The Hunt for a Decent Video Cooler:
I've been looking for the right aftermarket 6800GT cooling for a while now. I had a good experience with the Arctic Cooling Silencer with my old 9800, so I figured I'd just get the NV5 when I found a good deal. Unfortunately, NV5s haven't been available in high volume since they seem to be perpetually out of stock at any of the vendors with decent pricing on them.
After a while I began scanning various For Sale forum folders, but every time I made an offer the seller always seemed to disappear, never to reply. I began to think that I just wasn't going to find a deal on one.
Then I saw the Thermalright V1. I had a coupon for a vendor that was already having an introductory price special on it, and the single review that was up seemed to indicate incredible performance despite the lack of ramsinks. A quick check of Thermalright's site showed that the final retail package now contains ramsinks, so I bit (final price $34 shipped). My new V1 arrived at the beginning of the week.
The Package:
The V1 came in plain brown cardboard box that contained a shaped foam insert that protected the heatsink itself (thin 80mm fan already installed on the radiator side) and held the smaller box of accessories securely.
The Contents:
- V1 cooler with pre-installed thin 80mm fan
- 8 aluminum ramsinks
- 2 tiny black rubber washers
- 2 microscopic white rubber washers
- A bunch of sub-atomic screws
- 1 Mounting bracket
- 2 small mounting bracket arms
- 2 medium mounting bracket arms
- 2 large mounting bracket arms
- 2 thick thermal pads
- 2 think thermal pads
- 1 Tube of white thermal paste
- 1 Thermalright sticker
- 1 set of absolutely useless instructions
The extra set (I'm assuming the small ones) of bracket arms aren't listed or shown anywhere as part of the package. My guess is that
these are for 7800 series compatibility.
The Installation (alternate title: My New Ulcer)
V1 installation on a BFG 6800GT OC.
Let's get one thing out in the open right up front. The instructions that come in the package are useless. The directions are vague and aren't even in the neighborhood of anything descriptive enough to be helpful. If you're going to attempt using one of these coolers, I highly recommend printing out the instructions available at this link HERE.
Those instructions are even a little vague, but they're enough to get you by. I should also point out that you might want to consider going a bit out of order and spread the thermal compound of your choice on the core BEFORE you install the mounting bracket, since the bracket will block you from spreading the compound easily from a couple of directions.
The bracket install is a little rough, as the arms get pulled upwards enough to twist the screws going through the card itself to an angle. This concerned me a bit, but having already removed the Rube Goldberg contraption that nVidia created for a reference cooler design, I wasn't about to turn back. I'm not entirely sure that I could get the hampsters back into the cannon they balanced on the bicicle wheel mounted on that anvil anyway (Okay, it's not that bad, but DANG that's a lot of tiny screws for holding on a very thin piece of aluminum).
Anyway, once I was able to lever the bracket mount arms up enough to screw the bracket itself on, the rest was just keeping everything centered as I tightened the screws (don't risk damage by tightening the ones through the card too much, since they're at an angle).
Next comes the ramsinks and the thermal pads. The thermal pads on the ramsinks themselves are severely lacking in tackiness, so it was a bit of a struggle to get them to stay on without falling right back off. I may still have imprints of the fins on my fingers even days later, but once they're on and the card heats during use they seem to grip better.
The thermal pads are for the memory that is blocked by the V1 itself, as shown HERE in this link. You use one of the thick pads along with one of the thin pads on top of that. The V1 contacts that, making it one bigass ramsink... albeit through about a foot of thermal pad (actually about 1/4", but that's still pretty thick for thermal pad use).
Now the V1 goes on (thermal material gets spread on both the GPU and the contact point of the V1- I used AS5, but I'd use ceramique if I had some handy). I'll just say that the first time I started up I was really upset that my idle temps were > 90 C, so we'll skip right to me re-seating the heatsink so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did. To get good contact it can be tricky to get it past the pile of sticky thermal pads, but once you get it centered be sure to press down and twist the HS back and forth a couple times. Hold the card upside down and balancing the screws on the screwdriver and you insert them upwards to avoid fumbling around and losing contact. Keep pressure on until you get the screws through into the bracket, and tighten them in a corner-to-corner rotation.
