• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

X1900XT Heat issues ?

Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2005
Posts
3,005
Location
Just over your shoulder
Just put some Zalman VF-900 thingys onto my Crossfire x1900 setup and I am thinking that the in case temps have gone up a fair bit....which in turn is making my CPU hotter :(

Anyone got any thoughts on the effectiveness of heat dissipation on these ? I am really pleased at the decrease in noise levels over the stock heatsinks, quite noticeable after a heavy Oblivion session ;) but feel that the Zalman's Achilles heel seems to be that more heat wanders around the case :(
 
kevpuk said:
Just put some Zalman VF-900 thingys onto my Crossfire x1900 setup and I am thinking that the in case temps have gone up a fair bit....which in turn is making my CPU hotter :(

I have one of those on my 6800, and they are very effective at getting heat off the GPU, but it's where is goes from there that's the problem.

Mine is sticking out of the side of my shuttle, so the lack of an exhaust isn't an issue. I think with a proper case the problem is that the heat will stay inside, unless you have quite powerful airflow through your case. Also those X1900s do produce a lot of heat.

Without more details of your setup, I'd either get more air flowing through your case (at least one fan in, one out) or get one of those PCI slot exhaust blowers.
 
kevpuk said:
Just put some Zalman VF-900 thingys onto my Crossfire x1900 setup and I am thinking that the in case temps have gone up a fair bit....which in turn is making my CPU hotter :(

Anyone got any thoughts on the effectiveness of heat dissipation on these ? I am really pleased at the decrease in noise levels over the stock heatsinks, quite noticeable after a heavy Oblivion session ;) but feel that the Zalman's Achilles heel seems to be that more heat wanders around the case :(

why did you change the stock cooler for something thats worse? (thermal exaust wise)
The stock cooler gets rid of the hot air from the case, all the other do is just recirculate the heat inside the case
The effective dissapation?, thats going to be whatever heat your cards chuck out.
 
lay-z-boy said:
why did you change the stock cooler for something thats worse? (thermal exaust wise)
The stock cooler gets rid of the hot air from the case, all the other do is just recirculate the heat inside the case
The effective dissapation?, thats going to be whatever heat your cards chuck out.

True but with good airflow this should not be too bad.
 
Thanks for the responses, guys.

As for internal airflow, I have the whole gubbins nicely installed in an Antec P180 with the three default 12cms doing their thing and an Akasa Amber 12cm in the middle front sucking air into the graphics card region.....am thinking to also install the suggested 8cm fan into the 'spare' HDD rack, to try that......apparently, if Antec's documentation is to be believed, this creates a Pull-Push wind tunnel effect......

Anyway, there is no doubt that the Zalmans cool the actual gfx cards better, but seem to hamper the overall temps in the case - which is having a knock on effect on my Scythe Ninja shrouded E6600 :(

Methinks I may be going back to the stock heatsink/coolers if the 8cm fan doesn't solve.....
 
kevpuk said:
Thanks for the responses, guys.

As for internal airflow, I have the whole gubbins nicely installed in an Antec P180 with the three default 12cms doing their thing and an Akasa Amber 12cm in the middle front sucking air into the graphics card region.....am thinking to also install the suggested 8cm fan into the 'spare' HDD rack, to try that......apparently, if Antec's documentation is to be believed, this creates a Pull-Push wind tunnel effect......

Nice case, that's supposed to be one of the best for airflow (of which you are no-doubt aware, since you bought it).

If that case can't keep them cool, you might have to go back to exhaust-style coolers - good luck with that.
 
melbourne720 said:
Nice case, that's supposed to be one of the best for airflow (of which you are no-doubt aware, since you bought it).

If that case can't keep them cool, you might have to go back to exhaust-style coolers - good luck with that.

Thanks, 'tis a great case - just recently picked it up from MM here :) It has certainly improved overall temps/airflow and enable me to really sort the cabling out (with a 12v ATX extension cable ;))
 
what speend you running yoru antec fans dont forget they got 3 speeds on em. like you i woudl of changed the colers on the gfx just for noise benefits. if you running the case fans on low try medium shouldnt be to much louder. allthough i think high speed you can hear cant say for certain as my p180 is still sitting in box beside me as i type this :D

also that amber 120mm is it very loud ?? got amber 80's in me currentc ase and like em but no experiecne with the 120 model.
 
You need higher CFM exhaust fans, on my setup I didn't notice any increase in case/CPU temps with the VF900. I guess though the two 12cm and single 8cm exhaust helps a lot.

The VF900 cools better and is quieter than stock, ok it doesn't exhaust it straight out but if I had the choice now with what I know now, would go for the VF900 again. The stock fan is a bit too loud during gaming, it's like a small electric hoover.
 
Gonna have a play with the fan speeds......even on high, there is probably less noise than the stock x1900xt ;)
 
Back
Top Bottom