The idea of a fanless cooler really appeals to me!
I see Newegg has two models:
a) ZM80A-HP, all aluminum,
(400g, 1300 sq.cm, $25), and
I got this one (from NewEgg), because it was a bit
cheaper and looked better--more surface area. I've
since figured out that the extra surface area comes
from an extra bit of height. If you examine the
pictures at NewEgg, you can see the ZM80A has small
"fingers" at the top that the ZM80C doesn't have.
This difference in height may be important for
getting a comfortable fit. The ZM80A rises up from
the motherboard almost as much as a full height
PCI card. My scratchbuilt case has a low ceiling
with the lid simply resting on top of the PCI/AGP
card "lips". The ZM80A heatsink goes almost as
high as this--but there's still a comfortable
amount of clearance.
b) ZM80C-HP, aluminum w/gold-plated copper heat pipes,
(325g, 1200 sq.cm, $30)
This one has also been used by someone in Finland;
but his page was in Finnish. I couldn't read it,
so I couldn't read any warnings (if any) about
issues with orientation or fitting.
I assume you are using the all aluminum one - right?
Actually, I think the construction of these two
models is identical, except for some details of
the shape (most importantly, the extra fingers
at the top of the ZM80A heatsinks).
I think my mboard layout is the same as yours, except,
the pictures from your website seem to have the PSU
taken away - is that right?
It's not that the PSU was taken away, the PSU wasn't
there at all. The pictures were of the motherboard
by itself, along with the CPU/Heatsink, of course.
The RAM is there only because I didn't bother
removing it. You can see the motherboard plug for
the ATX power connector in the pictures next to the
CPU slot--nothing's plugged in.
Are you using the zalman ZM300A-APF power supply?
No, but this doesn't matter. Standard form factor
ATX power supplies all have the same external
dimensions.
I am very curious as to how you get this fanless
heat sink to make solid thorough contact with the
CPU so as to truly dissapate the heat. Did you
use some kind of sealant? Or is it just firmly
and tightly held mechanically via screws or something?
The Zalman VGA heatsink comes with all of the parts
needed, including thermal paste. The installation
is actually rather involved, because it is designed
to accomidate a wide variety of VGA cards--there's
no standard location for the GPU of a VGA card.
There are a lot of little adjustable fiddly bits
to ensure a tight fit. The main requirement is the
existence of at least two mounting holes diagonally
located around the processor chip--slot 1 CPUs have
the necessary mounting holes.
On my desktop, from behind, facing the ports and open
expansion slots, I see the power supply on the left,
the expansion slots on the right, and the ports in
the center and leftways a bit, with the CPU right
behind the ports longways from left to right.
There appears to be a bit less than one inch
from the power supply to the left most edge
of the CPU, and a bit more than one inch from
the rightmost edge of the CPU to the VGA card
(no fan, just the nvidia geforce2). Do you
think that is enough room?
Yes, definitely. HOWEVER, watch out for tall
capacitors or other obstructions next to the CPU
slot.
The ZM80A fits so well to a slot 1 processor it
almost seems like it was designed for it. Mounted
tight, the way I have it, it extendes only a
fraction of an inch beyond the card on either side.
Height can be a concern for cases where the PSU is
directly above the CPU, or for slim cases where the
expansion slots are turned sideways. However, if
a full height card can fit and there's nothing
above the CPU, there's no problem--UNLESS there are
tall capacitors or other tall components adjacent
to the CPU slot.
The pictures I posted show where the problem with
tall capacitors can be. Look at your motherboard
to make sure. Note that you only have to look at
the "back" side. The "front" side is where bulky
standard CPU heatsinks are expected to go, so
there won't be any tall components in the way on
that side.
Also, note that you'll have to remove the existing
slot 1 brackets.
I am really tempted
to just go ahead and order this device because
the dream of fanless CPU operation is very
appealing. Mine is 1ghz - do you think that
might be too much? It has to sometimes run
for hours (converting avi to mpeg) and with
really heavy duty processing and only moderate
hd access. I wonder if it would overheat - ???
I don't think you're in any danger of overheating.
The surface area is huge, and the relatively
nearby PSU will provide enough airflow. If you
are concerned, you could kill two birds with one
stone and order a Fortron PSU from NewEgg; either
a Fortron 300 or 350 with 120mm fan. Make sure
you get one of the Fortrons with a 120mm fan.
This fan is on the inside, and will pull air
straight from the CPU area. These Fortrons are
pretty quiet--not the absolute quietest but they
provide plenty of airflow compared quieter PSUs.
I have two computers which rely entirely on the
modest amount of Fortron airflow to cool
everything, including the CPU. One of those is
a P4Celeron 2.5Ghz, which I guarantee generates
a LOT more heat than any 1Ghz PIII ever will.
Please reply as to the model number of your PSU -
it sounds like you got your pc to be quiet - any
pointers about attaching the h/s to the cpu will
be greatly apprectiated - I think I am going to
go ahead and order it. Do I need any kind of
sealants? screws?
The instructions that come with the Zalman ZM80A
are very thorough. I had never installed any
heat sink of any type before, and the instructions
got me through (even though this is a very complex
install, compared to most heat sink installs).
If you have further questions, I highly recommend:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
Go to the forums, and look in the CPU section.
There are a couple threads on this topic, which I
had participated in.
Isaac Kuo