grahamf
09-02-05, 04:26 PM
well after putting up with the excessive noise for too long i decided to replace my thermalright alx-800 with something that could be a little quieter while still keep my cpu reasonably cool. after some looking around i decided to go for the zalman 7000b-cu. looked it over and it was supposed to work out good, was supposed to fit my motherboard and all. however that didnt quite work out as planned, any ways here are some pics of the install and what i had to do to get it to fit.
to start it off i got the heatsink and things were looking good, i sized it up after moving the old heatsink off and it was looking like it would be a tight fit but would work. i admired the nice finish on the bottom of the heatsink.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/heatsinkbottomLarge.jpg
then i got to intalling the support brackets on the mounting holes on my mobo. in this shot you can see the blue and silver mounting brackets on either side of the cpu socket. also i dont know if you can see it in this picture but you can tell by the steppings on the cpu that it was made in week 6 or 2003 meaning that is a desktop 2500+ that has unlocked multiplyers. its an AQUCA which is one of the early steppings and not the best overclocker around.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/goodcpuLarge.jpg
and now in this picture you can see what caused the problem. there were two things that were making contact with the heatsink, it was just barely touching the capacitors in the bottom left of the shot, however the big problem was the parallel port in the middle of the shot, you can see i put some electrical tape over the exposed contacts on the back because initially the mount for the heatsink was touching it. later on i discovered that it was doing more than just touching it, it could not fit at all.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/shortprotectionLarge.jpg
so i couldnt mount the heatsink now because it wouldnt physically fit, this meant it was time to break out the dremel and make it it. in this shot you can see on the left what the mount looked like to begin with and on the right is how much i had to cut off in order to make it fit. you can also see that its pretty easy to take apart the heatsink in order to clean it out good or oil up the 92 mm fan it has.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/dremelworkLarge.jpg
after that interference was removed it mounted very easily. then it was time to put it in the case, this was the part that was supposed to be difficult as the zalman website warned of clearance issues with the powersupply in some cases with my motherboard. luckily this was not the case with me as it went in and still had probably 1cm of clearance between the top of the heatsink and the bottom of the psu. and finally in this shot you can see how it all looks in my case, sorry that the shot is a little dark but i didnt catch that till i put the pictures on the web. the copper looks pretty good with the copper heatspreaders on my ram and the copper heatsink on my x850 xt.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/goodsideviewLarge.jpg
since the heatsink comes with what zalman calls the fan mate 2 which is just a fan speed control device. i have it set to about halfway between the fastest and slowest which is also what i adjusted my enermax powersupply to and the noise is pretty much gone. the only thing that makes any real noise anymore is the heatsink on my x850 xt, i have atitool set to keep it underclocked to 250/500 when in 2d and up to 550/1200 when in 3d which means the card will idle just below 40 degrees so i have the fan running at 20% most of the time, except when gaming when it automatically takes it up. i discovered in this new found silence that the fan on the card likes to squeak so i will have to give it some oil later to get rid of that.
overall im liking the heatsink so far, at well below the noise level of my alx-800 its keeping the temps only a degree or 2 higher, so im idling at about 40 degrees and under full load im up to the low 50's.
to start it off i got the heatsink and things were looking good, i sized it up after moving the old heatsink off and it was looking like it would be a tight fit but would work. i admired the nice finish on the bottom of the heatsink.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/heatsinkbottomLarge.jpg
then i got to intalling the support brackets on the mounting holes on my mobo. in this shot you can see the blue and silver mounting brackets on either side of the cpu socket. also i dont know if you can see it in this picture but you can tell by the steppings on the cpu that it was made in week 6 or 2003 meaning that is a desktop 2500+ that has unlocked multiplyers. its an AQUCA which is one of the early steppings and not the best overclocker around.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/goodcpuLarge.jpg
and now in this picture you can see what caused the problem. there were two things that were making contact with the heatsink, it was just barely touching the capacitors in the bottom left of the shot, however the big problem was the parallel port in the middle of the shot, you can see i put some electrical tape over the exposed contacts on the back because initially the mount for the heatsink was touching it. later on i discovered that it was doing more than just touching it, it could not fit at all.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/shortprotectionLarge.jpg
so i couldnt mount the heatsink now because it wouldnt physically fit, this meant it was time to break out the dremel and make it it. in this shot you can see on the left what the mount looked like to begin with and on the right is how much i had to cut off in order to make it fit. you can also see that its pretty easy to take apart the heatsink in order to clean it out good or oil up the 92 mm fan it has.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/dremelworkLarge.jpg
after that interference was removed it mounted very easily. then it was time to put it in the case, this was the part that was supposed to be difficult as the zalman website warned of clearance issues with the powersupply in some cases with my motherboard. luckily this was not the case with me as it went in and still had probably 1cm of clearance between the top of the heatsink and the bottom of the psu. and finally in this shot you can see how it all looks in my case, sorry that the shot is a little dark but i didnt catch that till i put the pictures on the web. the copper looks pretty good with the copper heatspreaders on my ram and the copper heatsink on my x850 xt.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/grahamf/goodsideviewLarge.jpg
since the heatsink comes with what zalman calls the fan mate 2 which is just a fan speed control device. i have it set to about halfway between the fastest and slowest which is also what i adjusted my enermax powersupply to and the noise is pretty much gone. the only thing that makes any real noise anymore is the heatsink on my x850 xt, i have atitool set to keep it underclocked to 250/500 when in 2d and up to 550/1200 when in 3d which means the card will idle just below 40 degrees so i have the fan running at 20% most of the time, except when gaming when it automatically takes it up. i discovered in this new found silence that the fan on the card likes to squeak so i will have to give it some oil later to get rid of that.
overall im liking the heatsink so far, at well below the noise level of my alx-800 its keeping the temps only a degree or 2 higher, so im idling at about 40 degrees and under full load im up to the low 50's.