8800GT third-party coolers

[cptwhite_uk]

I'm in the market for an a replacement cooler on my 8800GT and to be honest I'm a little lost as to what to get. The options I've seen thus far are:

Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 + Turbo module = £20.18 (Scan, free delivery which bought with some other stuff...)

Although looking at ACs website it says they've just released a rev.2 model which officially supports the 8800GT so can anyone confirm stock of the rev.2 anywhere for a reasonable price, Scan doesn't seem to mention the revision of their stock...

Thermaltake TMG ND1 = £25 delivered approx. (various places)

This looks very much similar in design to the old Arctic Coolers, opinions I've read seem to suggest it's decent, but you have to bend pins back for where the graphics card fan plugs in, so the pins don't contact the metal heatsink. Not particularly something I'd want to do, but would if it was recommended as a good cooler

Thermalright HR03 GT = £35 delivered (from quietpc)

Is this so much better, is it worth the extra. I have concerns this only cools the GPU and as it sits on the back, mounting a fan to it wouldn't help cool the RAM and VRM either as they're on the other side of the board, as far as I understand it?

Also, can anyone recommend me some good RAM sinks were I to use the Thermalright or, if necessary, for use on the Accelero S1?

Obviously if you have any other suggestions please let me know. The max I'm looking to spend really is £25, but would push to £30 or so if it was really worth it. I'm not going to overclock, but currently I get corruption (which looks like the memory giving out) when I run SupCom Forged Alliance for 5 minutes. This seems to be the only game that's giving my errors strangely enough - guess it must really tax the card. I can't be bothered with the whole RMA proceedure and would similar prefer to correct the problem myself as it's clearly an overheating issue.

So let me know your thoughts!

[Thorsson]

See the excellent review on HardOCP.
[H] Enthusiast - GeForce 8800 GT Mega Heatsink Roundup

[cptwhite_uk]

Thanks great link

[Thorsson]

The only things I'd add are that you need to note the size of the Thermalright HR03 GT, and if you replace the HSF you probably void your warranty.

[cptwhite_uk]

Yeah, all these things are known. Looking at the Accelero S1 - seems the rev1 is compatible as ACs website states it. It also provides RAM sinks and with the turbo kit, that just sounds the ticket for me for £20ish.

[Pob255]

One thing you should try to do first is to increase the fan speed on the stock cooler.

The fan only runs at 28% I seem to remember and it does not increase when switching to 3d (ie start a game) or when it starts to warm up.
Setting the fan to 45% should help the temps although it will increase the volume of the fan.
It can be done eaisely with nTune ot Rivatuner

Must say that the ZEROtherm HC92 Cu 8800 and Thermaltake DuOrb look intresting.
Also must note the fact that a gf7900 cooler fits the 8800gt (with some added sinks)

[staffsMike]

I think the zalman cooler would get my vote. With the extra heat sinks everything gets cooled and seems to be damn near silent which is the most important thing to me these damns.

The HR03 GT with a low speed fan would also be on my short list (of 2 lol).

[TooNice]

The VF-900 did better than I expected in that test. The HR03-GT.. love the performance especially on 'low', but it's just.. big.

[spiral out]

I'm still deciding whether to reuse my VF900 or buy a new cooler for 8800gt.

But it looks like it it's more than good enough to use. Only problem is getting the heatsinks of the old card to put the old cooler back on. Does anyone know if that's easy to do or not?

[cptwhite_uk]

Well since Scan was out of stock of the turbo module I've gone with Ebuyer (who were considerably cheaper for the S1) and bought myself an arctic cooling fan to go with it:

Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Graphics Card Cooler - Ebuyer
Arctic Cooling 120mm Case Fan Low Noise (38mm) - Ebuyer

£20.58 delivered total. I'll post some pictures when it arrives next Wednesday and let you know how I get on!

[sawyen]

Just got a HR3-GT and it is probably the best cooler around I feel..

Temperature drop is immense.. You'll be looking on at least 20-25C temperature drop on load and 35-40C on load. The stock cooler idles around 60C now I get 35C idle. The load temps goes up to 90C on the stock but HR3-GT never gets above 45C..

I suppose the cooling doesnt mean too much but it has solved all the crashing issues I had with most games on this card after slightly longer playtime (1hr ish)..

Apparently the VRM sinks on the stock cooler is usually mounted pretty badly, most of the pads are usually compressed so much that only the stringweb holding the paste together is between the VRM and Mem chips, all the paste are on the side of the chips..

I had a 92mm Amber installed on that HR3-GT just for the yolks of it..

The Accelero S1 seems like a compelling deal. But you'll have to give up SLI that way.. which unfortunately I already have it running on SLI and HR3-GT is the only logical choice..

[cptwhite_uk]

Fortunately, I don't do SLI so this isn't an issue for me

[Blitzen]

Thats another big issue with the 8800GT.
If you buy an aftermarket cooler then the price is the same as the new GTS.

Personally i would flog the GT on fleabay and use the cash to get a 8800GTS.

For some reason, the GT is selling there for £140+

[PenguinJim]

If you buy an aftermarket cooler then the price is the same as the new GTS.

You should probably post a link to that £185 new 8800GTS in the Bargains forum. I haven't seen them for less than £207.

[TooNice]

Truth is, there is no telling if I would be satisfied with the GTS stock cooler either. It's supposed to be overall better both noise/performance wise. But whether it is good enough for my noise requirement may be another matter.

£150 GT or £180 GTS. Whoever hits those figures first by the time I start my build in the coming month gets my money.

[crazy]

increasing the fan speed in riva tuner, lowers the temps quite a bit
sometimes the fan fails to kick-in under load, probably why temps go sky high