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Cooling Options for 5850
- Thread starter Bergkamp
- Start date
Lol you beat me to it 
Being a bit more helpful, thread on xs may be of use
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=236156
Being a bit more helpful, thread on xs may be of use
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=236156
OK.. Iv'e also looked into this a bit myself and there are limited options and it seems the options should carry a warning as well. It seems like 5X cards can be bricked VERY easily when installing after market coolers. I suspect most of this is down to people being heavy handed and/or not installing to the letter. There are a lot of horror stories out there so I thought I should mention this 1st so you don't have the same problem and are aware (not that I want to scare you)
There are really 3 main coolers you can use that vary in price but not much in performance. All seem to do a decent job compared to stock.
1: The ZALMAN VF3000A a good cheap option but is also accountable from what i can tell for the most dead cards when fitting. It also suffers from the little heatsinks not sticking and falling off unless heat is applied 1st and care is taken with them when fitting. (or get some other better ones) I've also seen several people mention that 1 or both fans hit the shroud and they had to remove it for it work. Good performance but with it's problems it seems.
2: The Arctic Acellero Twin Turbo Pro http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=379 Yes this isn't listed as fitting a 5850 but apparently it's a very simple mod to get it to fit. (not something I was prepared to do myself) Again a cheap and high level performance result it seems if you are into a little extra work when fitting it.
3: Thermalright T-Rad² This was what I was looking to use as and I was staggered to learn they screwed this product up because the heatsinks included for the VRM are completely inadequate and they had to release separate coolers just for the VRM called the VRM R1 and the VRM R2 http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/vrm/product_vga_cooler_vrm.html
To me, this made this option not only too expensive but it was also far to big for my case but also I didn't like the thought of all that extra weight on my card without erecting scaffolding to support it!
OCUK did stock another cooler until recently but I can't seem to find it listed now or remember it's name and it's performance was below par (compared to the others I have listed) and also had the problem of the mini heatsinks falling off if I remember rightly.
Iv'e probably confused you more than ever now but, the truth is.. there doesnt seem to be a decent air cooling after market product for a 5850. If you decide to go for any i'd be interested on your opinion of your purchase and I find it very poor that the options are so limited almost 1 year after the cards release. Especially considering all companies out there who specialize in computer cooling. Somebody has certainly missed a trick here.
There are really 3 main coolers you can use that vary in price but not much in performance. All seem to do a decent job compared to stock.
1: The ZALMAN VF3000A a good cheap option but is also accountable from what i can tell for the most dead cards when fitting. It also suffers from the little heatsinks not sticking and falling off unless heat is applied 1st and care is taken with them when fitting. (or get some other better ones) I've also seen several people mention that 1 or both fans hit the shroud and they had to remove it for it work. Good performance but with it's problems it seems.
2: The Arctic Acellero Twin Turbo Pro http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=379 Yes this isn't listed as fitting a 5850 but apparently it's a very simple mod to get it to fit. (not something I was prepared to do myself) Again a cheap and high level performance result it seems if you are into a little extra work when fitting it.
3: Thermalright T-Rad² This was what I was looking to use as and I was staggered to learn they screwed this product up because the heatsinks included for the VRM are completely inadequate and they had to release separate coolers just for the VRM called the VRM R1 and the VRM R2 http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/vrm/product_vga_cooler_vrm.html
To me, this made this option not only too expensive but it was also far to big for my case but also I didn't like the thought of all that extra weight on my card without erecting scaffolding to support it!
OCUK did stock another cooler until recently but I can't seem to find it listed now or remember it's name and it's performance was below par (compared to the others I have listed) and also had the problem of the mini heatsinks falling off if I remember rightly.
