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- Joined
- 10 Nov 2006
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- 1,323
So, due to other priorities, my proposed Gfx upgrade has been put on the backburner. My 8800GT has served me really well, and, considering its hooked up to a 24", allows me to play even the newer stuff at decent levels.
One thing that has always annoyed me is the noise. Rivatuner helped, and it was fine in general use, but once the fan cranked up in games, it used to annoy the hell out of me. I like a quiet PC, and noise levels influence my purchases a great deal. yes I want performance, but I want it quiet and efficient. Cake and eat it springs to mind.
After 30 minites of GRiD, the noise drives me nuts.
Anyway, once my Gfx upgrade was a non starter, I decided to see what was available to make my GT quieter, and possibly a little quicker. I did not want to spend too much, so after much reading, I plumped for the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo. For £20, I thought it was worth a shot. I also liked the fact it used the fan connector on the card itself, meaning I could still control the fan in Rivatuner.
So here is my GT as was:
And after removal of the heatsink. Looks just like a bodge job. What a mess.
It needed a damn good cleanup before I could do anything. Using the Arcticlean kit, I managed to get the GPU, memory and Vrm`s into pretty good shape. Note the mirror finish on the GPU.
After reading about the poor thermal tape that is supplied on the ramsinks, I purchased some of the Akasa stuff. It is much, much better than what is supplied. The cooler comes with 8 ramsinks and 4 Vrm sinks. The shape of the Vrm ones was pretty useless, due to the positioning of the Vrm`s on the GT. So with a hacksaw and file, I set about modifying them, so that they suited the GT better. There are suggestions that because the fan is blowing directly at this area of the PCB, these heatsinks are not essential. From my point of view, I already had the board in bits, and the heatsinks came with the cooler anyway. It seemed a waste not to fit them. Here they are fitted:
I was pretty pleased with that tbh. The cooler comes with some thermal paste already applied, and as it is supposed to be decent stuff, I did not bother removing/re-applying. After following the instructions, regarding spacers, screws and washers, I lowered the cooler onto its new home:
Tightened the screws and job done. Put the card back in, and switched on. With it being an Asus board, it does the double boot thing. This is never a problem, except when you have fitted something new. Everything started and went off again, my heart sank. What have I done. Then the penny dropped
. The machine started up, and unlike what I have been used to for the last year, there was no loud fan noise at the start. (GT owners will know what I mean). It was so quiet, I actually removed this side panel to make sure it was spinning. Anyway, here it is fitted:
After using Windows for 10 minutes, I genuinely thought Rivatuner was having a moment. It was reporting an idle temp of 40°c. I have never, ever seen my GT idle below 55. At this point the fan was only at 40% and very, very quiet. I decided to crank the fan upto 100%. Now whilst noise became evident, it was more pleasant than the stock cooler and nowhere near as loud. This brought Idle temps down to 35°c.
Testing time.
I have ran the card at 650/1900 pretty much since day one. Any higher and the fan ramped up too quickly. I did some tests using Furmark.
650/900 - Stock cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan profiles set.
Avg fps - 22
Maximum temp - 94°c
Fan was running at 85% for most of the test. (Its set to go to 100% @ 95°c)
650/900 - Arctic cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan set @ 40%
Avg fps - 22
Maximum temp - 58°c
Fan virtually inaudible
Unfortunately, I am not one for incremental overclocking. So.......
700/990 - Arctic cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan set @ 40%
Avg fps - 25
Maximum temp - 60°c
Fan virtually inaudible
So under load, this cooler is cutting my temps by over 30 degrees, and more importantly for me, its very quiet. To say I am pleased would be an understatement.
As a footnote, I am aware that there are better coolers, and the build quality is not up there with the Thermanrights`s, Zalmans and Noctuas. But its also nowhere near as expensive. there are no fans to purchase, and everything you need is supplied. This cooler comes highly recommended. In terms of value for money, its very hard to beat.
Products used are all available at OcUK, who once again provided me with great service.