The bracket gets pulled off the card surface by the pressure, so by this time the bracket arms and the screws through the card are REALLY at an angle. Although I can see how this gives them maximum card compatibility, I'd like to see Thermalright come up with a more polished mounting solution (and better instructions, which I'd be happy to provide if they threw me some freebies
).
C'mon, guys- If I'm gonna void the crap out of the warranty on an expensive video card the least you can do is spring for a writer and another piece of paper in the box.
.
Test Setup:
DFI Lanparty nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Winchester 3200+ at 260 x 10 w/XP90 and Enermax adjustable 92mm fan
2x512MB OCZ rev2 TCCD
BFG 6800GT OC (reference cooler version, not the copper one)
500W Mad Dog modular PS (rebadged version of the TTGI plug-n PS)
This is installed in an Antec Super Lanboy with 2 120mm fans and a large 40cfm card cooler installed in the PCI slot directly beneath the lower PCI-E slot.
V1 was tested using only the included thin 80mm fan on the radiator side. I'll probobly test it out at some point using another 80mm fan mounted in the provided area on the core side of the V1 instead of relying on the card cooler.
Performance:
Once I got proper core contact by re-seating the V1, I was very pleased with the initial result.
- Stock cooling at idle (stock clock settings): 59 C
- V1 cooler at idle (stock clock settings): 50 C
Big drop right off the bat. Not too shabby. For a quick test of load temps, I used a combination of 30 minutes of HL2 deathmatch play and the highest temp recorded during the first 3 GPU tests of 3DMark05.
- Stock cooling load temp: 82 C
- V1 cooler at load temp: 59 C
Now THAT is a difference. Much bigger gap than I expected from the online review results.
OVERCLOCKING
For my admittedly innacurate and unscientific testing methods I used the coolbits auto overclock a few times to see what the average clocks it would come up with were, followed by retesting the temps.
Stock cooling OC: 427 core, 1110 mem
Stock cooling OC idle temp: 62 C
Stock cooling OC load temp: 88 C (tearing appeared in 3DMk05)
V1 cooling OC: 439 core, 1130 mem
V1 cooling OC idle temp: 53 C
V1 cooling OC load temp: 68 C (NO tearing whatsoever in 3DMk05)
.
*****UPDATE*****
Took some time to replace my chipset heatsink last night (Evercool VGA cooler from Jab-tech fit perfectly), and decided to go ahead and install another 80mm fan on the spot provided on the bottom of the V1. Fan used was a Thermaltake Smartfan II, with the fanspeed set to about 50% to keep the noise level down while keeping some fairly serious CFM going.
One downside- one of the ramsinks popped off during the process, and it just wouldn't stick back on. Used one of the 2 left over ramsinks to replace it, although I'm still leery of how much these things don't want to stick to the memory.
2fan V1 cooling OC (have not re-done the auto-OC yet, so same OC as above):
2fan V1 cooling OC idle temp: 48C
2fan V1 cooling OC load temp: 55C
Wow. Okay. I *HIGHLY* recommend the 2nd fan if you have the space.
.
Um. To completely understate things, I think we have a winner here. I'll do some more testing, but for now I'm quite happy with the results. If you've got a strong stomach that can handle the installation, this is a great performer that really gives Zalman and Arctic Cooling a run for their money.
.
Note: please forgive me- I had the temps chicken-scratched on a note I shoved in my pocket this morning, so now they're barely legible. The temps listed now are a my squinting interpretation of what's on the crumpled mess until I get home to see my original notes.
EDIT #1: Updated with accurate temps now.
