Hi, my stock cooler fan is starting to die and have been looking for a replacement. I have done a search for one at my usual electronic internet outlets, Newegg, CensusPC, FrozenCPU even e-bay and they have a limited selection for the older 6800 series cards. Please could someone give me some advise on what and where to find one. I do not overclock nor do i like coolers with fan speed controls, i also am limited for space with my e-machine case and matx motherboard.
I would suggest the Zalman VF700-cu. It's cheap, performs well, not too big, quiet, you don't have to use the fan control (not too sure bout this) and most importantly fits your card Link
heres the updated version of the nv5 that i used on my 6800 gt http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=91 cooling was very effective, sound was less than moderate compared to stock.
Got ripped on e-bay, bought an arctic cooling accelero x1 that was sold as new. Package was cut, thermal paste smeared on cooler, instructions were not folded and thermal pads were missing. Can i use thermal paste on ram chips and gpu or do i need to use thermal pads ?
Hello lads, may I join in on this conversation, as I have been looking for something similar for my 6800GT. I have a Gainward 6800GT golden sample oc'ed version which I would like to breathe new life into for my kids’ computer. The 2 old fans were making terrible noise which is why I have recently changed it. Do you think the solution offered here for the Zalman VF700-cu, will cool my card effectively as well? I think the GPU would be fine, however I am concerned about the little fin heat sinks. I can't help but look at the 2 fans on the Gainward and think I may need more. Here is the link for my card Essentially I can run it at Ultra speeds or in normal mode which is more or less the same as the GT speeds. I am happy to run it at standard speeds to get this cooler to work if necessary. Any thoughts welcome. Many thanks.
@ Wildman95GS-T you can use thermal paste if there isnt a gap that has been left between the ram and sink for a thermal pad. thermal pads are thicker than paste. if you do put paste on make sure it is only a little bit because if it oozes out and goes under the ram your in trouble. @ Tir you dont need any ram sinks on a 6800gt what so ever i had mine o/c'ed up to 1180 for a long time with no sinks at all and no fan blowing dirrectley on it like the zalman would. have you tried to just clean the fans out at all?
Hi Otaku, thank you for your input. The 2 fans on the Gainward are past it I'm afraid. I have cleaned them and air blasted to avail. It's the bearings that have gone as the noise is excessive and is one of a grinding nature. If you oc'ed your gt like that, then my worries have decreased already. The reason I questioned the cooling in the first place was because of the elaborate cooling system the Gainward already had. I kept saying I can't just replace that with a simple single fan arrangement. So the Zalman cooler looks like it will easily tackle the task at hand, and the addition of the ramsinks will only help if anything, as they are not really needed. (I'm guessing that you had the GPU water cooled?) Thank you, that certainly answers my question.
yeah i had it on water and i never had any trouble with the card in about 14 months. if it makes you feel even better i even had a 256mb 7800 gtx with no heat sinks on either for almost a year with the same setup so im 100% sure you will be fine with no ram sinks :thumbup:
Just ordered the Zalman VF700-CU it comes with the ram heatsinks anyway so I'll put them on since they are there. So if it dosen't work (*shaking a big virtual stick*) Seriously though, thanks for the advice.
Is there any performance difference between these 3 Zalman coolers that will fit my 6800GT, VF700 ALCU, VF700 CU and FALI1TYFS-V7 ? There is about $10 difference between the 3.
maybe 1 degree between the copper and aluminium cooler but nothing between the the copper one and the fatality version
I can only talk about the Zalman ones as they are the only 2 I looked at, and for the price difference I went for the full copper as it must have the slight edge on cooling and it looks better IHO. Both of the coolers supported the same cards, so the difference in cooling can't be vast. I guess it's down to personal choice.
Thanks for the quick 411, I think the FALITYFS-V7 has a speed control and color led for show, guess that is why it cost more than the VF700 CU. I'm returning the arctic cooling accelero x1 did not want to try and install with out thermal pads and try paste. Once you take the oem cooler off you cant put it back on it things did not work out. Also i have a very small case (e-machine) did a quick fit check and the cooler was to tall and would hit the access panel. That would have sucked if i had installed it on my card and could not put the panel on.
I got a Zalman VF700 (AL)CU for a great price, i have never replaced the cooler on a video card. Is the thermal paste any good that is supplied with the cooler (Zalman CSL 850) or do i need to get something else ? How do you apply the paste ? Do you apply it the same as on a CPU ?
I perfer to use artic silver paste myself, but the paste supplied is fine if you have nothing else. (Same way you apply for CPU).
Thanks Tir, all i have is Arctic Silver Ce'ramique and have read reviews from people that have installed Zalman coolers on their video cards and said it was to thick for that application. And the way you apply it is designed for cpu coolers. I also have some junk i purchased on e-bay "Spectra Cool" got this stuff in an attempt to cool down my AMD cpu was using the Artic Silver but this was supposed to be better. I will use the Zalman paste and see what i get, it has been running around 50C.
Hi, i know there are not many people that still use 6800 series video cards anymore but i thought i would ask. I replaced the Zalman thermal paste with AS5 and the temp was 51C idle and 67C at load, Tried AS Ceramique and got 47C idle and the same at load 67C. That load temp seems a little high for me. What is a good temp that i should shoot for ? or is what i am getting the best i can expect ?
