Zalman Heatpipe VGA Cooler (ZM80C-HP) & Optional Fan (ZM-OP1)

Reviews: Cooling

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Case-Mod
Mar. 3, 2004

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Introduction

If you haven't heard of Zalman by now, where have you been?! Zalman has designed and manufactured silent solutions for CPUs, motherboards, hard drives, video cards, and they are currently working on a huge PC case that utilizes heatpipe technology very heavily, as well as a fan-less water cooling system. Today we will be taking a look at their ZM80C-HP Heatpipe VGA Cooler along with the optional ZM-OP1 cooling fan. This VGA cooler is known for its extremely quiet operation and oversized heatsink which spans both sides of the card. How will the Zalman Heatpipe VGA cooler compare to the stock cooling of an ATI Radeon 9600 XT? Let's find out!

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks, Installation, & How Does Heatpipe Cooling Work?
Page 3: Testing, Conclusion, & Extra Images

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8 User Comments

1 - Posted by EmoMakesMeCry on March 5, 2004 - 8:49 pm

i've been looking for a good vga cooler to replace the stock one on my 9800, but this one just looks too bulky to keep on it with all the LAN parties i go to and such. sure does look beasty though, lol.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on March 5, 2004 - 9:25 pm

its not made for the high end cards either, unfortunately, since it does not cool the RAM.

3 - Posted by Guest on March 6, 2004 - 5:51 pm

You can get ram sinks in addition to the Zalman cooler...

4 - Posted by Kurtis on March 7, 2004 - 7:25 pm

Well yeah... but it would be nice if it came with it...

5 - Posted by Guest on March 9, 2004 - 5:58 pm

It would be nice if the fan came with it too... but it doesn't.

6 - Posted by Kurtis on March 9, 2004 - 6:15 pm

Yeah... unfortunately the fan will cost you $10, but in all honesty it does a great job. When you set it at 5V you can't even hear it, but the temperature still decreases a few degrees Celsius. When it comes to cooling, I always spend a few extra bucks for the good stuff...

7 - Posted by sa133 on March 30, 2004 - 10:39 pm

Kurt,
are you certain this thing isn't able to cool a FX5900?
Zalman's spec sheet says it can with the optional fan.
I think you could try it? and help us poor college students out.
BTW I'm runnin a FX5900 stock(55C at idle, 66C at load) and the sound IS drivin me crazy.
thanks

8 - Posted by Kurtis on March 30, 2004 - 11:21 pm

sa133: The problem is that it does not cool the RAM on the video card. Sure, you could remove the stock cooling and mount it there if you would like, but the RAM will most likely need some sort of cooling as well. If your card has cooling for the RAM stock, then it is recommended that you get some RAMsinks in addition to the Zalman cooler. Hope that helps.

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