Installation I
Please, please, please read the instructions before mounting the Zalman ZM80A-HP on your graphics card. The instructions are clear, informative, and prescribe the correct order of installation. An extra five minutes spent browsing the instructions could save your shiny, new £250 graphics card from a premature death.
Enter a reference ATi Radeon 9700 Pro. I'm using this card for installation purposes. The vast majority of other cards will use the same basic method of installation.
The provided heatsink and fan is a quiet combination, but quiet isn't good enough; silence is golden. Remove the heatink and fan unit. In this case this means removing two pushpins and then pushing the little plastic legs through from the back of the card.
It is important to clean off the residue from the cooler. A nice, clean surface gives the best possible contact.
I've given the core a generous helping of the supplied thermal paste. Why ?. Simply because this card uses a shim to protect the core from accidental damage. The shim is a little higher the core itself, so you need to ensure that decent contact is made between the GPU and Zalman block. To their credit, Zalman's block has the tiniest of inserts around the middle that make the heatsink a little lower than on the sides. This was probably designed with the Radeon 9xxx cards in mind.
Here's the front block sitting on the shim. The block's arms are adjustable so mounting isn't a problem. I simply unscrewed the link between the arm and block on both sides. This gave me ample freedom to adjust the block's positioning. After you're happy with the way it's sitting, simply tighten up. The larger screws go through the mounting holes and to the back.
Here's the back.
Place a couple of supplied rubber washers and attach the two standoffs. Just turn them until it all seems secure.
