9500 Zalman compatable on Gigabyte DS3??

[grapz]

Does any 1 own the 9500 Zalman HSF who uses it on the Gigabyte DS3?

Do both of them fit?

 

[stonge]

I have a Zalman 9500 LED installed on my Gigabyte GA965PDS3 - other than having to remove the mobo from the case for the install it was a very painless install. Keeps my C2D 6600 (no o/c) at around 30C while running dual Folding sessions at 100% load (room temp 22C). Before the Zalman, I had the 6600 up to 3200ish with the stock HSF and Prime95 was stable but temps were ~60C (measured using Speedfan and EasyTune5 - CoreTemp measured a higher temp but I didn't believe it was accurate in this instance). I wanted the temps down a bit since my machines run 24/7/365 for Folding - might o/c it back up when I get some additional time to fiddle with it.

The Zalman does overhang the NB heatsink though, so it might give you a problem if you wanted an active cooling solution on the NB. I think the 'system' temp refers to the NB, and runs at 40C on my machine but increased pretty quick when o/c. (can anybody verify the location of the system temp sensor?)

 

[grapz]

i see , thanks. u dont' have to remove the NB heatsink inorder to isntall it tho right. and can u clarify on "overhangs the NB heatsink" . What exactly does that mean

 

[stonge]

no, you don't have to remove the NB heatsink for install; I have the 9500 installed so the fan blows out the back of my PC case, and the base sits on the mounting bracket over the cpu. If you look down the centerline of the fan from the front, the outside diameter of the copper fins overhangs the top of the NB heatsink - if you tried to lift the stock NB heatsink straight up it would run into those copper fins. The stock NB heatsink is fairly tall, and there looks to be about 1/2 inch of clearance between the top of the NB heatsink and the copper fins. I was researching some NB coolers, and one of them looked like a copper pedestal with a fan on top and that would run into the underside of the copper fins. I think you could tuck a shorter heatsink/fan in there if you needed to (actually makes me a little envious of the DQ6 with the heatpipe cooler on the NB and SB), but I think the passive NB heatsink is good enough if you have decent airflow in the case. Sorry for the imprecise explanation.

Currently running at 3Ghz, and the CPU temp is 35C (system temp 39C, ambient = 24C) under 100% load using dualing Folding sessions (temps recorded via Speedfan and EasyTune5 - CoreTemp reads 52C and 55C and I don't think CoreTemp is correct. Just MHO). I think I still have a bit of headroom left in this rig...

 

[grapz]

oh i see, then it doesn't effect me . Thanks for the thorough explaination.