Cooler - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
Thermal Tape - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-001-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27
Cleaning Fluids - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-AC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27
One thing that has always annoyed me is the noise. Rivatuner helped, and it was fine in general use, but once the fan cranked up in games, it used to annoy the hell out of me. I like a quiet PC, and noise levels influence my purchases a great deal. yes I want performance, but I want it quiet and efficient. Cake and eat it springs to mind.
After 30 minites of GRiD, the noise drives me nuts. Anyway, once my Gfx upgrade was a non starter, I decided to see what was available to make my GT quieter, and possibly a little quicker. I did not want to spend too much, so after much reading, I plumped for the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo. For £20, I thought it was worth a shot. I also liked the fact it used the fan connector on the card itself, meaning I could still control the fan in Rivatuner.
So here is my GT as was:
And after removal of the heatsink. Looks just like a bodge job. What a mess.
It needed a damn good cleanup before I could do anything. Using the Arcticlean kit, I managed to get the GPU, memory and Vrm`s into pretty good shape. Note the mirror finish on the GPU.
After reading about the poor thermal tape that is supplied on the ramsinks, I purchased some of the Akasa stuff. It is much, much better than what is supplied. The cooler comes with 8 ramsinks and 4 Vrm sinks. The shape of the Vrm ones was pretty useless, due to the positioning of the Vrm`s on the GT. So with a hacksaw and file, I set about modifying them, so that they suited the GT better. There are suggestions that because the fan is blowing directly at this area of the PCB, these heatsinks are not essential. From my point of view, I already had the board in bits, and the heatsinks came with the cooler anyway. It seemed a waste not to fit them. Here they are fitted:
I was pretty pleased with that tbh. The cooler comes with some thermal paste already applied, and as it is supposed to be decent stuff, I did not bother removing/re-applying. After following the instructions, regarding spacers, screws and washers, I lowered the cooler onto its new home:
Tightened the screws and job done. Put the card back in, and switched on. With it being an Asus board, it does the double boot thing. This is never a problem, except when you have fitted something new. Everything started and went off again, my heart sank. What have I done. Then the penny dropped
. The machine started up, and unlike what I have been used to for the last year, there was no loud fan noise at the start. (GT owners will know what I mean). It was so quiet, I actually removed this side panel to make sure it was spinning. Anyway, here it is fitted:
After using Windows for 10 minutes, I genuinely thought Rivatuner was having a moment. It was reporting an idle temp of 40°c. I have never, ever seen my GT idle below 55. At this point the fan was only at 40% and very, very quiet. I decided to crank the fan upto 100%. Now whilst noise became evident, it was more pleasant than the stock cooler and nowhere near as loud. This brought Idle temps down to 35°c.
Testing time.
I have ran the card at 650/1900 pretty much since day one. Any higher and the fan ramped up too quickly. I did some tests using Furmark.
650/900 - Stock cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan profiles set.
Avg fps - 22
Maximum temp - 94°c
Fan was running at 85% for most of the test. (Its set to go to 100% @ 95°c)
650/900 - Arctic cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan set @ 40%
Avg fps - 22
Maximum temp - 58°c
Fan virtually inaudible
Unfortunately, I am not one for incremental overclocking. So.......
700/990 - Arctic cooler - Furmark @ 1920x1200 - 4x - Fullscreen - Stability. Rivatuner fan set @ 40%
Avg fps - 25
Maximum temp - 60°c
Fan virtually inaudible
So under load, this cooler is cutting my temps by over 30 degrees, and more importantly for me, its very quiet. To say I am pleased would be an understatement.
As a footnote, I am aware that there are better coolers, and the build quality is not up there with the Thermanrights`s, Zalmans and Noctuas. But its also nowhere near as expensive. there are no fans to purchase, and everything you need is supplied. This cooler comes highly recommended. In terms of value for money, its very hard to beat.
Products used are all available at OcUK, who once again provided me with great service.
Cooler - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
Thermal Tape - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-001-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27
Cleaning Fluids - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-AC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27
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