Low-profile cooler for X800GTO?

[AlanJB]

I'm looking to replace the stock cooler on my Sapphire card with something quieter and more efficient and like the look of the Zalman VF700-CU. However I'm not sure if it requires an adjacent slot or not - I've read conflicting descriptions. If it does then I'm screwed as both PCI sockets in my MSI RD480 mainboard are in use. In this case is there an alternative solution?

Thanks in advance.
Alan

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

The Zalman VF700-Cu LED requires an adjacent pci slot but it's not really that big. Good cooler too, lowered my temps 12 degrees now i get 36/68(also depends on environment)

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

BTW what graphics do you have?

 

[trog100]

the bottom line here is better coolers take up two slots.. the extra size is where they get the extra cooling from.. u could try a water cooling option..?? or rig a case fan somehow to blow extra air over the card..

trog

 

[AlanJB]

The Zalman VF700-Cu LED requires an adjacent pci slot but it's not really that big. Good cooler too, lowered my temps 12 degrees now i get 36/68(also depends on environment)

Thanks for that. Looks like I'll need to find a PCI-E USB2.0 adapter or use a USB hub if I want to upgrade the cooling then.

This is a Sapphire X800 GTO 256MB with an R430 GPU and 16pp enabled, btw. Not one for o/clocking, but I'm planning to get back into flight sims and expect the gfx card to spend a lot of time under heavy load, hence the upgrade.

Alan

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

You can still get decent results overclocking. I overclocked my X800XL(R430) from default of 400/398 to 432/531 and I jumped from 79 fps on HL:2 1280x1024 2AA 4AF to 108 fps 1280x1024 6AA 16AF. Yours might now be like this because this was a huge jump for me, it was unexpected, but you should get about a 5-10 fps increase.