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Xirex 4mm Thick Water Block Tested for Geforce 8800 GT

Cooling/Water Cooling by geoffrey @ 2008-08-14

NVIDIA had quite a success with their 8800 video card series; especially their 8800 GT based on the G92 core made its way into many PC configurations. Sadly the single slot reference cooler was not very quiet under load and high temperatures prevent any overclocking fun. Xirex launched their Stealth Full Cover water block which aims to bring excellent performance even with low noise water cooling configurations, let´s put it to the test!

Test setup & Benchmark methodology

Geoffreys' Test Setup



CPU	Intel E6600
Cooling	Zalman 9700 LED
Mainboard	ASUS P5E
Memory	2x1Gb TEAMGROUP Xtreem 800MHz 4-4-4-10-35-4-10-10-10-2T
Graphics	Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GT ZL 512Mb
Other	FSP Epsilon 900 PSU Maxtor 80Gb PATA HDD Seagate 200GB SATA HDD Antec Nine Hundred housing 20" Dell UltraSharp 2007FP TFT monitor

The CPU was running at 3,6GHz by setting the front side bus to 400MHz and keeping the multiplier at default (9). The memory was running @ 400MHz (800MHz DDR) with 4-4-4-10 timings 1/1 with the FSB.

ForceWare 169.21 drivers

Ambient temperature during tests was ~20°C, due to fluctuations and sensor inaccuracy, allow for 1-3°C variance in the results.

Watercooling setup

Geoffreys' Watercooling Test Setup

Type	External, no housing
Radiator	Black Ice Extreme II
Pump	Laing D4 12V
Reservoir	Selfmade, 1/2" fittings
Tubing	Clear PVC 1/2" ID
Fans	Enermax B12025112M-3M 12V 120mm fan 12V Papst 12V 120mm fan, unknown type

Benchmark methodology

Our benchmarks were completed with a Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GT ZL 512Mb at reference speeds as well as stable overclocked settings (core: 700MHz, V-RAM: 1000MHz) to increase heat output. To stress our VGA card we ran 3D Mark 2005 in loop for one hour, afterwards we let the system rest for one hour in order to measure the idle temperature.

The Antec Nine Hunderd Gaming chassis was used, front and rear 120mm fans set to low speed as well as the top 200mm monster.

We used two voltage levels for both FANs and PUMP, at full speed (12v) and at reduced speed (7V).

Comment from geoffrey @ 2008/08/15

I received a response from one of our readers stating:

Quote:

In the article "Xirex 4mm Thick Water Block Tested for Geforce 8800 GT" you compared the water block against a Zalman VF-850 cooler. I can find no information on the web, or from Zalman about this video cooler.

With that in mind I can only assume this cooler does not exist and the performance data provided in this review is fictitious.

Just to make sure I don't get multiple request I will answer the question here in public.

The Zalman VF-850 is an OEM heatsink. You're correct, you won't find this unit on Zalman's site, however the VF-850 heatsink is the successor of the Zalman VF-830 which you can find on Zalman's site, have a look: http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/...ad.asp?idx=303

I have no detailed sight on what the exact differences are between the 830 and 850, just in case I've already provided links to the article in which we tested the Leadtek card which is from the manufactory out provided with this heatsink. There you can see to what heatsink we're comparing in this article.

I hope this may be of any help to any of you.

Comment from jmke @ 2008/08/15

what a ridiculous claim made by the author of that email, it just proves he didn't thoroughly read your review since he skipped the part where you linked to the Leadtek 8800 GT product review...

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