Ok, I finaly bent over and stopped the fan on my 9500pro and could not believe how much noise it actually makes.... So, I cant wait to get that ZM80C....

Anyway, my question is... I see everyone mounting the fan above the videocard, but would it be better in front? (same position as typical case intake fan, just few inches deeper into case)

Thanks

PhilgB, it's better on top of the card. If it's at the front of the card, the heatpipe is being cooled rather than the heat sinks. That makes the big heatsink on the back of the card useless since less heat will be transfered.

Awesome, thanks.

And having the fan on top helps to direct air down between the HS and the card, over the memory. The lack of memory cooling is the one drawback with the Zalman coolers.

I have the ZM80C-HP on my 9500 Pro. The optional fan that Zalman offers mounts on the top of the card as it keeps the heatsink bases cooler. Keeping the heatpipe cool is not the purpose of the heatpipe. The heatpipe transfers heat from the front to the back so you have more surface area. To be honest, though, with no fan I got the core on my 9500 pro up to 410 with stability. A fan might be good to increase life, but it's really not necessary.

Also, you may want to invest in RAMsinks. You'll have to custom cut RAMsinks for the back because the clearance is around 8mm or so. I haven't checked to see if the OCZ copper Ramsinks fit yet. I'll be trying very soon, though.

P.S. The fan WAS very loud, wasn't it?