New VF700- Thoughts?

[leezer3]

Hiya guys,
Just installed a VF700 on my 6600LE, and I gotta admit its the first time doing anything like this
I gave myself a couple of major scares-
1. Stock cooler needed cutting off as the thingys going through the card were stuck- A slight slip & I have a scratch on the card
2. Forget to plug the monitor in after replacing the card- My heart nearly stopped

Anyway, my temps are now at 41c idle, which as far as I remember is where I was before I know my application of thermal paste (The Zalman stuff) wasn't particularly good- Could see a few holey things from the spreading. As the card is staying firmly at stock should I just ignore the slightly high temps and revel in the silence, or should I go through the very nasty experience of re-applying thermal paste, again (Took me several tries to get no major holes, & I think its probably too thick)

I hope the thermal paste will settle down over the next day or so, but what sort of a temp change will I see?

Quick edit: After a 10mins BF2 session the temps never went above 48c- This suggests its not too bad at least

-Leezer-

 

[pfk]

I wouldn't bother with the zalman thermal paste because it's crap. I used some left-over arctic silver on mine (from an earlier pc build) and it made a small but noticable difference in temperatures (don't ask me how much because I don't remember).

Having said that though, there's no sense in re-applying thermal paste if the temperatures are ok and you've succesfully managed to silence the card.

 

[leezer3]

I'm quite aware that the Zalman paste is crap, just don't have any AS, & I'd probably manage to rat it up with that as well
Any idea if the temps should go lower with a reapp?

-Leezer-

 

[theredguy]

I think you idle temp is a bit high to be honest mate as i have an Asus 6600gt 128Mb TOP card (520 core and 1100 mem stock) with the stock cooler and the application of Arctic Ceramique it idles at 34c. You might want to either re-do the heatsink or look at you case cooling.

 

[grahamjenks]

He's only a few degrees above the 34 you have - maybe his room is warmer or as you mentioned case cooler not as good.

I found with the zalman paste it didnt signnificantly improve temps over the stock at idle on my 6800GT but kept them lower under load - i.e things would be 50/65 in the past now with the zalman its 45/55 - smaller range and much much quieter with the fan only at 5v's.