Zalman CNPS 9700 LED air flow orientation

[Florin]

Hi there. I have a doubt regarding the way to place a Zalman 9700 LED cooler.
My system is built over an AM3+ Asus M5A99X EVO motherboard which has the heatsink mounting placed for a vertical assemblage (see pic #1).
I want it placed as the pic #2, in a horizontal way. This is not possible due to the Zalman's base which has the space for the bracket mounting as seen in the #3 pic, alligned with the air flow (fan). This means that I must place it in a vertical way, with the fan up or down but not horizontal.
All the AMD mobos have this built, up and down.
I do not see any way to turn it. Is is any way to mount it horizontally?
Also, just in the case that I have no other choice and must leve it vertically: should be better with the fan above and the air flow spreading below?
My video card is a Gigabyte HD9650 running over 50°C, no too hot but leaving a lot of hot aire inside the case. So, placing the fan down will receive the hot air from the GPU back side, but placing it up will take more fresh air (power supply is on the case's floor) and also could send more airflow to the backside of the GPU and cool it a little more.
However I'd like to place my Zalman horizontally, it's the best.
Thank you

 

[Nebulous]

Looks like you're out of luck. You can only mount it the way it's designed to be mounted. Only other way is to make your own custom mounting bracket.

 

[Florin]

Means that all the AMD systems cannot mount this horizontally? All the pics I've seen in Google images are horizontal mounted
If not possible, should I place the fun above and have the airflow downward?
GPU is spreading enough hot air around...
Thank you

 

[Nebulous]

You want to expel the hot air out of your case. If the top case fan is pulling air out, that's what you want. The front case fan should be pulling air into the case and the rear fan should be pushing it out.

 

[Florin]

Sure my friend, but I'm thinking this way (fan up) the Zalman's fan could take some fresh air from above insted to take hot air from the GPU.
Thank you

 

[Nebulous]

I'm confused here. What type of case are you using? How many case fans?

 

[manu2b]

Sure my friend, but I'm thinking this way (fan up) the Zalman's fan could take some fresh air from above insted to take hot air from the GPU.
Thank you

I understand this guy, as I had the same dilema:
I could only mount the Megahalems vertically, and the fans were sucking the hot air from the GPU. I reverted it, with a fan on the top of the case blowing the fresh air to the rad. My cpu temps dropped by 5°C, with a 2/3°C temperature increase inside.
I must say that my case was VERY WELL ventilated.

 

[Florin]

My case is a Sentey Burton 650, 6 fans, bad ones, just crap. I'm trying to change them.
I'll try placing the fan up, anyway.
Thank you

 

[Nebulous]

Ahh. I'll bet if you replaced the case fans, your temps will improve and your videocards will run cooler as well You can also take the side panel off until you have new fans in your case.

 

[manu2b]

My case is a Sentey Burton 650, 6 fans, bad ones, just crap. I'm trying to change them.
I'll try placing the fan up, anyway.
Thank you

I think your case is very nice BTW.

 

[Florin]

I think your case is very nice BTW.

Nice gaming case with junk fans. I already replaced the front and rear with 120mm/2400 Evercool, bought today 2 x 80mm more for the side VGA cooling and need 2 more, 120mm for the top. They screwed the airflow with some low noise and non efficient fans. Thank you

 

[Florin]

Problem solved!
Yes, I've mounted the Zalman 9700Led with the fan up, blowing downward the airflow. This air is not warm so it also helps freshening the backside of the GPU too.
I've use the Zaman's Super Thermal Grase (a small bottle) included in the cooler's pack and I believe it makes a very good job.
The most important tunning I did was with my Sentey Burton-6500 case, replacing all the original 8cm and 12cm junk fans with the Thermaltake Thunderbade blue led fans, 1800rpm. Also I've quit the thin fine anti dust sponge of the top. Now works here, in a tropical environment without the air conditioner at 34-35°C. Great, 11°C-12°C less now.
Here you have some screen captures.
Regards and have a great weekend all of you
Florin

AMD Phenom x4 975 / 3,8GHz with Zalman CNPS9700Led
Asus M5A99X Evo AM3+ Mobo
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CML16GX3M4A1600C9) 1600MHz (works with 1333MHz default)
Gigabyte Radeon HD6950OC 1Gb DDR5 (GV-R6950)
WDigital Caviar Green Sata 3 / 1,5Tb / 6Gb/s 64 Mb cache / 7200rpm (works slow, don't like it)
WDigital 750 Gb Caviar Black / Sata3 / 3Gb/s / 64Mb cache for backup
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W PSU
LG Bluray / DVD / CD RW
Sentey Burton-6500 gaming case
Samsung SyncMaster 23" monitor
Siragon 32" monitor / HDTV

 

[manu2b]

Good job!

