Installation

Weighing in at ~520 grams the Condor is no light weight; in fact it?s the heaviest VGA cooler I?ve tested yet. The Arctic Cooling Silencer series comes closest at ~420gr but it doesn?t have a wing attached to side of it. A good mounting method is essential for the Condor to succeed; after all, you don?t want the wing to come crashing down. When transporting your case with the Condor installed inside you should take the same precaution as with the heavier tower CPU coolers, lay your Tower case on its side.

Looking at the bag of mounting gear I received I was a bit puzzled at first, why are there tooth picks? In the photo below you can see the custom mounting gear that comes with the Condor as well as the 4 screws+spring used by the default 7900 GT heatsink.



As you guessed, I used a 7900 GT to test the Condor, the installation manual has detailed instructions on how to get the unit installed, and it also reveals what the tooth picks are used for:



Four plastic washers are placed over each mounting hole, the two tooth picks help you guide the VGA card so that the core sits right in the middle of the copper base:



A second set of washers and screws are then needed to secure the heatsink in its place. I found that the metal used for the screws was quite soft and the + was easily stripped out. Aerocase informed me that they are now shipping brass screws which removes this problem, you also now get a spare screw/washer/rubber, that?s good news for clumsy people like me:)



With the Condor in place it?s time to place it inside my test system.