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Cooling x1900xtx

valerian

valerian

valerian

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hi if this has been done apologies
im goin to buy one of these
1stly which xtx? and why
2nd ive heard off here that the coolers are noisy, but reasonable at cooling, would a zalman 900 be significantly better at cooling or just quieter
figures would be good i.e. temps
thanks in advance
thinking of the cheapest xtx (powercolor) any reason i shouldnt?
 
First off buy the card, see how you are with stock fan. At idle it's fine, but in gaming it spins up and is a bit annoying. When I got the X1900XT idle temp was 41. Then I fitted the side fan, that lowered to 38 (stock ATI cooler) then fitted the 900 and idle is now 32-34. So load temp should be lower too, and I think it is generally doesn't go above 65 (before 71, sometimes upto 85!)
 
I would go for the cheapest card,at least thats what i did(powercolor) The fan was a bit annoying,but that depends on what your noise tolerence is like,mine is zero,so its underwater now & silent :D

You could buy an XT & just clock it slightly to run it at XTX speeds ;) Save a few bob.Although the XTX's have 1.1ns ram & some of the XTs have 1.2ns
My XT has the 1.1ns on it though,so you might get lucky

The zalman would be worth it,better cooling & quiet

Rob
 
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Rob43 said:
I would go for the cheapest card,at least thats what i did(powercolor) The fan was a bit annoying,but that depends on what your noise tolerence is like,mine is zero,so its underwater now & silent :D

You could buy an XT & just clock it slightly to run it at XTX speeds ;) Save a few bob.Although the XTX's have 1.1ns ram & some of the XTs have 1.2ns
My XT has the 1.1ns on it though,so you might get lucky

The zalman would be worth it,better cooling & quiet

Rob
Click to expand...
is it the same card but slightly clocked slower?
 
Hi, was thinking of buying the Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA) for both my ATI cards too.

Was wondering, do they come with the memory heatsinks as well, or do you have to purchase them separately?

BTW - In crossfire mode, 2 x XT1900XT are way too loud at full pelt!
 
Yes, you get RAM heatsinks in the 900 kit (plus the fan controller) So you'll need two.

Even with the Zalman at full, much quieter.
 
The problem i see with the zalman is that the hot air from card is just blown around the case whereas the stock cooler blows out the back of the case.
 
That's true mate,but if you have decent case cooling,it really won't make much of a difference & a lot less noise remember ;)
 
Case (CPU/MB) temp has perhaps gone up 2 degrees at the max for each, although I do have a powerful 12cm exhaust fan, so generally GPU is cooler with very little in CPU/MB. In fact if I switch it off roughly the same temp as before (GPU core) although MB/CPU is slightly warmer, 40 CPU and 30 MB under load. Still way within safe limits. But the videocard is still much quieter. I'm not a quiet freak either. I find this lot acceptable..

3 HD's
4 Coolermaster 12cm fans (810 plus two 4 in 1 module)
1 Coolermaster 8cm fan (81)
Stock CPU fan at 1800 or 2800rpm

Only the Thermaltake 78CFM pushed it over.

The X1900XT emits a lot of heat, but as long as the case can expel enough air nothing will cook. But if you have still air in the case only looking for trouble. :p
 
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The VF900-cu is not a good cooler for the X1900 if you wish to overclock. For stock speeds it manages but you will get high temps, however when you overclock expect some roasting hot temps. This is simply unavoidable, as the fan speed is fairly low and weak even at full whack, so much so that it cannot clear the heat from the cooler adequately enough... remember how hot the X1900 actually is.

A way to solve this could be to mount a quiet 120mm fan beneath the card blowing directly onto the cooler, this should help massively in ridding the heat from those many fins that the stock fan just can't cool. I'm going to try this myself with a 120mm Akasa amber fan and I expect temps to drop by as much as 15c or more while still being very, very quiet. :)
 
Richdog. I am not in exactly the same boat as you, but I am using a fan to blow cold air (or at least air from outside the case) directly onto the vf900 and the rest of the graphics card (which is a 7900gt). I find that it makes really only a very minimal differnce. Maybe 1 degree cooler at idle and up to 2-3 degrees cooler under load. I think that the reason it has this effect is because the air gets contorted between the 2 fans and this disperses a lot of the airflow.

I am using an antec vcool though rather than a 120mm fan.
 
Hmm I think you may be doing it a different way to what I plan though. I leave my case side off permanently as im always tinkering etc and the way the Zalman is designed it means the stock fan really doesnt cool a large area of the heatsink efficiently and a fan placed directly below it with a nice space inbetween it will work wonders I think.

However I will try tonight and see what difference it makes, 15c may be a tad optimistic, but I think 10c is definately do-able. :)
 
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