9800XT Cooler

[Frost_Bite]

I'm wanting to get a new cooler for my Sapphire 9800XT. I've been looking at either the Zalman ZM80C w/ the fan option, or the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer. Are any of these 2 units good? Which one would be the best? Should I just wait and put a water-block on it, then incorporate it in the loop?

**I need something that will be relatively easy to install. I've never put a water-block or aftermarket fan on any of my video cards. So I'm def noob when it comes to this.

[skate2snow]

the ACsilencer is the best in the 2, but i think the cooler on XT is better coze its bigger and copper. If you think it dont work good change the thermal paste, but dont put AS3, put some ceramic

[cowpuppy]

skate2snow: Do you have a thing against AS3? Or did you just have a bad experience? AS3 is a better TIM when not used in sub zero cooling. It's not hard to apply and used moderately there's no problems in conducting. A thin layer on the mem chips and GPU core is fine just use it conservatively.

[Frost_Bite]

Thanks for the quick replies. I've got Ceramique, AS3, and AS5 all at the house, we're good to go. I'm really thinking of buying a Maze4 block and water-cooling it.

[skate2snow]

Originally posted by cowpuppy
skate2snow: Do you have a thing against AS3? Or did you just have a bad experience? AS3 is a better TIM when not used in sub zero cooling. It's not hard to apply and used moderately there's no problems in conducting. A thin layer on the mem chips and GPU core is fine just use it conservatively. Its only becose i heard that the AS3 can kill your card so i just scared of that. But i think ive not understand the good way, its may be if you put so much it can touch your ''dangerous part'', i was thinking it was if it touch your GPU but its probably not that.

frost_bite you should only change the paste for now and wait to buy a WC kit;)

[cowpuppy]

I would take apart the stock cooler and ad AS5 to the gpu and use the AS3 on the mem. The stock cooler is a good cooler and I would only replace it with a water block.
It's not hard taking apart the stock cooler there is a couple screws on the gpu side and one on the other along with the bar clip deal. Just take your time and don't force anything. I also put a nice little bow in the bar to ad more pressure on the gpu where needed.

[cowpuppy]

The way I ad TIM is I spread a thin layer over the desired aplication. I use eather a pice of paper folder a couple of times and trimed to the aplications width (recomended 4 Newb's) or a razor blade and spread a layer just more than transparent maybe max 1mm. After appling TIM several times you will begin to judge how much you need by how much extra was puched out to the edges. I always clean up my cpu's before reappling TIM with some Goof Off or Oops! and a Q-Tip

[Levish]

the Zalman heatpipe cooler will work better than the cooler on the 9800 pro but the 9800XT cooling solution is pretty decent (definately better than the Zalman)

The only thing I'd suggest is to take off the OEM cooler and change the TIM to AS3,AS5 or Ceramique

Watercooling would be the best for the GPU IMHO short of TEC or Vapo/Phase change

[interman]

well, the guy behind arctic silver says the optimal way to apply it is to leave a drop of it on the surface, reinstall the sink, and have the pressure spread it. This way less air gets in the mix, but you obviously need to have some idea of how much you need - so it's not entirely as easy as spreading it yourself.

[Frost_Bite]

frost_bite you should only change the paste for now and wait to buy a WC kit

I'm already water-cooled. Adding a WB will be no problem.

[kromosto]

i got Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer which is way better than stock 9800pro cooler but when compared to hercules stock cooling it gave me only 15mhz more to bechmark yes this is a real increase but when you compare the size of the biiiiiiiggggggggggg Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer to hercules full copper small heatsink i think 15mhz increase is nothing

[cowpuppy]

Originally posted by interman
well, the guy behind arctic silver says the optimal way to apply it is to leave a drop of it on the surface, reinstall the sink, and have the pressure spread it. This way less air gets in the mix, but you obviously need to have some idea of how much you need - so it's not entirely as easy as spreading it yourself.


I know and have read this about proper TIM install, but I have to say I'm worried that the whole surface may not get covered and that IMO would be worse than a tiny air bubble. Think about it how many sinks go on straight and then what happens the TIM gets pushed more to one side, possibly leaving a small portion without any TIM.