T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

Willbo · 2 Nov 2008 at 11:45

I've got my fans plugged in via molex adaptors as I've ran out of on board fan connectors so should be running at 100%

I'm dying to find out how to cool the VRMs down properly as my games are starting to crash now after a couple of hours of max resolution gaming on my 24" monitor. Been looking on on the net at various forums and no one seems to know how to lowere the temps either :confused:

lettuce · 2 Nov 2008 at 11:59

Yeah its starting to bug me now aswell, what temps are the VRMs good up till??. Heres my temps after almost an hour of stress...

As you can see the gpu is being used 96%, so maybe what Rich said is right as his not using such a high res as me (1920x1200) then maybe the card isnt being stressed so much, or maybe its just these Powercolor 1Gb cards? Rich anyway you can find out what utilisation your gpu gets?

wombraider · 2 Nov 2008 at 12:17

Nice review

I see that you have already had at least 1 ram chip heatsink fall off , from
owning 2 thermaltake Hr03 for my 8800GTX's I predict that more will follow.

Even tho I cleaned everything down rediculously well before putting the ram
chip coolers on , they dont seem to do well upside down fighting against gravity.

I think the adhesive they use on the sinks just aint up to it.

I tried the thermal tape that OCuk sells , it was also useless at holding them up ( again too heavey for the grip supplied)

In totaly I had 3 fall off and ended up boxing both coolers and going back to stock ( with AS5 )

lettuce · 2 Nov 2008 at 12:37

I dont see how the thermal pads on the stock cooler can be doing any good anyway as that dark red surface they are in contact with it just plastic!! the only conduction bit on that whole stock cooler is the Coper heatsink, so i dont see how the thermal pads could have helped cool the chip underneath them anyway...

PS the yellow sticker you can see was where some cheap flakey thermal paste was, just put the tape there so you could see where the paste was

Im just woudering if it was just the sheer speed of the stock cooler fan (i think it went up to something like 3000rpm) that was keeping the VRM cool and these thermalright HS arent up to the job of keep them cool enough, plus the fact that the fans we are using dont go anywhere near the speeds of the stock cooler fans???

ticktock · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:08

Definitely the fan that was helping keep things cool.

Is it just ATI guys that are having heat issues with this heatsink?

lettuce · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:55

Theres is definitely a link between the VRM temps and the resolution you are running, i did a few tests. I used Far Cry 2's benchmark program set everything to ultra high & VSync Off, and ran the 'Ranch Long' benchmark which runs for 5 minutes, and did a few runs at different screen resolutions, and here are the results:

Resolution------DX-------VRM Temp-------GPU Usage
1280x720-------9--------63-65c----------86-88%
1280x720------10--------64-67c----------87-90%
1920x1200------9--------68-70c----------89-90%
1920x1200-----10--------71-73c----------97-99%

rjk · 2 Nov 2008 at 17:07

ticktock said:
If it works best, how come the scores are quite vague with the 92mm and the 120mm scores quite close to 2 92's in idle?

I quite like the idea of 2 92mm fans but i am after a really silent setup. I have 2 120mm Noctua fans and they are really silent.

like i said on my review

the sharkoons are silent

the redwing users have said that theirs are quiet too

i guess the rest is down to personal preference

rjk · 2 Nov 2008 at 17:10

good wok lettuce - something i didnt think of doing with testing the res temps

Willbo · 2 Nov 2008 at 17:19

lettuce said:
Yeah its starting to bug me now aswell, what temps are the VRMs good up till??. Heres my temps after almost an hour of stress...

As you can see the gpu is being used 96%, so maybe what Rich said is right as his not using such a high res as me (1920x1200) then maybe the card isnt being stressed so much, or maybe its just these Powercolor 1Gb cards? Rich anyway you can find out what utilisation your gpu gets?

Think I've heard somewhere that the VRM's can take temps between 110-126

How are you getting on lettuce? Was hoping to have a look at my card today but been out all day so not been able to experiment

lettuce · 2 Nov 2008 at 17:37

Well ive ran out of ideas to try really, everything is coverd with HS, so think it must just be down to the lack of fair flow from 3rd party fans we've placed on the rad compared to that of the stock cooler. Just have to see if Rich has any joy after he re-arranges his HS

ticktock · 2 Nov 2008 at 22:12

Looks like it is just the ATI cards that are having issues then?

Willbo · 2 Nov 2008 at 22:23

Seems like it, although only at the high res when the cards have to work harder. As I'm running at 1920x1200 res and so it lettuce I think.

Its weird as I've had no problems with crashes until the last few days, I've order an Antec SpotCool System Cooler which I'm going to have at the bottom of my case aiming at the VRM end of the GFX and see if that makes and difference.

But will wait and see if any more updates are posted about HS layouts as well.

ticktock · 2 Nov 2008 at 22:50

Think i will get an Accelero S1 Rev. 2 and a Noctua fan for my 9800 GT.

RaveyDaveyUK · 3 Nov 2008 at 10:25

Getting the same temps here at load.

Just FYI using Lettuce's pic above as reference:
I placed one of the long HS on the raised chip by number 3 and the two slim sinks onto points 1 and 2. These just touch the Trad.

At work so cant try...but has anyone seen whether the red baseplate of the stock cooler can fit under the Trad?
http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=998175

Sorry If I've overlooked them...but has anyone posted the stock, out of the box temps?

ticktock · 3 Nov 2008 at 11:48

Doesnt look like this heatsink is great with ATI then!

rjk · 3 Nov 2008 at 11:57

i dont know - the ati results in the op give a better decrease in temps than the nvidia results

im sorry to hear people having trouble with it

ticktock · 3 Nov 2008 at 12:13

Not seen any Nvidia guys having issues though?

Willbo · 3 Nov 2008 at 13:28

RaveyDaveyUK said:
Getting the same temps here at load.

Just FYI using Lettuce's pic above as reference:
I placed one of the long HS on the raised chip by number 3 and the two slim sinks onto points 1 and 2. These just touch the Trad.

At work so cant try...but has anyone seen whether the red baseplate of the stock cooler can fit under the Trad?
http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=998175

Sorry If I've overlooked them...but has anyone posted the stock, out of the box temps?

I've put on pics earlier in the post with stock idle and Trad idle,
Stock -
http://img243.imagevenue.com/img.ph...fore_A-M_Cooler_IDLE_122_382lo.jpg&loc=loc382
Idle -
http://img127.imagevenue.com/img.ph...rUp_GPU_-_After_A-M_Cooler_IDLE_122_856lo.jpg

Willbo · 3 Nov 2008 at 13:29

I'm interested to see how I get on when my Antec SpotCool System Cooler arrives tomorrow....will position it somehow so it blows onto my VRMs either directly or on the back off the card.

Clock.It · 3 Nov 2008 at 13:35

The only way to get better vrm temps is to use one large heatsink+mx-2 paste or have more airflow blowing on them.

I already said where exactly the vrm's are in a earlier post but it was ignored. :confused:

Having used both the trad-2 and Accelero s1 coolers for the 4870 both have high temps with vrm's unless one large heatsink+paste are fitted over the vrm's.

This pic of the Powercolor pcs version (has a custom vrm heatsink already installed) shows a heatsink that would give better temps if used along with mx-2 paste.

The large orange heatsink with the two push pins next to the core cooler is over the 5 small vrm chips.

http://hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?image=big_powercolor-4870-1gb3.jpg&articleid=1217&t=a