Greg121986

Here are some pics of the unboxing. I have a bunch of homework to do before 5PM so I can't play right now (online Summer courses)!!!! Here are the pics of packaging and content. They definitely went the cost cutting route for the packaging. Ultra cheap plastic clam shell with very minimal graphics work. They let the cooler do all of the talking/selling. I hope these measures mean I am going to get some more performance for the money spent elsewhere. We shall see. The other heat sinks for memory and VRM have me a little worried as others have already expressed.

More pictures of both cards completed and installed here
9-20-09 Update Installed Thermaltake BGA heat sinks to VRM and Swiftech BGA Memory ram sinks to memory chips




*EDIT* I got one card finished. What a pain in the butt!!!!! I messed everything up. First of all, I put the thermal pads that were supposed to be on the back of the card with the backplate on the GPU side of the card underneath the already sticky heat sinks!!! So now I am running with no back plate. I am only folding right now but I will have to see what temps are when I game.

I also removed the stock applied MX-2 thermal paste and used OCZ Freeze instead. This made it a pain in the butt to attach the heat sink because I could not get the fan wire to go in, and I ended up rubbing against the thermal paste and making a huge mess!!!

AND I ruined my stock heat sink basically. For some reason the power plug for the fan would not come out!! I ended up tearing the wires out of it and then had to mutilate the plug to remove it. That was completely obnoxious!

But anyway, a few quick impressions of the performance:

511 point WU on stock GPU clocks and 65% fan: 192sp 65nm GPU
GPU - 62C
Mem - 53C
Ambient - 50C
VRM - 54C

AC Extreme GTX 280 100% fan speed I can barely hear the fan at this speed. It's about as loud as the stock fan at 55%
GPU - 45C
Mem - 36C
Ambient - 37C
VRM - 65C HUGE increase in temperature!!!

COD4 gaming 1920x1200 max settings All temps are the highest I saw while monitoring myself while gaming.
GPU - 46C
Mem - 38C
Ambient - 39C
VRM - 71C OUCH!!!

Here is a pic to show the clearance between the two cards. Sorry for the lack of light, I will pull my case away from its currently tight spot and get some better lighting later.


*EDIT* Second video card is done!! Idle temps are much better than the first one. I actually used the back plate this time and a little less OCZ Freeze than I did before.

Idle Temps GPU 1 BFG 192sp 65nm 590/1296/999
GPU - 35C
Mem - 27C
Ambient - 27C
VRM - 34C

Folding while overclocked to 783/1566/1296 353 point WU Proj. 5771
GPU - 44C
Mem - 36C
Ambient - 34C
VRM - 63C

GPU 0 (EVGA card) is folding at 601/1458/1026 768 point WU Proj. 5780
GPU - 50C
Mem - 41C
Ambient - 40C
VRM - 71C

Anth0789

Ohh nice I want one for my GTX 285.

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rRav3n

was thinking of picking one of these up, would be nice to no how well it does

hurry up with the homework

JoeC

Damn, Greg12186, you beat me to it.. JUST got out of work..UGH!!I have one waiting at home and I"M jealous.

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Daisho

ahha, i need one for my gtx 275 that thing is secksy; anyone know it that thing takes up 2 or 3 slots? i wanna get another 275 sometime sewn

Greg121986

I got one installed. What a pain in the butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot stress how difficult this was!! You must have steady hands and great patience because this is a delicate process. I did it completely wrong. I will elaborate by editing my first post.

To answer your question, it takes up 3 slots total. I am still able to fit my sound card underneath the first GPU. I will take some detailed pics later when I finish the other card.

JoeC

Crap!! Sorry for the pain...I can't wait to do mine.
Is it tight against the second card?I'm running SLi now and was wondering how close this cooler comes to the card under the first.

I know....you'll have some pics.

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JoeC

Started the process and as Greg12186 has already stated that you NEED patience.So far I have cleaned off all stock thermal paste and wiped off the rest from the gpu, memory, and the voltage regulator chips with 90% alcohol.Using a quality eraser, I have one of those pink ones, I have spent at least a minute carefully making sure that ANY residue is removed from the chips.Then I went over the chip again with alcohol to be sure to remove anything left behind from the eraser.Lastly a blast of air.Looks very clean so far.
More later.
Hopefully Greg12186 will have posted some pics and better info soon...

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JoeC

Greg121986, did you have an issue with the blue alloy plate not fitting correctly over the voltage regulator heatsinks?
This cooler says that its compatable with the 260 but, it seems that this part does NOT fit on correctly.

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Chris Ihao

Its kind of nice to see that others have had a "fun" time with these too, as I've personally spent quite a bit of energy on this baby, like you already know. And yes, those fan plugs suck, like they've always done as far as I can remember. Next time I would rather break the plastic than the wires, like I chose to do when changing my previous cards cooler ( x1950 pro). There usually are two plastic "taps" hindering the fan plug from loosening from the socket.

If you felt that this required a steady hand, then imagine gluing on the stock vrm heatsink on those tiny vrm's, while trying not to spill any potentially fatal (and conducting) arctic silver epoxy onto the surrounding area or the chips pins themselves. Phu, that was scary indeed

I would monitor the coolers the next 24 hours, as it was during this period my coolers started falling off (even if it seemed quite firm in the beginning), and especially if you had to reseat and reuse the glue.

Hehe. Yeah. You have a problem if its blue. You should tear off the blue plastic I bet this isnt your real problem though, as the plastic shouldnt take up space underneath anyways. It should fit the 260. Did you put on the thick thermal pads? If not the distance down to the vrm's is just too large.

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Hope you both will have great successes in your cooling projects

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