Martinm210

First a very special thanks to Jeremy from Danger Den for providing me not only one, but two samples to use for my system upgrade. Danger Den is really committed to helping us testers out in providing you with information about performance, and that means ALOT! in my book.

I'd also like to give special thanks to Linus from NCIX for providing me the fans to test with, they are also very interested in helping out the community.

I've updated my previous review on my website:
<--Link is in my profile

As you might expect, the radiator is an impressive one, for estimated water temperatures you can use this chart:



And to compare fan effects with the Thermochill PA120.3, you can use this C/W vs RPM chart. Keep in mind this is a quad rad (480GTX) vs triple rad (PA120.3), so it's not an apples to apples comparison in size. These are the only two radiators I've completed testing on, so it's all I had to compare at this point. There also is not a quad PA radiator available, they are pretty close to each other in price though, so they do compare well from a cost standpoint.


I've also taken it another step and used the results to estimate the differences using different heat loads and fans on the PA120.3 vs the HWlabs480GTX.



Bottom line..the 480GTX provided better heat dissipation from about 1120RPM on up, and at 3000RPMs it's dissipating nearly twice as much.

Yate loon designates the D12SL12 fan as their "Slow Speed" fan which is specified to run at 1350RPM mediums at 1550, so that's what I based my designations around. I called 1000RPM ultra slow, 1350 slow, 1550 medium, then Scythe Ulra Kazes at 2000RPM High, then at 1928 the Ultra High.

The Thermochill PA120.3 is still KING of the Ultra low fan category (Less than 1100RPM), it's also extremly low in restriction comparatively, so it does very well in multiple radiator loops.

The 480GTX is however KING of Slow, Mid, High, and Ultra High speed fans(Greater than 1100RPM). That's impressive!

Again that's comparing a quad rad 480GTX to a triple rad PA120.3, so they are very different in size, but similar in cost.

Cheers
Martin

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Tufelhunden

As usual Martin great testing!

May have to get some high speed fans to see how they do with the GTX360.

Thanks to those that helped Martin help us!

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ira-k

All right, I've been looking forward to this.....Great job as always...They are a sick rad Man...This 480 is by far the best rad I've ever had...

Stick some shrouds on that bad boy and it will knock a few more C off to...This has pretty well validated this..360 GTX Beats PA.3 Using 47cfm YL Fans...And my own shade tree testing also...

So basically with good medium high cfm fans a GTX 480 is is equal to having a PA.3 and a PA.2 in the same loop...Thats wild, I knew it would pretty well stomp it but I didn't know it was by that much....Daaang it Man...

Good thing you didn't do a 360 to 360 or they would be committing side-ways over this one......From low to medium high cfm is a heck of a spread there...

Thanks for the testing as always Martin, great work......I bet the GTS on a CPU only loop with a decent pump would be one of the best bang for buck rads going right now, with some decent cfm Pana, the medium 86's say......

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OC_RoB

Loved the Comparrison Martinm210 - Now bring on the Double Heatercore! WooT!

I've got two laying around and am dieing to throw it in my girlfriends loop!

Thanks for all your work! You Rock! and sorry to hear about those sensor going out on ya!

mrtn400

I don't think your medium speed fan was running at 15,500 RPM.

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Martinm210

Thanks!

Yeah, I've had alot of people ask why I didn't test against a 360GTX, I just don't have one. Some folks restrict their radiator space to one 360 slot, so they want to know what the 360GTX vs PA120.3 does in comparison. For me, I mount all mine external so size is not really a big deal. Cost wise it is similar to a PA120.3 at Danger Den, so I figured why not...

Good eye! Better go fix that one..

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ira-k

I'm just glad you had a chance to test what you did...I'm like the other guy up there, I'd like to see the Bonnie core tested...I've always said that if we knew the truth we'd be using Bonnies instead of over-priced rads...Your the Man to test that out...

I'm loving these thermals so far, really good work Martin, and very usable info....Good Stuff!!!

Are you still going to use one 480 on your chip and one on your GPU? Might as well, it sure cant hurt...

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Martinm210

Yeah I expect the Bonnie to do really well also. It doesn't have the thin flat tubes the GTX/GTS series has, but it is really nice and thick/dense in the fins. I would expect it to perform similar to the BIX series which probably also excels in the strong fan side but not quite up to GTX performances.

I'm just not sure how to test the Bonnie right. It obvious needs a shroud to make use of the extra width. I'll probably try it with just the fans ziptied on the face first, and then with a custom shroud. I also want to do a few shroud and fan experiments, but I'm waiting for that until I get down to the single radiator because then I'll have plenty of fans to do the stacking with.

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By-Tor

Hey Martinm ty once again for the time you put in to bring us all this info...

PS: With everything you have tested you must have a huge warehouse full of great parts..

Any chance of a yard sale??? I would like to put dibs on that 480...hehehehe

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dr4gon

That is outstanding! They should've sent you a 480 and a 360, but hey 2x480 is sweet!

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