T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

TaKeN · 26 Jan 2009 at 12:02

Any ideas on why the card died? Surely if all you did was remove one cooler.. and stick a new one on, then you'll be able to put the orignal back on and apply for an RMA?

ZXSpectrum · 26 Jan 2009 at 12:34

The 3rd VRM from the bottom is burnt on both sides.... Cant RMA as i bought it second hand and it had a modded Asus bios so that the fan would work properly..

lettuce · 26 Jan 2009 at 18:14

Skyline said:
yeah its not as if i fitted the cooler incorrectly either... oh well live and learn...

So what temps were the VRM's at last time you looked??

ZXSpectrum · 27 Jan 2009 at 09:44

Cant recall off the top of my head.. but they were well within tollerances when running Ati tool.. on further examination last night it looks like the tim pad was not stuck on half of the vrm even tho it was perfectly flat and i cleaned them off with iso...

Clairvoyant · 3 Feb 2009 at 20:51

OK Im wondering if someone that has fitted the T-RAD with the base plate, can do some me a favour.

Mine will not fit, and Im wondering if you could take it apart and take a few mesurments.

T-rad

heatpipes to base of the t-rad (Im wondering if mine if thick enough)

4870 Base Plate

thickness of base plate
height of feet (that the screws go in to)

I would be very greatfull.

sharpygsxr · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:17

mines on its way to its new owner so cant measure up for ya

is yours the 1gb or 512?

Clairvoyant · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:22

512 original build saphire. Im having the same problems the other chap is (the one that modded his base a bit to much).

I dont know what to do.

One way would be to get some cooper plate to fit the gap between the GPU core and the T-Rad base.

sharpygsxr · 3 Feb 2009 at 23:15

can you bend the trad base plate in any way slightly to fit in more?

Strange that it fit perfect for a few of us yet unlucky ones like yourself are havin probs

Clairvoyant · 3 Feb 2009 at 23:53

Im thinking the bases of the T-rads are different thickness on some. It only takes a couple of mm then you have a big problem.

vincentchen · 5 Feb 2009 at 02:14

Clairvoyant said:
Im thinking the bases of the T-rads are different thickness on some. It only takes a couple of mm then you have a big problem.

I am having the same problem using T-rad with stock base plate.

I can see from the thread that sharpy and p4radox are successful using T-rad2 with stock base plate while clairvoyant and lettuce are not.

I agree with Clairvoyant. the base plates for the reference cards should be of the same design. Is it possible that thermalright changed their design on T-rad2?

I bought my t-rad early in november last year. maybe newly manufactured t-rads are of improved design.

sharpy and p4radox, when did you buy your t-rads? and clairvoyant?

vincentchen · 5 Feb 2009 at 02:54

from what i know, some early users of T-rad2 have been trying to use it with stock base plate. but they had to trim the plate in some way to get it fit with T-rad2, just similar to what lettuce did. actully, sharpy and p4radox are the first I know successful without any trimming to the original baseplate. I really wonder how you guys got so lucky.

Clairvoyant · 5 Feb 2009 at 09:59

I got mine of the MM here.

I am thinking of trying the copper shims to fill the gap between the GPU and T-Rad base (the trouble is I dont know the gap)

I do not really want to mod the base plate as if I ever needed to return the card they would see I have modded it.

lettuce · 5 Feb 2009 at 10:14

Yeah i had 2 major problem with my t-rad:

1.There wasnt enough clearance as the heat pipes touched the base plate before making proper contact with the gpu core (had to really tighten the t-rad on to get any contact with the gpu core)

2. The ends of the heatpipes protruded the other side of the t-rad base plate so that also stopped the t-rad fitting into the space of the base plate!!

What are the VRMs rated up to anyway (temp wise)??

Clairvoyant · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:08

lettuce said:
1.There wasnt enough clearance as the heat pipes touched the base plate before making proper contact with the gpu core (had to really tighten the t-rad on to get any contact with the gpu core)

2. The ends of the heatpipes protruded the other side of the t-rad base plate so that also stopped the t-rad fitting into the space of the base plate!!?

Do you have any pics and how tight is tight

lettuce · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:55

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13344286&postcount=347

Clairvoyant · 5 Feb 2009 at 13:46

Ah sorry I should have kept an eye on people that are posting. lol

If I did mod the base it would only be a small mod just enough to let the heat pipes clear the base.

sharpygsxr · 5 Feb 2009 at 16:53

cptain chaos has my 4870 now so maybe he can post some measurements for you guys but in my situation i hadnt even known others had tried the mod.

When i first fitted the trad i thought hmm this looks like it would fit over the base plate and it all fit together perfect the trad wasnt even touching the base plate after fitting so mine and paradox do indeed seem to be the lucky few.

What you could do is check MM or other auction sites for example to see if you can pick up a cheap stock cooler on its own. You could then mod this to your hearts content while having your own for warranty purposes

frodubuntu · 11 Feb 2009 at 12:41

Advice requested

Hello there,

I've been reading this whole insightful thread as i am t-rad2 owner too and feel concerned about the vrm temp issue rised here.

I own a sapphire 4870 (the one with the black cooler) and i installed a week ago a t-rad2 on it and all seems fine except than like another user in this thread i am not able to see my vrm temp in GPU-Z or everest and this seems to be related to this card (at least it is what i think).

Therefore i can't check my vrm temp to see if it's ok, however i noticed my card has a separated default heatsink on VRMs as shown below :
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p292/haffeysucks/4870/IMG_1482.jpg

My question is :
Do you concider i should be worried about my vrm temp or do you think that since i still have the default heatsink on my VRM then i am as good as with the stock cooler configuration regarding the vrm cooling ?

Thanks for helping me sharing your opinon.

Clairvoyant · 11 Feb 2009 at 16:10

I would think that with that HS fitted still it should be fine (do you have 1x120 or 2x92 fans)

I would say as long as there is air flow over the HS, its fine.

frodubuntu · 11 Feb 2009 at 16:31

Thanks for your answer.

I have 1x120mm fan at the moment but since i can't close my computer case because of it i will put 1x92mm (i know only one), and obviously i have bought a 92mm fan which provides the same airflow power than my current 800RPM 120mm noctua.

As my computer case has an excelent airflow (Thermaltake DH 101) it should make no difference (stock cooler send really few airflow on HS).

Except this vrm matter, t-rad2 is just great and before all silent