Zalman zm80 working properly?

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Sat May 29, 2004 1:46 pm

I've just finished installing the Zalman heatpipe-cooler on my Sapphire 9800pro. According to the manual both heatsinks should be the same temperature. Alas, they are not. The top one I can hold for as long as I want, it's just warm. The bottom one however I can touch, but holding it becomes very uncomfortable very quickly. This is after running a game and leaving it to cool with an idle desktop. I know my fingers are a bit heatsensitive but it doesn't comply to the zalman manual that the sinks should be equaly hot.
A friend told me that the heatpipe should at least be cool(er than the heatsinks), and this also is not the case. Is he right about this?
Is this a serious problem or can I ignore it? (I don't seriously expect this to be the case

)
The only thing I knowingly didn't do to Zalman's instructions is use Arctic Ceramique instead of the supplied thermal paste. Can this be the cause of the problem or is there something else that could be wrong?

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat May 29, 2004 1:59 pm

I've found that the bottom heatsink is generally warmer than the top. The heat reaches the bottom sink before the top, and radiates it outward to the air, as well as the heatpipe to the other heatsink.

Are you having problems with your computer crashing or artifacts popping up due to overheating issues? If not, don't worry about it. If, after intensive gaming after and hour or so, you start noticing problems, then take it apart and try reapplying the thermalpaste.

Note: Ceramique, Arctic Silver, etc. are much better pastes than that included withe Zalman. So don't worry about using something other than the included paste.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sun May 30, 2004 10:12 pm

Check and maaake sure that the heatpipe itself is in proper contact with both heatsinks . I do not know how hot radeons run but one of these coolers cost me A GeForce 4 Ti 4400 as it was NOT able to cool the card even with an 80mm panaflo (instead of the Zalman one) the card developed artifacts and even after the computer cooled overnight the artifacts remain .
The cooler works fine on a GF2 ultra - but was an expensive lesson
Just a note the Ambient temp at the time was 36 deg C.
Case temp was 40C

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Mon May 31, 2004 3:46 am

Shadowknight wrote:I've found that the bottom heatsink is generally warmer than the top. The heat reaches the bottom sink before the top, and radiates it outward to the air, as well as the heatpipe to the other heatsink.

Are you having problems with your computer crashing or artifacts popping up due to overheating issues? If not, don't worry about it. If, after intensive gaming after and hour or so, you start noticing problems, then take it apart and try reapplying the thermalpaste.

Note: Ceramique, Arctic Silver, etc. are much better pastes than that included withe Zalman. So don't worry about using something other than the included paste.

Thanks for the reply. For me a users experience counts for more than the manual, so I'll stop worrying because there are no problems/artifacts. The top heatsink does get warm so the heatpipe is transferring its heat. It's just that the Zalman instruction together with my friend's remark about the heatpipe having to stay cool got me a bit concerned.
BTW I touched the heatpipe with the computer running and I actually managed to burn my finger, so the radeons do get very hot. I dare not let it run passively so there is now a panaflo hanging over it from some elastic bands.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Mon May 31, 2004 8:11 am

Yeah, if the heatpipe was cool/cold, then you wouldn't have applied the paste properly. So I have no idea why you're friend thought it should be cool after conducting all that heat...

frootip · Post by **frootip** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 1:08 pm

I just installed zm80c on my ti4600, no fans, completely passive. It works nicely. The bottom plate (the one in contact with the GPU) should be several degrees hotter than the upper plate, this is _needed_ for the heatpipe to work correctly, the heatpipe should be hot as well how else would it pump heat?

Actually I'm a little surprised that I didn't need any fans (I ran 3dmark all night with no problems) from all the reviews and ocasional user comments I was pretty certain I would need a fan, anyhow I might slap an L1A @5v on it just for the kicks once I figure an easy way to do it...

EDIT:: pony-tail: that could only happen if you didn't install the heatsink correctly (there was a bad contact with the heatpipe or GPU).

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 2:14 pm

I dont think it was bad contact as both heatsinks became VERY hot hence the panaflo - but my ambient temps are often 40+ deg C even now in mid winter temps are at 21 deg C at 8.15 amand probably 24 by afternoon - the joys of living in Sunny Qeensland AU. I think some of the problems come from trying to cool components with warm air .