EDIT #2: Added results with 2nd 80mm fan installed on bottom of V1 cooler
I've been looking for the right aftermarket 6800GT cooling for a while now. I had a good experience with the Arctic Cooling Silencer with my old 9800, so I figured I'd just get the NV5 when I found a good deal. Unfortunately, NV5s haven't been available in high volume since they seem to be perpetually out of stock at any of the vendors with decent pricing on them.
After a while I began scanning various For Sale forum folders, but every time I made an offer the seller always seemed to disappear, never to reply. I began to think that I just wasn't going to find a deal on one.
Then I saw the Thermalright V1. I had a coupon for a vendor that was already having an introductory price special on it, and the single review that was up seemed to indicate incredible performance despite the lack of ramsinks. A quick check of Thermalright's site showed that the final retail package now contains ramsinks, so I bit (final price $34 shipped). My new V1 arrived at the beginning of the week.
The Package:
The V1 came in plain brown cardboard box that contained a shaped foam insert that protected the heatsink itself (thin 80mm fan already installed on the radiator side) and held the smaller box of accessories securely.
The Contents:
- V1 cooler with pre-installed thin 80mm fan
- 8 aluminum ramsinks
- 2 tiny black rubber washers
- 2 microscopic white rubber washers
- A bunch of sub-atomic screws
- 1 Mounting bracket
- 2 small mounting bracket arms
- 2 medium mounting bracket arms
- 2 large mounting bracket arms
- 2 thick thermal pads
- 2 think thermal pads
- 1 Tube of white thermal paste
- 1 Thermalright sticker
- 1 set of absolutely useless instructions
The extra set (I'm assuming the small ones) of bracket arms aren't listed or shown anywhere as part of the package. My guess is that
these are for 7800 series compatibility.
The Installation (alternate title: My New Ulcer)
V1 installation on a BFG 6800GT OC.
Let's get one thing out in the open right up front. The instructions that come in the package are useless. The directions are vague and aren't even in the neighborhood of anything descriptive enough to be helpful. If you're going to attempt using one of these coolers, I highly recommend printing out the instructions available at this link HERE.
Those instructions are even a little vague, but they're enough to get you by. I should also point out that you might want to consider going a bit out of order and spread the thermal compound of your choice on the core BEFORE you install the mounting bracket, since the bracket will block you from spreading the compound easily from a couple of directions.
The bracket install is a little rough, as the arms get pulled upwards enough to twist the screws going through the card itself to an angle. This concerned me a bit, but having already removed the Rube Goldberg contraption that nVidia created for a reference cooler design, I wasn't about to turn back. I'm not entirely sure that I could get the hampsters back into the cannon they balanced on the bicicle wheel mounted on that anvil anyway (Okay, it's not that bad, but DANG that's a lot of tiny screws for holding on a very thin piece of aluminum).
Anyway, once I was able to lever the bracket mount arms up enough to screw the bracket itself on, the rest was just keeping everything centered as I tightened the screws (don't risk damage by tightening the ones through the card too much, since they're at an angle).
Next comes the ramsinks and the thermal pads. The thermal pads on the ramsinks themselves are severely lacking in tackiness, so it was a bit of a struggle to get them to stay on without falling right back off. I may still have imprints of the fins on my fingers even days later, but once they're on and the card heats during use they seem to grip better.
The thermal pads are for the memory that is blocked by the V1 itself, as shown HERE in this link. You use one of the thick pads along with one of the thin pads on top of that. The V1 contacts that, making it one bigass ramsink... albeit through about a foot of thermal pad (actually about 1/4", but that's still pretty thick for thermal pad use).
Now the V1 goes on (thermal material gets spread on both the GPU and the contact point of the V1- I used AS5, but I'd use ceramique if I had some handy). I'll just say that the first time I started up I was really upset that my idle temps were > 90 C, so we'll skip right to me re-seating the heatsink so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did. To get good contact it can be tricky to get it past the pile of sticky thermal pads, but once you get it centered be sure to press down and twist the HS back and forth a couple times. Hold the card upside down and balancing the screws on the screwdriver and you insert them upwards to avoid fumbling around and losing contact. Keep pressure on until you get the screws through into the bracket, and tighten them in a corner-to-corner rotation.
