Cooling 7900GT's

[Nutbusta]

A friend has just bought 2x7900GT's and I was wondering what coolers to fit for him?

I like the older style Arctic coolers because they exhaust the hot air out of the case and ar epowered by the video cards. But are there any which fit the 7900's? I only see them for the 7800's. Also do they cool the memory chips effectivly?

What are the new Arctic coolers exhaust hot air out of the case? How important is this feature? I ask because he wants it fairly quiet when not gaming (so not having 8 case fans) although he's not too fussed about noise whilst in 3d.

Lastly the Zalman. I'm not liking the fact that the hot air stays in the case. Am I placing too much importance on this? Also they run at a fixed speed which isn't really optimal.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Ta

 

[uv]

whack a socket A cpu cooler on it ;p

it really is annoying that artic cooling accel's dont fit the 7900gt, but the site *does* say that they are making a passive cooler for the card!
now, i like silence, but passive cooling a card that oc's so well? i'll wait for reviews, then probably get one and stick a 120mm in front of it

 

[man_from_uncle]

The Zalmans don't run at a fixed speed if you use the 'fanmate' that comes with them. You can also hook them up to a fan control unit which only cost £15-30 depending on spec. There is even software you can use to adjust the fan speed, but that seems like a lot of effort compared to some handy dials.

The venting issue though can't be got around unless you put a little exhaust fan between the cards (and maybe another above the top one if you've got the PCI slots), but even then it is not ideal. That said i'm running 2 myself and i'm still keeping everything else cool enough to run problem free (so far). That includes a stable opteron 144 with a 55% overclock.

The best thing about them is that because they are adjustable you can turn them down to silent mode (and i do the same with my Zalman CPU heatsink) and it makes the PC appear to be off apart from the lights on the front (and an odd hum from the stairway wall hum that I can only attribute to resonance from the hard disks).

I'd need at least another month or two trouble free before I'd be happy to say they were the 'best' solution to running 2 7900gts, but so far I am not disappointed.They are by far in a way better than the stock fans.

 

[Nutbusta]

The Zalmans don't run at a fixed speed if you use the 'fanmate' that comes with them. You can also hook them up to a fan control unit which only cost £15-30 depending on spec. There is even software you can use to adjust the fan speed, but that seems like a lot of effort compared to some handy dials.

Hmmm, but I like the fact that when run from the card itself it will be silent in windows and spin up when hot automatically a la' Actic cooler. But yeah, the zalman does look nice and I'm sure would cool loads better with an open case

Will the NV Silercer 5 Rev 3 fit as it fits the 7800's?