W1zzard
05-26-2004, 08:57 AM
[Page=Introduction, Packaging & Installation]
Introduction
From the manufacturer Zalman (http://www.zalman.co.kr):
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th scope="row">Dissipation Area </th>
<td scope="row">1200 cm²</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Weight</th>
<td scope="row">325 g + 75 g for OP-1 addon </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Material</th>
<td scope="row">Heatsink is Aluminum<br>
Heatpipe is made from Gold plated copper. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Rated Fan Speeds of OP-1 addon </th>
<td scope="row">1400 / 2800 RPM </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Addon Fan noise </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">20 dB / 33 dB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Compatible with </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row"><p>All cards that have mounting holes:<br>
All Radeon 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, all All-In-Wonder<br>
All GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4, GeForce FX<br>
Matrox Parhelia, Matrox Millenium P750
</p> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Space constraints</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row"><p>Northbridge cooler must be less than 25mm tall if within 5.5mm of the AGP slot.</p>
<p>Interferes with some CPU coolers if they are within 35mm of the AGP slot and have a big footprint (CNPS7000 for example) </p></td>
</tr>
</table>
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package2.jpg)
Box contents:
Front side and back side heatsink
One bag of assembly parts: Four plate link nipples, Four bolts, Four bolts, Two nuts, Two rubber rings, Two nipples, Thermal paste.
One bag of spare parts: Two bolts, Two bolts, Two bolts, Two nuts, Two rubber rings, Thermal paste.
Front side and back side base assembly for GeForce4 Ti based cards (mounting holes wide apart)
Front side and back side base assembly for most other cards.
Heatpipe
Zalman sticker
Screwdriver
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package4.jpg)
The (sold seperately) fan addon option package ZM-OP1 adds the following:
Slim 80mm fan - 15mm high
Fan Grill
Two fan bolts
Two fan screws
Two fan nipples
Multi-connector with two outputs for 12V and 5V each.
As you can see in the next two images, the surface of the cooler that makes contact with the core is not that flat, Zalman recommends using a good amount of thermal paste.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness2.jpg)
Installation
Installation takes about 30-45 minutes and is not that easy. Please read the instructions from start to finish before starting the assembly and make sure you understand exactly where all parts are going, as they are easy to confuse.
The cooler's design, which moves heat through the heatpipe to the rear heatsink, requires that the VGA card is either installed with the backside facing up or the AGP slot towards the bottom of the card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation6.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation7_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation7.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation9_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation9.jpg)
The optional Fan ZM-OP1 is easily mounted by sliding it into the groove on the backside heatsink.
You can swap out the fan for another model, but you must use a slim (15mm) fan unless you use longer screws to mount it which are not included.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/op1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/op1.jpg)
If you want to use ramsinks you will have to find ones that are less than 13.5mm high for the frontside, and 5.5mm for the backside, which probably means no ramsinks on the backside.
[PAGE=Performance, Value & Conclusion]
Performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/contact_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/contact.jpg)
The above picture clearly shows that the contact between heatsink and core is good. The pressure was enough to make the ATi logo on the core shine through the thin layer of thermal paste that was covering the core prior to mounting. The bottom surface of the heatsink is designed properly for Radeon 9500 / 9700 cards where the core is a bit lower than the surrounding metal shim.
[hr]
For the overclocking tests I used my ATITool overclocking utility version 0.0.17. ATITool has the unique ability to detect artifacts, or flaws, in a rendered image. As defined by ATITool, the maximum stable overclock on a card is the speed at which it is able to consistently (15 minutes in this test) produce no errors, or artifacts. ATITool detects ANY artifacts, even ones which will not be visible in game. Using the human eye to detect artifacts introduces subjectivity into the test, so despite the fact that an ATITool tested overclock will be characteristically lower than a human one, I will use this.
Temperature was measured with one case side open by putting a thermal probe on the backside of the Radeon 9800 Pro opposite of where the GPU is. Idle temperature was measured after letting Windows sit one hour at the desktop. Load temperature was measured after running 3DMark2001 looped for one hour. Both at the card's default clock of 380 / 340 Mhz.
Arctic Silver 5 was used as thermal interface material for the GPU core in all installations. I used Arctic Silver 3 for all other contact surfaces of the Zalman cooler.
A 7V setting is possible by connecting the fan connector's black wire to the PSU's 5V output, and the fan connector's red wire to the PSU's 12V output (12V - 5V = 7 V).
