New 7800 GTX Voltage Regulator cooler

[Top Nurse]

New Koolance Voltage regulator cooler for the 7800 GTX boards. Pics here:

 

[Erasmus354]

It looks perty and shiny...thats all I'll say for now

 

[DFI Daishi]

oww.....i think that something just stabbed me right in the brain......

the very concept of watercooling a little Vreg chip, especially with it's own waterblock......oww, there it is again.......

finnned copper anyone? a good chunk of it, can go a long way, and is usually reasonably priced.

oh, wait, this is a koolance product and it's in the watercooling forum: watercooling things because we can.

not really a stab at you this time, TN, just the product.

 

[Bona Fide]

watercooling things because we can.

That's what it's all about.

New MOSFET waterblocks!!

 

[Erasmus354]

ok I have restrained myself long enough...the only people that should be using this are people that send their 7800GTX off to Viper John to get it volt modded.

 

[DFI Daishi]

That's what it's all about.

New MOSFET waterblocks!!

that's not what it's about for all of us.

some of us want the best performance we can get, and don't much care if it's watercooled or not, so long as it works optimally.

my own current setup is a bit odd in that light, since i built my cooling on a full time job kind of budget, however current hardware is based on the requirements of a student budget. all the same, i still believe in the goal of cooling what needs to be cooled, to the degree that it will not be a bottleneck, to overclocking or overall performance. anything beyond that is pointless.

 

[Roliath]

ok I have restrained myself long enough...the only people that should be using this are people that send their 7800GTX off to Viper John to get it volt modded.

But even if they do, ViperJohn has his own heatsink he uses for it.
Straight from a VJ invoice.

Vcore Mosfet ViperSink = 11.95 ( Replaces the weak cooling stock Vcore Mosfet heatsink. This sink )( is included in Water Cool base kit but is optional with air cooled cards. )

 

[Bio-Hazard]

that's not what it's about for all of us.

some of us want the best performance we can get, and don't much care if it's watercooled or not, so long as it works optimally.

my own current setup is a bit odd in that light, since i built my cooling on a full time job kind of budget, however current hardware is based on the requirements of a student budget. all the same, i still believe in the goal of cooling what needs to be cooled, to the degree that it will not be a bottleneck, to overclocking or overall performance. anything beyond that is pointless.

Agreed 100%..................

 

[Top Nurse]

Would all the people that posted here about how worthless this product is please answer the following question:

Do you currently own a 7800 GTX video card and know for a fact that it doesn't need watercooling?

 

[Top Nurse]

ok I have restrained myself long enough...the only people that should be using this are people that send their 7800GTX off to Viper John to get it volt modded.

WOWSA ! You actually restrained yourself for a whole 5 minutes.

 

[Justin_Diduch]

the reason I put the idea forward of cooling the Vregs on those cards is because once they are watercooled there is very little airflow around the Vregs (especially in SLI on DFI boards and others with little space). i found that the group of Vregs under that little black heatsink were getting into the upper 70C range. IMHO that needs some more cooling. I am glad to see that Koolance has followed through and produced yet another fine looking product. I would just like to say that it feels great to see somthing that I conceptualized come to fruition. as a side note i am pretty happy with the way the motherboard fan bracket came out too. yet another very simple idea excecuted perfectly. Kudos Koolance.

 

[DFI Daishi]

Would all the people that posted here about how worthless this product is please answer the following question:

Do you currently own a 7800 GTX video card and know for a fact that it doesn't need watercooling?

no, i do not own a 7800 GTX, and i do not know FOR A FACT that the Vregs don't need water cooling.

i DO know that my old athlon XP mobile drew around 130 watts when fully overclocked (based on CPU bench test), and that the Vreg on that board got quite hot. the chip benifited from the addition of a small heatsink. the Vreg did not, by any stretch of the imagination, need a waterblock.

so, given that the entire 7800 GTX card is supposed to draw 100-110 watts (taken from the [H] preview of the 7800 series), i don't think that the conclusion that a heatsink can cool the Vreg chip adequately is exactly out there. if people don't have enough airflow around the cards, then a quiet zalman fan and bracket might be a thought, as opposed to yet another waterblock.

