Zalman ZM80A-HP VGA Cooling System
Written by Bart Skinner on 2/14/2003 for
PC
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Zalman ZM80A-HP VGA Cooling System
Today we have the Zalman ZM80A-HP VGA Cooling System utilizing heatpipe technology. It's designed to be a sufficient cooling solution that is also silent. Zalman is probably the leading maker of silent cooling solutions for enthusiasts. They offer plenty of quiet cooling products and can really help those who want to make their PCs less of a noisemaker or for PVR builders wanting to build a really quiet system for the living room.
When you first pick up the package, it feels incredibly heavy. You wonder how this could ever be mounted on a video card. The packaging consists of one front side heatsink, a heatpipe, a backside heatsink, two sizes of front side heatsink base assembly, two sizes of back side heatsink base assembly, two bags of parts, and one screwdriver. Along with that there’s a very nicely detailed manual to show you how to put it on and what size base assemblies to use. A note says that the unit is not compatible with the Matrox Parhelia card. I guess that card just can’t get a break can it?
I started off by taking the stock HSF off of my Sapphire Atlantis Pro 9500 powered by ATI. That popped off with ease though you might have problems with certain cards in removing the heatsink and fan. After cleaning the GPU, I sized up the mounting base and tightened the adjustable arms. Then I spread out some grease on the GPU and then tightened the screws. After spreading more grease on the base and the heatpipe, I slid the heatpipe in the groove on the base, and then attached the large top portion with 4 screws.
Installing the backside was almost as easy. I sized up the base for backside by just putting it on the screws from the front side, and then tightened the adjustable arms. After attaching the backside base, I spread more grease in the groove, slid in the heatpipe, and then attached the backside top portion.
Installation was pretty easy, but I could have used bigger tubes of grease. It comes with two really small ones and there are several spots of contact that have to be lathered with it. It also comes with spare parts in case you lose a screw or something while you are putting together. All in all, it took about an hour from start to finish. And if you need some visual cues, Zalman’s website has a nice flash animation on how to install the unit.
After replacing the stock fan on the Sapphire Atlantis 9500 Pro, I popped it into a test machine consisting of an AMD Duron 1.2GHz with 512MB DDR RAM and an ECS K7S5A motherboard. With a clean Windows 2000 installation and Catalyst 3.1 drivers, I decided to run Futuremark’s 3DMark03 for six straight hours to see how it would handle. With the benchmark program looping through all the tests and only the Zalman keeping the video card cool, I waited to see whether it would past the test or whether I would see a lockup or restart.
For the six hours I had it running, the computer never hiccupped once. It ran through all the benchmarks continuously without hesitation and without locking up. The Zalman Heatpipe GPU Cooler worked like champ in keeping the card running and dissipating heat. After the testing period, I opened the case and touched the heat sinks. Both sides were rather warm so you know it was drawing heat from the GPU. You probably don’t want to use it to overclock the video card but to keep it running at it’s normal speed without having to use a fan.
With the heatpipe and heatsink, the card is rather bulky and heavy. It’s best that you don’t have a board where the CPU is located near the AGP port for the card to fit into the case and for safety reason in case the heatsink would fall off through a loose install. The unit also takes up the adjacent PCI slot but it seems a lot of video cards are doing that these days. The heat pipe does extend the card’s length a bit so if you have a small case or a lot of parts near that area, you might have some trouble installing. Just make sure you have a lot of clearance behind the AGP port.
The cooler does its job as advertise providing a silent cooling solution. Coming in at around $30, the installation was easy with the very informative easy to follow steps provided by Zalman. The unit is transferable so you can reuse it on new cards if it’s compatible. You’ll probably need to purchase more compound as I pretty much used it all on installing the heat pipe. For those that move their computer a lot, I wouldn’t suggest moving a computer with it inside but rather remove the card and then transport the computer. If you’re looking to silent your computer more and want to get rid of the fan on the video card, the Zalman ZM80A-HP VGA Cooling System is a great solution.
