MADSHRIMPS - Hardware Reviews ,Crazy Projects, Modding Tutorials and Overclocking

[M]adness

Intel Core i7 In-Depth Performance Scaling Analysis

Sponsors

Swiftech and Danger Den Water Cooling for Geforce 8800 Series

In this article we take an in-depth look at the advanced cooling options available for the Geforce 8800 series. Both Danger Den and Swiftech have water blocks designed to fit the latest NVIDIA high end cards, so we take them for a test ride, comparing performance at different pump speeds, SLI compatibility and see how they do compared to high end air cooling solutions. Read on to find out if water cooling a G80 based VGA card is worth it.

Author	geoffrey
Editor	jmke
Date	2007-06-06
Discuss	5 comment(s)
Print this Article


	Noise Levels Water cooling can be a step up in the cooling department, but it’s also a way to decrease noise levels. If you select the correct 120mm (or larger) fans to cool down the radiator you can run them at very low speed and keep high performance. Our test setup consisted of an external water cooling housing with two rather noisy 120mm fans, the pump, even running at 12V, was hardly noticeable, but the fans were picked up clearly by the dBA meter. ambient noise level = 40,1dBA When the auto fan speed is set on the Stock NVIDIA heatsink the card remains quite silent, you can force the fan to run at 100% but this increases noise level to ~47dBA. Performance wise temperatures drop by ~10°C. I’m quite tolerant to noise, as long as it’s not Delta/Vantec Tornado level, so my choice of fans might not be the “quiet man’s” best friend. I’d rather have those extra frames in-game with speakers blasting at full force, than to not hear my PC running. The perception of noise is a very subjective matter so I can't fault these water blocks for being “noisy”, how can they be, they are just metal blocks. Choosing the “silent” components to build you WC setup is the deciding factor, our tests revealed only a negligible decrease in performance when using slower fans. Water- vs High-End Air-Cooling We had to wait a while but finally some manufacturers released 3rd party air cooled heatsinks for the Geforce 8800 series, first up was the MACS M-Sorceress II, available separately or pre-installed on cards like the Calibre 8800 GTS we reviewed. The second alternative to the stock heatsink was provided by Thermalright, their HR-03 Plus which we tested in-depth here, provides a remarkable increase in cooler power. This heatsink is heat pipe powered and relies on a 92mm fan of your choice to provide airflow; this leaves the choice to the end user whether he wants high performance, quiet operating (even fanless) or a bit of both. We used a Sunon KDE1209PTB1-6 92mm fan which provided a lot of airflow, but made the dBA meter spike to ~55dBA. Let’s put all the results in one nifty chart to see how they performed: Conclusive Thoughts The MCW-60 from Swiftech is by far the best performing water block we tested yet, people aiming for lowest temps should definitely go for it. Keep in mind that you could come across small problems during the install procedure, and you also might want to be looking for third party thermal pads because the original thermal pads applied on the MC8800 SMC cooling kit did not stick very well (White paste helped for us, though this will dry out in little time which eventually causes the heatsinks loosing it grip). Price might be on the high side but with all those different mounting kits included this block offers compatibility with most of the latest VGA cards (AMD R600 mounting kit coming up?). Thanks to its low profile this block is also SLI compatible, but will require some extra loops of tubing. The installation of the NV-88GTS-PC from Danger Den was straight forward, less experienced users can't go wrong with this block, as cools both GPU and Memory chips and the water tube fittings can be configured to point either way, making it compatible with different case layouts, this same fittings system is also responsible for a seamless SLI integration, where two blocks can be installed without much hassle or extra tubing. Performance wise it trails the MCW-60 but with load temps still noticeably better than stock (-10~20°C !) it’s hard to say it under performs. The HR-03 Plus air cooled heatsink from Thermalright does match the NV-88GTS-PC performance numbers but needs a loud fan to accomplish this, the Danger Den block does not restrict water flow a lot and will keep the G80 running cool even when you undervolt the water pump and/or fan(s) on the radiator. The downside of the NV-88GTS-PC can be found in its name, the block only works with Geforce 8800 GTS video cards, making it an expensive one time purchase of $134.99. What we haven’t look at in-depth in this review is extra overclocking potential with these high performance water blocks installed, in our recent G80 Overclocking Guide we looked at the temperature side of things when the G80 is overclocked and overvolted, temperature on the GPU rose more than 15°C, and that was with voltages and speeds nowhere near the limit. With these water blocks your overclocking experience will be quite positive, as heat will no longer be an issue, our overclocking tests revealed only very small GPU temp increases with either block, this allows you to find the maximum GPU and Memory speeds without worry for overheating. Let’s wrap up our experience with both Geforce 8800 water cooling solutions. Swiftech MCW-60 + MC8800 SMC cooling kit Recommended for + Best retail VGA G80 cooling solution + Excellent compatibility (different VGA cards and Tubing Sizes) + Low Profile = SLI ready + Excellent Build Quality, Sleek Looks - Installation of mounting brackets needs minor fixes - Thermal pads on memory heatsinks not very adhesive (see update bottom of page!) - Price on the high side: $46.95 (MCW-60) + $39.95 (MC8800 SMC cooling kit) DanderDen NV-88GTS-PC Recommended for + Excellent Geforce 8800 GTS Cooling + Easy installation + Excellent Build Quality + Possibility to choose for smaller fittings when ordering your block + Cools both GPU and Memory Chips + Configurable fittings (direction) + Made with SLI in mind: low profile - Restricted compatibility (only Geforce 8800 GTS) - Minor issue: no INBUS screwdriver included - High price premium $134.99 We would like to thank Dan from Danger Den and Gabe from Swiftech for allowing us to test drive their product; Until next time! Update: Swiftech thermal pads We were informed by Swiftech that since May 2007 (our samples are dated before May) they have switched the adhesive thermal pad for the memory heatsinks seen here. The new ones are much stickier and won't fall of easily. <<- Prev \|-\| Home Quick Page Jump: More reviews in this category can be found below: Swiftech Apogee XT High End CPU Water Block Review Larkooler Universal High Performance Complete CPU / VGA / Chipset / Mosfet Liquid Cooling Kit Review Intel Core i7 CPU Water Block Roundup October 2009 Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Water-Cooling Kit Review Intel Core i7 CPU Water Block Roundup May 2009 Mushkin Does Liquid Cooling! eXtreme Performance Liquid Tested Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultima Water-Cooling Kit Review Xirex Liquid Cooling Starter Set Review Xirex 4mm Thick Water Block Tested for Geforce 8800 GT EK Supreme and Koolance CPU-340 Compared to The Competition

