As discussed in this old thread, I'm still trying to strike the perfect balance between noise and heat in my PC system.

Recently, I reduced the speed of the Vantech Stealth case fans to a level that I was happy with, and I'd already gotten the Zalman CNPS7000-AlCu for cooling my CPU a while ago. I'm not entirely happy with the Zalman CPU cooler since it's still pretty noisy when the CPU gets really taxed. But I digress...

I was left with the fact that my video card (one of these) was the single noisiest entity in the case, with a tiny little fan that ran very very fast. So I looked into alternative GPU cooling, and found the ZM80D-HP heatpipe cooler. A couple of reviews seemed to indicate it would work well, and it has. I'm glad I read the reviews, though, because they indicated a few things that were important, such as the fact that I'd need to work out something for the RAM chips since the package came with only enough ramchip heatsinks for a 128 meg card.

Anyway, it works but it seems (in cursory tests) to cause the video card to run a bit hotter than it did with the original noisy fan. I'm just wondering if it's TOO hot.

Nvidia shows two temperatures for the video card in the control panel, the GPU core temperature, and something called "Ambient Temperature", but I don't know where the latter is sampled from. When I'm really stressing the card (such as running 3dMark, or playing Far Cry, or what have you), it's getting up to 78c core and 60c ambient, which means the core temperature is 172 degrees farenheit.

Anyone know if that's acceptable for extended gameplay runs for a video card? The Nvidia control panel shows that as barely into "yellow" territory on their little bar graph. I dunno where the "red" starts on their scale, though.

I think you'll be into the trouble zone when you're pushing 75C ambient. I'm actually going to replace a RADEON 9700 in one of my systems with an older 8500 or 9000, specifically because of the heat and noise. I don't need fast 3D performance on that system (not until Longhorn ships), so it makes sense for me.

Bruno

I haven't seen the ambient go up that high yet, I'm mostly worried about the core temp. Do you think 78c core is too high?

And where is the "ambient" temp measured anyway?

Did you get the optional fan? I got the "C" model, and without the fan the cooler got very hot on my 9800. Once I installed the fan the cooler was cool to the touch. The fan is pretty silent, so I don't think much airflow is needed.

Yeah. You have to use the fan when it's a 5800 or above

Quote:

Note 1) If you are using an nVIDIA GeForce FX5800, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a Matrox Parhelia, or a more advanced model, an Optional Fan (ZM-OP1, sold separately) must be installed.

Yeah, it's important to try to isolate fans from the casing wherever possible. I tend to do that quick-and-dirty, by hot-gluing the fan to a "ring" of foam, and then hot-gluing the foam to the case.

Do you have any idea how hot the GPU core got when it locked up on you that one time?

hehe My last case I had 2 120mm fans in it, one on the side blowing directly on the CPU and Video card and one up top as a blow hole. and I had like 6 80mm fans all blowing out through out the rest of my tower .. That was one cool AMD not to mention I had a solid copper heatsink with a 90mm fan on it. The hum from that PC put me to sleep ..

Heh, exactly the situation I'm trying to avoid.