 

[Florin]

Thank you

 

[manu2b]

What are the temps on load?

 

[Florin]

They are some 4-5°C less
Thank you

 

[manu2b]

They are some 4-5°C less
Thank you

Less? Usually, using prime95, with a good cooling on a PhenomII it's 15 to 25°C more...

 

[Florin]

Hi. Sorry did not replied last night, was asleep.
I was confused about "loading", thought u was talking about start, loadind the system.
I did not knew about Prime95, looked in the net and now have the x64 version,
I'll run it and save the temps.
Otherwise, I'm seeing that my GPU core clock is running at 450 MHz. Is this for the Idle state? Its max clock is 875 MHz.
Thank you

 

[Florin]

I've runned the BLEND option.
CPU temp was 44°C-45°C. After stop is 34°C again. Fans a little noisy, it's normal.
Did not see it was testing the GPU, it had the same 450MHz clock.
These are the resoults:

[Jan 29 10:49] Worker starting
[Jan 29 10:49] Setting affinity to run worker on any logical CPU.
[Jan 29 10:49] Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
[Jan 29 10:49] Please read stress.txt. Choose Test/Stop to end this test.
[Jan 29 10:49] Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using FFT length 1024K.
[Jan 29 10:50] Torture Test completed 0 tests in 1 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Jan 29 10:50] Worker stopped.
[Jan 29 10:50] Worker starting
[Jan 29 10:50] Setting affinity to run worker on any logical CPU.
[Jan 29 10:50] Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
[Jan 29 10:50] Please read stress.txt. Choose Test/Stop to end this test.
[Jan 29 10:50] Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using FFT length 1024K.
[Jan 29 10:50] Torture Test completed 0 tests in 0 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Jan 29 10:50] Worker stopped.
[Jan 29 10:50] Worker starting
[Jan 29 10:50] Setting affinity to run worker on logical CPU #0
[Jan 29 10:50] Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
[Jan 29 10:50] Please read stress.txt. Choose Test/Stop to end this test.
[Jan 29 10:50] Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using FFT length 1024K.
[Jan 29 10:52] Test 2, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922943 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #2 Jan 29 10:54] Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #4 Jan 29 10:54] Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #3 Jan 29 10:54] Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #1 Jan 29 10:54] Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #2 Jan 29 10:56] Test 4, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19174369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #3 Jan 29 10:56] Test 4, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19174369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #4 Jan 29 10:56] Test 4, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19174369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #1 Jan 29 10:56] Test 4, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19174369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #2 Jan 29 10:57] Test 5, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M18874369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #3 Jan 29 10:57] Test 5, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M18874369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #4 Jan 29 10:57] Test 5, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M18874369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #1 Jan 29 10:57] Test 5, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M18874369 using FFT length 1024K.
[Worker #3 Jan 29 10:58] Torture Test completed 4 tests in 8 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Worker #2 Jan 29 10:58] Torture Test completed 4 tests in 8 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Worker #3 Jan 29 10:58] Worker stopped.
[Worker #2 Jan 29 10:58] Worker stopped.
[Worker #1 Jan 29 10:58] Torture Test completed 4 tests in 8 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Worker #4 Jan 29 10:58] Torture Test completed 4 tests in 8 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
[Worker #1 Jan 29 10:58] Worker stopped.
[Worker #4 Jan 29 10:58] Worker stopped.

 

[manu2b]

Regarding the GPU, it's the idling state, no worries.

To make sure you system is "almost" stable, you have to run prime95 for a couple of hours. And to make sur it's 100% stable, 6 hours at least.
Your temps should stabilize after 15/20 mins.