NV Silencer 5 vs Zalman VF700

[Mojo027]

I have the dual Blue LED fan solution (revision 2) of the BFG 6800GT OC and am running on the Xtreme G 71.84, overclocked to 400mhz/1100mhz. While it looks pretty good, the cooler is fairly heavy. Also, I've found it doesnt cool too well. My case temperatures are normally around 30C, and my card idles at around 61C GPU/37C Ambient. The GPU temps have gone as high as the mid 70s during gaming, and I believe the Ambient temps have gone to 50C or so. I've seen many people reporting idle temps of more like 55C/30C.

The other thing is, where I upgraded from a 9500pro, I find this card to be a good deal louder than my old card. I think I'm going to upgrade to either a NV Silencer 5, or a Zalman CF700 VGA cooler. That way I get a bit better temperatures, and the somputer should be much more silent. I'm going to university next year, so my computer will be in close proximity to my bed, and my current rig is too loud for me to sleep comfortably with it on, and my bed is a good 10 ft away from my desk now. Next year it will be unbearable, so an upgrade is necessary.

My question to you is, which aftermarket cooler is better? And is it worth my time and money to go ahead and do the mod?

 

[Munky]

I have a vf700, and I'm happy with it. It offers way better than stock cooling for my oc's card, and it's quiet - you have 2 fan settings, and the low one is almost silent. I havent tried the silencers though, but I needed ram sinks for my card, so that's one of the reasons why I chose the vf700.

 

[MDE]

I've had both and I'd take the Zalman. It's quieter and in my limited testing, cools better than the Silencer.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

Originally posted by: MDE
I've had both and I'd take the Zalman. It's quieter and in my limited testing, cools better than the Silencer.

:thumbsup: You get what you pay for.

 

[fstime]

Silencer cools better, especially when the Zalman is in slient mode. Zalman offers some crappy ramsinks... The Silencer is not loud at all. Its silent to me, even it to loud for you which is hard to believe you can tone it down with expertool.

Sidewinder has it for 21 bucks...

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/

Theres a review on the two somewhere on this forum, im positive the silencer cools better.

On my GT im at 44-50 C idle. Around 60 load. On an ultra its around 51 idle.

 

[Xed]

you can't go wrong with either really, I prefer the silencer because it vents the hot air out of my case

 

[Mojo027]

Isn't the NV Silencer harder to install? Like you have to worry about the ram HSF surface lining up perfectly flat with the ram chips, etc. It would be easier to just put the Zalman fan on the GPU and attach the ram sinks with some thermal compound, right?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Mojo027
Isn't the NV Silencer harder to install? Like you have to worry about the ram HSF surface lining up perfectly flat with the ram chips, etc. It would be easier to just put the Zalman fan on the GPU and attach the ram sinks with some thermal compound, right?

The Zalman RAMsinks have thermal tape on them, just peel off the backing and stick.

 

[Mrvile]

No, it's rather easy because each ramsink on the Silencer protrudes out of the heat sink base, so just line them up, it's slightly harder than lining yourself up with the urinal. The NV5 cools like a beast, is silent (although I couldn't make any noticeable adjustments with ExperTool) and is supposed to exhaust hot air but I can't feel any air coming out of the thing (is this good or bad?). Haven't heard much about the Zalman yet, but I like how the NV5 looks better. Flowers are for CPUs, not VGAs.

 

[fstime]

God, whoever cant install the NV5 shouldnt be working with computers. All you do is line up four holes and tighten. Thermal tape on the ram sounds crappy to me.

NV5 for $21 >> Zalman for $40 by a long shot considering the price. Not to mention NV5 simply performs better.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Silencer cools better, especially when the Zalman is in slient mode. Zalman offers some crappy ramsinks... The Silencer is not loud at all. Its silent to me, even it to loud for you which is hard to believe you can tone it down with expertool.

Sidewinder has it for 21 bucks...

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/

Theres a review on the two somewhere on this forum, im positive the silencer cools better.

On my GT im at 44-50 C idle. Around 60 load. On an ultra its around 51 idle.

