T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:32

Today i have been super keen and picked up my TRad2 from overclockers

I am fitting it to a BFG 9800GTX OCX card
this is not a 9800GTX+ card but runs at roughly the same speed at the factory overclock OCX settings

I upgraded to this card from an 8800GT as it cost me £20 to do so. [got in before the 8800GT price fall]

The reason for getting the cooler is mainly due to the noise that the 9800gtx puts out when running it overclocked.
I run the card above the factory overclock at 807/1285/2047 for benchmarks and some games [both crysis titles]
This is all well and good as the card is stable but a bit hot
the main problem is that i need the stock fan on at 100% to stop the card crashing
which whilst not a major problem - it is very noisy

so after speaking with bledd on here and looking at preliminary reviews [and pestering Gibbo for an ETA] the cooler has finally arrived.
I'm hoping i will be able to get the card runningquietly at a good overclock and it will be a lot cooler than stock

the box is a standard thermalright affair

this is what comes with it:

T-Rad2 Heat sink x 1

Ram sink A x 2

Ram sink B x 10

Ram sink C x 2

Soft washer x 4

Hard washer x 4

Screw cap x 4

Double thread screw x 4

92mm Fan wire clip*9

Screw Cap*2

Thermal Paste x 1

for this build, i will be using my own thermal paste rather than that supplied

arctic silver and arcticlean TIM removal kit

i suggest you get some tim remover as the heatsinks need to be mounted on a pure surface to stick properly

here is the graphics card with the stock sink removed
i think nvidia would save a lot of money by putting on less TIM - that way they could invest it into making NEW cards rather than just rebadged models! :mad:

this is the card with the thermalright Heatsinks installed on the memory

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:33

this is the mounting of the T-RAD

i found this all fairly easy so far - the instructions supplied are a little sparse - but easy to follow

i chose two 92mm sharkoon silent eagle fans as they offer ok air flow and are very quiet
you can use a single 120mm fan but i found it a bit ugly looking and all the reviews have said that 2X92mm offer the best performance.

the fans will be ran from my case fan controller

i like the sharkoons because they come with a nice braided cable [so it saves me a job]

here is the fans installed onto the top of the cooler - its just a case of screwing them down

here is the card fully assembled with the TRAD2 installed!
looks great in my opinion!

i found installation to be a breeze - roughly 40 minutes - i just took my time and got it right - the only thing i would suggest is to make sure that the areas that the heatsinks mount to are spotless and dry
otherwise they wont stick
i used the arcticlean kit and found it to be very good - also a lint free cloth to wipe off the excess and dry the surface properly

***WARNING*** : whilst the installation is fairly simple - take care not to overtighten the screws as it actually started to warp my cardwhen i tried to get it level

although i think the cooler is pretty lightweight - when strapped to the card and carrying two fans it does weigh quite a bit

one concern of mine is that this heatsink is marketed as being good for multi gpu rigs. however i did find that the heatpipes covered one of the two SLI fingers on my card - i am not sure if the problem is specific to the 9800gtx - but i would assume that other cards have similar positioning of this feature - i think a flexible connector bridge would be the only option - but it would have to be really long as the graphics card, heatsink and fans measure 2 inches in height!

i will be benchmarking the card when i get home tonight
mainly to show the difference in temps as i doubt i will have the time to do a full overclocking session [will use my saved profiles on rivatuner for a quick example]

overall - the cooler is built extremely well and is a sturdy piece of kit
unlike thermalright's TRUE cpu heatsink, the base was very flat and offered good contact with the GPU

i like the way thermalright have made this cooler very customisable, and whilst you need to invest in fans for it at extra expense - it does give you the option to chose your own

RESULTS

My Thoughts
so does it actually make a blind bit of difference to graphics performance?
well like i said my intention was to make my graphics card quiet rather than to freeze it

however - i did manage to overclock my graphics card a little further than i could before

it got to the point where the card wouldnt run any faster - however there are two positives to this.
1. it isnt running anywhere near as hot when overclocked making it far more stable
2. it doesnt need a blower fan on at 100% in order to achieve the overclock

it really is great having it running at the max limits - but not having to put up with the noise that accompanies an overclock like this is really great

the 9800gtx stock cooler howls when you put it at 100% - but the Trad2 and the sharkoon fans are dead quiet - you wont hear them over your other case fans

When I get my watercooling installed on my cpu, I am going to have a really quiet rig!

