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Clearance was no problem in my tower, although a PCI slot was overtaken by this monster. I was concerned about the weight but the AIW 9700 Pro doesn't seem to be affected by it. After reinstalling the graphics card, I took a temperature reading at the heatsink base on the GPU after 20 minutes idle time. Ambient temp was 22ºC/71ºF and the GPU block was at 35ºC/95ºF. I then ran UT2K3 for almost an hour and the temp climbed to 50ºC/122ºF. Not bad compared to the stock ATI HSF. The stock HSF ran at 45ºC/113ºF idle and 60ºC/140ºF loaded.
A little O/C test. I don't prefer to O/C an expensive video card but I did for testing purposes. Below are the computer specs and Video card O/C results.
Comp Specs:
- AMD XP2400+
- Epox 8RDA+
- ATI Radeon AIW 9700 Pro retail
- 512megPC2700 Samsumg
- 512megPC2700 Nanya
- 450w KingWin PS
- 2xWD 40gig ATA100 7200rpm
- Pioneer 16x DVD
- Plextor 40x12x40x CDRW
- Alps 1.44 floppy
- WinXP Pro with all updates and SP1 installed
- ATI Catalyst 3.5 drivers and latest DirectX
As you can see, the Zalman ZM80A-HP did help with overclocking the AIW 9700 Pro. The end results are due to the better thermal contact with the GPU core. Personally, I am impressed with the Zalman VGA Heatpipe Cooler.
Conclusion:
I give the ZM80A-HP a rating 9.0 on a 10 point scale. It performed very well and makes absolutely no noise.
Pros:
Easy installation
Good cooling solution
Noiseless operation
Fits most new graphics cards
Spare parts included
Cons:
Heavy, the manual says 400g, it weighed in at 385g
Blocks one PCI slot
A big thanks to HighSpeed PC for sending the Zalman ZM80A-HP over for review.
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