7800GT cooling - better air cooling?

Associate
Joined
8 Jan 2006
Posts
13
Hi, my 7800GT seems to get to around 60deg under load. I know it shoud take more than this (according to NV control panel anyway) but it seems to freeze or reboot if it gets too hot. Pulling the GPU and Mem clocks down a notch seems to keep things ok.

I'm presuming that it is the graphics card anyway, the system seems stable otherwise, Prime95 and so on.

Any ideas for better 7800GT cooling. Anyone tried the Thermalright heat sink and an appropriate fan? Or should I wait for the new Arctic cooling jobby?

Or do you think I'm missing something?

Cheers
Scott
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Jan 2006
Posts
13
Excellent. Will do. Thanks for the quick response.

Anyone have any experience of using those blower cards or other "get heat out of the case quickly" devices? Or should I just beef up the exhaust fans?
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2005
Posts
19,359
Location
Midlands
forget that zalman crap, you want a quality cooler for that quality card your have, get the arctic cooler nv silencer, top quality piece of kit, gold plated fan connector, precision milled high grade copper, high tensile carbon reinforced aluminum radiator. you just can't get a better cooler for your 10 quid. ;)
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2005
Posts
19,359
Location
Midlands
hmm, guess we should do like china an oppress your opinion.

you got to hand it to AC though, their top not korean sweat shops really pulled through on the NV silencer range of cooler :p
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Jan 2006
Posts
13
Now can anyone recommend a thread cooler to take away some of the heat I appear to have created!

The new AC things look like they could be good - not in at OCUK yet. The Zalman stuff also has the advantage that it looks cool.

How's that for sitting on the fence?
 

kbc

kbc

Associate
Joined
20 Nov 2004
Posts
1,629
Location
London
Out of interest, the Accelero is coming out soon, how do you guys rate it? The Accelero from my understanding doesn't expel hot air outside the case... but I've heard it rates better than it's previous NV Silencer 5...

Is the Zalman one better than the AC models?
 

kbc

kbc

Associate
Joined
20 Nov 2004
Posts
1,629
Location
London
Cyber-Mav said:
all messing around aside

the build quality of the zalman cooler is a lot better then the AC products. but the performance of the AC coolers is a little better.

Well if you're saying the build quality of the AC coolers aren't that great, does that mean they'll just break easier? A cooler with a decent build and performance would be more ideal... =/
 
Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jul 2005
Posts
20,488
Location
Aberlour, NE Scotland
Hi there, i have both the AV Nvidia 5 Rev3 and the Zalman VF700-Cu Quiet Copper VGA Cooler and they are both good. They both have their good points and bad points though. I have one of each because i only have a normal (not a wider space such as on the Asus) Sli motherboard and despite having a double slot between the cards two of the AC units do not fit. Their website states that you need a clearance of 30mm when in reality you need 36 as thats how high the top of the cooler sits from the surface of the card. So i got the Zalman as well and have just fitted it in the top slot with no problems.

Anyway back to the good/bad points.

AC Nvidia 5 Rev2
The finish of the base that comes into contact with the GPU is absolutely awful. All it is is a rough machine finish and is the worst i have ever seen.

It does however cool the ram without using ramsinks as it has an all in one base plate like the stock cooler, and it dumps the hot air out the back of the case.

Zalman VF700-Cu Quiet Copper VGA Cooler
The fins on this are very flimsy and thin so you have to be careful not to bend them when fitting. Being thin though means they should dissapate heat more efficiently.

The base that contacts the GPU is excellent and is almost a mirror finish. It is also not as heavy as the AC.

Which would i have if i could only have one or the other? The AC but only because it exhaust the hot air out the back.

Performance wise they are near identical but they are still bedding in yet. Card 1 always runs hotter than card 2 anyway as its the top card. Card 1 has the Zalman and after just checking the temps at idle it is only 2 degrees hotter than card 2 which has the AC on it. 40/38 degrees respectively at idle. With the stock coolers there was a much wider gap that was on average 42/50 so not only have temps come down so has the difference between the pair.

My overclock has gone up too. With stock coolers the max OC was 492/1.20. Now i can hit 502/1.24 so thats an added bonus. As i said though they are still bedding in so i expect the temps to come down another couple of degrees over the next few days. If you are interested i did'nt use the supplied thermal paste and opted for AS5 instead.

Both coolers are easy to install and both run virtually silently. Both on 12V. You cannot go wrong with either really and it just depends on whether you want the hot air exhausted straight out the back or no.

The AC cost me £14 and the Zalman £16.
 
Associate
Joined
13 Sep 2005
Posts
249
DanMc07 said:
Never thought Ide hear Zalamn and crap in the same sentence :o
Zefan said:
*Checks google and finds that the zalman consistently outperforms the NV Silencer*

*Checks google and finds that zalman and crap appear in the same sentence consistently* lol JOKE

I have never owned a zalman so i can't comment. adding a arctic cooler fan allowed me to overclock my card by an extra 20mhz core/20mhz on mem and it reduced my temps by about 5deg
 

kbc

kbc

Associate
Joined
20 Nov 2004
Posts
1,629
Location
London
Nice reply pastymuncher, I think that's made me drift more towards the AC coolers. The fact that it provides the MHz for overclocking as well seems to be beneficial. :p
 
Back
Top Bottom