Negative Points
whilst this cooler really does an excellent job there are a few things that annoyed me

1: it is marketed as being ideal for dual card setups - i think it would struggle

2: the clips on my power connectors push the cooler up slightly

3: there really should have been some TIM remover included as the heatsinks depend so much on sticking to clean memory modules.

4: whilst the finish on the contact plate is brilliant - there is a lot of 'unfinished' metal around the side of the contact plate

5: the cooler is only limited to a few cards - hopefully there will be something next gen that is compatible with the Trad2

Testing
Here are the overall results from my testing last night

- Idle was measured as 5 minutes of inactive desktop.

- Load was measured with 1 hour of Call of Duty 4 - RivaTuner was used to monitor and record temps over the hour - the peak temperature over the hour was taken as the reading.

Here are the results for all OcUK members who have posted here

thanks for looking

rjkoneill

bledd · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:40

nice

do the heatsinks come with frag tape already on them?

do you have any side on images of it on the card from front and back? (showing the full card)

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:43

the heatsinks are ready to go - just take the film off and press them on

side image coming up - im editing the original images down to fit smaller screens at the moment

suitcase · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:50

Just out of interest- has anyone run one of these passively? Is it feasible?

Gibbo · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:50

Hi there

Excellent review!

I may use this later on in our news section, good work!

Mr Paul · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:51

Don't suppose you have a 4850 to test it on rjkoneill do you?

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:55

Gibbo said:
Hi there

Excellent review!

I may use this later on in our news section, good work!

cheers gibbo - does that mean i get discount on my next purchase?

Mr Paul said:
Don't suppose you have a 4850 to test it on rjkoneill do you?

i wish - i would accept donations!

suitcase said:
Just out of interest- has anyone run one of these passively? Is it feasible?

i think it would be an idea on a card that isnt used much for gaming - i have read a review somewhere of a guy who did it passivley using the same card as me and he said it didnt work during games

bledd · 22 Oct 2008 at 14:55

Gibbo, knock the price down by £4, or send me one for free and i'll do a review

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:00

bledd. said:
Gibbo, knock the price down by £4, or send me one for free and i'll do a review

nice try bledd!

sorry about the pic everyone - bear with me until i get them resized

also - apologies for the quality - the camera i have at work is a bit rubbish

Mr Paul · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:00

Sounds like a plan

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:08

here you go bledd. photos as requested...
for reference my card is 10.5" long [a little bigger than your 8800gt]

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:08

Mr Paul said:
Sounds like a plan

email in trust? lol

Mr Paul · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:18

rjkoneill said:
email in trust? lol

bledd · 22 Oct 2008 at 15:24

thanks pal

i would have bought an Accelero S1, but i didn't want to change my pc case (atcs 110)

might be time to get a new case soon though, i can't fit the side on because of the TRUE sticking out by about 2-3mm :S

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 16:01

bledd. said:
thanks pal

i would have bought an Accelero S1, but i didn't want to change my pc case (atcs 110)

might be time to get a new case soon though, i can't fit the side on because of the TRUE sticking out by about 2-3mm :S

no problems

i put the results i got from stock cooling monday night on the OP

will post my results from tonight when i get home

i think this certainly looks better than the accelero - but i will have to try it out before judging performance

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 16:04

suitcase said:
Just out of interest- has anyone run one of these passively? Is it feasible?

someone has tried it passivley - but only suggests it for low end cards

so im not having a go with mine!

Willbo · 22 Oct 2008 at 16:06

I've ordered on and will be going on a HD4870...fingers crossed I assemble it properly and dont fry my card

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 16:20

its easy to get together - like i said before -just take your time - the best thing to do is prepare your card properly to ensure the ramsinks stick down right
then mounting the heatsink is easy

there is also a massive tube of thermal paste - looks decent stuff but i used Arctic Silver

rjk · 22 Oct 2008 at 18:30

RESULTS

IDLE

Stock cooler idle temps at stock clock speeds

Trad2 cooler idle temps at stock clock speeds [fans on lowest setting]