[AvatarSteve]

Hi everyone, decided to finally replace the stock cooler on my 680 due to it developing a faint grinding noise audible at all fan levels (hard to explain, hope that makes some sense). So I decided on the Mono Plus, I made this choice with confidence since the announced compatibility with the 670.

Pictures!:

With a keen eye you might notice there's a fairly prominent bend in the PCB even with the ram/vrm plate screwed on, I forgot to take a snap of it, but this becomes more prominent when that plate is taken off, rather odd.


The usual.


A screw goes directly through this to the ram/vrm plate so I easily remedied it with a large screw and nut to fit (which once again I forgot to take a direct picture of, but further down you'll notice it)


Not being a fan of the curing times of AC's new adhesive I decided to use some thermal tape. This is also the stage I planned heatsink layout.



All stuck on and ready to receive the Mono Plus



Voilà, Installed (In the top pic you can notice the nut of the screw I used for that hole before)


Thus it finds itself inside my rig.

Max temperature I've seen so far is 54°c in Saints Row the Third. Idles at around 26°c

I would run furmark etc for everyone, but I don't believe the heatsinks on the VRM are doing too well, my card used to auto-overclock it self to about 1084mhz (never stayed at that due to the stock cooler getting over 70°c) but now it hardly goes past 1058, and the vrm heatsinks themselves are very hot to touch (sadly non of this changes even if I put a 120mm fan going full blast over them).

If anyone has any questions/suggestions/requests, feel free to reply below and I'll see what I can do.

 

[Cakewalk_S]

Dude thats awesome! That cooler is sweet! Just wish the fan blew the other direction, away from the GPU...oh well. Nice max temps too! That's super good for air cooling!

 

[Anth0789]

Similar temps like my Twin Turbo II on my GTX 680.

 

[AvatarSteve]

I'll be buying some larger heat sinks for the VRM after the weekend, should be a fair amount better than the ones the mono came with.

 

[Cakewalk_S]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AvatarSteve

I'll be buying some larger heat sinks for the VRM after the weekend, should be a fair amount better than the ones the mono came with.

I like searching Zalman on ebay. Somethin like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZALMAN-RHS70-Anodized-Aluminum-RAM-HEATSINK-FOR-ATI-RADEON-HD4870-ZM-RHS70-New?item=280877238095&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26itu%3DI%252BUA%26otn%3D12%26pmod%3D280749024238%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8365001570416721755#ht_3031wt_905 Would work GREAT on some VRMs. Such a tall heatsink. Those are a good 2x taller than the stock arctic VRM heatsinks.

 

[MasterFire]

The solution for the VRM heat on the 4xxx series with an aftermarket cooler was always to use the standard VRM plate that comes with the reference cooler. I would imagine it would work better than those tiny blimps of alu they give you with most aftermarket coolers.

Bad news that goes with that --> Gotta take off the aftermarket cooler entirely again

 

[AvatarSteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterFire

The solution for the VRM heat on the 4xxx series with an aftermarket cooler was always to use the standard VRM plate that comes with the reference cooler. I would imagine it would work better than those tiny blimps of alu they give you with most aftermarket coolers.
Bad news that goes with that --> Gotta take off the aftermarket cooler entirely again

Sadly the 680 is stock, so it uses the standard vrm and memory plate, which makes all aftermarket coolers incompatible.

 

[Kazumi]

Does this cooler fit on nicely? Or do you need to make some modifications? I've been looking into aftermarket coolers, but was unsure if it needed any additinal work.

 

[AvatarSteve]

After installing the larger heatsinks on the vrm, I can safely say I can't recommend using any aftermarket air cooler until they come with a large custom made vrm plate, this card just will not clock itself up to 1084 like it used to on the stock cooler and the vrm are still way too hot to the touch, a bit sad as these new heatsinks nearly cover the entire area the vrms are located. With a fan blowing directly on them it will go to 1071, so a bit better, but overall stock cooling will probably be better for your card in the long run.

I know I could just manually set it to 1215mhz (the max I'm stable at) but I would probably end up doing more damage than good with these vrm temps and the card itself not willing to go to its default max of 1084mhz.

 

[Cakewalk_S]

Would this fit the VRM's? http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZALMAN-RHS50-Anodized-Aluminum-RAM-HEATSINK-FOR-RADEON-HD4850-HD3850-ZM-RHS50?item=290712277803&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26itu%3DI%252BUA%26otn%3D12%26pmod%3D280749024192%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8456423290162426862#ht_3202wt_708

It's twice as tall as the AC heatsinks for the VRM's...

 

[AvatarSteve]

Those would be awesome, but sadly they would be too tall

. AC coolers only really allow for 12-15mm for memory and vrm heatsinks.

 

[loginticz]

I'm running around and find out Accelero seems to be so good for air cooling

 

[leanrio]

I know this post is not 'new' but I think my question is relevant. Steve, can the cooler be oriented in any other way? I mean, could I mount it rotated 90º clockwise to how you mounted it?