Aerocool VM-102 performance and conclusions

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:58 am

Okay, many of you probably know this fanless heatsink is proved to be one of the best, if not the best, of all the fanless cooling solutions available at the moment.

And I can say this heatsink performs ridiculously well. My graphic card's idle temps were somewhere around 54 degrees celsius and 66-68 degrees celsius under load when I used the supplied factory cooling solution. Then VM-102 got my attention and I went on installing it on my system. Now, after many hours testing this VGA card idles at around 56-57 degrees celsius with an ambient temperature of 37, and while I was playing World of Warcraft for two hours it hardly got over 64 degrees celsius! Imagine that

(I probably should still run 3D Mark '05 a few times to really get the maximum load temp.) And I have one 120x120mm exhaust fan running @ 950 RPM and also power supply's 120x120mm fan sucking air out of the case. So, I basically have no extra fan blowing air towards the heatsink itself, except the Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu cpu cooler. My card, however, is GeForce 6800 LE so it probably doesn't generate that much heat on stock clocks anyway. And oh, my current pc case is Antec Sonata.

But still, I think this product rocks and would recommend it to anyone interested in a powerful and fanless cooling solution (And of course you are, as this is the SPCR forum

). The only downside is the mechanism used to tighten the heatsink base against the vga core, because it's a bit unstable. However, I made a quick mod using some parts from my Zalman ZM80D-HP and now the base is as solid as a rock. If you want pictures, I can take some.

Now I'd like to have your opinion about this huge VGA heatsink.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:22 pm

I'm not impressed at all by your temps: VM-102 on 6800LE should run 10C cooler, IMHO. I have the VM-101 on 6600GT and getting 40C idle (35C ambient in Control panel), 64C load (measured by Rivatuner). That's in Antec SLK3000B with NeoPower480, fans at ~1,000 rpm, CPU cooler XP-90 with 92 mm Tricool at 1,600 rpm.
If you had these temps on a 6800GT, or at least GS, that would have been good news. I was planning to upgrade to a 7800GT and put a VM-102 on it, but now I may have to reconsider.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:50 pm

I wonder... Ville, was your install trouble-free? The GPU core heatsink can be tricky to tighten, you can easily leave it too loose which obviously shows in temps.

Tzupy, you have both case intake and exhaust fans running?

Ville, you have just the case exhaust fan running?

Atleast in my setup running the exhaust fan _and_ front fan does affect the Zalman 80D temps by about 5-7 degrees when idle when compared to just running the exhaust fan.

Isn't GFX card temperature monitoring a bit like motherboards, they can be a bit different between cards? (I'm asking, it would be logical)

Like I said in another thread, nothing but good results with the VM-102.

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:08 pm

Yes, I have just the case exhaust fan running. Not sure though if the heatsink base is taking good contact with the GPU core as I just tested the heatsinks with my hand and they only seemed warm.. nothing close to hot. Should they feel warm or hot or something in-between?

And yes, I had some trouble attaching the base on top of the core and that's why I assembled some of my own mods to make it stable. What I basically did was to add some support under the tightening screws.

I may have to re-check my heatsink installation and post new results here..
I'm sorry if I have misguided some of you thinking this product cools badly as it might just be my own mistake

I still think this is the most powerful VGA heatsink out there.. just watch me and I'll post you new results soon.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:29 pm

I have the stock Tricool in the front and a Noiseblocker in the back, both controlled by a TT Hardcano 10. After getting rid of the CPU duct of my case, the VGA temps dropped by 2C.
My guess is that in Ville's setup the airflow may have too much room around the VM-102, instead of through it.

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:40 pm

Now, this is interesting. Everest claims that my VGA card would be running at 53 degrees celsius whereas the NVIDIA tool claims the temperature to be 57-58 degrees.

Tzupy, you're right. There is basically very little or no airflow through the heatsink itself.. I'm just wondering if a front fan would make a noticeable difference in the temperatures..

And I'm still using Antec Sonata I, so the case airflow is not the best in the world in that one.