The bracket gets pulled off the card surface by the pressure, so by this time the bracket arms and the screws through the card are REALLY at an angle. Although I can see how this gives them maximum card compatibility, I'd like to see Thermalright come up with a more polished mounting solution (and better instructions, which I'd be happy to provide if they threw me some freebies
). C'mon, guys- If I'm gonna void the crap out of the warranty on an expensive video card the least you can do is spring for a writer and another piece of paper in the box.
.
Test Setup:
DFI Lanparty nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Winchester 3200+ at 260 x 10 w/XP90 and Enermax adjustable 92mm fan
2x512MB OCZ rev2 TCCD
BFG 6800GT OC (reference cooler version, not the copper one)
500W Mad Dog modular PS (rebadged version of the TTGI plug-n PS)
This is installed in an Antec Super Lanboy with 2 120mm fans and a large 40cfm card cooler installed in the PCI slot directly beneath the lower PCI-E slot.
V1 was tested using only the included thin 80mm fan on the radiator side. I'll probobly test it out at some point using another 80mm fan mounted in the provided area on the core side of the V1 instead of relying on the card cooler.
Performance:
Once I got proper core contact by re-seating the V1, I was very pleased with the initial result.
- Stock cooling at idle (stock clock settings): 59 C
- V1 cooler at idle (stock clock settings): 50 C
Big drop right off the bat. Not too shabby. For a quick test of load temps, I used a combination of 30 minutes of HL2 deathmatch play and the highest temp recorded during the first 3 GPU tests of 3DMark05.
- Stock cooling load temp: 82 C
- V1 cooler at load temp: 59 C
Now THAT is a difference. Much bigger gap than I expected from the online review results.
OVERCLOCKING
For my admittedly innacurate and unscientific testing methods I used the coolbits auto overclock a few times to see what the average clocks it would come up with were, followed by retesting the temps.
Stock cooling OC: 427 core, 1110 mem
Stock cooling OC idle temp: 62 C
Stock cooling OC load temp: 88 C (tearing appeared in 3DMk05)
V1 cooling OC: 439 core, 1130 mem
V1 cooling OC idle temp: 53 C
V1 cooling OC load temp: 68 C (NO tearing whatsoever in 3DMk05)
.
*****UPDATE*****
Took some time to replace my chipset heatsink last night (Evercool VGA cooler from Jab-tech fit perfectly), and decided to go ahead and install another 80mm fan on the spot provided on the bottom of the V1. Fan used was a Thermaltake Smartfan II, with the fanspeed set to about 50% to keep the noise level down while keeping some fairly serious CFM going.
One downside- one of the ramsinks popped off during the process, and it just wouldn't stick back on. Used one of the 2 left over ramsinks to replace it, although I'm still leery of how much these things don't want to stick to the memory.
2fan V1 cooling OC (have not re-done the auto-OC yet, so same OC as above):
2fan V1 cooling OC idle temp: 48C
2fan V1 cooling OC load temp: 55C
Wow. Okay. I *HIGHLY* recommend the 2nd fan if you have the space.
.
Um. To completely understate things, I think we have a winner here. I'll do some more testing, but for now I'm quite happy with the results. If you've got a strong stomach that can handle the installation, this is a great performer that really gives Zalman and Arctic Cooling a run for their money.
.
Note: please forgive me- I had the temps chicken-scratched on a note I shoved in my pocket this morning, so now they're barely legible. The temps listed now are a my squinting interpretation of what's on the crumpled mess until I get home to see my original notes.
EDIT #1: Updated with accurate temps now.
EDIT #2: Added results with 2nd 80mm fan installed on bottom of V1 cooler
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