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Radeon 9800 Pro </th>
<td>Maximum <br>
Core Clock </td>
<td>Sound level </td>
<td>Temperature <br />
Load </td>
<td>Temperature <br />
Idle </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Stock cooler </th>
<td><p>416 Mhz </p></td>
<td>Acceptable</td>
<td>55°C</td>
<td>45°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C passive </th>
<td>401 Mhz</td>
<td>Inaudible</td>
<td>75°C</td>
<td>53°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 5V</th>
<td>419 Mhz </td>
<td>Almost inaudible</td>
<td>45°C</td>
<td>32°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 7V</th>
<td>420 Mhz </td>
<td>Quiet</td>
<td>40°C</td>
<td>31°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 12V</th>
<td>423 Mhz </td>
<td>Noisy</td>
<td>35°C</td>
<td>29°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Watercooling (Water ~33°C) </th>
<td>440 Mhz </td>
<td>Inaudible</td>
<td>37°C</td>
<td>35°C</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph1.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph2.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph3.gif
While running the ZM-80C passive gives you a completely quiet solution, the temperatures, especially under load, are unacceptable. Don't forget that the temperature was measured on the card's backside so actual core temperature is even higher. Zalman does recommend the addon fan OP-1 for all 9800 cards.
With the OP-1 fan-addon the temperatures were good, but the fan is too loud at its 12V setting. The 5V setting seems to be the way to go here. "Modding" the fan to use 7V does not really help much in terms of overclocking, and 5°C more on the core under load won't really matter.
This cooling device is definitely not for someone seeking to overclock their card to higher levels than with the stock cooler. The best use of it in my opinion is for systems that you want to be quiet. That's why I will put my ZM-80C on the 9800 AIW in my Home Theater PC, together with a slow-running, temperature controlled fan which won't start before the heatsink reaches a temperature of about 60°C. This should be enough for all media playback where silence is important, and good enough for occasional gaming where the game "distracts" you from hearing the fan.
Value and Conclusion
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<td></td>
<th>Rating</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Aesthetics</th>
<td>9.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Heatpipe technology and big heatsinks sure are nice looking. I don't really like the look of the fan addon though. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Ease of use</th>
<td>6.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Installation is quite complicated and it's easy to mess up. The screwdriver is a gimmick that most users already have anyway. Great that it fits most video cards. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Performance</th>
<td>7.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Performance is ok when used together with the fan addon. Complete silence requires either a sophisticated air flow design or a low-end video card. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Quality</th>
<td>8.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>All parts look to be of good quality and are well manufactured. Giving the user spare parts is a great idea, especially since the parts are small and easily lost. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Value</th>
<td>7.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The fan addon is a must unless you are running on an old video card or have extremely good airflow - this adds another <acronym title="€ 8">USD 10</acronym> to the ZM-80C's price tag. Other cooling solutions can be had for less. </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">The Bottom Line</th>
<td><b>8.0</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
Introduction
From the manufacturer Zalman (http://www.zalman.co.kr):
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th scope="row">Dissipation Area </th>
<td scope="row">1200 cm²</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Weight</th>
<td scope="row">325 g + 75 g for OP-1 addon </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Material</th>
<td scope="row">Heatsink is Aluminum<br>
Heatpipe is made from Gold plated copper. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Rated Fan Speeds of OP-1 addon </th>
<td scope="row">1400 / 2800 RPM </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Addon Fan noise </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">20 dB / 33 dB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Compatible with </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row"><p>All cards that have mounting holes:<br>
All Radeon 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, all All-In-Wonder<br>
All GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4, GeForce FX<br>
Matrox Parhelia, Matrox Millenium P750
</p> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Space constraints</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row"><p>Northbridge cooler must be less than 25mm tall if within 5.5mm of the AGP slot.</p>
<p>Interferes with some CPU coolers if they are within 35mm of the AGP slot and have a big footprint (CNPS7000 for example) </p></td>
</tr>
</table>
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package2.jpg)
Box contents:
Front side and back side heatsink
One bag of assembly parts: Four plate link nipples, Four bolts, Four bolts, Two nuts, Two rubber rings, Two nipples, Thermal paste.
One bag of spare parts: Two bolts, Two bolts, Two bolts, Two nuts, Two rubber rings, Thermal paste.
Front side and back side base assembly for GeForce4 Ti based cards (mounting holes wide apart)
Front side and back side base assembly for most other cards.
Heatpipe
Zalman sticker
Screwdriver
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/package4.jpg)
The (sold seperately) fan addon option package ZM-OP1 adds the following:
Slim 80mm fan - 15mm high
Fan Grill
Two fan bolts
Two fan screws
Two fan nipples
Multi-connector with two outputs for 12V and 5V each.
As you can see in the next two images, the surface of the cooler that makes contact with the core is not that flat, Zalman recommends using a good amount of thermal paste.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/flatness2.jpg)
Installation
Installation takes about 30-45 minutes and is not that easy. Please read the instructions from start to finish before starting the assembly and make sure you understand exactly where all parts are going, as they are easy to confuse.
The cooler's design, which moves heat through the heatpipe to the rear heatsink, requires that the VGA card is either installed with the backside facing up or the AGP slot towards the bottom of the card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation6.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation7_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation7.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation9_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/installation9.jpg)
The optional Fan ZM-OP1 is easily mounted by sliding it into the groove on the backside heatsink.
