ChIck3n

Ok, I just installed some Thermaltake DuOrbs on my 8800GT so thought I would make a howto on the easiest way to do so. The manual that comes with the DuOrbs is quite small and does not list the 8800GT as a card it works with So, this is how it is done. Note, this howto can apply to all cards the duorb will fit on, you may just need to change one or two things. Some of this (such as installing the RAMsinks and GPU cleaning) should be able to apply to any third party cooler as well.

Items you will need:
Q-Tips
Isopropyl alcohol (high percentage, I use 91%)
Paper towels
Optics cloth (oil absorbing lint free cloth)
Small hex nut screwdriver (I think it was 8mm)
Thermal paste of choice

Here is the duorb with all contents:



I will be showing you how to do this with my XFX 8800GT.

The first step is to remove the stock heatsink.



Just remove all the screws I marked with red. This should be all the screws on the back, but I am not sure how other brands attach their heatsinks. It helps to heat up the card before you remove the heatsink, that way the thermal paste will not be as sticky and it will be easier to pull the heatsink off the card. Just run ATITool or play a stressful game for a few minutes before removing the cooler.

Ok, now that the heatsink is off you will need to clean all the contact points.



The big square in the middle (marked by the blue square) is, of course, the core of the GPU. You will need to clean all the gray thermal paste off of it (I will go over cleaning technique in a bit). All the things marked with red circles* (the RAM) needs to be cleaned as well. You may not see anything on it, but there is something there that makes RAMsinks not stick. You may notice a little green circle marking a chip right next to the two groups of three chips (marked with red) to the right side of the card. The stock heatsink on one of my cards covered this chip, while it did not touch on the other card's heatsink. I would try and cover this chip just to be safe. Also, the purple lines mark the two screws you need to remove to take the black front plate off.

Now onto cleaning. Items needed for this are: Q-Tips, Paper towels, Isopropyl Alcohol (I used 91%), Optics Cloth (just a lint free cloth, usually made for cleaning optics).

First step, cleaning the core. Get your paper towels and gently wipe away the thermal paste. Once a good amount of it is gone, get a Q-tip (you will probably use 4-5) and dip it in alcohol (not dripping wet though, you may want to roll it on a paper towel to remove the excess alcohol). Gently rub away the thermal paste until the core is nice and shiny, and you can rub a clean Q-tip on it without being able to see any thermal paste on it. Then get the optics cloth and wipe away any lint/fibers the Q-tip may have left behind. Your core is now clean! But you are not done yet. Use a dry Q-tip to clean the tops of the RAM chips (those marked with a red circle above*), then get a Q-tip with alcohol on it and thoroughly clean the chips. Wipe away any lint/fibers with the optics cloth.

Ok, now let's apply the RAMsinks. Apply a RAMsink to each of the places marked with a red circle above*. You may have sinks left over, feel free to save them or place them on other parts of the card. Center it on the RAM chip and apply firm pressure for a few seconds. Some people complain that the chips fall off. If you cleaned it correctly you should not have this problem. But for even a better hold, after all the sinks have been applied heat them with a hairdryer for about 20-30 seconds each.



After doing this you may want to wipe the core off with the optic cloth again.

Now onto attaching the actual duorb!



First, attach the two brackets to the base of the duorb with the 4 normal screws included. With in your duorb, you will find 2 small bags marked A and B. The hexagonal screws in bag A are what you need for the 8800GT (or pre 8800 series cards and most ATI cards). The screws in bag B are longer and needed for all the 8800 series cards besides the GT (I am not sure if the duorb can fit on 9 series cards). Attach the screws to the duorb by screwing the short threaded end of the screws in the holes nearest to the core, like in the image above. The holes further out (marked with red Xs) are for the other 8800 series cards.