My CPU idles at 28C and motherboard at 30-31C though.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:44 pm

Running a front fan even at low (400-500RPM) speed should help a bit with your HDD and GFX temps. But those temps you gave for your card are quite OK IMO.

Weldingheart · Post by **Weldingheart** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:49 pm

IMO do on par/slightly better than stock cooler is ok for a fanless product.

However I did lower the temp (-3C on idle,-5c on load) with tighten mounting screw for the base plate for VM101,just be careful not to overtighten it.
looks like VM102 have less surface area on heatpipe side/shark fins compared to VM101 to avoid interfere,they compensate it with heatsink on top of the base plate/GPU side.
Heat will transfer to both heatsinks instead of being relocated entirely onto the heatpipe side,thus less amount of heat exhausted directly by exhaust fan,some heat may become stagnant on the GPU side heatsink area.
VM102 might be better than 101,but not that much IMHO

had you tried stress your card with Rthdribl? it will generate more heat than most games or xxxmark

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:12 pm

My Radeon 9800pro doesn't have a temperature sensor and I don't have any other way of measuring it apart from opening the case and using my finger. Even when the card is simply displaying the Windows desktop the VM-102 heat sinks get hot to the touch quite quickly if I have no fan blowing over it, I take that as a good sign that my VM-102 is correctly installed.

With a reasonable amount of airflow (one 92mm Nexus fan @ 7v drawing air through the top fins, plus positive case pressure pushing some air through a missing PCI slot cover under the card) the heat sinks stay very cool when the card is idle. I can even grab hold of the heat pipes or put my finger on the part of the heat sink covering the GPU core for several seconds without it getting uncomfortable. I haven't tried that after the card has been working hard for a while, but I'd bet that it's temperatures are significantly better than the stock cooler, despite it's integrated fan it's small heat sink got very hot to the touch.

For a cooler graphics card I imagine convection would probably deal with the heat and it could probably work well in a system with very low airflow. For a hotter card it's still a brilliant passive cooler as long as there's some airflow where it counts. I think in most cases the rear case fan will be in a good position to cool the upper fins and even at a low speed it should be plenty to cool most cards.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:02 pm

anyone knows if the VM102 can be installed on an AGP 6600 with the HSI heatsink?

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:02 am

I cleaned the heatsink surfaces with acetone and tightened the heatsink base as tight as I could, being careful of course. Then I re-installed my Aerocool VM-102 heatsink and here's the results.

GPU temperatures
Idle: 48 C
Load: 55 C (Tested with rthdribl)

As you can see, changes are somewhat noticeable and considering that this is a nv 6800-series card, those temperature readings should be good, right?

Weldingheart · Post by **Weldingheart** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:26 pm

Ville wrote:I cleaned the heatsink surfaces with acetone and tightened the heatsink base as tight as I could, being careful of course. Then I re-installed my Aerocool VM-102 heatsink and here's the results.

GPU temperatures
Idle: 48 C
Load: 55 C (Tested with rthdribl)

As you can see, changes are somewhat noticeable and considering that this is a nv 6800-series card, those temperature readings should be good, right?

looks very good for me, Ville

lotta drop o temp there
you even haven't add the front fan right?(which might not necessary)
what's your room temp?can you post your setup pic too?

I'm tempted to get one...

DG · Post by DG » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:40 am

I too would like to see some pics.

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:06 am

Weldingheart, yep, I don't have a front fan installed, only an exhaust fan.

I'll try to get my setup pic posted by tomorrow (Friday). Too many other things to do at the moment. But I'll get back to business asap

Ville · Post by **Ville** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:30 am

Sorry folks, I didn't have time until now to post my setup pic, but better sooner than later

So, here it is:

Oh, and my room temperature is about 22 C at the time of writing.

flokel · Post by **flokel** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:46 am

Hi,

there's still some potential

Try to open the slot (how is it called in english?) under the graphics card.
As a result fresh air can move in and cool the heatsink below the chip.

Just like this: