Newbie with stupid newbie question about HS/fan for X1950 Pro
 

Over the past week or so, through a bit of perseverance and luck, I bought a retail BBA Radeon X1950 Pro video card and a Zalman VF900-CU LED hs/fan for a ridiculously cheap price....and I mean ridiculous! But after doing a lot of reading on a few forums, I think I may have purchased the wrong hs/fan.

I thought the Zalman was one of the preferred hs/fan combos out there, but quite a few seem to recommend the Accelero 2 as the hs to really own for best performance for the X1950 Pro.

Should I go ahead and install the darned thing or take it back and order the Accelero 2?


Some background info:

System includes an Athlon64 4000+ OC'd to 3.0GHz with a Zalman 9500 cooler, 2GB Corsair XMS DDR, an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mb, Seagate SATA hd, Win XP Pro, all housed in a Cooler Master Centurion 5 case w/3 fans....80 front, 80 side panel, and 120 rear exhaust. I am currently using the stock hs/fan on the X1950 and the Catalyst 6.12 drivers, and I know you all will beat me about the head and shoulders for this....the CCC.

I have used the CCC to overclock the card to 621 core, 770 memory (I have had the memory up to 789, but had artifacts after about a half-hour of gaming.) It was stable until that point and I think the problem was probably heat related.....temp at the time was over 70C.

So, run with the Zalman or go for the Accelero or any better suggestions?

Thanks for the help with the newb here. :)

The Zalman VF-900 is not a bad cooler at all. :toast:
Some of the guys recommend Accelero X2 because it came with their card, and it is good.
I am still waiting to get my Accelero X2, but if you have the Zalman then use it!

how good is the ventilation in your case? One important thing to remember with a Zalman is , the card doesnt send the heat out of the case as other coolers do! you may get away easy with 1 well placed fan to move the air away form the card and out of the case. Just a though for you to ponder since i have used both styles

I do prefer the Zalman , temps went down when installed with my setup . Like i said tho i already had 2 fans from front blowing and 1 in back to draw out what I'm pushing from the front!!!

Hope this helps!

A Silverstone 120 mm exhaust fan placed on the outside of the side cover accross from the cpu works really good for me. Much cooler than having the side cover off. Cutting the hole can be tricky, as the metal is really too thin for a torch, but it was worth the effort.:pimp:
http://home.twcny.rr.com/nydriver/closeup.JPG

An intake below the video card works very well too in conjunction with the front intake fan and the side exhaust.

lol? Did you know that hole is supposed to be the intake?
Your GPU is probably starving for air. Btw the case is sorta ghetto but, VF900 is decent in your case (no pun intended :) ). Only thing I have to say that you need to learn a bit more about the ATX form factor.

However ACCELROX2 will do much better (3 Heatpipes)

At the bottom below the AGP slot(video card)...is 1 of the 2 intake fans, the other intake is in the standard front position. The 120mm on the side is the exhaust.:slap: right now my gpu is at 20c and cpu at 32cbut the case temperature is 13c and it sits in a closet