Hey Digi, still lovin' your VF700? Try the VF900 instead!

[IgnorancePersonified]

From what I read however the NV Silencer 5 will fit the current 7900 series cards with a little bit of modding, and I have a theory that it'll fit the X1800/X1900 too (the mounting holes on those cards are I *think* the same as NVIDIAs now). So it might be possible to bodge things for this generation, but looking forward the outlook is bleak

well if you hear anymore about fitting an NV5 to an x1800 card let me know please! I am interested.

 

[fallguy]

Do you think that abandoning the exhaust has something to do with BTX?

It is, they say as much on their site.

Fully Crossfire and BTX compatible
The Accelero 2 is Crossfire compatible with all mainboards and offers in such a configuration exactly the same performance. In contrast to our ATI Silencers, the Accelero is 100% BTX compatible, thus a DHES is not possible/necessary anymore. The hot air is removed by the BTX airflow.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=90

Which I personally think sucks. I want the hot air removed by the video cards fan, not relying on other fans to do it.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Do you think that abandoning the exhaust has something to do with BTX?

Which is a pretty poor choice considering how ATX motherboards and cases dominate the market for new equipment as well as currently existing systems. Even new motherboards and cases featuring new chipsets and technology are overwhelmingly ATX.

It's a pretty simple concept: exhaust from the case = cooler case = quieter case. Throwing that baby out with the bathwater seems pretty stupid considering it was one of Arctic Cooling's unique selling points.

 

[Monty]

got the vf900 a few days ago for my x1800xt, and its a complete dissapointment. My gpu still reaches 80 degrees at 700 core clock with 1.4V, and now i have a load of heat hanging in my system and everything else has heated up a fair bit.

and to get this heatsink working at any decent performance i have to open the side of my case and have a 120mm fan blowing on it, but that kills the whole point of getting a quieter fan, so complete waste of money

 

[KimB]

It's a pretty simple concept: exhaust from the case = cooler case = quieter case.

Er, not necessarily. Instead of having more case fans (which can be large and slow), you're evacuating air out of a smaller cavity (which may need to be much faster, and hence louder).

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Er, not necessarily. Instead of having more case fans (which can be large and slow), you're evacuating air out of a smaller cavity (which may need to be much faster, and hence louder).

Who said anything about having fewer large fans that you can run slower? If you also have large, slow fans on your hot graphics card exhausting air out of the case, all your other fans will run slower and quieter.

I've been using one of the old style Arctic Coolers for quite some time, and there's no doubt that they help cool the case and make the other fans run slower and more quietly as the case temperature drops significantly. That hot GPU being vented out of the case makes a huge difference.

 

[KimB]

I've been using one of the old style Arctic Coolers for quite some time, and there's no doubt that they help cool the case and make the other fans run slower and more quietly as the case temperature drops significantly. That hot GPU being vented out of the case makes a huge difference.

Sure, the GPU cooler itself adds its own noise. Since it is exhausted through a much smaller opening, I have a hard time believing that there would be a total drop in noise, unless you don't have enough case ventillation to deal with the situation.

And this is, of course, predicated on you having case fans whose speed is dependent upon case temperature, which isn't necessarily the case.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Sure, the GPU cooler itself adds its own noise. Since it is exhausted through a much smaller opening, I have a hard time believing that there would be a total drop in noise, unless you don't have enough case ventillation to deal with the situation.

Aftermarket coolers like the older Arctic Cooler have larger, slower fans than stock heatsinks, so they are also quieter, as well as more efficient. It's easy to believe if you've actually used one and seen how impressive they are. That's why no one can understand why the design of the new AC cooler doesn't also vent outside the case.

They do make a massive difference on cards which are putting out the same kind of heat as a CPU. That's heat going out of the case rather than into the case. I personally have seen a 10-15 degree drop in case temperature (and associated case fan speed and noise), with no change but an AC cooler venting graphics card heat outside the case.

And this is, of course, predicated on you having case fans whose speed is dependent upon case temperature, which isn't necessarily the case.

Then you don't really care about air-cooling your case quietly.

 

[nutball]

got the vf900 a few days ago for my x1800xt, and its a complete dissapointment. My gpu still reaches 80 degrees at 700 core clock with 1.4V, and now i have a load of heat hanging in my system and everything else has heated up a fair bit.

and to get this heatsink working at any decent performance i have to open the side of my case and have a 120mm fan blowing on it, but that kills the whole point of getting a quieter fan, so complete waste of money

Sounds to me like you've got poor airflow through your case. No "quiet" cooler is going to perform well under those conditions.

 

[Guden Oden]

I finally got my VF900 mounted on my GF6800 vanilla PCIe today, bought it day before good friday or whatever the F it's called in english (before easter weekend anyway ), but didn't get around to putting it on until this afternoon. One factor was I didn't have any decent thermal compound, I don't quite trust the shi^h^htuff zalman ships with their products, so after getting back home from the 'rents, I went out and bought a tube of AS Ceramique.

Anyway, mounting the thing was a breeze, the spring-loaded screws are a little fiddly, but nothing really worth fussing over. Now, letting my PC sit on the WoW login screen, which has always heated up the GPU good for me, it's about 10C cooler than with the VF700-Cu I had on before. Ok, this isn't really any kind of scientifically done test, but it SEEMS to be more effective at cooling the GPU. It's also lighter, though that isn't neccessarily anything I really care all that much about.

Feels a little weird to know the only thing connecting the hot silicon die to the cooling fins are two copper tubes... I'm not used to that!

Am I satisfied? YES. This fan seems to be ideal for use in BTX systems such as mine.

 

[KimB]

Good Friday is the correct name in English

 

[Mariner]

Maunday Thursday.