Thermalright HR-03 Plus VGA Heatsink Review

Cooling/VGA & Other Cooling by geoffrey @ 2007-04-24

The NVIDIA Geforce 8800 VGA cards are available for some time now, but the amount of aftermarket heatsinks is still rather scarce for those power beasts. Now Thermalright steps forward with their HR-03 Plus, capable of cooling the G80 passively? Read on to learn more.

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Inside the box

Inside the box

This is what showed up on my desk:

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Inside we find:

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  • Thermalright HR-03 Plus heatsink
  • memory heatsinks: 4 x low profile and 8 x full height
  • 4 x mosfet heatsink
  • NVIDIA 8800 mounting kit
  • 92mm fan mounting kit
  • Thermalright thermal paste
  • Install manual and Thermalright sticker

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    The HR-03 heatsink comes with a symmetrical slick looking design which made it look sexy and powerful at the same time. The nickel surface is quite reflecting which gives it a bit choom looking, but it’s all copper and aluminum underneath.

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    Compared to the original HR-03 we find 6 heat pipes instead of 4 and a larger surface area where a 92mm fan can be attached. Side holes are used for attaching the fan mounting kit, adding forced airflow through the heatsink. Do note that this is optional.

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    All six heat pipes are soldered to the copper base and so creating heavy heat disposal abilities. Though, for this heatsink to be compatible with new Geforce 8800 vga cards Thermalright also had to keep in mind that the G80 GPU is quite a bit larger then the base of the original HR-03, so that's also a part that has been redesigned.

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    As can be seen on above, the base plate of the HR-03 Plus has been flattened on both sides. Together with a smart mounting kit this heatsink can be installed in 2 different ways. More on this can be seen on next page.

    Here is a view at the mounting kit for NVIDIA 8800 VGA cards:

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    Together with the HR-03 Plus we found many different smaller heatsink which are meant for other hot running parts on Geforce 8800 board: RAM chips, power mosfets, and the NVIO chip. Those heatsink don't need any bracket as they come with adhesive thermal pads, unfortunately they didn’t seem to keep in place very well, falling of the chips whenever the card was moved around. Note to Thermalright: use better adhesive pads.

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    Let's move on ->
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    Comment from jodiuh @ 2007/04/24
    Printing now! Please never, ever take that feature away.

    I've had this sink sitting on my desk for almost a month now and just can't decide if it's worth it. It'd be paired w/ a Scythe SFLEX E 1200RPM 120mm fan.

    I used the original HR-03 on the X1900 because it's OEM cooler sounded like a jet engine, but this 8800GTX cooler never gets loud. Tho it does get up to 80ish C when gaming...

    EDIT: Just finished reading...still not convinced this is the cooler for me...oh well.
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/04/24
    print feature won't leave site soon
    the original HR-03 features less heat pipes, so might end up less effective than the stock cooling

     

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