 

[FLECOM]

Vregs under that little black heatsink were getting into the upper 70C range.

no it dosent mean anyhting, the average LM78xx/LM317 linear regulator IC is rated for -40 deg c to +125 degrees C

im sure your regulators were quite content running at 70c

 

[Erasmus354]

no it dosent mean anyhting, the average LM78xx/LM317 linear regulator IC is rated for -40 deg c to +125 degrees C

im sure your regulators were quite content running at 70c

Hooray for common sense!

 

[Justin_Diduch]

and i am sure you want that heat just sitting in your case too...
i am also wondering if it wouldnt be quite easy to attach your own custom mounting brackets where the stock ones screw on. seems a good candidate for cooling lots of other things.

 

[Top Nurse]

Do the 7800 GTX's use the average chip? Also the issue is of getting nice clean power to the unit that make your ultra-fast games happen. So while the chip doesn't fry till it hits 125 degrees Centigrade what happens to the voltage regulation characteristics in the output power? BTW, you sure about that 125C rating? Water boils at 100C.

 

[Bio-Hazard]

A quick Google search (you can do it to) found this spec.

http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM317.html

 

[keakdasneak]

thats insane!! i want one ..

 

[FLECOM]

Do the 7800 GTX's use the average chip? Also the issue is of getting nice clean power to the unit that make your ultra-fast games happen. So while the chip doesn't fry till it hits 125 degrees Centigrade what happens to the voltage regulation characteristics in the output power? BTW, you sure about that 125C rating? Water boils at 100C.

more than likely they use the average chip yes, they are quite good at what they do and very cheap, they have no reason to use anything else... if you want to pop off the heatsink and see what the regulator actually is go for it, i do not own a 7800 so i cannot do so...

and yes, i am sure about the 125c rating... and if its rated for that tempreature that means it should function within its specifications at that tempreature...

would i recommend it? no, but 70c isnt going to make it explode

 

[thelostrican]

Would all the people that posted here about how worthless this product is please answer the following question:

Do you currently own a 7800 GTX video card and know for a fact that it doesn't need watercooling?

i do...what a waste....
i also just got a new 1800xt, an darn its huge....i hope danger den, makes a full block for it...something tells me this time around the memory will get really hot

 

[Top Nurse]

i do...what a waste....
i also just got a new 1800xt, an darn its huge....i hope danger den, makes a full block for it...something tells me this time around the memory will get really hot

Meaning you watercooled it and it didn't make any difference in your OC's or were you able to run it at what you did without letting the magic smoke out?

 

[pawstar]

Excellent! First the memory cooler, now this. Its a wonderful product for those of us who want to build a really silent system and don't want too many fans

 

[Erasmus354]

Excellent! First the memory cooler, now this. Its a wonderful product for those of us who want to build a really silent system and don't want too many fans

Not really, it is a wonderful product for the people who want the bling factor or the because I can factor in their system. The mosfets are easily passively cooled with the stock heatsink on them. Its not a bad product, just a largely unnecessary product...then again we dont NEED to watercool at all

 

[thelostrican]

Meaning you watercooled it and it didn't make any difference in your OC's or were you able to run it at what you did without letting the magic smoke out?

i didnt watercooled, but i used one of this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835888112
when findind my max oc, then i took it out and my max was the same(and thx god cause that thing is freaking loud), then i also took the "the memory heatspreader" an my max oc was still the same, it is the hotter part in my card since the gpu is watercooled, i am sure it doesnt get to 70c, at least i can touch mine....and leave the finger....the magic smoke is still there
ill report back if it sudenlly dies, one other thing to know is that the gtx runs cooler than the 6800 ultra....

almost anything and everything can be watercooled, just because it can be, doesnt mean its needed, and if something doesnt give me a better oc, or eliminates some kind of noise, to me it is a waste, simple as that....thats my opinion......

feel free to try it.

