I finally got round to fitting my Arctic Cooling nVidia 5 unit to my SLI'd XFX 7800GTXs last night and thought I'd share some of my thoughts on the process as I know you lot like to be kept abreast of things (well, most of you just like breasts, but thats a whole different story...)
The Asus A8N SLi Deluxe I have has a fair amount of room between the two card slots and as I have only one PCI card, an X-Fi Fatal1ty, in the top PCI slot, I figured there would be plenty of room. I even went so far as to measure the gaps available to make sure it wouldn't be disaster. Anyone with this board, or the Platinum should be fine, there is more than enough room between the two slots.
I've used Arctic Coolers on previous GPUs and have always been very impressed, but I ran into a few problems with this new version:
the first thing I noticed was the weight. These babies are heavy. They feel a lot heavier than previous models I've had, and at first I did doubt if I wanted to mount two of these in my case, but I figure they must be ok, OCuk sell them... right? Right.
The cause of the weight is the copper heat sink and it is huge and very thick compared to previous versions. The unit is no bigger thatn any other revision however, so no panic there. There is also a two plug power cable, one for the 6800s and one four pin for the 7800s.
My first problem was after removing all the current fan parts, I put the new assembly on fine, and like all AC parts it went on really easily. However, the rear of the card has a passive aluminium heatspreader which sits across the 4 rear memory modules and is applied by adding 4 'sticky' heat pads. These are supposed to be enough to keep the spreader attached. Maybe if mounted in a standard case where the GPUs are mounted 'fan down' at the bottom of the case, but in the inverted position in my Lian-Li however, the pads are woefully inadequate and the spreader fell off before I even got it in the case. Also, it was apparent that only 3 of the 4 modules was actually contacting the metal at any one time.
To solve this problem, I opted for jury-rigging some bolts to hold the spreader in place, and ended up refitting the original metal spreader and using motherboard mounting screws to bolt it back onto the card. Not pretty, but at least its secure. (pics to come)
At this stage I also noted that the little black heatsink at the back of the card, I think its the power or volt regulator or something, was now no longer in any kind of airflow as the original fans exhaust passed over this heatsink, whereas the AC unit now sits above it, effectively screening it. I am a little concerned that this may overheat or cause problems at a later date, as these little fellas get VERY hot at the best of times. But we'll see if it becomes an issue after use.
As I wanted to do one card at a time to see any comparison and also make sure that it worked correctly, I was only mounting the top of the two cards. (the one nearest the PCI for those of you with non-inverted motherboards)
Fitting the card back into its slot highlighted another small problem. This being that with the Asus board, if you use any of the Red SiL Sata ports, like I do, then only the top of the four will allow enough room. In fact, the current SATA cable is only just in place and its a very snug fit. The black ports remain fine (I have two cables out of these) so no drama there.
Having placed everything in, and tightened up the screws, replaced the SLi bridge etc, the weight of the unit seemed less of a problem as its all adequately braced.
I then powered up and went through some loading on the card by running 3D Mark 06.
the fan is not noticably that much quieter than the stock fans to be honest, although this is not why I purchased them. The cooling is a lot better however. In several ways: Even with only one fan fitted, the fact that it exhausts the hot air to the outside of the case has reduced operating temperatures in the case by around 5 degrees immediately, both load and idle. The cards themselves now idle 50c where they used to idle at 55. This is interesting in that the Stock cooler has dropped in temp to match the AC unit. Underload however, the AC unit performs much better. The stock unit runs at around 72-75c and the AC unit at between 65-70. What is more noticable however is that the AC unit cools WAY quicker when it is no longer at load, returning to its idle temperatures a lot faster.
I'll post pictures of the units in situe when I get back tonight.
The Asus A8N SLi Deluxe I have has a fair amount of room between the two card slots and as I have only one PCI card, an X-Fi Fatal1ty, in the top PCI slot, I figured there would be plenty of room. I even went so far as to measure the gaps available to make sure it wouldn't be disaster. Anyone with this board, or the Platinum should be fine, there is more than enough room between the two slots.
I've used Arctic Coolers on previous GPUs and have always been very impressed, but I ran into a few problems with this new version:
the first thing I noticed was the weight. These babies are heavy. They feel a lot heavier than previous models I've had, and at first I did doubt if I wanted to mount two of these in my case, but I figure they must be ok, OCuk sell them... right? Right.
The cause of the weight is the copper heat sink and it is huge and very thick compared to previous versions. The unit is no bigger thatn any other revision however, so no panic there. There is also a two plug power cable, one for the 6800s and one four pin for the 7800s.
My first problem was after removing all the current fan parts, I put the new assembly on fine, and like all AC parts it went on really easily. However, the rear of the card has a passive aluminium heatspreader which sits across the 4 rear memory modules and is applied by adding 4 'sticky' heat pads. These are supposed to be enough to keep the spreader attached. Maybe if mounted in a standard case where the GPUs are mounted 'fan down' at the bottom of the case, but in the inverted position in my Lian-Li however, the pads are woefully inadequate and the spreader fell off before I even got it in the case. Also, it was apparent that only 3 of the 4 modules was actually contacting the metal at any one time.
To solve this problem, I opted for jury-rigging some bolts to hold the spreader in place, and ended up refitting the original metal spreader and using motherboard mounting screws to bolt it back onto the card. Not pretty, but at least its secure. (pics to come)
At this stage I also noted that the little black heatsink at the back of the card, I think its the power or volt regulator or something, was now no longer in any kind of airflow as the original fans exhaust passed over this heatsink, whereas the AC unit now sits above it, effectively screening it. I am a little concerned that this may overheat or cause problems at a later date, as these little fellas get VERY hot at the best of times. But we'll see if it becomes an issue after use.
As I wanted to do one card at a time to see any comparison and also make sure that it worked correctly, I was only mounting the top of the two cards. (the one nearest the PCI for those of you with non-inverted motherboards)
Fitting the card back into its slot highlighted another small problem. This being that with the Asus board, if you use any of the Red SiL Sata ports, like I do, then only the top of the four will allow enough room. In fact, the current SATA cable is only just in place and its a very snug fit. The black ports remain fine (I have two cables out of these) so no drama there.
Having placed everything in, and tightened up the screws, replaced the SLi bridge etc, the weight of the unit seemed less of a problem as its all adequately braced.
I then powered up and went through some loading on the card by running 3D Mark 06.
the fan is not noticably that much quieter than the stock fans to be honest, although this is not why I purchased them. The cooling is a lot better however. In several ways: Even with only one fan fitted, the fact that it exhausts the hot air to the outside of the case has reduced operating temperatures in the case by around 5 degrees immediately, both load and idle. The cards themselves now idle 50c where they used to idle at 55. This is interesting in that the Stock cooler has dropped in temp to match the AC unit. Underload however, the AC unit performs much better. The stock unit runs at around 72-75c and the AC unit at between 65-70. What is more noticable however is that the AC unit cools WAY quicker when it is no longer at load, returning to its idle temperatures a lot faster.
I'll post pictures of the units in situe when I get back tonight.