When you first pick up the package, it feels incredibly heavy. You wonder how this could ever be mounted on a video card. The packaging consists of one front side heatsink, a heatpipe, a backside heatsink, two sizes of front side heatsink base assembly, two sizes of back side heatsink base assembly, two bags of parts, and one screwdriver. Along with that there’s a very nicely detailed manual to show you how to put it on and what size base assemblies to use. A note says that the unit is not compatible with the Matrox Parhelia card. I guess that card just can’t get a break can it?
I started off by taking the stock HSF off of my Sapphire Atlantis Pro 9500 powered by ATI. That popped off with ease though you might have problems with certain cards in removing the heatsink and fan. After cleaning the GPU, I sized up the mounting base and tightened the adjustable arms. Then I spread out some grease on the GPU and then tightened the screws. After spreading more grease on the base and the heatpipe, I slid the heatpipe in the groove on the base, and then attached the large top portion with 4 screws.
Installing the backside was almost as easy. I sized up the base for backside by just putting it on the screws from the front side, and then tightened the adjustable arms. After attaching the backside base, I spread more grease in the groove, slid in the heatpipe, and then attached the backside top portion.
Installation was pretty easy, but I could have used bigger tubes of grease. It comes with two really small ones and there are several spots of contact that have to be lathered with it. It also comes with spare parts in case you lose a screw or something while you are putting together. All in all, it took about an hour from start to finish. And if you need some visual cues, Zalman’s website has a nice flash animation on how to install the unit.
After replacing the stock fan on the Sapphire Atlantis 9500 Pro, I popped it into a test machine consisting of an AMD Duron 1.2GHz with 512MB DDR RAM and an ECS K7S5A motherboard. With a clean Windows 2000 installation and Catalyst 3.1 drivers, I decided to run Futuremark’s 3DMark03 for six straight hours to see how it would handle. With the benchmark program looping through all the tests and only the Zalman keeping the video card cool, I waited to see whether it would past the test or whether I would see a lockup or restart.
For the six hours I had it running, the computer never hiccupped once. It ran through all the benchmarks continuously without hesitation and without locking up. The Zalman Heatpipe GPU Cooler worked like champ in keeping the card running and dissipating heat. After the testing period, I opened the case and touched the heat sinks. Both sides were rather warm so you know it was drawing heat from the GPU. You probably don’t want to use it to overclock the video card but to keep it running at it’s normal speed without having to use a fan.
With the heatpipe and heatsink, the card is rather bulky and heavy. It’s best that you don’t have a board where the CPU is located near the AGP port for the card to fit into the case and for safety reason in case the heatsink would fall off through a loose install. The unit also takes up the adjacent PCI slot but it seems a lot of video cards are doing that these days. The heat pipe does extend the card’s length a bit so if you have a small case or a lot of parts near that area, you might have some trouble installing. Just make sure you have a lot of clearance behind the AGP port.
The cooler does its job as advertise providing a silent cooling solution. Coming in at around $30, the installation was easy with the very informative easy to follow steps provided by Zalman. The unit is transferable so you can reuse it on new cards if it’s compatible. You’ll probably need to purchase more compound as I pretty much used it all on installing the heat pipe. For those that move their computer a lot, I wouldn’t suggest moving a computer with it inside but rather remove the card and then transport the computer. If you’re looking to silent your computer more and want to get rid of the fan on the video card, the Zalman ZM80A-HP VGA Cooling System is a great solution.
It's an effective silent cooler for video cards and reusable. The card will be pretty bulky after installation though.
Rating: 8.5 Very Good
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.
About Author
I've been playing games ever since Atari 2600. I play mostly FPS games now. I used to play just about all types. I went to CPL in Winter 2001 to play Aliens vs Predator 2 and placed 11th. The free Geforce3 TI500 was nice. Despite being jealous of Fata1ty, he's actually a nice guy.
I'm also a computer hardware addict. I'm one of those people that have to update my machine for the sake of having the best out of the people I know. Still cheaper than being married :) It gives me an opportunity to review some of the latest and greatest hardware. I'm currently playing Battlefield 1942 in a top clan, Medal of Honor Allied Assault sometimes, Unreal Tournament 2003 occasionally, and trying various other games when given the time. Still waiting patiently for Planetside. View Profile
