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Thermaltake Giant III

K

KickAssCop

[H]F Junkie
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Joined
Mar 19, 2003
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11,094
So I finally got my hands on the Thermaltake Extreme Giant III, and boy am I one happy puppy. Yeah, yeah you all wanted to hear that didn't ya! I am not just happy, I am MORE than happy ha! This cooling kit simply rocks. I got 423 on the core and 374 on the memory which is quite impressive to say the least. I had overclocked my card to 412/365 w/ stock cooling but it used to artifact after 1 hr of gaming w/ ambient temps of 10-15 C. Now when my ambient temps have risen to 30-35C it no longer overclocked that high. The best w/o artifacts I could do was a mere 390/350 overclock nowadays. I know I had 9800 Pro @ 9800XT slapped on my sig for quite a while but it didnt actually hit it anymore :(.

Anyways my preliminary overclocking results are 100% stable and artifact free at 9800XT speeds using only the Reverflow fan (central 60mm fan on Giant III) on low. But the heatsinks got more than warm to the touch. At Low fan speed there was simply NO sound from the kit. None at all, all I was able to hear was my stock Intel P4 cooling and that's about it.

At Medium fan speed of Reverflow there was only as much noise as my stock P4 cooling and the heatsinks were mildly warm to the touch. It is probably the best solution. I have yet to check for the best overclock for the card w/ this setting but it does 9800XT speeds easily.

At High fan speed there was a whine and noticable noise but that might also be due to my open case. But i think with the case closed there might not be considerable noise. But the bright side was that the heatsinks were warm to the touch.

Now for the bad news, blower fan sucks ass. That is probably the best thing I can say about it. It has a shrill whine and can give you a headache. The noise could only not be heard when I had the volume turned up while playing a game. So only the good thing I can say about that is the speed switch. Turn the damn thing on when playing a game ONLY. The plus point is that it does keep the back heatsink quite cool which is a plus. Once the volume is up you cant hear the little whiner. I got the 423/374 MHz using maximum *cough*extreme boosters on this puppy, which is quite a nice overclock for the money. Up to 423 from 390 on the core gives 33 Mhz extra overclock. For memory I got from 350 to 374 Mhz which is a 24 Mhz extra overclock for the memory. Really good stuff IMO.

All in all let me slap the rundown of the Thermaltake Extreme Giant III using the good ol' Pro and Cons.

First up Pros:
1) Price is quite good since you get quite a nice package.
2) Dual heatpipes DO increase the speed of cooling down the core. The heatpipes were burning hot at all times so that shows that they are doing their job well.
3) Can do silent operation unlike the Giant II I had on my 9700 Pro.
4) Free ramsinks of good quality which are well crafted and pure copper using 3M thermal tape which was thin and ensures good thermal transfer.
5) Fan speed controls.
6) Well crafted heatsink and base which was smooth and had protruding aluminum to fit inside the shim.
7) Excellent overclock improvement for air cooling.
8) Generous amount of thermal paste which is quite good quality.

And now the cons:
1) Weight.. almost 460 gms. DAMN!
2) Installation is quite involved and can get messy. Use lots of tissue. :p
3) Noise is maddening when ONLY on full power+blower fan w/o headphone or sound system.
4) Wires, too many of them that clutter my case.

All in all I was impressed by this cooling kit. It works well and does a hefty job of cooling and providing w/ insane overclocks. For 35 bucks you just cant beat the quality on this kit.

I will post pictures of my card later coz currently my digi cam isn't working and it was fine 2 days ago :(. Also these are only preliminary results, will post more when I do more testing
 
I was trying to make a post about asking you to post this yesterday, but I kept on getting a "you can only post every 30 secs" error.
Anyway great job man.

I would like to know. Does this have the same shim problem as the VGA silencer?
As you said the install was messy. I don't mind missy or it taking long, but anything anyone should watch out for?
 
im quite happy with mine as well. i reviewed it a few days ago on here but it seems no one look at my posts :rolleyes: :mad: .

edit oh yeah im thinking of replacing the blower fan on top with a standard 40mm fan thats quieter any suggestions?
 
It's definitely nice to hear news like this. I was thinking about getting the Giant III for my 9800XT and it looks like it just might be worth it after all. That is, until nv40 hits the shelves and I drop down ANOTHER $700 for a new video card. ;) Ah well, you can't win 'em all. :cool:

EDIT: I actually had some idea's about modding the cooler. I had never planned on using the blower fan but here's an idea.....