Iv'e probably confused you more than ever now but, the truth is.. there doesnt seem to be a decent air cooling after market product for a 5850. If you decide to go for any i'd be interested on your opinion of your purchase and I find it very poor that the options are so limited almost 1 year after the cards release. Especially considering all companies out there who specialize in computer cooling. Somebody has certainly missed a trick here.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Basically no, most people who smeg their cards do so because they go ahead and use a crappy vrm cooler then use something like Furmark to "test" their temps, and kill their VRM's. Almost every "review" thats used a 5850, well, deserve it. The older arctic cooling jobbies don't come with a specifically bigger vrm cooler, its completely ridiculous to use a cooler that was built years ago, that just happens to be pin hole compatible with a newer card, without making any checks as to if its suitable. The bit-tech/custom pc review(really the only one I've seen to kill their cards) managed to ignore all info on the web before their review which says the vrm cooler with the heatsink was in no way good enough, went ahead, installed it, ran furmark and fried the vrm's. They are stupid, its really that simple.
Make no mistake at all Furmark, is useless, its absolutely useless for stability testing, you can crash at 850Mhz in furmark and yet no game ever made will crash with the core at 1000Mhz. Furmark puts a completely unrealistic load on the card, one no game in the history of the universe will ever use. Furmark can induce temps on a 5850, on core and vrm, 10-20C higher than ANY game, Metro, Crysis, anything tough at all.
DO NOT USE FURMARK, its that simple, I actually wonder if furmark would kill some older cards if people bothered to try, with it only really beginning to be used under 4870 era, in which it crashed cards because it generated a vrm load literally not needed for any game, the 4870 never crashed under a single game, and still doesn't, but furmark would topple it.
That said, the prolimatech gpu cooler is the best one out there right now, Thermalright has a couple of solutions that are pretty decent, the Zalman is supposed to be good, no idea if its got some quality control issues with fans/shroud. Some amd cards have had fans that "slip" slightly and hit the shroud aswell, thats probably what it is, marginally faulty fans rather than the heatsink itself.
I did get myself all freaked out by vrm temps and ended up with a prolimatech and using a Thermalright vrm cooler with it, because of the shape/size of it, when I moved to a xfire setup it literally won't fit at all, so I've since removed it and put on the standard vrm cooler that comes with the prolimatech, no deaths, no crashing, no instability, no temp problems, nothing. The only problem that could occur is if I use the card killing and worthless output Furmark to artificially raise temps on the vrm's, I still guess, judging by their current temps, that they'd be absolutely fine but who knows.
If you won't use xfire or have no issues then theres no particular reason not to use a dedicated vrm cooler, the temps were lower, not massively, but they were lower and it was still more than safe temps with furmark.
The prolimatech gpu cooler itself, i went from an 5850 overclocked to 925Mhz or so with slight voltage bump, it wouldn't go any higher and it would go to 80-85c under load in the toughtest games, with the prolimatech I've gone to 1.3v, 1050Mhz, and load temps are 40-45c in the toughest games.
Make no mistake at all Furmark, is useless, its absolutely useless for stability testing, you can crash at 850Mhz in furmark and yet no game ever made will crash with the core at 1000Mhz. Furmark puts a completely unrealistic load on the card, one no game in the history of the universe will ever use. Furmark can induce temps on a 5850, on core and vrm, 10-20C higher than ANY game, Metro, Crysis, anything tough at all.
DO NOT USE FURMARK, its that simple, I actually wonder if furmark would kill some older cards if people bothered to try, with it only really beginning to be used under 4870 era, in which it crashed cards because it generated a vrm load literally not needed for any game, the 4870 never crashed under a single game, and still doesn't, but furmark would topple it.
That said, the prolimatech gpu cooler is the best one out there right now, Thermalright has a couple of solutions that are pretty decent, the Zalman is supposed to be good, no idea if its got some quality control issues with fans/shroud. Some amd cards have had fans that "slip" slightly and hit the shroud aswell, thats probably what it is, marginally faulty fans rather than the heatsink itself.
I did get myself all freaked out by vrm temps and ended up with a prolimatech and using a Thermalright vrm cooler with it, because of the shape/size of it, when I moved to a xfire setup it literally won't fit at all, so I've since removed it and put on the standard vrm cooler that comes with the prolimatech, no deaths, no crashing, no instability, no temp problems, nothing. The only problem that could occur is if I use the card killing and worthless output Furmark to artificially raise temps on the vrm's, I still guess, judging by their current temps, that they'd be absolutely fine but who knows.
