Vanguard wrote:
I was also considering replacing the tiny stock heatsink and noisy fan
with just a large heatsink, like what Zalman offers. However, Zalman
still recommends a fan (and, of course, their product) for Radeon 64MB
DDR or higher models. I also read a couple articles where the Zalman
heatsinks were tested, including the all copper one, on video cards of
slightly lesser performance than mine. The result was an increase of
5 degrees Celsius (don't remember if that was when idle or when under
load, like when playing a video-intensive game for awhile). Only
when a fan was used did the Zalman perform better than the active
stock cooling (heatsink + fan). Well, in that case, I might as well
as just replace the 40mm fan that's already on the tiny heatsink
since I haven't had overheating problems so far. I've written ATI
(and then had to write again to fill in an RMA form) to see if they
will send me a replacement fan. I'm certainly not going to wait 2
months to ship it in, get it repaired, and shipped back all the while
with my system dead. If they won't send me one then I'll buy a
generic one and some longer screws. I've seen Sunon brand for 40mm
fans but they're rated at 29 to 31 dB for noise while, I think, the
Evercool 40mm fans were rated for 22 to 25 dB.

Then there's the other option of tossing the noisy fan on the video
card and using Zalman's bracket-supported fan
(http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/fb123.htm). If an 80 or 120 mm
fan would fit between the card tops and the side panel, and if it
would cover both the GPU and CPU, then I could even get rid of the
noisy fan for the Pentium 3 Slot1 SECC2 CPU (by popping off the
plastic cover with the embedded fan that snaps onto the heatsink and
just leave the heatsink fully exposed to get cooled by the Zalman
bracketed fan. I really don't want to punch holes in the side panel,
put in a grill, and use a case fan because that opens a big hole to
let more noise out, plus it probably wouldn't look good. But until I
open the case again to measure how far apart is the video heatsink
from the farthest edge of the CPU heatsink, and check for clearance
above the cards and CPU to the sidepanel, I don't know if the Zalman
bracket is a solution since the fan may not span that far or fit
above these components.

Considering the 40mm fan doesn't move much air (10CFM), the Zalman FB123
looks like a really good option. The FB123 with the included 92mm fan can be
moved into any number of positions. You can add an additional fan to the
bracket if you like.


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