Now put a small dab of thermal paste on the center of the core and spread it around with a credit card to make a thin even layer of paste. (if anyone needs a pic of this, I can upload one when I get my cards back from XFX as I will be doing it again anyway) Remove any excess. Place the duorb like in the picture above and lower the GPU onto it, being sure all the screws fit through the holes in the GPU. Put one of the little plastic washers over each of the bolts then put a hex nut on each bolt. Do not tighten them one at a time! tighten each one until it touches the GPU, then slowly tighten them in an X formation (eg. bottom left-top right-bottom right-top left, or whatever order you want) this will ensure that the duorb is evenly seated on the GPU. Tighten only until it gets difficult to tighten with 2 fingers (I was usimg a screwdriver like tool to tighten it (can be seen in the 2 above pictures), you probably need less pressure if you use a wrench or other more powerful tool, just use your own judgement). If you crank it down too tight you risk breaking the card. If you hear a cracking sound, that means you tightened it too much



There you go! you just installed your duorb!

Here is a side by side comparison of the stock GT and one with a duorb on it:



Plug in the GPU, plug the duorb into a molex connector and enjoy your drop in temperature!


My ambient temps at the time I took this picture was around 26-27C


You can use a molex to 3 pin converter and control the duorb if you want to. Just do not put more than one duorb per channel unless you have a fairly beefy controller. I put 2 on one channel of my kaze master and it burnt out in about 2 weeks.


I hope this was helpful, and good luck with your new cooler

Update:
After owning my DuOrbs for a while, I have found that if there is no airflow near the DuOrbs, the cards may rise in temperature slowly (maybe around 5C) because the DuOrbs do not vent the hot air out of the case. I put a 120mm sidefan in my case pointing at both cards, and this moved the hot air away and even made the cards drop a few C more in temperature. On the 780i, the hot NB blowing down will make the top card hotter, but the added sidefan lessened the effect by about 2C. If you do not wish to mod in or add a sidefan and you have problems, an Antec Spotcool should be able to improve airflow around the cards.

I also recently bought a Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme (6 fan controller) and am successfully running both DuOrbs off one channel (as well as two 120mm fans on each of 3 other channels, a total of six 120mm fans). I would say it is a fairly beefy controller

I also re applied the duorbs with MX-2, and noticed no significant drop in temps over the AS5. I do have the satisfaction that it is non conductive though. I also used Thermaltake copper RAMsinks instead of the stock sinks. Again no drop in temps, but it looks cooler They do fit under the duorbs, but just barely (they do not touch). I still had to use one of the "long" stock aluminum sinks.

P.S. This is my first Howto, so I hope it is in the correct section. Let me know about anything you think I should put in (or take out). ChIck3n



* If you have a different card, just look at the stock heatsink and be sure to clean and put a sink on each chip the stock heatsink touches.

Disclaimer: By following this guide, you assume all risk and possible damages that may happen. I am in no way responsible for any harm that comes to your card, heatsink, self or anything else while you are following my instructions. Proceed at your own risk.

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TheDark

That's really neat! Awesome guide, Chicken!

Sonic

I've been thinking about buying one for my 8800GTS since I've using it to fold, which bag of screws would I use? I would think I should use the same as the 8800GT though since you said B is needed for all cards besides the GT.

gamer11200

Nice article. Rep+

ChIck3n

You would use the longer screws in bag B (at least that is what the instructions say ). The 8800GT is structured differently than all the other 8800 series cards. For the GTS you may also need to apply more RAMsinks, but I am not sure as I have never used the GTS before.

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Auld

Nice! that load temp difference is amazing. using the hair dryer/ heat gun to warm up the ram sinks to make the thermal tape bond a lot better is something many people overlook. +rep for a job well done.

ChIck3n

Thanks, glad you liked it. I am sure the load temps would go down a bit if the stock cooler was on 100%, but figured I would leave it on auto to see how the "stock stock" cooler without any tweaking would do

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benfica101

Thats good temps, worth the upgrade

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tusku

Great job mate. Rep+ for you.



I might make a HowTo: Successfully Clean your 9800GT and Install DuOrbs **56k warning** after I get my duorbs lol.


[EDIT : Do I have to apply thermal paste in the ramsinks?]

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ChIck3n

No, they have adhesive on the back of them that seems to work fine. If you want a permanent hold, use arctic silver thermal adhesive. But be warned, that stuff is very strong and will probably void your warranty as you will be unable to remove the sinks. The sinks stick fine, especially if you use the technique I described above. Glad you enjoyed it

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