digitalFAQ.com Forum - Ketchup and the ATI X1800XL VGA cooler!

I finally received my VGA Cooler.

Its called that I think because its a Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) Cooler, as opposed to a generic (CPU) Cooler.

Although I have read that people sometimes use those as VGA Coolers as well.

It mostly comes down to fitting the holes that surround the VGA chip and wicking away the heat and dispersing it into the case.

I tried upgrading my old ATX case from a In-Win S508 from 2005 by replacing the case fans with high flow Noctua.. but even the holes for the original case fans were too restrictive.

So I got another case, a modern high airflow case, Corsair Carbide 400C (middle of the road price wise).

I thought about Water cooled versus Air cooled, but learned that they weren't much different, they both depend on "air flow" to disperse heat.. and water cooled brings drowning danger and pump noise.. so it was really more headache than pain in the neck. They both have to get those BTUs out with air in the final analysis.. no magic lunch cards there.

So I went with a Zalman VF1000LED VGA Cooler.. one of the largest ever made for VGAs and most compatible with the most number of cards. The compatiblity really stems from the "X" pattern of the binding brackets that reach out from the heat pipe base that goes over the graphics chip. It has 6 positions from nearest to farthest from the central contact pad. These thread through the graphic adapter PC board and are held in place by thumbscrews on the back.

Attachment 7986

They no longer make the VF1000LED, instead Zalman went from all Copper to Aluminum and then started remarketing their CPU Coolers (which are round) for GPUs as well as CPUs.. probably so they had only one production pipeline.

So I got one off eBay, its mostly a passive thing, so not much concern about moving or working parts.

It does pickup dust, oxidation and corrosion however.. so I think I'll be cleaning it.

From what I understand Ketchup.. with its weakly acidic vinegar solution and its pasty, clingly properties makes a good copper cleanser.. without harmful chemicals. Should be interesting.

At this point I'm not looking at total disassembly.. I hope the ball bearing fan still has many years of life left in it. But if not.. perhaps I can retrofit one of the Noctua's I got for my first attempt to augment or replace it.

The modern Corsair Carbide 400C is a marvel.

It has holey air vents all over, bottom, top, front, back, backplane.. its almost a fluffy aerogel its so holey. And fortunately those intake holes are covered with filters.

Case technology has come a long long ways.. the CC400C case is even meant for up to 4 water cooled radiators (?) in addition to or instead of air cooled high velocity high flow fans.

I think structurally "stiffness" used to be a challenge with the old cases, and heft instilled confidence in people that they were getting value for their money.

But today when people toss a case almost as fast as they toss a cell phone.. the value proposition isn't judged like it used to be judged.. now its all about (quiet) and (performance). Though with most manufacturers they learned that angled corners could be just as stiff as flat panels.

Its funny at my age to be re-thinking what I used to think with confidence what was a good measure of a good product. Buts its also fun in that I'm still learning things from new things on the market today.

This all in the pursuit of cooling down the ATI X1800XL and its Theater 200 chip to both prolong its life and stablize it for long recording sessions with long SLP tapes.

I like learning about the ATI Lost world.. and unearthing its value at creating analog recordings. Even the Tuner history and the color encoding methods are intriuguing.. clever.. the Interlace tech, the Telecine.. who on earth will be around in 20 years that remembers or even understands all of this stuff?

Its so funny to be putting a 15 year old motherboard with a LGA775 CPU into this new case, with a 12 year old VGA heatsink.. quite the Frankenstein monster.. the body of a svelt youngster with the heart of an old soul.