Overclocking a 6600gt with a ZALMAN VF700-ALCU VGA COOLER

[MADWAD]

Just want to get some feedback on the Zalman vf700 vga cooler, it's the only one i can find around town that will work with a 6600gt. Anyone have one? And is it good?

 

[Nubius]

I think atleast one person does have that, although I can't actually remember who that was as of right now

maybe it was xtremesystems I was thinking lol

Either way I believe they used it on a leadtek 6600GT and got some rather nice OC's

 

[dale5605]

If it's anything like the CPU coolers then it will be great. I've got me one of those. 21C idle and no noise

 

[imation]

yea zalman are great

 

[Codeine]

Zalman are good, but it really depends on what version you get. For the VF700, well you probably could not find a better heatsink then that. That VF700 is top of the line man. Im not positive that will fit with my video card. But thats the heatsink i want.

If you have good case cooling. Then you'll be able to OC alot with the presents of the VF700 yo. But great pick man, you'll be pleased with it.

 

[MADWAD]

Mother of MERCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So with your advice and a little background check i decided to pick up the zalman vf700 (as well as another 120mm case fan for the front of my case). I was very nervous about taking out my beloved XFX 6600gt (stop laughing Nubuis!) and putting my new zalman cooler on. Why? you ask, because i've never done this type of thing before. Anyways i never thought in a million years that i would have to squeeze nipples so hard . OK enough with my dirty mind,lol. It took me about 2 hours to put the thing on (I was being retardedly slow and and carefull), so i toss my card back in only to look at the temp and almost cry, 80c........oh no!. So the problem was the heatsink was not fully in contact with the vga chip (those ram heatsink stickers were completely blocking it, does anyone actually use those?) I fixed the problem tossed it back in again and thankfully my temp was down from the normal 45c to a nice 33c . Not bad in my books! Anyways just 2 questions for you guys...1 is a good question and the other one you will laugh at me.
1- Why do you get artifacts? is it heat related or cpu related?
2- that front case fan i bought, should it be blowing out or in?

 

[Nubius]

1. Heat can be a cause of it, but generally when it's heat related that's when lines start forming and your card is pretty much dying lol. You can still get artifacts even if your card never went above 20C at full load, this is because like a CPU, it can't do the instructions properly when it's pushed too far beyond it's limits and of course in most cases a volt mod will fix this of course, because again like a CPU....more voltage = higher OC's. MSI will be coming out with a 6600GT infact where they will be including software to bump up the GPU voltage and memory voltage, very awesome idea if you ask me, I wish all cards had that instead of resorting to a voltage mod.

2. I guess it's your call for the fan. Traditionally it's intake, but if you have your fans all setup different, it wouldn't hurt as exhaust either, so that way the air isn't going over your hot HD's and putting that into the system. Instead of normal front as intake and rear as exhaust it might actually be more beneficial to have the rear as intake and front as exhaust so the CPU gets the freshest air first.

 

[dale5605]

Best air cooling setup:
front blowing in
side blowing in
back blowing out
top blowing out

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Best air cooling setup:
front blowing in
side blowing in
back blowing out
top blowing out

exactly what I have, but what about bottom

 

[dale5605]

exactly what I have, but what about bottom

forgot about that

bottom I have as intake

I drilled a 120mm hole from my basement up through my floor and a 120mm hole in the bottom of the case so I have a nice 120mm fan blowing cool air up into the case from the basement