 

[thelostrican]

Not really, it is a wonderful product for the people who want the bling factor or the because I can factor in their system. The mosfets are easily passively cooled with the stock heatsink on them. Its not a bad product, just a largely unnecessary product...then again we dont NEED to watercool at all

not even bling, for god sake it doesnt even match with their gpu cooling, horrible, no bling in that block, an you start to add all those blocks and all of a sudden you have a spider web in your case, yiack....

 

[InternationalHat]

Would all the people that posted here about how worthless this product is please answer the following question:

Do you currently own a 7800 GTX video card and know for a fact that it doesn't need watercooling?

I own a 7800 GTX cooled with a dangerden maze4 gpu block and OCZ bga ramsinks. This mosfet cooler has to be either the first or second dumbest thing I've ever seen on these forums and I read the car section.

 

[Double Jesus]

haha car section...
i agree though that doesn't look all that great of an idea... next i'm going to get a waterblock made to cool the hole that is gonna burn through my pocket when buying all this junk.

 

[Punx_Clever]

I own a 7800 GTX cooled with a dangerden maze4 gpu block and OCZ bga ramsinks. This mosfet cooler has to be either the first or second dumbest thing I've ever seen on these forums and I read the car section.

You sir, shall be placed in my signature.

 

[Top Nurse]

I own a 7800 GTX cooled with a dangerden maze4 gpu block and OCZ bga ramsinks. This mosfet cooler has to be either the first or second dumbest thing I've ever seen on these forums and I read the car section.

So if you eliminated the fan that was cooling the VR on your video card how did you cool it? I find it hillarious that all the people who are downing this product are all bigger tube advocates that couldn't possibly use this product anyway.

Perhaps it is time for a Koolance thread?

 

[DFI Daishi]

find it hillarious that all the people who are downing this product are all bigger tube advocates that couldn't possibly use this product anyway.

Perhaps it is time for a Koolance thread?

rather than addressing comments like this at people who are confining their commentary to the product presently being discussed, perhaps you could try countering some of the points that we are making.

can you (or anyone else)provide some evidence that:
1) Vreg will not opperate optimally at temperatures up around 70C, even if it is spec'd for up to 125C.
2) a good heatsink, with normal case airflow, will not keep the Vreg sufficiently cool to opperate optimally.
3) having an effective air cooling solution to cool the video memory, Vreg, and chipset (all at once, or seperately) offers inferior performance in terms of either noise or cooling.

a few people, myself included, have made points indicating that the above points are all false. please show how one or more of them are true, if you want to demonstrate that this is a worthwhile product.

 

[InternationalHat]

So if you eliminated the fan that was cooling the VR on your video card how did you cool it? I find it hillarious that all the people who are downing this product are all bigger tube advocates that couldn't possibly use this product anyway.

Perhaps it is time for a Koolance thread?

Since when was there a fan cooling my voltage regulator? There's a big black heat sink on it. I see absolutely no need to do anything else with it considering passive heatsinks are silent.

This is silly and frivolous unless you're voltmodding. And if you're voltmodding, why would you want to run a low flow/restrictive setup for your GPU? It's self-defeatist to put many items on the loop or to not cool the gpu to the most of the loop's potential if voltmodding. I can't help but laugh at some of these products koolance and AC are making lately. A good many of them are watercooling for the sake of watercooling. What's next? Are we going to cool my cdrom drive so the cds don't get warm? Maybe we can watercool my fans and then use those same fans to cool their own radiator and then cool other things with that!

If someone can actually post some data that this does anything over a good passive sink MEASURABLE IN A DOUBLE-BLIND TEST, I will eat my hat... and I guess I'll just become International.