I was thinking about cutting decently large holes in the "but end" of the Giant and sitting my 85cfm 120mm fan on the side panel to blow on/through it. I'm thinking that this would not only keep the plates MUCH cooler, but also allow air to pass through the holes and maybe cool the ram better, and hopefully increase THAT overclock.

What do you guys think???
 
Great review...Did you use the thermal stuff that the cooler came with or did you use some aftermarket stuff such as AS5?
 
i used the thermal stuff.

there was ALOT OF IT.

i barely used 1/4th of a tube and that was with very generous amounts of paste on areas that needed it.

edit: it is currently on a my 9800pro 256mb flash to xt and runnin fine so hey it should work for you.
 
About the sound:

I would put the fan on slow/medium and in the side of the case id mod at least 1 92mm silent fan derectly to the side of the fins. With that much surface area, enough air flow would keep that thing damn cool
 
Originally posted by Cloud15x
About the sound:

I would put the fan on slow/medium and in the side of the case id mod at least 1 92mm silent fan derectly to the side of the fins. With that much surface area, enough air flow would keep that thing damn cool
Click to expand...

i have an 80mm blowing on it at 32.11 rated CFM (side case fan), and believe me it is directly on it. The side that is being blown on is very cool to the touch. Touch that back though nice and warm :) so those heapipes are working really good.


EDIT: sincei flashed to the 9800xt bios with the thermal sensor i have noticed ZERO temp difference with or without it. I just leave it off now :rolleyes:
 
I used the thermal paste that came w/ the kit and it is of good quality. I did not get the AS5 since it was just an added cost that wouldnt have done me any good. I had used the paste w/ Giant II and knew that it does the job well. (I only used 20% of the paste and have 80% still left from my Giant II :p)

As far as the shim thing is concerned.. whether your core is lower or higher (mine was higher) than the shim you do not need to pop it off.. the Giant III heatsink base fits right inside the shim and sits there comfortably.

For the blower fan, I was thinking the same thing, take it out and drill some nice holes on the top of the front heatsink plate and mount an 80 mm.. the good thing is that this time round the top is flat and can hold an 80 mm, 92 mm extra just like that.. unlike the giant II which had a rounding top front heatsink.

Another plus point about the Giant III is that the back heatsink plate will clear any memory slots that are close to the AGP slots. This time they have made it a tad smaller than Giant II. When I tried installing the Giant II on a mobo some ICs/caps/whatever you call them (the ones above the AGP slot) interfered w/ the back heatsink plate. With Giant III there is clearance for both such ICs and memory dimms.

Also the ramsinks get quite hot and since my case lacks any kind of airflow I toned down my card to 9800 XT speeds and all was well. I need some fans in my case and once I have good airflow I think I can hit higher.

Lastly, I am a n00b you can actually hide the wires easily if you install the fan speed switch underneath the Giant III unlike what I had done (I installed it over the kit). But you lose yet another PCI slot. But then again I always left 1 additional slot for airflow so it is not really a loss for me. If pci slots are at a premium you might want to look elsewhere.
 
Originally posted by KickAssCop
I used the thermal paste that came w/ the kit and it is of good quality. I did not get the AS5 since it was just an added cost that wouldnt have done me any good. I had used the paste w/ Giant II and knew that it does the job well. (I only used 20% of the paste and have 80% still left from my Giant II :p)

As far as the shim thing is concerned.. whether your core is lower or higher (mine was higher) than the shim you do not need to pop it off.. the Giant III heatsink base fits right inside the shim and sits there comfortably.

For the blower fan, I was thinking the same thing, take it out and drill some nice holes on the top of the front heatsink plate and mount an 80 mm.. the good thing is that this time round the top is flat and can hold an 80 mm, 92 mm extra just like that.. unlike the giant II which had a rounding top front heatsink.

Another plus point about the Giant III is that the back heatsink plate will clear any memory slots that are close to the AGP slots. This time they have made it a tad smaller than Giant II. When I tried installing the Giant II on a mobo some ICs/caps/whatever you call them (the ones above the AGP slot) interfered w/ the back heatsink plate. With Giant III there is clearance for both such ICs and memory dimms.

Also the ramsinks get quite hot and since my case lacks any kind of airflow I toned down my card to 9800 XT speeds and all was well. I need some fans in my case and once I have good airflow I think I can hit higher.

Lastly, I am a n00b you can actually hide the wires easily if you install the fan speed switch underneath the Giant III unlike what I had done (I installed it over the kit). But you lose yet another PCI slot. But then again I always left 1 additional slot for airflow so it is not really a loss for me. If pci slots are at a premium you might want to look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

a newb with 1620 posts though :p

but im not going to do any drilling to my TTGIII
 
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