Best fanless VGA heatsink?

cyberknight · Post by **cyberknight** » Sat May 28, 2005 2:52 pm

I'm trying to decide which fanless heatsink to buy. I think I narrowed it down to the ThermalTake CL-G0003 or the Zalman ZM80D.

I know that ThermalTake has a bit of a bad rep and a lot of ppl are gonna say Zalman right away, but this is fanless, so it is kinda hard to lie about dBA ratings.

Has anyone done a direct comparison with these two heatsinks? Or how about comparisons with these two heatsinks to the VGA Silencers and VF700? I'm leaning towards the ThermalTake cuz it's a bit cheaper to buy, but they both seem to have gotten positive reviews whereever they have been reviewed.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sat May 28, 2005 5:14 pm

cyberknight wrote:I'm trying to decide which fanless heatsink to buy. I think I narrowed it down to the ThermalTake CL-G0003 or the Zalman ZM80D.

I know that ThermalTake has a bit of a bad rep and a lot of ppl are gonna say Zalman right away, but this is fanless, so it is kinda hard to lie about dBA ratings.

Has anyone done a direct comparison with these two heatsinks? Or how about comparisons with these two heatsinks to the VGA Silencers and VF700? I'm leaning towards the ThermalTake cuz it's a bit cheaper to buy, but they both seem to have gotten positive reviews whereever they have been reviewed.

Between the two I choose neither; VM-101.

-Ed

cyberknight · Post by **cyberknight** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:10 pm

VM-101 huh? looks interesting. Seems like they took the XP-120 and made a VGA heatsink out of it...

Now to find a Canadian store that sells it...

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun May 29, 2005 1:55 am

Of all the reviews I've read, I'd put my money on Be Quiet! Polar Freezer.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sun May 29, 2005 3:07 am

halcyon wrote:Of all the reviews I've read, I'd put my money on Be Quiet! Polar Freezer.

Looks real good, performs well. But where can it be purchased from?

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Sun May 29, 2005 6:27 am

I found a german review at tweakers4u.de where 6 fanless VGA heatpipes coolers are compared:

Looking at these numbers, the Polar Freezer seems to be the best solution:

The Polar Freezer is the winner of their test, NorthQ comes second with the NQ-3801 and the TT Schooner gets the 3rd position...

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Sun May 29, 2005 6:29 am

cyberknight wrote:VM-101 huh? looks interesting. Seems like they took the XP-120 and made a VGA heatsink out of it...

Now to find a Canadian store that sells it...

Two canadian retail stores are listed on the Aerocool US website: TigerDirect.ca and NCIX. TigerDirect no longer sells the VM-101. I was unable to find it at NCIX...

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun May 29, 2005 9:20 am

Wow, Slaugh that Polar Freezer rocks; I wonder what makes it perform so much better than other similar looking coolers...Could the length of the fins really make that big a difference?

-Ed

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun May 29, 2005 10:12 am

With the exception of the zalman, aerocool and the single pipe nortq, those are all pretty heavy, moreso than the CL-G0003. The thermaltake should be a good choice, Burcakb did a user review of it and found it to work very well. Also, a previous thread linked to a review that found it to work better fanless than a zalman with a fan.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:42 am

Aerocool VM-102 looks awesome.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:05 am

Wow that thing looks heavy!

I hope they've improved the mounting system, as the one on the VM-101 would not be secure enough, IMHO, to handle as much weight as this VM-102 appears to have...

-Ed

len509 · Post by **len509** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:32 pm

winguy, do you have any information on the Aercool VM-102? This looks very interesting. I'd like to get something like this when I upgrade my GeForce 5600.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:23 am

len509 wrote:winguy, do you have any information on the Aercool VM-102? This looks very interesting. I'd like to get something like this when I upgrade my GeForce 5600.

Just saw the pic while surfing.

Anyway, check out what Thermalright has to offer.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... =1619&pg=7

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:08 pm

Hello:

Hey! There's a fan on that one!

[Edit] I wonder if the reason that the Be Quiet! Polar Freezer is more efficient is the very sturdy looking brackets? It has one on both the front and the back, so I'll bet the clamping pressure is better than those tiny, adjustable, arms on the Zalman, for instance.

Laugh Out Loud · Post by **Laugh Out Loud** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:22 pm

Slaugh wrote:I found a german review at tweakers4u.de where 6 fanless VGA heatpipes coolers are compared:

Be Quiet! Polar Freezer

Anyone know if any Australian store stock these?

fanerman91 · Post by **fanerman91** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:04 pm

winguy wrote:Just saw the pic while surfing. Anyway, check out what Thermalright has to offer.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... =1619&pg=7

Is that available now? Any idea when it will be?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:39 pm

Thermalright V1 review here.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:55 pm

Mats wrote:Thermalright V1 review here.

That's fast.

Not an ideal heatsink to run fanless, imo, though.

serenityNOW · Post by **serenityNOW** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:58 am

Have anyone tried the VM-102? Will it be a good replacement to the 9800 pro R350?
My intention is to put it along with a quiet 120mm fan,in order to achive silence and maybe a good OC similar to the VGA silencer.

theyangster · Post by **theyangster** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:18 am

last time I checked the VM-102 is a little hard to find in the US (if you are in the US)

I have an VM-101 on my 9800 pro 128
works fine, though you do need something blowing on it otherwise it WILL get hot!

I currently have mine inverted and it works fine

old pic, but you get the idea

serenityNOW · Post by **serenityNOW** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:03 pm

Thanks, yangster, this was my configuration in mind.
How far have you OCed it? and is it on 128Mb 256bit (that is mine).

Since there's an availability issue for the VM-102, the Be Cool is very close to it, so any experiences with that?

diver · Post by **diver** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:31 pm

With a fanless VGA cooler, the airflow that it picks up from other fans in the machine, and how air gets into the case makes more difference than which heatsink is used.

I just was testing my ZM80D-HP on a 6600GT. For testing purposes it was OC'ed to 565/1180. Half an hour of 3dMark05 could not raise the temperature past 69c.

It will idle as low as 42c, but take the cover off the case and the temp will go right up to 46c because it loses the airflow being sucked in from open pci slot covers on each side. That airflow will depend on your overall cooling scheme.

serenityNOW · Post by **serenityNOW** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:24 am

serenityNOW wrote:Since there's an availability issue for the VM-102, the Be Cool is very close to it, so any experiences with that?

LOL, meant Be Quiet (Polar-Freezer) w/a fan like theyangster have done.

Best fanless VGA heatsink?

Best fanless VGA heatsink?

Re: Best fanless VGA heatsink?

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