L1As ) .. Maybe you'll have better luck finding those.

Brice

Any particular model of Papst I should know about? -- just to save me some more digging this late on a Saturday? I just know I'll spend loads of time tomorrow researching this when I'm staring down the barrel of a at a Monday morning deadline...

Cams

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 3:20 pm

Cams wrote: Any particular model of Papst I should know about?

For 80mm the Papst 8412NGL will do you well, and the 3412NGL is an excellent 92mm

Brice

quicklyshop · Post by **quicklyshop** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 3:40 pm

Why dont you try our system bracket fan. Specially designed to cool pci cards by directly blowing air trough them.

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mynci · Post by **mynci** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 4:02 pm

not only a gratuitous advert but surely fairly inapropriate. a 60CFM set of fans to replace a tiny screeming gpu cooler? perhaps overkill, and definately missing the point. did you not read the url before posting? there is a givaway - SILENTpcreview.com.

quicklyshop · Post by **quicklyshop** » Sat Feb 15, 2003 4:13 pm

There is 2 80 mm fans on the bracket each fan blowing 30 cfm so altogether it is 60 cfm. Also model number of the fans used on the bracket are EC8025M12S
. According to evercoiol this fans run at 23.5 DBA. Also if 23.5 DBa does not satisfy; you can reduce the voltage to 7v or 5v . So overkilling is not issue here...

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 2:08 am

fair enough. i would be unsure of beleiving th evercool figures, but ill retract my previous acsorbic comments untill proved otherwise.
do you have any independant noise measurements? i would suspect that with these two fans runing, in a pci slot, they are louder than thunder, however if thats not the case then i apologise once again.

quicklyshop · Post by **quicklyshop** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 2:47 am

We dont have any device to check the actuall noise level but if 23.5 DBA is accepted quiet this fans are not 23.5 as i found them little too loud. i assume only way to use them is 5V . It runs really quiet at 5V.
Other option is changing the fans on bracket with any other fans like YSTech 20 DBa Fans.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 3:07 am

BriceB wrote:
Cams wrote: Any particular model of Papst I should know about?
For 80mm the Papst 8412NGL will do you well, and the 3412NGL is an excellent 92mm

Brice

Thanks Brice. I found a Papst 8412NGL for €16 at the same place that has the cheapest price for the ZM80A-HP at €29.

An order shall be placed with much thanks to you for saving me loads of time researching. I'll report back when things are up and running.

I'm also ordering the Nexus 3000 PSU from elsewhere so should hopefully end up with a QPC sometime soon.

Cams

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 7:24 am

Zalman has this FB-165 bracket that is made just for cooling PCI cards. It works a lot better than the FB-123 for vidcards because the fan is positioned correctly over the card.

korsch · Post by **korsch** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 10:59 am

Ralf, I've used the FB123 but not the FB165. I'm curious what makes the FB165 better at cooling video cards. The FB123 seems very adjustable, so in what way does the FB165 have better positioning?