GTX280 Coolers - HR-03 or Arctic Cooling?

[Tonka777]

Hi guys,

I'm looking at sticking another cooler on my GTX280, and wondering if anyone here has any experience with either the HR-03 GTX or the Arctic Cooling job?

The stock cooler does the job, but it gets sooo loud when the fan speed ramps up that i can hear the GPU fan over the Lotus engine in F12010!

Any opinions or advice appreciated,

Thanks.

[Tonka777]

So no Hexites have tried a different cooler on a GTX280 then?

[matty-hodgson]

I had the HR-03 GTX on my old GTX260, it was a brilliant cooler when coupled with a fan, but VERY VERY VERY difficult to fit properly.

[Tonka777]

Cool, thanks for the reply Matty.

Mind if i ask a couple more questions about the HR-03?

How did the VRM temp go with it? I've heard that the VRM's get hotter with non stock cooling, but that could just be a limitation of it not being fitted properly. And, what do you mean by very difficult to fit properly? What was involved?

Thanks in advance for any further insight.

[LuckyNV]

VRM cooling can be an issue with HR-03 series because of the heatsink design where the fan is too far away from the VRM area to have a good cooling effect.

This can be alleviated by fitting another fan alongside the normal fitted fan, using zip ties or similar.

[matty-hodgson]

Cool, thanks for the reply Matty.

Mind if i ask a couple more questions about the HR-03?

How did the VRM temp go with it? I've heard that the VRM's get hotter with non stock cooling, but that could just be a limitation of it not being fitted properly. And, what do you mean by very difficult to fit properly? What was involved?

Thanks in advance for any further insight.

I bought some separate VRM heatsinks to go with mine, a bag of about 15 from Scan was only a few quid, they worked quite well and I still got a decent overclock out of the memory.

It was just stupidly difficult to install, read any review for it and they all say the same. It was just very difficult to screw in and to get the heatsink flat on the GPU.

[Tonka777]

Thanks for the info chaps.

Matty, was it these heatsinks you used? - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/therm...or-hr-03revav2

I think i might get one of those Antec Spot Cool Fans too. Combined with some VRM heatsinks i don't think i'll have a problem.

Cheers