If you won't use xfire or have no issues then theres no particular reason not to use a dedicated vrm cooler, the temps were lower, not massively, but they were lower and it was still more than safe temps with furmark.
The prolimatech gpu cooler itself, i went from an 5850 overclocked to 925Mhz or so with slight voltage bump, it wouldn't go any higher and it would go to 80-85c under load in the toughtest games, with the prolimatech I've gone to 1.3v, 1050Mhz, and load temps are 40-45c in the toughest games.
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I saw this solution ^^ too and I'm thinking I might do the same, though I am very disappointed that there don't seem to be any decent solutions out there that don't involve hacking at heatsinks, removing shrouds, re-using backplates etc.
As has already been said, it's been nearly a year and aftermarket cooling isn't exactly small business. I'd happily wait it out if the damn rattle and/or whine wasn't doing my nut in!
As has already been said, it's been nearly a year and aftermarket cooling isn't exactly small business. I'd happily wait it out if the damn rattle and/or whine wasn't doing my nut in!
Associate
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2009
- Posts
- 881
- Location
- Manchester
Cannot reccomend the vf3000 highly enough.
You do need to be careful when you apply the heatsinks, I ended up having to replace the elongated one as it came unstuck, just picked up some thermal tape and it was ok. (V lucky I checked it before it fell)
The VF3000 does chuck out a bombload of extra heat into the case, my cpu temps have shot up, but it is silent, and everything including vrms runs at low levels. The vrm plate did need refitting, I didn't apply thermal compund right the first time, and I put a spotcool blowing onto the rear side of the vrms, but they stay well, well within safe limits. All fans are prementantly at minimum and it is silent in everything but the absolute literal meaning of the word.
The shroud does need removing, mine rattled but where is the problem- it is less weight on your card and you shouldnt have wires loose near it anyhow. Also looks a lot better.
You do need to be careful when you apply the heatsinks, I ended up having to replace the elongated one as it came unstuck, just picked up some thermal tape and it was ok. (V lucky I checked it before it fell)
The VF3000 does chuck out a bombload of extra heat into the case, my cpu temps have shot up, but it is silent, and everything including vrms runs at low levels. The vrm plate did need refitting, I didn't apply thermal compund right the first time, and I put a spotcool blowing onto the rear side of the vrms, but they stay well, well within safe limits. All fans are prementantly at minimum and it is silent in everything but the absolute literal meaning of the word.
The shroud does need removing, mine rattled but where is the problem- it is less weight on your card and you shouldnt have wires loose near it anyhow. Also looks a lot better.
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i installed a thermalright hr-03 gt today.
very easy to fit and was nice and cheap.
i bought a 92mm fan for it one of those clusters always love the look of them.
.
.
with the fan on
.
in the case
so i tested the system and found the temps to be very poor, the 92mm fan was just not up to the job!.
so abit of modding with grip wire and a spare noise blocker (120mm)
in the system
temps from stock have been reduced to 32 idle was 38
temp after 2 hours on mw2 highest it reached was 51.5, the stock one reached just over 60.
i then stuck the 92mm fan on to rear of case for now as didnt want to waste it lol.
love the look of them might get the 120mm for the gpu
this is now a very quite system, lovely
very easy to fit and was nice and cheap.
i bought a 92mm fan for it one of those clusters always love the look of them.
.
.
with the fan on
.
in the case
so i tested the system and found the temps to be very poor, the 92mm fan was just not up to the job!.
so abit of modding with grip wire and a spare noise blocker (120mm)
in the system
temps from stock have been reduced to 32 idle was 38
temp after 2 hours on mw2 highest it reached was 51.5, the stock one reached just over 60.
i then stuck the 92mm fan on to rear of case for now as didnt want to waste it lol.
love the look of them might get the 120mm for the gpu
this is now a very quite system, lovely