zalman vf900

[thirdshiftdj]

I just installed it on my 7600gt, did anyone else see a significant drop in temps cause mine is exactly the same? WTH??? Temps on Nvidia's monitor 50C, on PC wizard temp is 42C. PC Wizard temps dropped from 48C but I don't know how accurate it was to begin with.

[CrazeD]

The VF900 on my X800GTO dropped temps from 89*C at load to 55*C at load.

Did you use the crap Zalman thermal grease, or did you use good stuff like Arctic Silver 5?

[thirdshiftdj]

yea, I know I should of gotten artic silver. I'll order some. I did reinstall it cause I was tightening the screws alittle too tight where it was leaning towards the right side of the chip. It dropped 10C after reinstalling it. Does that sound right?

[CrazeD]

Well, if it was leaning to one side you didn't install it correctly. You have to tighten it evenly. If you have four bolts, tighten in a
1 3
4 2 pattern.

If you have two bolts, tighten them evenly. Do one turn on each bolt then go to the next, and repeat until it's tight. You want it as tight as possible without bending the card. Be careful though as it is possible to crack the video card if you over tighten it.

Also, it's only going to drop so much. There is no guarantee that it's going to drop by X amount for every situation. My card was running hot because it had a junk stock fan, so the VF900 decreased temps significantly. If your card is already running at 50*C at load then it's probably not going to cool it by much.