Testing (cont’d)
VF900-Cu LED VGA Cooler
The Zalman VGA cooler was tested on an ATI 9800 Pro video card and performed significantly better than either the stock ATI heatsink fan or Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Rev.3 cooler.
The following results were obtained using the ZM-STG1 super thermal grease and ATITool was used to monitor the video card temperatures during idle at the Windows desktop and while fully loaded running 3DMark2001 SE.
Excellent results for the Zalman VF900-Cu LED VGA cooler! At full speed (2,576 rpm) the noise level was 38.6 dBA measured 3′ away in an otherwise quiet room (30 dBA backgroung). Slowing the VF900’s fan down with the Fan Mate 2 made the cooler virtually silent.
ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease
I used Zalman’s new ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease on both the CPU and GPU during my tests. I also used Arctic Silver 5 for the CPU and Arctic Silver Ceramique on the GPU along with some generic zinc oxide based white thermal paste. Three or four test mounts were done using each of the three thermal compounds on the CPU. (I did not perform comparative testing on the GPU.)
Note: Testing thermal compounds is difficult — frequently the measured difference in performance between one product and another is less than the variability’s produced by the application technique. With that disclaimer in mind, I present the following observations.
CNPS9500 AM2 Cooler on Athlon64 3200+
- ZM-STG1 lowered the CPU temperature 0.1-0.6°C compared to Arctic Siler 5
- ZM-STG1 lowered the CPU temperature 2.7-3.2°C compared to white generic paste
I also found that the ZM-STG1 was very easy to apply. It’s a thick liquid that is painted-on using the small brush inside the bottle.