I noticed a 2-3C drop going from the Sliencer to the Zalman. The Silencers have a problem making full contact with the GPU because either the copper plate is warped or the plates to cool the RAM are too thick, elevating the plate off the GPU.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

If your case has good ventilation in the first place, then the Cu version of the vf700 is the way to go. I have both, a silencer on a 9800 and a zalman on a x700. They both do great, but I can really see where my money went with the zalman. The only condition in which a silencer would do better is if you have a stuffy case, which in your case with 30 degrees, isn't a big issue. If you compare quality, the zalman is real nice. Real solid construction, all metal. The ram sinks slap right on (you only need kindergarten level hand eye coordiation to do this), and is made of aluminum. The fan cools both the hs and the ram sink too. If money and case temps are an issue get the Silencer, but it doesn't fit real well on the ati cards in my one single experience. Not sure about the nvidia versions or other ati versions. My particular silencer also has a slight... motor noise. Its not noisy perse, but it's not as quiet as the vf700. Both are really great at cooling, and the silencer is easier to install. Both let you overclock a little, the silencer a little more than the vf700.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Silencer cools better, especially when the Zalman is in slient mode. Zalman offers some crappy ramsinks... The Silencer is not loud at all. Its silent to me, even it to loud for you which is hard to believe you can tone it down with expertool.

Sidewinder has it for 21 bucks...

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/

Theres a review on the two somewhere on this forum, im positive the silencer cools better.

On my GT im at 44-50 C idle. Around 60 load. On an ultra its around 51 idle.

I noticed a 2-3C drop going from the Sliencer to the Zalman. The Silencers have a problem making full contact with the GPU because either the copper plate is warped or the plates to cool the RAM are too thick, elevating the plate off the GPU.

Me or my friends never had that problem, (6800nu,6800GT,6800U) Make sure its tightened a lot.

 

[Mojo027]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Me or my friends never had that problem, (6800nu,6800GT,6800U) Make sure its tightened a lot.

That can lead to a cracked memory chip and or GPU core. I don't like the thought of "tightening it a lot".

I do have 2 120mm fans, one in the front blowing in cooler air, and the exhaust at the back flushing out warm air. I'll probably go with the Zalman, but I'm undecided still.

I have read a few reviews, and not everyone has had the succes you have had Bouzouki. Several of the reviews mentioned having to file off some of the copper on the Silencer's heatsink for the ram chips to correctly fit.

 

[dp004i]

Not quite sure about the NV Silencer, but the one for ATI cards isn't too quiet - the fan has that really annoying click to it.

 

[Mojo027]

I have a question about the Zalman VF700...

It comes with 8 ramsinks, but my BFG 6800GT has 8 ram chips. Even though I can only see one side of the ram chip anyway, I would only be able to attach one ram sink to each ram chip. But some cards have 4 chips that are visible from both sides, so those people could put two ramsinks on each chip, right? Does it really matter, where I can only attach it on one side of the ram chip anyway?

 

[ubercaffeinated]

My ati x700 ram are doublesided x 4 (256 mb ram), so I used up all 8 sinks going back and front. If your ram chips have only 1 "face" to it, and the back is nothing but the board, then no it shouldn't matter. You'd be using only 4 of the sinks anyways. And as for the tightening part, yes you have to tighten it really well for the vf700. They use rubber washers anyways on the plate screws so you can get it real right without really worrying about cracking the gpu chip. Just make sure the rubber washers go on both sides of the main two screws. You'll know it when you see it.

 

[Navid]

Each has pros and cons.

The silencer has to mount on multiple chips (GPU and RAM chips). These chips do not have the same height from the printed circuit board. This is mainly because of the variation in the IC package dimension, solder non-uniformity, board curvature, etc.

It is unrealistic and impractical to expect to be able to perfectly line up all of the RAMs and the GPU to the sink for every card from any manufacturer. That is why you may need extra thermal compound on the RAM chips.
In some cases, there may be a perfect fit. But, you cannot expect it to happen always.

The advantage of the silencer is that it is not permanent and it exhausts warm air from the case and the fan cools the sink for the GPU as well as the sink for the RAM chips.


The Zalman cooler can be perfectly mounted on the GPU like a CPU cooler. The RAM sinks can be individually mounted on the RAM chips.

The disadvantage of the Zalman cooler is that the RAM sinks are mounted with thermal tape; never as efficient as Arctic Silver. The warm air will have to be exhausted from the case by your case fans. If the card has RAM on the other side of the card, they will not be cooled by the fan.


