Video card fun, just added an Zalman vf700-AlCu

[OceanSeasforMe]

YaaaR~!, its alive ~! AND in the middle of it ALL my stupid drunken friends came by to raid my liquor cabinet at 1 am…And were promptly shown out of the computer room and into the den.

 

So I just got done adding the Zalman VF700-ALCu cooler to the Connect3d X800XL video card and I am super pleased.

 

Ambient temp is 70 farenhieght and the pc is not in a case and the Video temps are reading 35c core and 32 gpu environment. Previously It was reading 45 + core even at idle in the same ambient room temps.

 

Previously, it also heated up like all get out when I ran the ATI tools show 3d view application. It would spike past the 70’s before I freaked and shut it off. Now not 5 minutes after the ceramique is applied its max load on “show 3d view” was 54c. And now I can slightly OC my card without fear of immediately cooking it.

 

I borrowed the good digital camera and took a lot of pictures but the camera has 750 + images on it and I am going to make the boss burn me a disk rather than try to pull all the stuff off the camera for my new pics. I will bump this thread in a couple days or a week or so with some spiffy pictures and some build (partial anyway) pictures. *(I plan to also replace the fuzzy ones in the official show your pc /56k build thread.)

 

Also, I took some pictures of the Video cards disassembly. I think they used an ounce of thermal paste. Central chip looked like as5 and the outer heatsinks had what looked like a ceramique type t.c. I used ceramique on the chipset when I redid it. *(And I used the factory thermal tape for now on the blue mini heatsinks.)

 

I really really really freaked when the plastic piece that the fan plugs into on the card came off with the fan connector. *(While visions of broken solder awaiting underneath danced in my head) I was able to then separate them and thankfully I did not kill it. Afterwards I looked and all that was holding the female coupler onto the card was the 3 pins themselves. Luckily I had not bent them and was able to reinstall the little plastic housing. And the card didn’t even complain at boot when it had nothing plugged in it at boot cause I used a connector (supplied) and sent it power from the psu.

 

Well, it will be a week or so probably before I get pic’s uploaded, I am just happy I did not kill my video card in the process.

 

Yarr, Roger Roger, Ocean over and out

Edit : Sweet went from 400 /490 core & memory factory to 441/ 551.25 max.

Ran 1/2 hour at 419.73 /540.00 with atitool v0.24 and the 3d view throwing avg. 250 fps and core temp is only 57.

[pawelp22]

Fun project isnt it??! I had a blast installing the zalman. Plus it brought load temps down by 20 degrees C.

 

Have my x850xt OC'd to 580/590 and temps dont go over 65C.

[OceanSeasforMe]

Wow, you got the solid copper model. I bet that is heavy.

 

The stock cooler was way way inadequate. I was in the higer 60's before I shut the ATI tool down even on a mini overclock... *(major bummer)

 

Bf2 would run for hours and I have it jacked up and it plays smooth. Even then I could feel the exhaust from the card and know that it would act differently when in an enclosed envirnment. In top slot it was exhausting into the chipset intake..

 

Current Temps are 47 screen saver mode and 37 when viewing the desktop.

It is not in a case and sitting in the open and its about 70f.

 

The back of the stock cooler looks like cheap cast aluminum. (we always called it pot metal) It has a wrinkled surface even where it was attached to the card. (sheesh ~!) I saved it just in case, no matter how badly I wanted to and thought about destroying it on principle.

 

I had also read of a recipie used to replace the stock sticky Tim on the mini heat sinks but I did not use it. If one fo them falls off, I will find the mix and re-do them.

 

I had an old AGP 8 x card and redid the TIM for kicks afterwards. The heatsink on it is PERFECT for a nf4 northbridge cooler. But till the fan conks out on it or it proves an issue, I will probably just keep it stock. (redid it with ceramique also. )

[pawelp22]

I agree I don't know what they were thinking when they installed the stock HSF. Stock I would be running 85-95C while benching or gaming. If I wanted to buy a 400 dollar toaster then that would be cool but I had other plans for the card. Aftermarket cooling is a must for this card or at the very least some AS5.