You can swap out the fan for another model, but you must use a slim (15mm) fan unless you use longer screws to mount it which are not included.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/op1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/op1.jpg)
If you want to use ramsinks you will have to find ones that are less than 13.5mm high for the frontside, and 5.5mm for the backside, which probably means no ramsinks on the backside.
[PAGE=Performance, Value & Conclusion]
Performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/contact_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/contact.jpg)
The above picture clearly shows that the contact between heatsink and core is good. The pressure was enough to make the ATi logo on the core shine through the thin layer of thermal paste that was covering the core prior to mounting. The bottom surface of the heatsink is designed properly for Radeon 9500 / 9700 cards where the core is a bit lower than the surrounding metal shim.
[hr]
For the overclocking tests I used my ATITool overclocking utility version 0.0.17. ATITool has the unique ability to detect artifacts, or flaws, in a rendered image. As defined by ATITool, the maximum stable overclock on a card is the speed at which it is able to consistently (15 minutes in this test) produce no errors, or artifacts. ATITool detects ANY artifacts, even ones which will not be visible in game. Using the human eye to detect artifacts introduces subjectivity into the test, so despite the fact that an ATITool tested overclock will be characteristically lower than a human one, I will use this.
Temperature was measured with one case side open by putting a thermal probe on the backside of the Radeon 9800 Pro opposite of where the GPU is. Idle temperature was measured after letting Windows sit one hour at the desktop. Load temperature was measured after running 3DMark2001 looped for one hour. Both at the card's default clock of 380 / 340 Mhz.
Arctic Silver 5 was used as thermal interface material for the GPU core in all installations. I used Arctic Silver 3 for all other contact surfaces of the Zalman cooler.
A 7V setting is possible by connecting the fan connector's black wire to the PSU's 5V output, and the fan connector's red wire to the PSU's 12V output (12V - 5V = 7 V).
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Radeon 9800 Pro </th>
<td>Maximum <br>
Core Clock </td>
<td>Sound level </td>
<td>Temperature <br />
Load </td>
<td>Temperature <br />
Idle </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Stock cooler </th>
<td><p>416 Mhz </p></td>
<td>Acceptable</td>
<td>55°C</td>
<td>45°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C passive </th>
<td>401 Mhz</td>
<td>Inaudible</td>
<td>75°C</td>
<td>53°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 5V</th>
<td>419 Mhz </td>
<td>Almost inaudible</td>
<td>45°C</td>
<td>32°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 7V</th>
<td>420 Mhz </td>
<td>Quiet</td>
<td>40°C</td>
<td>31°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Zalman ZM-80C + OP-1 12V</th>
<td>423 Mhz </td>
<td>Noisy</td>
<td>35°C</td>
<td>29°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Watercooling (Water ~33°C) </th>
<td>440 Mhz </td>
<td>Inaudible</td>
<td>37°C</td>
<td>35°C</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph1.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph2.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-80C/images/graph3.gif
While running the ZM-80C passive gives you a completely quiet solution, the temperatures, especially under load, are unacceptable. Don't forget that the temperature was measured on the card's backside so actual core temperature is even higher. Zalman does recommend the addon fan OP-1 for all 9800 cards.
With the OP-1 fan-addon the temperatures were good, but the fan is too loud at its 12V setting. The 5V setting seems to be the way to go here. "Modding" the fan to use 7V does not really help much in terms of overclocking, and 5°C more on the core under load won't really matter.
This cooling device is definitely not for someone seeking to overclock their card to higher levels than with the stock cooler. The best use of it in my opinion is for systems that you want to be quiet. That's why I will put my ZM-80C on the 9800 AIW in my Home Theater PC, together with a slow-running, temperature controlled fan which won't start before the heatsink reaches a temperature of about 60°C. This should be enough for all media playback where silence is important, and good enough for occasional gaming where the game "distracts" you from hearing the fan.
Value and Conclusion
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<td></td>
<th>Rating</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Aesthetics</th>
<td>9.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Heatpipe technology and big heatsinks sure are nice looking. I don't really like the look of the fan addon though. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Ease of use</th>
<td>6.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Installation is quite complicated and it's easy to mess up. The screwdriver is a gimmick that most users already have anyway. Great that it fits most video cards. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Performance</th>
<td>7.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Performance is ok when used together with the fan addon. Complete silence requires either a sophisticated air flow design or a low-end video card. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Quality</th>
<td>8.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>All parts look to be of good quality and are well manufactured. Giving the user spare parts is a great idea, especially since the parts are small and easily lost. </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Value</th>
<td>7.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The fan addon is a must unless you are running on an old video card or have extremely good airflow - this adds another <acronym title="€ 8">USD 10</acronym> to the ZM-80C's price tag. Other cooling solutions can be had for less. </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">The Bottom Line</th>
<td><b>8.0</b></td>
</tr>
</table>