jacksknight

Well I decided to go with an aftermarket cooler for my 8800gts 640. I got a great deal here in the forums for the Coolink gfxchilla, so thats the one i went with.


So here it is in all its glory!!



Out of the box the cooler came with everything you need to install this heat sink and get you going. It had more than enough ram sinks, and even had lower profile ram sinks for under the heat pipes of the cooler.





Here is a closer look at the top of the cooler. The fans are 80mm and could be replaced larger fans if you wish, but it isn't necessary at all.





Here you can get an idea of how thick this card actually is, its much thinner than a quarter.





Time to take off that old heat sink, and get something a little more snappy going.






Here is the bottom of the stock heat sink crappy thermal tape and all!! Why they use this method is beyond me as i would pay for better cooling to come stock on the card.





And here is the naked card all gummed up with TIM and thermal tape residue.





And after a few minutes of cleaning with alcohol and paper towels.






I had heard lots of bad things about ram sinks falling off after being installed with the sticky adhesive, so i went a step further than cleaning. I took some 400grit sandpaper and lightly scuffed the tops of the ram chips. Even after much cleaning you can see how much gunk was left on top of the ram. See how much trash was taken off by the sand paper.





Putting the heat sinks on was pretty straight forward, just peel and stick. I pressed them on and held them for about 15 seconds each to make sure.






Time to clean the heat sink base before installing. A little more alcohol and she was good to go.





The base is very flat, i checked it with a razor. The surface itself is pretty smooth too, but some machine marks can be seen. All in all i don't think lapping would help this more than the usual 5-6 degrees so i decided not to do it.





Here it is attached to the card, you can see in the one pic that it doesn't take up more room than the stock heat sink. Still only 2 pci slots required.







Performance gains are pretty good considering how cheap this thing was. Here are before and after screen shots of temps.


Before install idle temp



And under full load before install..





Now temps at idle after the install.




And under full load..





So a 10 degree difference at idle and over 20 degree difference under full load. The ambient temp was 76F the entire time i was testing. Not to shabby for 25 bucks! After 2 hours of COD4 i manage to only hit 58c! Thats my old idle temp with the stock cooler. I would recommend this cooler to anyone wanting to lower temps.

I hope this is helpful to someone, or at the least intresting to read.


Oh yeah here it is in my machine.

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mfb412

well done mate +rep

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heelsparky0501

woww nvidia really goops the heck out of the gpu with the thermal paste. nice review
+rep :]

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kpo6969

Nice review +1

jacksknight

Thanks for the replies, i might get something else going soon.

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mfb412

care to do the accelero S1 rev 2 or the duorb? :3

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jacksknight

If i do it will be after the new year, im probably going to build a new machine then. Wouldnt mind getting my hands on a duo orb, maybe slap it on a 280 or something.

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onlycodered

Nvidia doesn't apply the thermal paste. The card manufacturer does.

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bloodmack

nice, im thinking about getting 2 of those for my EVGA 9800 GT SLI set up you think it would fit?

^Son_Gokou08

i almost bought this cooler if only the heatpipe was not having an issue with some memsinks installed on my card.

but i have no regret coz what i've got is a better one, the accelero s1 rev 2.


but still, GFXChilla has the advantage in size. so if you have a small casing or you dont wanna sacrifice 2-3 PCI slots, the GFXChilla is a better choice.