AC Silencer rev.3 installed on my GTX, with results and pic

[rise]

no fan regulation but you don't need it. its very quiet.

i dunno, i might remount mine tomorrow. temps now are
idle- 40
450/1200 load- 65
500/1300 load- 68

 

[AmdInside]

What a pain to install. But I got it working. I removed the silver paste and applied Ceramique. My idle temperature is 45 degrees. Kinda concerns me. Maybe I should apply more Ceramique?

 

[rise]

yeah, the zalman is 10x easier to install. of course the wire snafu didn't help 😛

i'm thinking i may have been better leaving the TIM on as it had some thickness. i tightened it down as much as i could but i still think it needed a turn or two more.

i'll see what tomorrow brings.

 

[ElFenix]

no fan regulation is somewhat disappointing. the one i have on my 9800 has the two position switch. one might think they'd be up to temp controlled fans by now 🙁

 

[AmdInside]

Just curious what does TIM stand for?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: AmdInside
Just curious what does TIM stand for?

thermal interface material

 

[nitromullet]

Well, I got mine yesterday and installed them...

My thoughts...

the bad:

1) I had the same problems with the power plug. It's simply backwards... it didn't take long to fix, but it's still disappointing.
2) The heatspreader install for the rear RAM is ridiculous... There needs to be a better way to mount the spreader than the included sticky pads. These seem to stick to your fingers better then anything else. The weird thing about it is that the NV5 Silencer doesn't obstruct the standard mounting holes for the spreader, they could have just included mounting screws or the barbs Ackmed has mentioned. This part gets a 0/5...

I actually didn't end up using the spreader at all, but kept the KO backplate and installed the NV5 on the top.

http://www.mindspring.com/~megatron/Picture%20004.jpg

http://www.mindspring.com/~megatron/Picture%20006.jpg

I'm not sure how you guys with stock GTXes are going to install the cooling for the rear RAM, but this worked pretty well for me.

3) To clarify, the SIL SATA RAID plugs are blocked. I had to use the NV SATA plugs. This isn't a shortcoming of the NV5 itself, but I figured I'd mention it. The red SATA ports are completely un-usable. A big "thank you" to all the people who were so sure that it wouldn't be a problem.

4) I would have preferred that they didn't include the TIM, I just had to scrape it off. I used AS2 instead.

5) They changed the shape of the sink...

It is now flat:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pics/nv5_r2_06l.jpg

On the Rev. 1 Silencer I had for my 6800GT, the parts that touched the RAM were raised to make closer contact with the RAM. The nice thing about this is that you could use thermal paste instead of the thick pads, which are better IMO. You have to use the pads with the Rev. 3 or the sink won't make contact with the RAM.

...anyway, on to the good:

KO stock
idle:
GPU1 50C
GPu2 51C
load
GPU1 79C
GPu2 83C

NV5 Silencer
idle:
GPU1 45C
GPu2 43C
load
GPU1 69C
GPu2 64C

I think these speak for themselves... These coolers rock. Once you get them installed properly, which is a pain, you will be pleased with the performance.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

How does this cooler compare with the Zalman VF700 which clearly has a much larger fan and a better HS. The only difference is Silencer pushes air out while VF700 is your traditional HSF.

 

[nitromullet]

Well, I'm not going to buy both, so I can't say. My primary desire with this upgrade was to push the hot air out of the case. The Lian Li V series cases appear to have been primarily designed to be a BTX/ATX hybrid, so the cooling focus is on the CPU. That being the case, there was kind of a "heat pocket" around the video cards that the stock cooler wasn't able to move. The fact that the NV5 exhausts the heat is the reason it works well in my application. This is pretty clear when you look at the fact that GPU2 is cooler than GPU1 after they were installed. The cards are upside down in the Lian Li, so GPU2 was at the top of the case getting exposed to more hot air than GPU1. Now, that the heat from GPU1 isn't basically cooking GPU2, the temps on GPU2 are lower... I know you're probably thinking that I swapped the cards during the install, but this is not the case. I installed the NV5's one at a time, and both cards were never out of the motherboard at the same time. I imagine that the VF700 probably works great as well (the Zalman on my CPU certainly does), but the primary problem for me was heat build-up in the case and I think that the VF700's would have just moved the hot air around. Part of this is honestly due to the Lian Li case. As Ackmed said, it is a great case... It is extremely well made, looks fantastic, and has good cooling for the CPU. That being said, it has a bit of a weakness when it comes to the video card cooling in that the hot air can get trapped in the top rear corner. The upside to that is that once you get that air out (which I have), the rest of the sytem runs extremely cool.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
How does this cooler compare with the Zalman VF700 which clearly has a much larger fan and a better HS. The only difference is Silencer pushes air out while VF700 is your traditional HSF.

i replaced my vf700 with this silencer.

now i'm not exactly sure what happened with the vf700 but its performance had dropped from when i had first installed it. whether it got jarred and needed to be re-mounted or whatever, i needed another cooler for a friend so i figured i'd try the silencer on mine and give him my vf700 for his 6800gt.

even in its best days, the vf700 on load would give me ~73c last weekend i noticed rthdribl was pushing it to 82+ :Q so at a minimum the silencer is ~8-10c better for me under load.

i did end up using the vf700 ram sinks on the back of my card but i wish i had thought of doing what nitro did with using the stock back plate.

anyway, i'm pretty happy with this cooler now that its installed.