[DJStubbs`]

Pics?

[killxswitch]

i never had luck with that cooler. i burned out a 9800 pro b/c of it. eventually i just sent it back to zipzoomfly.

 

glad you got it to work though .

[mack73]

The copper model brought my load temps down 20c

[OceanSeasforMe]

re to "Pics ?"

 

Yep, still taking a few pictures and will post them sooner or later

 

I just beat some holes in my old server case and now it is polished up and I am going to try to put the DFI in it and see if it works.

 

I have another round of mods already planned, but for now I will be happy to have it in a case. As of yet it is brutally ugly as I am just putting it in to see how it all goes together. After a month or so I plan to redo it into a more final version. Must be fung schui and I wont see it till I see it.

_________________________________________________________________

 

Hrm Burnt out the fan, hrm... I plugged the fan into the main PSU and not the Video card. I figured I would give it clean power and keep the draw on the slot to a minimum as it has no seperate power supply for the card itself. Mbm5 hopefully will prevent a full crash and burn should such an incident occour.

[OceanSeasforMe]

PICTURES ~!

Mod kit

 

THe fan itself

 

THe old stock cooler

 

Eyeglass screwdriver set to the rescue. (blurry but buy a set of these.)

Blurry of stock heatsink removed

Starting to install everything. Rear Ramsinks Front Ramsinks then Main Fan/heatsink.

 

Blurry *(tried to get closeup of polish I put on chipset with acetone... Later picture, blue ramsinks installed with factory sticky tape.

Installing rear bridge *(blurry )

[OceanSeasforMe]

Better shot of final version of rear of card.

Adding the Main Fan after applying Ceramique.

New overhead view with fan installed.

Profile of Card with new fan.

 

And now later in the build when I stuck the Mobo in a case.

Still later but this is not the final final I have plans already.

Blurry + the wire is from the bios savior.

[THunDA]

Looks good OceanSeasforMe..

 

 

I have the all copper one on my card and its voltmodded also..Here is my thread when I volt modded it..

[Wetchaser]

Just installed the copper Zalmen after reading your guys posts last week. Im am one satsified dude. Chalk up another one to the wealth of good knowledge in these forums.

 

First i have to say, this was the easiest mod ive ever done. After i undid screws to stock fan, everything basically fell apart in my hands. The thermal paste was still quite gooey? Looked like it was put on yesterday instead of months ago.

I did have a rough time with getting screws to go thru mounting bracket on fan, so after staring at it with a "wtf look" on my face for 5 minutes, i broke out the drill, and enlarged holes in bracket by 2 sizes in my drill index. Sorry i didnt read bit for exact size. Screws went thru like butter, and threaded nicely into post i had already installed in card. Makes me wonder why none of you mentioned this part of the process. Im sure i didnt use any wrong screws, as the only other size screw in kit was way to small to thread into the posts.

 

Any way, i use the catalyst control panel automatic overclock doohicky to get my readings. I figured if i melted card overclocking it, i could blame ATI for adding a bum program to there drivers. Of course that argument flew out the window as soon as i removed first screw.

 

Pre-Zelman reading was 83ºC @594/587. Idle was around 42ºC

 

Post-Zelman is now 63ºC@594/614.

 

Idle is 37ºC

 

These are the settings that the catalyst center picked after stress testing. Cant understand why it didnt go past 594 on the gpu when it was a full 20ºC cooler then when i had run test previously. I wonder if a clean install of drivers would help?

 

I would think temps would be even better after a good burn in. I think Winamp with the milkdrop plug in will do nicely:nod:

 

 

A huge thanks to OceanSeasforMe and the rest of you guys. Im glad i went with the copper model, and the pictures really made me want to go do it.