Zalman VF3000 installed on GTX 570 in SLi

[Pandora's Box]

Decided to change the stock coolers on my GTX 570's to something with a little more cooling power as two of these cards in SLi tend to get a little hot on the stock coolers. Sure you can create a fan profile and combat the heat with the fans on the cards running at 80% in games (LOUD) but I wanted cool temps and a quiet pc at the same time. Enter the Zalman VF3000:

Boxes:

Heatsink:

Nice finish on the base:

Original GTX 570 Coolers:

Naked Cards:

RAM/VRM Cooler Installed:

Heatsink installed:

PCI-E Slots. Note this setup will not work if you dont have 2 expansion slots between each 16x pci-e slot

Mounted in the case, tight fit lol:

It Glows! (Note its not that bright actually, very subtle, nice touch)

Support:

Finished!

I have the cards connected to my motherboard chassis fan connectors. I enabled the fan control in the bios and set it to run the fans on the cards at about 70%.

Idle Temps Before: GPU 1: 47C GPU 2: 44C
Idle Temps After: GPU 1: 34C GPU 2: 30C

Load Temps using Crysis 2 DirectX 11 High Res Textures 1920x1080

Load Temps Before: GPU 1: 92C GPU 2: 88C
Load Temps After: *Still Testing*

 

[Pestilence]

Be careful with the voltage tuning. Seeing the lack of VRM's makes me sick. Reason i went with a 480 over a 570.

Why didn't you just go water?

 

[Pandora's Box]

Didnt go water because I take the pc to lan parties occasionally. didnt want the added risk.

 

[newtekie1]

Be careful with the voltage tuning. Seeing the lack of VRM's makes me sick. Reason i went with a 480 over a 570.

Why didn't you just go water?

The 470 had the same number of VRMs, it isn't a big deal. Just don't push the voltage past 1.1v and everything is fine.

 

[Pestilence]

The 470 had the same number of VRMs, it isn't a big deal. Just don't push the voltage past 1.1v and everything is fine.

And the 480 had 18. 570 is essentially a 480 so why cheap out on the VRM's?

 

[newtekie1]

And the 480 had 18. 570 is essentially a 480 so why cheap out on the VRM's?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_480_Fermi/images/front.jpg

Because the GTX570 isn't essentially a GTX480. The disabled memory controller helps drop power draw. The GTX480 is still a better card than the GTX570. And cheaping out on the VRMs was so the card could be sold cheap, isn't that obvious?

The GTX480 pulls 225w, obviously most of that going to the core, the GTX570 is only pulling 165w so it doesn't need as many power phases as the GTX480 does. 225w across 6 phases is 37.5w, 165w across 4 phases is 41.25w. That isn't a huge amount more for the GTX570's phases to handle. They will run a little warmer, but that little bit more power isn't going to cause them to pop unless you areally start to crank up the voltage.

 

[Pandora's Box]

sorry for not updating this thread, been updating on another forum though:

First post:

Hmmm getting about 90c on the first gpu in crysis 2, second card is at 68c. Might have to bump up fan speed a little. Tough I think the first card is drowning in the heat from the second card. debating moving the pc into my antec 900 which has a side panel fan on it. Also would mean my corsair h50 cooler wouldn't be blocking the only exhaust. Either that or scrap the coolers and go back to stock with a custom fan profile

Second:

I tried attaching 2 delta 92mm fans (like 150cfm each) next to the cards and getting the temps down into the 70's in crysis 2 i decided the setup really wasnt the best for SLi. I have now reinstalled both stock coolers. I have noticed a drop in temps after installing the stock coolers. This is most likely from a better application of the TIM. Idle temps are now 38C GPU 1 and 36C GPU 2. Before they were GPU 1: 47C GPU 2: 44C. I'll just have to create a custom fan profile to avoid the cards skyrocketing in to the high 80's while gaming. It's also nice to know that any heat that the gpu's generate will be pushed out the case through the heatsinks exhaust, especially since the RV01 only has 1 120mm fan exhaust on it and I have a Corsair H50 attached to that. So having the cards dump the heat back into the case wasnt the best idea. Oh well I had fun playing around and hopefully it answers some of ya'lls quetions in regard to this cooler and SLi. Honestly at this point I would have to say if you want to install new coolers and your using SLi; go water or dont bother. Its tough trying to maintain the balance of cutting edge performance and a semi quiet pc sometimes.

On a side note I do have 2 replacement 180mm intake fans coming for my case. The current ones push like zero air at all, this should help with temps on the cards.

Also of note: Review sites that have review the VF3000 say its not loud when the fans are at full speed. They are completely wrong. It reminded me of the FX 5800 Ultra lol

 

[mastrdrver]

Yes the VF3000 fans are very loud at full speed. Anything above 2000 RPMs was too much for me.

I also had the same "heat" problem with two 5870s. The top card would suck up the heat coming off of the bottom card. I would get about a 20C difference between the two and about 30C between the VRMs.

Unfortunately in my HAF 932, the PSU doesn't sit far enough away from the board so I can not put the bottom card down to the last 16x PCIe slot on my P6T6.

I also don't like how Zalman does not think you would want to be able to control the fans with the PWM on the video cards. Though they made this "exception" on the version they made for Zotac.

If I had just one card, the cooler does a really good job though.