T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

[AtreuS]

Just fitted mine using the supplied thermal paste and heatsinks.

Installation was a breeze once i prised the old akasa vortexx neo off! the thermal sticky pads that come with it sure like to make a good bond. Luckily i got it off without removing some memory chips from the pcb

My temps are from memory im afraid and i dont have screenshots

When i got my 8800GT ( gainward ) the stock cooler ran at about 55oC idle and upto 90oC under load... thats about an hour of running the usual crysis demo on a loop.

With the Akasa vortexx neo installed it was about 45oc idle and went upto about 60oc under stress. This is with the fan turned down so that i couldnt hear the gfx cooler as much. Turned on max the neo was rather noisy and suprisingly only reduced those temps by about 5oC.

Having just installed the T-Rad2 and running crysis demo for about an hour my initial results look very good indeed. I have a single 120mm Noctua fan running on this and ive got it connected upto a variable controller. The noctua fan is running at about 30% speed and is silent.

When running idle im seeing temps now of about 35oC ( thats 10oC cooler than the neo and quieter ) and stress temps of about 58-60oc!. Remember this is with the noctua fan on very low speed and totally silent.

My case is a yeong yang cube so my case ventillation is VERY good indeed. The mainboard has two 120mm fans blowing unhindered right across it. In smaller cases the results might not be so good.

All in all im pleased with this cooler, its running well, temps lower than the neo and more importantly TOTALLY silent for me now. Because of the vastness of my case i can run all my fans on very low speeds and still have a cool system, the gfx card was the last one i was having problems with.

Now the only thing i can hear from my pc when on is a soft hummm from the power supply and the slight noise from my twin samsung hard drives!

Very pleased indeed

When i get some cash on payday ill probably be getting a pair of 92mm fans as the noctua was all i had lying about. Hopefully the load temp will be a little lower, but in any case a load temp of only 60oc and SILENT cant be bad by any standard. With two higher power fans i would imagine the load temps are going to be much lower... perhaps low 50s or high 40s even.

 

[rjk]

nice results!

 

[Ice Rich]

Just finished installing mine too! I'll get pics up shortly,

Installation was simple, no problems. Been on pc for around 30mins now and temp is reading 32 through ATI CC. Most importantly - I can't hear a thing!

Great stuff.

 

[lettuce]

So it would appear that the Accelero S1 is slight better than this then?? Also are the xilence red wings surpossed to be quieter/better air flow than the Scythe S-FLEX fans?

 

[Ice Rich]

So it would appear that the Accelero S1 is slight better than this then??

Is that a joke?

The red wings are very quite and are super-cheap too. I have never owned a Scythe S-FLEX so cannot compare it to the xilence.

 

[lettuce]

No, ive seen post where people have gotten the same if not slightly cooler results with the S1, add to that that its about £20 cheaper too

 

[Big.Wayne]

Obviously this is a thread dedicated to the Thermalright T-Rad2 GPU cooler and doesn't want to become a battle of which GPU cooler is best, they are all decent and its a good thing we have a nice choice now!

Top to bottom: Thermalright T-Rad2, Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo, Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2

I'm a big fan of Thermalright and have used heaps of their products but having delved more into the bang-for-buck arena lately I have to take my hat off to Arctic Cooling as they have produced some good GPU cooling products at a very reasonable price, in particular the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 at around £15 is a great cooling solution if your on a budget, have a full sized mobo/case and want to either overclock your card hard or simply just hush it up and enjoy the quiet!

I've not used the newer Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo but it does look pretty decent, considering it comes with fans and all seems like a nice deal if you can get it at a good price!

Not many users have the Thermalright T-Rad2 yet so I look forward to all the feedback, looks like a quality piece of cooling kit, costs a pretty penny mind considering it doesn't include fans . . however if you can afford it then why not?

My interest in it is for Micro-ATX HTPC/Light Gaming systems where there isn't enough room for a jumbo cooler and a quiet machine is important!

In a microATX build using a double slot cooler could mean you eat up one of your spare/valuable expansion slots (Sound-card/TC Card etc) so hopefully we will see some more 3rd party *mini* coolers!

 

[sarge78]

In a microATX build using a double slot cooler could mean you eat up one of your spare/valuable expansion slots (Sound-card/TC Card etc) so hopefully we will see some more 3rd party *mini* coolers!