 

[FLECOM]

actually volt modding should make them run cooler! if you increase the voltage going to the video chip the amount of voltage the regulator has to drop is less, making it convert less into heat... this would be nulled if the video chipset started drawing more current but electronic devices will usually draw less current when you raise the voltage... but ymmv

 

[badash]

First it is 1/4" and I need 3/8" second it doesn't look like the 7800 GTX 512mb card being released monday has a vreg heatsink or isn't the same size from the pictures I have seen. Third I already have Alphacool 7800 vreg coolers waiting for the 7800gtx 512mb. We will see Monday.

 

[revenant]

actually volt modding should make them run cooler! if you increase the voltage going to the video chip the amount of voltage the regulator has to drop is less, making it convert less into heat... this would be nulled if the video chipset started drawing more current but electronic devices will usually draw less current when you raise the voltage... but ymmv

that is a very interesting and good point.

 

[pawstar]

So if you eliminated the fan that was cooling the VR on your video card how did you cool it? ...

That was my thought exactly. For a nearly passive watercooled computer with virtually no airflow, this would enable a descent overclock without the worry of frying the v-reg. I rather doubt that a passive cooler would be a good as this if there is no air flowing over it.

 

[Bio-Hazard]

You got to have some sort of airflow in your case even if you want a silent system, or you'll end up frying the other components that aren't water cooled ............ Even the radiator fans blowing or pulling air across the HS is more than enough....................

On a standard mid-tower case the front intake sits at the same level as the graphics card and gives a good source of cooling air.................

Here's a great example of great airflow over the MoBo and video card.

 

[Top Nurse]

Since when was there a fan cooling my voltage regulator? There's a big black heat sink on it. I see absolutely no need to do anything else with it considering passive heatsinks are silent.

This is silly and frivolous unless you're voltmodding. And if you're voltmodding, why would you want to run a low flow/restrictive setup for your GPU? It's self-defeatist to put many items on the loop or to not cool the gpu to the most of the loop's potential if voltmodding. I can't help but laugh at some of these products koolance and AC are making lately. A good many of them are watercooling for the sake of watercooling. What's next? Are we going to cool my cdrom drive so the cds don't get warm? Maybe we can watercool my fans and then use those same fans to cool their own radiator and then cool other things with that!

If someone can actually post some data that this does anything over a good passive sink MEASURABLE IN A DOUBLE-BLIND TEST, I will eat my hat... and I guess I'll just become International.

There was a fan cooling your VR until you took it off the video card and replaced it with a waterblock, right?

The retreat of a scoundrel is statistics. High flow started without statistics, correct? Low flow started without statistics, correct? They both seem to work equally well, correct? So why the need for statistics or proof? I find it extremely amusing that all the talk about this thread centers around High vs Low flow. Sorry, but I don't play that game anymore.

 

[Top Nurse]

actually volt modding should make them run cooler! if you increase the voltage going to the video chip the amount of voltage the regulator has to drop is less, making it convert less into heat... this would be nulled if the video chipset started drawing more current but electronic devices will usually draw less current when you raise the voltage... but ymmv

Interesting concept, but everytime I put more voltage through a device it seems to get hotter.

 

[Top Nurse]

can you (or anyone else)provide some evidence that:
1) Vreg will not opperate optimally at temperatures up around 70C, even if it is spec'd for up to 125C.
2) a good heatsink, with normal case airflow, will not keep the Vreg sufficiently cool to opperate optimally.
3) having an effective air cooling solution to cool the video memory, Vreg, and chipset (all at once, or seperately) offers inferior performance in terms of either noise or cooling.

a few people, myself included, have made points indicating that the above points are all false. please show how one or more of them are true, if you want to demonstrate that this is a worthwhile product.

No more evidence than you can supply as most all the comments coming here are from people who don't have 7800 GTX's or they are making general comments.

 

[Bio-Hazard]

They both seem to work equally well, correct? I find it extremely amusing that all the talk about this thread centers around High vs Low flow. Sorry, but I don't play that game anymore.

No they don't work equally well............ And no one started a high flow/low flow game, they just said it wasn't need in this case.............. And I'm sorry that you don't want to come out and play anymore..................