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Tenacious Dyl · Jul 8, 2005, 03:38 PM

I have been reading into lots of articles lately about cooling, and in a thread here (overclocking 6800 ultra) people keep mentioning the "Zalman 700". I went to their website, and read all of their specs, and have read reviews. It seems like generally a really good idea.

I am curious, what was everyone who owns one's experience. In particular, I am curious:

1) How easy is the install (yes I watched the video, I would like personal accounts)
2) Do the Memory Heatsinks help, and do they fit on the bottom when put in a G5 (are they effective if they do?)
3) Does the fan have such great a height, that it cripples yet another PCI slot, or does it just fill up the two slots the 6800 series already fills? (yes I read measurement, but still..)
4) People have said "Half as quiet" in regards to its audibility / noise levels. Aside from that, how often (when put on powered mode, not silent) does it kick in, are its higher fan levels lesser in duration?
5) Any other comments / wisdom / suggestions...

Lateralus · Jul 8, 2005, 05:31 PM

Can't say much for the 6800/Zalman, but personally I'd suggest that you just eBay the 6800 and pick up an X800 XT if you're wanting a quieter, less intrusive card. It just happens to be a smidgen faster as well.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 05:43 PM

I agree. Just get an X800 instead.

HumanMedia · Jul 8, 2005, 09:45 PM

If you have an Ultra keep hold of it, its a damn good card. Of the range of benchtests I have seen, especially if you do Final Cut Pro work, it beats even the Radeon X850. And in some games its faster than the 850 also, yet in other benchmarks the X850 is ahead, but as far as I can see its a mixed bag and there is no real winner. Not only that the Ultra has two DVI ports which is essential for me as I have one going to a large monitor and one going to a digital projector or a second monitor (both need DVI). In fact if money was no object and for the work I do, if I had to buy again today I would still go with an Ultra, at least until the new Nvidia 7800 arrives for Mac.

If you dont have a high end card already or youhave a 6800 GT thats a different story, but an Ultra is still very fine, and when its overclocked its sweeter still.

For more info on the Zalman installation:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...lmanVF700.html

Lateralus · Jul 8, 2005, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by HumanMedia

If you have an Ultra keep hold of it, its a damn good card. Of the range of benchtests I have seen, especially if you do Final Cut Pro work, it beats even the Radeon X850. And in some games its faster than the 850 also...

Lets see some links.

HumanMedia · 12:37 AM

Note that this is the 6800 GT they are comparing, and the Ultra is better:
http://www.apple.com/powermac/graphics.html

Note that the X850 here is an overclocked unit:
http://www.barefeats.com/radx850.html

And or course:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...ew/index2.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...ew/index3.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...ew/index4.html

And even more interesting is where the newer 10.4 drivers are being used, with a few games other than Halo and Ut2004:
http://macsonly.com/arch00506.html#_131

Unless the only reason you are buying this card for is just Halo and UT2004, but instead you're using it for work - like Cinema4D (Cinebench) and other games, then the cards are neck to neck and for Doom III, FCP/Motion, then the Nvidia (particularly the Ultra) is superior.

Tenacious Dyl · 04:36 AM

HumanMedia: I do lots of video work, I currently use Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD Pro (Hope to get the new 5.0 soon) Also use DVD Studio Pro 3.0 (again, hope to upgrade to 4 soon) My friends and I do lots of small / for fun productions, and I have "rented myself out" before locally to produce things from sports training videos to family events.

As for games, I hate Halo (its a little too simple for me, in its options) and not a big Unreal fan either. However, I do play World of Warcraft now and again on the side. For WoW however, nVidia cards seem to be the ones to own (the constant nVidia references and banners all over Blizzard things). So I am *more* than happy with my nVidia card, and do not plan on switching to Ati anytime soon.

When enquiring about the Zalman, I wasn't looking for a solution to make my mac quieter, I was looking for a solution to make my nVidia card quieter, hehe. I'm stingy and tight for cash, if I wanted an Ati card, I would have gotten one in the first place and saved cash.

What I was looking for, was just real-world feedback on the Zalman, any possible bad experiences, or experiences better than expected. No one has any real feedback on this?

Edit: HumanMedia: Link was very nice, thank you. It had two real-life feedbacks, and was helpful.

HumanMedia · Jul 9, 2005, 06:18 AM

Ive installed a Zalman on my 6800 Ultra. It comes with a set of instructions for a generic card, which cover 95% of the Ultra installation. LOTS of unscrewing. Make sure not to use too much thermal paste on the GPU. And to get all of the paste OFF the RAM with isopropol before using the thermal tape to attach the RAM heatsinks. My only technical concern is the lack of backing plate for the fan, but since the fans runs low speed I dont think stress on the board will be an issue. Oh and get the full copper version as it is a better cooler. To get the fan to be powered from the board itself using the supplied power cable, the pastic base of the power prongs has to be removed - watch out though there are many small traces at the rear of the plastic, so examine closely to see what you are doing before trying to lever it off.

It voids warranty, Applecare and is not for the faint of heart.

But it runs way cooler and is extremely quiet, and is recommended for those who know what they are doing.

bossep · Jul 11, 2005, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by HumanMedia

Ive installed a Zalman on my 6800 Ultra. It comes with a set of instructions for a generic card, which cover 95% of the Ultra installation. LOTS of unscrewing. Make sure not to use too much thermal paste on the GPU. And to get all of the paste OFF the RAM with isopropol before using the thermal tape to attach the RAM heatsinks. My only technical concern is the lack of backing plate for the fan, but since the fans runs low speed I dont think stress on the board will be an issue. Oh and get the full copper version as it is a better cooler. To get the fan to be powered from the board itself using the supplied power cable, the pastic base of the power prongs has to be removed - watch out though there are many small traces at the rear of the plastic, so examine closely to see what you are doing before trying to lever it off.

It voids warranty, Applecare and is not for the faint of heart.

But it runs way cooler and is extremely quiet, and is recommended for those who know what they are doing.

What you are saying, is that the Zalman VF-700 is difficult to mount on the card? I have an ATI9800Pro in a G4. I am very tempted to buy the Zalman, but can't decide if it will lower the noise that much?

HumanMedia · Jul 12, 2005, 12:12 AM

I dont know about the 9800, but Ive found the drive and power supply fan on the G4 to be particularly noisy (noisier than my G5). Can you try another fan-less card in the G4 to determine how much noise the video card is adding? and hence if the video card fan upgrade is worthwhile.