Zalman Vf700 on a 8800gt - Better than stock?

[ztrain727]

Hi Everyone,

I have an Asus 8800gt stock. It is supposed to have their super-dooper cooler, which is of course a scam. This one:

Anyway, I have a Vf700 laying around from my old 7900gt and I was wondering if this might be an improvement over the stock card.

The card is currently stock clocks and I want to OC a little, but it idles 50*C, so unless I get it running cooler, OC'in is not an option. One guy did it and said: "I have idle temp of 37 and load of 52, 24 room temp @ 700/1000" (not sure about that 1000 - seems low)

I heard the heatsink doesn't fit quite right, but can be made to work. The gigabyte card has a vf700. See link:

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4061&Itemid=34

Lastly, the crappy heatsink on the Asus card is attached with some "Thermal Tape or Adhesive" instead of just paste. Do I risk damaging the GPU if I pull the heatsink off (it seems to take a lot of force - I couldn't budge it without worrying about breaking something.)

Thanks

 

[Shane]

Thats the glaciator cooler and trust me its not crap,its about 10-15% more efficient than the standard plastic one that covers the whole card that they put on previusly.

i idle around 41c,which is damn good for a gfx card.

have you considred that it may be the airflow to your pc?

you could always re-apply some better thermal paste to the card. ,maybe that Zalman would be better but the glaciator certianly isnt crap.

there is a downside to this cooler though,you cant ramsink because its in the way.

 

[ztrain727]

That's good information. Thanks!

Well, I guess I'm comforted by the fact the heatsink isn't crap. I had heard it is better than most stock heatsinks by what you said (10-15%) or about 7-8*C, which is very nice, but of course not the results expected from a nicer aftermarket heatsink.

Nevakonaza - You said you idle at 41. Is your card OC'd at all or have you tried OC'in? Also, have you ever removed the heatsink? I'm really worried about messing up the chip by wrenching that thing of the card...

And yes, I would confidently say that the airflow in my case is NOT very good. It's a bit of a mess, and there are wires all over. I'm not too experienced though, so I don't know what to do about this.

Anyway, if I get the heatsink off, I could test both heatsinks with some arctic silver 5 and report back with temps.

Thanks

 

[Shane]

my card is overclocked a little,why the overclocked mine only a few mhz i dunno because you wouldnt tell the diffrence.

tbh what i would do is,sort out that cable management,check where your case needs more airflow,do you have an intake in the front? adding one could drop temps alot.

if you still want another cooler,how about this


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR

 

[ztrain727]

Thanks for responding...

My case comes with an 80mm front fan (intake), which is partially blocked by my two HDD's. I have a rear 120mm fan as well, but that's it.

My case temps from what I can remember are around 25-30*C on average, which seems pretty good, but I don't really know.

Anyway, have you taken off the Asus heatsink? I want to try soon...

Thanks a lot for the help!