System Setup

CPU: AMD XP1600+ (1400@1826 MHz)
CPU cooler: MIST Silent Twin
Motherboard: Asus A7V333
RAM: 256 MB Samsung PC2700 6ns
Hard drive: Western Digital 80MB JB
Video card: GeForce 3 TI-200
Case: Silver Chieftec Dragon DX miditower

Performance

I was quite surprised by the cooling performance of this video card cooler. First I ran the video card at stock speeds, and all was fine. Then I attempted a low level video card overclock, and it managed that fine as well. Then I turned to more aggressive overclocking, and I was able to achieve even higher core clock speeds (2 more MHz) than with my custom made cooler, and 9 MHz more than with the stock cooler. However, the major advantage with this cooler is that it cools completely silently. The plate on the bottom that is in direct contact with the base goes fairly hot after a little while. The heatpipe “pumps” heat away from the hot bottom plate and onto the top plate. If the top plate goes warm after a while it shows that the cooler is working properly. If the top plate does not get warm, disassemble the unit and make sure that the cooler is properly installed. By having a fan blow air onto the plates it is possible to improve performance even further.

Conclusion

With the ZM80-HP video card cooler, Zalman has succeeded in producing a passive video card cooler capable of sufficiently cooling high level video cards. It has an interesting design that has never been seen before. It has its drawbacks though, as the installation is a hassle compared to other coolers and it cannot be installed on all video cards.

Overall, I like this cooler as it does what it is supposed to do: Cool the video card silently.

Pros

Completely silent (a big plus)
Large heat dissipation area
No power consumption
Original design
Nice looking
Good and thorough manual

Cons

Difficult installation
NOT available for all video cards – double check before you buy!
Base does not cover the entire GPU

Allan Nielsen

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