The same piece of metal is used as the sink for the GPU as well as all the RAM chips in case of the silencer. But, you can only measure the GPU temperature although the objective is to cool the GPU as well as the RAM chips.
So, a good question for those who have had both who claim one is better than the other is to know what they base that on! You cannot compare the RAM temperature.


A valid comparison could be to find the maximum stable core overclock for each cooler for the same card. Then, find the maximum stable RAM overclock for each cooler for the same card.

 

[CP5670]

Does a side case fan next to the card have any effect on which of these coolers is better? My case has pretty good ventilation but there is no side fan. I think the NV silencer might work better for me due to its fan placement and the exhaust duct (waiting for the revision 2 to come out) and it's also generally cheaper, but the alignment issues could be a problem. I will probably buy the silencer from some place that allows returns and if it doesn't fit well, send it back and get the VF700 instead.

How effective is the paste these come with? Should I use that stuff or the ASC I have?

Originally posted by: Mojo027
I have the dual Blue LED fan solution (revision 2) of the BFG 6800GT OC and am running on the Xtreme G 71.84, overclocked to 400mhz/1100mhz. While it looks pretty good, the cooler is fairly heavy. Also, I've found it doesnt cool too well. My case temperatures are normally around 30C, and my card idles at around 61C GPU/37C Ambient. The GPU temps have gone as high as the mid 70s during gaming, and I believe the Ambient temps have gone to 50C or so. I've seen many people reporting idle temps of more like 55C/30C.

Same card here. I think this heatsink is actually pretty decent but the tiny fans really cripple it. A few days ago I also noticed that two of the memory chips on my card don't actually touch the heatsink at all; the gap is large enough to be clearly visible from the side and the heatsink/screws move a bit with a slight push, so it must not have been screwed in properly. I am still getting decent temperatures and a good overclock (420/1100mhz at 56C with 29C ambient), although one of these aftermarket coolers would probably do a much better job.

 

[Rooski 31]

I'm getting a Zalman AlCu version tomorrow hopefully, for my 6600GT. I heard nothing but good things about Zalman recently...

 

[MDE]

Navid, consider this. GDDR3 runs relatively cool, cool enough where ATI didn't even bother with cooling the RAM on the X800 cards. Now do you want the same slab of copper that's cooling your 6800GT's flaming hot GPU touching those relatively cool RAM chips?

 

[Chopstick217]

I have had experience w/ both. IMO, the Zalman cooler is more efficient. On top of that, its simpler to install when compared to the NV5 Silencer. The Zalman is only 18 dba on silent mode.

 

[fliguy84]

Originally posted by: Rooski 31
I'm getting a Zalman AlCu version tomorrow hopefully, for my 6600GT. I heard nothing but good things about Zalman recently...

well since nv6 for 6600gt is priced around $44 now (newegg), no doubt u should go with zalman.

all in all i think zalman is the winner here. not only because of the quality but also virtually every vga card since gf3 is supported. unlike arctic nv series, which is different for every card generation. a product worth mentioning is the jetart cooler. it has also gained some reputation as a cooling solution for vga cards

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: MDE
Navid, consider this. GDDR3 runs relatively cool, cool enough where ATI didn't even bother with cooling the RAM on the X800 cards. Now do you want the same slab of copper that's cooling your 6800GT's flaming hot GPU touching those relatively cool RAM chips?

No I wouldn't. But, I may not have GDDR3!
Or I may want to overclock my memory too; not saying that I do!

My point was that many who claim that one is better than the other (I didn't) have not done a relevant measurement. Measuring the GPU temperature and basing the comparison on it is not always a correct way for the comparison.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: Mojo027

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Me or my friends never had that problem, (6800nu,6800GT,6800U) Make sure its tightened a lot.

That can lead to a cracked memory chip and or GPU core. I don't like the thought of "tightening it a lot".

I do have 2 120mm fans, one in the front blowing in cooler air, and the exhaust at the back flushing out warm air. I'll probably go with the Zalman, but I'm undecided still.

I have read a few reviews, and not everyone has had the succes you have had Bouzouki. Several of the reviews mentioned having to file off some of the copper on the Silencer's heatsink for the ram chips to correctly fit.

No it wont, its been runing for months.........