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'Best' cooler for X1900 M/c

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2005
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I've recently upgraded to a rather lovely x1900 M/C and would like to improve the cooler on it (stock atm) I would have gone straight for the Accelero but I have to say those IceQ 3's that HIS are pushing out look very good. Can anyone confirm that they are better?

Also, are they available for sale seperately or are they only available fitted to the cards?
 
Those HIS coolers are very good, but they are only available on the HIS cards as far as i know, ive never seen them available seperately, the best cooler however is the Zalman VF900. :)
 
Hmmmmm... shame about the IceQ - would be a real nice upgrade - as far as the Accelero/Zalman debate goes - in my case it has to be the Accelero - I think it's the better cooler for my case so that's where I'd go - shame though - really like the Zalmans - always have!

Still - someone out there must have a borked HIS with an IceQ going begging - will have to trawl!

(I wonder how much HIS would charge for a 'replacement' one... ;) )
 
MeddlE said:
The best cooler is the Thermalright HR-03, wouldn't advise the Zalman for a x1900.
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Any reason why you wouldn't advise the zalman?

Have heard nothing but good reviews for it.
 
The only thing you have to be careful about the vf900s is although they are very good at getting the heat of the gpu/memory, they don't expel the air from the case. You'll need either an Accellero ('scus spelling) or good case ventilation.
 
The Accelero X2 does not vent hot air through the back of the case either, only the X1800/X1900 stock coolers and HIS IceQ 3 will do this for you. I usually recommend the Accelero X2 to people on a budget, and the VF900 to people who want to overclock a lot.

My VF900 keeps my X1900XT @ XT-X clocks under 75ºC easily and that's on lowest fanspeed.
 
I have no problem with my VF-900 as it has dropped the temps by around 20oC, but it has no method of removing the heat from the case, and this in turn means that on the NForce 4 boards, where the northbridge is slap bang next to the PCI-E slot, the northbridge chip gets hotter than it would otherwise. TBH it doesn't get that hot, but what it does do in my system is cross the temperature thresh hold where the northbridge fan speeds up, it then cools down and spins down, heats up and spins up etc etc, and in game it has become noticeable. I was going to mod a freezer 64 heatsink and put that on but the Scythe Ninja I have is too big and gets in the way.

I don't believe the accelero is any better in that respect as it actually directs the hot air on to the motherboard. However the VF-900 and possibly the Accelero would be better in a case that has better air flow than mine as I only have a single 120mm exhaust fan and an intake fan would push air away from the northbridge. Also motherboards that don't use the NForce 4 chipset and/or have the northbridge in a better location may not suffer the same issue as my PC.

In summary, the VF-900 is a great cooler, but works best on a system that has reasonable air flow and/or a north bridge that is out of the way of the GPU exhaust gas.
 
PinkFloyd said:
Any reason why you wouldn't advise the zalman?

Have heard nothing but good reviews for it.
Click to expand...

Did some googling for reviews when looking for a replacement cooler for my xtx and the only benefit was noise reduction with the vf900, temps didn't really drop that much at all (in the reviews that I read). Most sites were going for the Thermalright V1, but then I came across the HR-03 and it blew everything away. Flexible fitting, decent temp drop.

Ulfhedjinn said:
My VF900 keeps my X1900XT @ XT-X clocks under 75ºC easily and that's on lowest fanspeed.
Click to expand...

My HR-03 keeps my xtx in the low 60's when clocked to 700/820, also at low fan speed. I didn't really see a great performance jump when running it at those clocks though, so I dropped it back. It doesn't break 60 anymore, tops out around 58.

Also, I'd be interested to know what your Vreg temps are at load with the vf900?
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
The Accelero X2 does not vent hot air through the back of the case either, only the X1800/X1900 stock coolers and HIS IceQ 3 will do this for you.
Click to expand...

Apologies, my mistake. A gap in the market, for AC or Zalman to create an extracting after market GPU cooler...

I have VF900, keeps my 6800 at 53oC under load.
 
MeddlE said:
Also, I'd be interested to know what your Vreg temps are at load with the vf900?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't know, TBH. I keep my voltages at "stock" 3D, so I don't bother monitoring anything but GPU temp.

melbourne720 said:
Apologies, my mistake. A gap in the market, for AC or Zalman to create an extracting after market GPU cooler...
Click to expand...
Let's bloody well hope so. :D
 
No problem here with a VF900, it's quieter and cooler than stock. Internal case temps have hardly risen, and it's your own fault if you choose a baking hot southbridge motherboard, make such a fuss with hot video cards but nforce chuck out as much heat as a fast video card.
 
If you are using ATI Tray Tools then you can check your Vreg temp in the Hardware/Monitoring Graphs section.
 
yea vreg runs hot, but i got a hr-03 on order to cool my whole card down and then i see how high the clocks go. gonna use a 12cm fan on it too so its gonna be good
 
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