Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler on a RAID card?

[BoB-O TiVo]

Hey all,

I'm trying to quiet the little fan on my RAID card (Intel IOP332). I tried a Zalman passive heatsink, but it gets really hot -- too hot to touch. I'm thinking about using a VGA cooler. If it fits, does that scare anybody?

Thanks,
BoB

 

[draksia]

Thats odd. The IOP series is rated for somethign like 105c. We tested ours where I work with out the heatsink and it never got above about 70c.

It all really depends on the the mounting holes and the cpu package. If you have the kind that is a flipchip like the p3's where I would be very care full not to chip the core because it would suck to kill your expensive raid card.

You might have better luck with a northbridge heatsink if the mounting holes are similar.

 

[BoB-O TiVo]

Thats odd. The IOP series is rated for somethign like 105c. We tested ours where I work with out the heatsink and it never got above about 70c.

It all really depends on the the mounting holes and the cpu package. If you have the kind that is a flipchip like the p3's where I would be very care full not to chip the core because it would suck to kill your expensive raid card.

You might have better luck with a northbridge heatsink if the mounting holes are similar.

So you ran completely without a heatsink? How was airflow? FWIW, 70C would still be too hot to touch for long. How did you measure temps?

BoB

 

[draksia]

So you ran completely without a heatsink? How was airflow? FWIW, 70C would still be too hot to touch for long. How did you measure temps?

BoB

The chip is on a raid controller mounted in a 12 drive 2U external enclosure. The enclosure is cooled by two 7000rpm 80mm delta fans running in series. Temps where taken with a fluke hydra with a j type thermal couple kapton taped to the processor die.

My guess is that even though the zalman gets too hot to touch it is probably well with in the rated max of 105c.