Zalman Heatsink and Artic Cooler 5

[BBloke]

Hi All,

Well I've had an interesting day fitting new parts to my PC and as always its been fun and frustrating.

I received an Arctic 5 Cooler for my X850 Pro card and a Zalman CNPS9500 LED.

Both were well presented in their lovely boxes. Zalman quickly took the lead and got opened first. The VGA cooler could wait.

I got the nice instructions and thanked god I wasn't using a 775 board.. man I would have cried... board out and everything. The Jet4 Coolermaster HSF was already cleaned and on the floor. It's served it purpose well but it was just too loud. The side arm brackets of the Zalman were in place. The retaining clip was seated.. ah.. oops the wrong way.... change that over in just a sec... ah no.. maybe just a minute.. or 6. Man thats fiddle to slip through the heatpipes. Phew.

All's going well still. Arctic silver is smeared on the chip. The retaining clips bolts are nicely seated into the holes and down it goes for seating. Man this is TOO easy but wait I spoke way too soon.

I used the very handy extra long alan key (L-Wrench!) and slowly and methodically tried to aim the bolt into the central hole of the side arm at the middle point of the motherboard... easy does it... bugga... bit left.. bit right.. up and bingo.. nip it down just a few threads.... Yeah!

Now for the other.. done one the other should be a doddle.. The other.. where's it gone.. oh hell. Any small amount of pressure on one side of the clip levers the other side up far enough to stick it under the blessed and beautiful 'flowers'.. Damn!!! Ah.. I'll unscrew the otherside slightly to give me a little headroom...... nope.... blast! That was only one of the worries.. the other was the close but acceptable fit of the PSU.. It had to go... unscrewed that and try to ply it from it resting place.. it moved but not far enough... top exhaust fan was in the way.. that had to go... 15 mins later and more space to play with I tried again.

Trying to get a small bolt in a small hole whilst a clip is trying its life out to stop you ain't no fun. I tried.. and tried.. and screamed.. almost had the cat flying. I was on the brink of getting something to aid me in lifting the sidearms up to make my life a little easy when voila it took hold... for a millisecond then slipped off... *~8#=#8~*.. tried again.. same result.. third time.. charm me.. pullleeeeeeseeeeeee.... hurray and alle's ohah is hanging out!

IT's in and its going down... success and I thought I was lucky.

After this the graphics card is going to be a blast.....

......WRONG!!!

To begin with couldn't even get the darn fan lead off the board.. had to bust the side of the clip before it gave it up.... I wasnt happy.. the 9800xt was a piece of cake. At least it came of without damaging anything, which was a concern.

The HSF was off the chip was cleaned and prepped for the new one.. the memory chip pads were ready to do their job. Both pieces fitted perfectly.. hey.. this one is easy. I followed the very easy instructions.. then checked around the unit to make sure everything was where it should be and Noooooooooooooo!!!!!! One of the RAM chips wasnt touching.. oh *~#~(*... reset the screws and gave a little pressure and another successful fitting.

Great.. Look at this beast.. it's now 1/3rd longer than the standard, twice as bulky and how in gods name am I suppose to get the molex plug down there!!! Do I have small fingers!?!!? Well I managed it.

Threw everything back together and fired it up. Wow.. quiet.. I can hear the soft umm of fans instead of the torture of knackered turbine!!! Hurray!! I dont have to deafen the neighbours.

All in all its been an easy enough experience setting the hiccups aside. Which after all would have been far less had the board been on the table and not inside my mini coffin and excuse for a home heating system.

The Zalman was for the reason above. Noise. As well as the fact that my CPU is running far higher speeds than Intel want. (2.4Ghz at 3.38Ghz)

The Arctic Cooler I purchased as a means to try an open my card up a little further than it should too. I recently flashed my X850 Pro to an X850 XT PE but restricted the speeds to XT. Now I have a better HSF for it I'm going to see how far it will go.

So far the CPU Temps have gone down a bit on idle. 53 from 55. During ATITool's 3d View 55 instead of 56. No great shakes.. the noise level is worth it for no change in temps.

The graphics card now idles at 34 instead of 37. During ATITools 3d view it peaked at 55. IL2 or Simpson hit and run would get it up to 60 before.

I'm waiting for the inevitable in the shortterm. Its ok installing new bits and gadgets but I dont like smelling the newness burn away.. It leaves me thinking there something else on its way out!!!!

Thats it for my dribble. I'll maybe post some pictures and these arent pretty but it depends on how bad the show my wiring to be!!!!! mmmmmm must get round to that one day.

[B16Enk]

I did warn you the clip could be a little like a Krypton factor puzzle!

Glad you got it all together in the end

That's a hot running CPU, makes mine @ 32 C look like a fridge, but then it's not overclocked!

[BBloke]

LOL.. yeah couldn't believe the stupid thing!!! LOL

I know its hot but at least its consistent. I know the chip was cooler in the other house but then the house was cooler too.

I've read the Northwood weren't too bad with heat.. at least they have a an advantage over the Prescotts!!

[BBloke]

Well after a nice night flying and checking MBM and ATITools.. the graphics card never hit abot approx 42 ish (cant really tell as its a graph and the CPU peaked at 56 with a nice low hummmmmmmm!

I'll give the graphics a bit more testing as its late and I have the back door and the conservatory door open and its blowing a nice refreshing breeze. When the winter comes and the room temp goes up I swear I'll be playing with gloves on with the doors open to keep this thing cool