Zalman ZM17CU

Written by Ivar Kvalvik
Published 9 December 2001

Cost: NOK 295, USD 30
Where From: GlobalCool
Manufacturer: Zalman

Todays graphics cards are hot. Extremely hot. (e.g. so hot that you don't want to lick it, because that will cause blisters on your tongue..) :p
Some cards are fitted with active heatsinks and some are fitted with passive heatsinks. If your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) run too hot, you are risking a (literally) fucked up image on your screen. Today we reviewed the Zalman ZM17CU. Let's find out what we concluded, shall we? :-)

My CardExpert Geforce 2 MX was fitted with a passive heatsink originaly, but that one fell off. Thank god my soundcard didn't burn up and die. I soon replaced it with the ThermalTake Blue Orb. This Was a big mistake. I am quite sensitive to loud fans, since I am a musician that make music on the computer, and my computer room serves as bedroom as well.

Time passed and that darned blue orb started to bug me more and more. It all came to a point where I ripped out the orb's powerconnector from the motherboard and I could almost hear my graphics card scream in agony and pain.

I didn't give a shit. The rest of my system obviously did, since it became quite unstable after a few days uptime.

Hot air rises, and what's above the graphics Card in a normal case? The Brain. The almighty CPU. All hail to the great CPU.. err.
Got a bit carried away. Anyway, the CPU got hot. Not hot like in Mena Suvari, more like Shannon Elizabeth Fadal. OK, OK. I just used my right as an author to show off two hot'n pretty girls. Stop whining.

Something had to be done. I had to get a passive heatsink that did the trick better than the unplugged version of the blue orb. Strange how the blue orb unplugged was hotter than the passive heatsink the card originally came with. My Hardware sometimes like to cause trouble. It obviously makes it's day or whatever.