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 Posted: September 15, 2003
Author: Spire
Manufacturer: Zalman
Sponsor: Jab-Tech
Part 3, Testing:
 All of the charts below were taken from a Yokogawa industrial thermocouple recorder, recording 4 channels of type “J” thermocouples. The thermocouples were puttied in place to the center of the heatsinks and memory chip. Chart speed was 2 minutes per division, and the temperature scale was 20 to 60 degrees Celsius. All tests were run twice, once running Unreal Tournament 2003 in spectate mode, and a second time running the first four graphics tests of 3DMark2003. The Radeon 9700 video card was overclocked for all tests to 351Mhz GPU and 319Mhz memory. The picture to the right shows the Yokogawa in action.
Testing for the Zalman Heatpipe was done in four stages: Stock, heatpipe only (super silent mode), heatpipe with optional Zalman fan, and finally, my side cover installed with 120mm fan running.
Stage 1 testing was baseline testing of the stock ATI heatsink and fan. The side case cover was installed and the side panel mounted 120mm fan was running. This is my normal setup.
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Unreal Tournament 2003
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3DMark2003
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As you can see, especially in 3DMark the temperature swing is pretty dramatic.
Stage 2 testing is what the Zalman CNPS system is all about, completely silent cooling. Lets see how the ‘pipe did with no airflow. I had the side case panel off, but all my normal fans were kept running.
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Unreal Tournament 2003
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3DMark2003
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The Heatpipe running without any airflow did just fine. Completely silent and temperatures well within the sights of the stock ATI sink. This setup wouldn’t help the hard-core folks with any super overclocks, but that’s not its purpose. Let’s see if we can do any better.
Stage 3 testing was done with the optional fan installed and no side panel. Zalman recommends that the optional fan be installed on the latest Nvidia graphics cards. First of all lets see if just adding the fan will cool the card down running just the desktop.
I guess the answer to that is yes! Almost 6 degrees worth of cooling from the slim fan. Notice also, the increase in internal case temperatures. This is probably due to the placement of the thermocouple for case temp. It’s hanging directly over the DDR slots and getting a flow of the air coming off the heatpipe. Now lets take a look at what that fan will do with a little Unreal and 3DMark thrown its way.
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Unreal Tournament 2003
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3DMark2003
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With the Zalman fan added to the heatpipe, it starts to become somewhat of a power cooler, able to drop temperatures way below stock. 2-3 degrees cooler while running an application like 3DMark 2003 is very impressive.
Stage 4 involves removing the optional fan and installing my side case panel back on with a 120mm fan splitting the video card and therefore the Zalman cooler right down the middle. First, lets see what effect the 120mm fan will have on the temps. (This graph is a bit backward, the side panel was already on and then removed. I think you get the idea of the effects of throwing many CFM’s at the heatpipe.)
The Zalman Heatpipe cooler will cool very well with airflow. Again, lets see what happens in Unreal and 3DMark.
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Unreal Tournament 2003
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3DMark2003
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With the airflow of a 120mm fan blowing across the heatpipe, it becomes a legitimate OC’ers cooler. Even with the stress of 3DMark2003, the cooler is able to keep the GPU temperatures much lower than stock.
The chart below summrizes the thermal results, and paints a clear enough picture...
Part 4, Conclusion:
The Zalman heatpipe is a capable, silent, modern video card cooler all by itself. Add a bit of air flow, either with the Zalman optional fan or through a side fan, and it becomes a great power cooler. The added benefit of cooling the memory is also a plus for the fan. Did I forget to mention the cool looks factor?
At 325 grams, caution must be practiced while moving a computer with this mammoth cooler strapped to your favorite display adapter.
If you are running any kind of higher profile memory sinks on your video card, make sure and check for fit. The GPU side of the heatpipe will allow something like the Tweakmonster BGA ramsinks to be added, but the backside sink will not. There are other limitations to use due to its size, and all of them can be found at the Zalman site.
The Zalman ZM80C-HP Heatpipe cooler does everything its advertised to do and can also perform well above its expectations. The ZM80C-HP is available from Jab-Tech for $26.95, and the ZM-OP1 fan can be added for $9.95 more, making this an upgrade that won’t leave you wondering what you spent your money on. Flawless finish, great engineering, and the inclusion of a second installation kit all add up to a five out of five star rating and gets it a “Highly Recommended” honor!
Pros:
4Looks killer
4Excellent manual
4Can be completely silent
4Responds to added air flow really well
4Second installation kit for next video card
Cons:
4Loss of one PCI slot
4Extremely heavy
4Moderate difficulty in installation
Special thanks to Jab-Tech for supplying the Zalman ZM80C-HP and ZM-OP1 fan to BigBruin.com for review!
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com Forum and feel free to discuss this review.
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