HR-03 Plus with 8800GTS at default speeds
It’s hard not to be impressed, while the standard NVIDIA cooler is already quite a monster in size and performance, the HR-03 Plus is able to best the reference cooler by 8-20°C easily; granted for this feat you do need a rather noisy 92mm fan, but it shows you the cooling potential of this heatsink.
When we slow down the fan, at 7v setting, the noise level drops considerably, but still audible. Performance is still better than stock, even when the reference HSF is manually set to 100%. But wait, it gets better, without fan the HR-03 Plus is
cooler than the NVIDIA reference heatsink (set to auto). Almost unbelievable but true, what’s the secret? Airflow of course, without the airflow from the CPU heatsink the performance of the HR-03 Plus would be less stellar; you can see this when looking at the results of the HR-03 Plus installed in position #2. When a fan is installed on the unit performance is identical no matter how you installed it, once you remove that fan it’s case airflow which dictates cooling, at 78.5°C the GTS is certainly running *hot* but nowhere near critical temperature.
Let’s pump up the heat by overclocking the 8800 GTS ->
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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.