Coolers

PcToys MAXX Video Card Heatpipe Cooler Review

Brandon0

I have reviewed a lot of Zalman products because I work pretty close with the company. Zalman as you probably know is a company which is dedicated to quiet cooling solutions. Today we take a look at the PcToys VGA MAXX Heatpipe Cooler which is basically an anodized blue Zalman HPA-80. It is designed for high end video cards such as the Geforce 3, Geforce 4 and ATi Radeon 9700. I previously reviewed the Zalman ZM17-Cu which was one of their first coolers for the video card which didn’t perform very well. To use this video card cooler your video card must have the mounting holes for a heatsink around the core. If your video card does not have the mounting holes you will not be able to use this product.

Specifications

  • Model: ZM80A-HP
  • Weight: 400g
  • Heatpipe: Gold plated copper tube
  • Dissipation Material: Aluminum 6063T5
  • Dissipation Area: 1300cm

The package for the Zalman HPA-80 heatsink is pretty nice and is designed for retail stores rather than an online store. The really nice thing about the packaging for this product is that you can see everything you are getting. The back of the package has a good shot of the cooler on a red PCB video card and some more information about the product and the company.

The ZMA-80 comes with all the parts needed which include the screws, nuts, nipples, thermal compound, and screwdriver. There is also a package of extra parts which is something that Zalman has always done which I really like because these parts are so small and easy to lose. There is also a manual provided which has detailed instructions on how to install the whole unit to your video card. The manual is very well laid out and has more than enough information so that you can properly install the heatsink.

The HPA-80 comes with 2 sets of blocks for the front and back of the card. The reason that there are two sets included is because the hole positions on different types of video cards are in different locations. For video cards such as the Geforce 4 the holes are farther away from the GPU compared to a Geforce 3. The large block is designed to be used with Geforce 4 cards and the smaller set of blocks is designed to work with almost all other video cards such as Geforce 2, Geforce 3, ATi Radeon and so on.

The main heatsinks for this VGA MAXX are very large and weigh a lot. They are almost as large as the video card itself and are much thicker. As you can see there is a front and a back and each one has four holes in it which are used to mount to the blocks. Along the heatsinks is a grove which runs the entire surface, this is used for the heatpipe to go into.

This Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 OTES 8x AGP 128MB video card is the perfect candidate for this VGA MAXX because the cooler that comes with the card stock is really loud. The heatsink on the video card is designed to be superior cooling so that the card can overclock better compared to the standard cooling. Well I don’t like my computer to be noisy at all so I can tell you that the sound coming out of the 7,000 RPM blower was much too much.

The first thing that I did was take the Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 OTES and remove the stock cooling from it which was done by removing the four screws on the heatsink plate. The card came with generic thermal compound originally but when I reviewed the video card I used a new thermal compound from Arctic Silver. I went ahead and cleaned off the thermal compound and was ready to install the VGA MAXX.

The VGA MAXX comes with generic thermal compound but I used Arctic Silver 3 because it is much better. After applying thermal compound to the core I took the larger block that says front on it and aligned the arms on it so they would fit in the holes on the video card. The small block will work on a lot of video cards but if you have a Geforce 4 you are going to probably have to use the larger one.

After installing the front block flip the video card over and you will need to put a rubber grommet on each screw from the front block then screw on both brass nipples. After you have both of those little things installed you will need the matching block that says back on it. If you used the small block on the front use the small one for the back and use the large back if you used the large front. Align the arms on the back block so that the block is level with the card and so that the holes on the arms fit over the screws from the front block. After you have it all lined up take a nut and screw one on each nipple that is protruding from the holes in the back block.

Now that you have the blocks connected to the video card you will need to put thermal compound on the appropriate locations. Instead of using the thermal compound provided I used Arctic Silver 3 because it is better. The front block needs thermal compound in the grove and on top of it in the middle area. The back block only needs thermal compound in the grove which will be used for the heatpipe.

After putting the thermal compound on the blocks you can slide the heatpipe into place. You will then need to put thermal compound on the large front and back heatsink for the cooler. You only need a little bit of it in the grove on both heatsinks. I put the appropriate amount in the location that the manual told me to and that was that.

After applying all the thermal compound all that was left to due was to install the heatsinks to the blocks. Each heatsink has four holes which you line up with the holes on the front and back block. I lined up both the front and the back blocks with the heatsinks and screwed them down. This Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 OTES has a riser board for the VGA and S-Video because of the cooling system it used. The VGA MAXX just barely fit on this card but it did and looks really cool. Most video cards won’t have anything in the way that could block it so installation would be much easier.

I have heard that some motherboards have components on them that get in the way of these coolers however mine installed just fine. I just popped the video card back into place and screwed it in tight so it wouldn’t go anywhere. After using the video card for a few weeks with the stock cooling that sounded like a blow dryer I was getting really irritated. I pushed the power button and there was silence again, the only thing I could really hear was the northbridge fan which will be changed to passive soon as well.

Test Bed

To test this VGA MAXX Heatpipe Cooler I entered the BIOS and let it sit for 20 minutes so that I could get a good idle temperature. After getting the idle temperature I booted up windows and ran 3DMark2001SE four times through. The idle temperature while using the OTES cooling was 39 and the idle temperature while using the VGA MAXX was 42. After running 3DMark2001SE I took the temperature again and with the OTES cooling it the temperature was 44 degrees which is pretty good. Using the VGA MAXX the temperature was 46 degrees which is only 2 higher than the OTES. As you can see the VGA MAXX Heatpipe Cooler does a great job cooling the video card while only being a little bit hotter than the loud OTES.

The stock cooler was designed to provide superior cooling for overclocking purposes. I was interested to see if this cooler would make it so I couldn’t overclock as far as with the OTES. Before I booted with this cooler I clocked the card back down to the stock speed which was actually the speed of a Ti4400. After running the temperature testing I started to overclock the video card again slowly. With the OTES cooling system that was provided with the video card I was able to overclock to 295/580. After installing the Cool MAXX I was only able to get to 285/570 which is only a 10MHz loss on both the core and memory. This loss is a very acceptable tradeoff for the silence it provides.

Conclusion

I was a little skeptical about using this product after using the ZM17-CU and seeing such poor results. This new video card cooler is much better than the old one and doesn’t really even hinder overclocking ability. The fact that no fan is needed for this heatsink is great because it is completely silent.

The stock OTES cooling system was really loud and this VGA MAXX just made it silent. I like the anodized blue color over the yellow color which the standard Zalman HPA-80 uses. I also like how extra parts and a screwdriver were included and that the manual was really detailed and easy to read.

The only real downside to this product that I could find was the fact that it won’t work for video cards without mounting holes. This heatsink is really heavy but shouldn’t pose any problem to the video card or your motherboard.

Overall I am going to give this product a 9.5/10 and am awarding it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. I would like to thank Sharka Corporation for sending me this product to review. As of right now Sharka Corporation only has the regular Zalman HPA-80 in stock and will soon have the PcToys VGA MAXX. You can also pick up this product right now from CoolerGuys

Pros

  • Completely silent
  • Blue looks great on this video card
  • Uses heatpipe technology
  • Very good instructions
  • Screwdriver and extra parts included
  • Should work with all video cards that have mounting holes
  • Easy to install
  • Only minor loss in overclock

Cons

  • Very heavy
  • Wont work with cards lacking mounting holes

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