Testing and conclusion
It was with a little trepidation that I inserted a rather weightier card back into the PC. Running with no case fans and a low-speed CPU fan meant that the ZM80A-HP really had to do a lot of work to keep the card cool enough for operation. Windows XP loaded without issue and a further 10 minutes passed before any gruelling 3D activity was undertaken. The rear heatsink was as warm as front, suggesting that the heatpipe was doing its advertised job. I had no problems installing the card in an ABIT IT7-MAX, although due to the sheer size of the cooling on offer, you have to sacrifice a single PCI slot.
Running three complete tests of 3DMark 2003 assured me that the ZM80A-HP was more than up to the job of cooling the card for operation at its stated stock speeds. To further verify that it could indeed do its job, I tried to see how far it would go once overclocked. Zalman, quite naturally, do not guarantee any kind of overclock at all. Quite the contrary, overclocking is frowned upon with a passive solution. That wouldn't stop me. Here's a very brief comparison to the stock cooler. Remember that no extra cooling was directed towards the Zalman-equipped Radeon 9700 Pro.
Very, very little in it. The reference card's considered to be an above average overclocker, so it was nice to see that the totally passive Zalman ZM80A-HP cooling barely hindered its performance. Now with 35CFM 80mm fan pointed at the card.
Due to the far larger surface area of the passive heatsink, adding a fan into the equation gave it a reasonable boost in performance, even outdoing the stock ATi active cooling . Impressive, eh ?. The maximum memory frequency was around 5 - 7 MHz lower with the Zalman fitted, though.
The Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler achieves its aims of cooling even the fastest of current GPUs passively. The clever engineering, large dissipation area, and excellent heatpipe ensures that we can run powerful GPUs fanless. Installation should take you no more than 30 minutes, even if you do go slowly. If you want to quieten your PC, an excellent start would be with the Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler. It does everything it promises and looks impressive doing it. Costing £30 or so, it makes more sense on high-end cards. Zalman have a smaller passive cooler in their range for GPUs that don't output as much heat as the tested Radeon 9700 Pro. The fact that it can be deconstructed quickly means that you can re-use it if you decide to upgrade your video card. The only downsides are the loss of the first PCI slot and slight rise in case temperatures. A price well worth paying if silence is high on your list of priorities. For an attractive price you can pick one of these up from Chillblast.com
Highs
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Silent operation. Silent means just that; no moving parts.
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Excellent design and looks
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Decent manual
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Installation is straightforward
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Will fit the majority of cards
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Can be re-used on different cards
Lows
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Adds more heat into your case (assuming very little air flow is present)
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Sacrifices a PCI slot
Bottom line - If you want a silent video card, this is recommended without reservation. As I err on the side of quietness, I'm happy to award the Zalman ZM80A-HP an Editor's choice award for technical excellence.
