Soldato
After much thought I decided to skip buying any of the forthcoming cards as personally I see no point in spending £300+ to get an extra 25 fps on top of 40 to 100+ fps. Most games are ports so don't need more power anyway.
So after seeing how quiet the 580 was I thought I would treat myself to an Accelero XTREME 5870, which comes with 5 heatpipes and 84 fins, providing 250 watts cooling capacity for the Radeon HD5870. A layer of the ARCTIC MX-2 thermal compound is also pre-applied on the base.http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=546
Here is what temps I am getting with this cooler in idle which is silent.
I chose the AC over zalman as the ac is lighter and more importantly the fan connects back into the gfx board rather which spins up the fan as needed. Where as the zalman needs manual connections to the fan which means constant spinning unless you program afterburner to do it.
Please forgive the rubbish pics as my camera was flat so the desire was brought into action.
My advice on installation is:
Take your time, don't rush it!
All screws came off easily.
Make sure you rub off the ram sinks with an eraser, then do it again, again and again.
If the green ram sink (the slanted one, which needs to point the right way) below touches the yellow chip then BOOM!, dead card , so you need to be VERY careful not to touch the chip (I used a clear CD sleeve to cover the chip as not to take any chances!).
Also AC has much improved the ram sink adhesiveness, these are now rock solid and won't come off. They must have listened to all the complaints!
Final thoughts are that I am happy with my choice of cooler as the AC is it's cooling is superb, OC to over 1g on the core and it is still quiet and keeps vrms under control too. Only 60 grammes heavier than the stock one. Please remember that this cooler takes up 3 slots though.
So after seeing how quiet the 580 was I thought I would treat myself to an Accelero XTREME 5870, which comes with 5 heatpipes and 84 fins, providing 250 watts cooling capacity for the Radeon HD5870. A layer of the ARCTIC MX-2 thermal compound is also pre-applied on the base.http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=546
Here is what temps I am getting with this cooler in idle which is silent.
I chose the AC over zalman as the ac is lighter and more importantly the fan connects back into the gfx board rather which spins up the fan as needed. Where as the zalman needs manual connections to the fan which means constant spinning unless you program afterburner to do it.
Please forgive the rubbish pics as my camera was flat so the desire was brought into action.
My advice on installation is:
Take your time, don't rush it!
All screws came off easily.
Make sure you rub off the ram sinks with an eraser, then do it again, again and again.
If the green ram sink (the slanted one, which needs to point the right way) below touches the yellow chip then BOOM!, dead card , so you need to be VERY careful not to touch the chip (I used a clear CD sleeve to cover the chip as not to take any chances!).
Also AC has much improved the ram sink adhesiveness, these are now rock solid and won't come off. They must have listened to all the complaints!
Final thoughts are that I am happy with my choice of cooler as the AC is it's cooling is superb, OC to over 1g on the core and it is still quiet and keeps vrms under control too. Only 60 grammes heavier than the stock one. Please remember that this cooler takes up 3 slots though.