+1
I might have to swap my 4850 for a single slot 4670 unless I come up with a crazy cpu/gpu combo cooling solution (Damn, why cant there be more room in the small shuttles)
________
Volcano Digital Vaporizer

 

[Frame352]

No, ive seen post where people have gotten the same if not slightly cooler results with the S1, add to that that its about £20 cheaper too

The new version of the S1 is not compatible with the 4870. Arctic Cooling have modified the VRM heatsink; it is no longer one long sink, but rather several smaller ones that do NOT keep the VRM cool enough. It's a great cooler, at a great price, but for 4870 owners, the T-Rad2 is the only choice it would appear.

 

[Willbo]

The heatsinks on this fit perfectly as far as can tell...had a bit of trouble with the VRM chips, but in the end I put one long one over two, and squeezed one long and one short over the three on the other side....seem to be doing the trick as temps are still low and thats even after playing Far Cry 2 for most of the day.

 

[Big.Wayne]

The new version of the S1 is not compatible with the 4870. Arctic Cooling have modified the VRM heatsink; it is no longer one long sink, but rather several smaller ones that do NOT keep the VRM cool enough.

I was aware that Arctic were updating the heatsinks that came with the S1 rev 2.0 but didn't hear from anyone else they no longer worked with the HD4870?

Where is that info from then please? i.e The S1 no longer working with the HD4870?

 

[Frame352]

I was aware that Arctic were updating the heatsinks that came with the S1 rev 2.0 but didn't hear from anyone else they no longer worked with the HD4870?

Where is that info from then please? i.e The S1 no longer working with the HD4870?

From my own experience really, with a few other guys who bought one recently claiming the same kinda results - very high temps on the VRMs. I posted about it in this thread. The problem is only with the new VRM heatsinks. Even with the fan at full RPM, and directly over the VRMs, I couldn't get temps below 100 degrees under full load.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Pros:

- Good cooling on both HD 4870 & 9800 GTX
- Option to install either 92mm or 120mm fans
- Great build quality
- Easy installation


Cons:

- Price
- Performance versus larger coolers

 

[Ice Rich]

The heatsinks on this fit perfectly as far as can tell...had a bit of trouble with the VRM chips, but in the end I put one long one over two, and squeezed one long and one short over the three on the other side....seem to be doing the trick as temps are still low and thats even after playing Far Cry 2 for most of the day.

I've done the same as you except on the bottom VRM chips (3 chips), I put 2 of them flat heatsinks on side-by-side, they fit perfectly.

 

[rjk]

So it would appear that the Accelero S1 is slight better than this then?? Also are the xilence red wings surpossed to be quieter/better air flow than the Scythe S-FLEX fans?

the s1 is pretty good - i tried it for a week on my old card. i dont know about exactly how much better it cools by

but my results for the thermalright only prove that it is very worthwhile - especially with quiet fans on like the sharkoons

Obviously this is a thread dedicated to the Thermalright T-Rad2 GPU cooler and doesn't want to become a battle of which GPU cooler is best, they are all decent and its a good thing we have a nice choice now!

i know - i have been in two minds over this and a few other coolers

this with the sharkoons offered the perfect solution as it is whisper quiet

it would be good to see a list of results with this cooler against other coolers on the same graphics boards though - would definatly give any new buyers a better idea of whats on offer - i know when i looked at gpu coolers that i couldnt find any comparitive tests for anything other than waterblocks!

Not many users have the Thermalright T-Rad2 yet so I look forward to all the feedback, looks like a quality piece of cooling kit, costs a pretty penny mind considering it doesn't include fans . . however if you can afford it then why not?

i guess its like the TRUE though - if you want the performance you have to pay the price - i guess production cost for this thing myst be high - its a very high quality product in my opinion, the standard of how it is built was very noticable - and one of the first things that impressed me

I've done the same as you except on the bottom VRM chips (3 chips), I put 2 of them flat heatsinks on side-by-side, they fit perfectly.

thats how the instructions say to do it - shouldnt be too much of an issue i would imagine

 

[AtreuS]

I see people pretty much saying that the T-rad isnt as good as the S1 and its more expensive so why bother?

All ill say to that is... it looks better, its smaller and so takes up less space and the fan options are a bit more flexible. Its maybe not "better" but its just as good and most importantly its smaller for those with tiny cases.

 

[lettuce]

Just ordered one of these, along with 2 Noctua NF-B9 1600 Vortex Control Fan, as the red wings where out of stock here, a bit more money i know, but are surpossed to be quieter and move more air

 

[rjk]

should have gone for the sharkoons - they cant be heard on full speed

 

[lettuce]

Airflow isnt as good though

 

[rjk]

look at my results - they are nothing to be sniffed at - i find it is a nice balance - you will have to let me know how you get on with the noctua's - would be interesting to see how they perform