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Introduction
OK, so in spite of my earlier thread asking for advice on a (non VGA Silencer) cooler for my 9800 Pro, I went ahead and bought a Silencer anyway. I figured that from the pics I had seen, it would have a very good chance of clearing my ramsinks so I gave it a shot.
So what do I think of it? It's a good cooler but installation was problematic.
Installation
Installation really should have been much easier than it was. I had one problem that was not the fault of the manufacturer and one that was. Both of them were worked around however.
First off, no fault of Artic Cooling, but one of my ramsinks was colliding with the power cable running to the fan. This was easily remedied by using the slack in the cable to re-route it out of the way of the ramsink. Not a problem really.
Other than that, attaching the cooler to my card was relatively simple. I removed the stock cooler and cleaned the core with rubbing alcohol to a spit shine. The core sure has one pretty mirrored finish underneath the goop.
Before I applied Arctic Alumina (I don't play with Artic Silver, no sir) I attached the cooler without any compund so I could check for air gaps between the cooler and the GPU shim. Went fine, I could see air (before full tightening) and when I removed the cooler I could see the imprint of the ATI symbol from the core left on the cooler's underside (leftover goop presumably)
Then I applied a moderate layer of AA and reattached the cooler. You really need to bear down on the screws to get the metal clip to meet the rubber washers (according to instruction) and it is a somewhat scary experience. I'm just not used to applying this sort of pressure to a $300 PCB.
OK, so now it's attached and I can't really make out a gap between the cooler and the shim but I feel comfortable that I have good core contact based on the last test.
However, upon attemptiong to install the completed unit in my PC, I ran into what has to be one of the more frustrating design flaws I have run ever run into. The switch for the fan speed is mounted on the slot backing and is designed to stick out the back of the case. The problem is that is is mounted so close to the end that is inserted into the back of the case that I couldn't get the unit seated comletely in the AGP slot because the switch was bottoming out. I was able to unscrew the switch to get the nut and washer out of the way and then tighten the washer nut so that they overlapped the case cutout but there is still some pressure exerted when I tighten the screws for the card into the case. I'm going to have to take it out and Dremel the backing a bit to make it fit right.
I should point out the this isn't some fly-by-night garbage case here. It's an Antec and I have had great fit and finish with just about everything prior to this.
Overall, installation was complicated by what could have been a more conservative measurement by design.
Performance
Overall I am happy with the performance but am dissapointed in my core. I know this cooler is seated very well but I can only get an additional 5 MHz out of the core (from 405 to 410) I can feel alot of heat being blown out the back and my memory OC improvement I think proves that the card is overall a much cooler cucumber as I have been able to get the memory to run an additional 5MHz faster than before (from 375 to 380) My theory is that since the heat from the core is no longer being blown over the front side ramsinks and is actually being ejected out the back, the PCB (and everything else on the card) is now running much cooler than before, which is allowing for an even better memory OC. My core must simply not be one of the better ones. I was hoping for 412 (XT) but I guess I can be happy with 410.
Conclusion
Overall I am happy with the purchase and it just looks downright cool to boot. Worth the money and a good tweaking experience.
OK, so in spite of my earlier thread asking for advice on a (non VGA Silencer) cooler for my 9800 Pro, I went ahead and bought a Silencer anyway. I figured that from the pics I had seen, it would have a very good chance of clearing my ramsinks so I gave it a shot.
So what do I think of it? It's a good cooler but installation was problematic.
Installation
Installation really should have been much easier than it was. I had one problem that was not the fault of the manufacturer and one that was. Both of them were worked around however.
First off, no fault of Artic Cooling, but one of my ramsinks was colliding with the power cable running to the fan. This was easily remedied by using the slack in the cable to re-route it out of the way of the ramsink. Not a problem really.
Other than that, attaching the cooler to my card was relatively simple. I removed the stock cooler and cleaned the core with rubbing alcohol to a spit shine. The core sure has one pretty mirrored finish underneath the goop.
Before I applied Arctic Alumina (I don't play with Artic Silver, no sir) I attached the cooler without any compund so I could check for air gaps between the cooler and the GPU shim. Went fine, I could see air (before full tightening) and when I removed the cooler I could see the imprint of the ATI symbol from the core left on the cooler's underside (leftover goop presumably)
Then I applied a moderate layer of AA and reattached the cooler. You really need to bear down on the screws to get the metal clip to meet the rubber washers (according to instruction) and it is a somewhat scary experience. I'm just not used to applying this sort of pressure to a $300 PCB.
OK, so now it's attached and I can't really make out a gap between the cooler and the shim but I feel comfortable that I have good core contact based on the last test.
However, upon attemptiong to install the completed unit in my PC, I ran into what has to be one of the more frustrating design flaws I have run ever run into. The switch for the fan speed is mounted on the slot backing and is designed to stick out the back of the case. The problem is that is is mounted so close to the end that is inserted into the back of the case that I couldn't get the unit seated comletely in the AGP slot because the switch was bottoming out. I was able to unscrew the switch to get the nut and washer out of the way and then tighten the washer nut so that they overlapped the case cutout but there is still some pressure exerted when I tighten the screws for the card into the case. I'm going to have to take it out and Dremel the backing a bit to make it fit right.
I should point out the this isn't some fly-by-night garbage case here. It's an Antec and I have had great fit and finish with just about everything prior to this.
Overall, installation was complicated by what could have been a more conservative measurement by design.
Performance
Overall I am happy with the performance but am dissapointed in my core. I know this cooler is seated very well but I can only get an additional 5 MHz out of the core (from 405 to 410) I can feel alot of heat being blown out the back and my memory OC improvement I think proves that the card is overall a much cooler cucumber as I have been able to get the memory to run an additional 5MHz faster than before (from 375 to 380) My theory is that since the heat from the core is no longer being blown over the front side ramsinks and is actually being ejected out the back, the PCB (and everything else on the card) is now running much cooler than before, which is allowing for an even better memory OC. My core must simply not be one of the better ones. I was hoping for 412 (XT) but I guess I can be happy with 410.
Conclusion
Overall I am happy with the purchase and it just looks downright cool to boot. Worth the money and a good tweaking experience.