Copyright © 2001-2010 Madshrimps / JMkeOC.com, All rights reserved.
Graphical Design by Dennis Kestelle, Programming by John Meys, Paul Meys and Frederik Colardyn, Overall Site design by John Meys

All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.

BTW-BE 0888919678

	ADS by G

	Search Madshrimps

	Search Madshrimps:

	Daily News

	A $20 8-Bit Wikiped... Intel/AMD old king ... AMD tops Nvidia in ... GPU value in the Di... Geforce GTS 450 in ... Intel Core i7 970 R... Crucial RealSSD C30... StarCraft II: Wings... ATI Catalyst 10.7 W... Gelid Solutions Tra... Intel Core i5-655K ... PowerColor PCS+ HD ... MSI GeForce GTX 460... DeepCool Ice Warrio... AMD 2010 Processor ... Patriot Inferno 100... OCZ Technology Revo... Sharkoon Silent Eag... NZXT Phantom Case... Slot-In Water Cooli... Syndicate Madshrimps Daily News with our XML/RSS Feed! Receive updates by e-mail Read more News...

	Sponsor Space:

	New Content

	Articles/Reviews: Sparkle Nvidia GeFo... GlacialTech Igloo 5... Art Technology E In... NEXUS RX-1.1K Gold ... Gigabyte H55N-USB3 ... Brando Bond Spy Spo... TRENDnet TEW-691GR ... NETGEAR WNDA3100 RA... ASRock P55 Deluxe3 ... Thecus N2200 Review... NETGEAR RangeMax Du... SoundGraph FingerVU... Stefan´s Video Card... AXLE RADEON HD 5450... Sunbeamtech Air Box... Howto and Guides: Building a 300W Fan... NVIDIA Geforce 8400... NVIDIA Geforce 8800... Reviving and Volt M... Protect the core of...