Hi folks, Before I bought my BFG 6800GT OC, I used a Radeon 9700, which I outfitted with the Arctic Cooler and RAM sinks when it was about a year old. It worked great - I was able to clock at 378 for the CPU and 337 for the memory. So when I bought the 6800 GT, I immediately ordered the latest Arctic Cooler. However, since it has arrived at the house, I have just been eyeing it and wondering at the advisability of changing the cooler on a card with a lifetime warranty. What I am wondering is this - how many of you have used an Arctic cooler on these cards (6800 GT or BFG 6800 GT OC)? What was your experience like? Did it go on easy, or did you have to do a lot of lapping, tweaking and fine tuning to make it work? Anyone with specific BFG 6800GT experience out there using an Arctic Cooler? I know the graphics RAM can be different heights between cards. Thanks, John
IVe fitted one to mine with no problems. Dropped the temps at idle by 10 degrees and never goes above 65 in 3d. Used to run 55 idle nearly 80 underload
I prefer the zalman coolers. I've installed several of both arctics and zalmans. The zalmans actually cool a little better and I, personally think they look better. Still a matter of preference though, I suppose.
It was a "piece of cake" installing an NV5 on my BFG 6800GT OC. The ram and GPU are completely flush against the NV5 heatsink. No need to sand the ram down or anything like that! Probably the best $23 investment I've ever made (idle/load temps: 55/64 max). If I ever have a warranty issue, I figure I can just replace the original HS.
Thanks to all for the advice. I just completed the installation. My overclocked temps at idle remained about 50 degrees, but under load it does not go above 62 now. I just ran 3DMark 03 and 05 on it with a clock of 415 and memory of 1.08 ... I got 5680 in 3DMark 05 and 12910 in 3dMark 03. I like this cooler.
I had a bad experience with mine. There was a gap between the GPU and heatsink so much that it had to filled with AS5. My EVGA stock cooler cooled better than this stupid thing. I'm about 50c idle (vs 48 on the stock) and 64c under load (vs. 61c on the stock.) Didn't fit right and temps actually rose. Can't wait to get rid of it.
With proper case cooling, I really don't see a need for the Nv5. My card runs cooler then everyone mentioned here, and I have the stock BFG. It runs at 46c at idle, and around 53c under heavy load, of course, the case has two fans blowing right on the McJamski. http://home.comcast.net/~havikk/101_0024.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~havikk/101_0027.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~havikk/101_0026.jpg This is the best designed case I could find. Does the Nv5 take up an additional PCI slot?
it's not a raidmax case, although it does share some characteristics.. I bought the case at a small shop in MD called Alpha Computers. It's a very small shop, and they had the case for 55 smackers. It was in perfect condition, so I bought it, and have loved it ever since. I've never seen another one since then. If anyone can find what model/maker it is, please let me know..lol I can't find any makings on the bastard......I think it's from another planet...
I think my case has good ventilation. It's one of those full-tower Antec cases, with two case fans in the front blowing in and two in the back blowing out. It has a side fan that blows in on the video card, as well as a 120mm fan built into the bottom of the power supply.
The style, the front, the drive mountings... I'm pretty damn sure that case was made by Raidmax, it's just... they don't have a case specifically like that one, which is curious. Perhaps there is a Raidmax imitator out there somewhere? I mean, just look at the style on this (my) raidmax case: http://raidmax.com/products/products_display.php?page_no=2&cID=1&pID=7
Good case cooling or not, the NV-5 exits the hot air generated by the GFX OUTSIDE the case. Every bit counts
Well, one could always get a PCI exhaust fan like this: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77194
ANTEC rocks. I have one of their cases and love this thing. THose fans that they make are top notch. But I will be getting an NV5. Where can I pick one of these up?
Umm i IDLE at 40c full load 55c and thats with a voltmod and overclocking. Stock 350/700 now at 402/853
The NV5 Rev2.0 no longer has the raised cooper areas to contact the RAM. These areas were to high which caused the heatsink to set on the RAM and leave a gap between it and the GPU. The Rev2.0 now has a totally flat heatsink and uses thermal pads for the ram. I really don't care for the thermal pads so I was skeptical but my idle temps dropped 17C with the NV5 Rev2.0. I did polish the heatsink at the GPU contact point which made a few degrees difference.
huh -- wow... my MSI GTs have a flat copper HSF setup and use those pads for the memory... I really don't like pads... but I guess they work ok now that it seems other companies are turning to them for their "upgrade" kits... did clear out MSI's thermal goop in favor of AS5 and also put some dry(ish) silver compound on the ram chips in the hopes of helping get more heat into those pads.... I had been considering getting the NV5 silencer but now I guess it's pretty much going to be the same (or worse) than my current cooler with those pads... Is that ice storm cooler going to have a 6800 version? That thing looks HAWT. lol... for reals it looks awesome.. I have only seen the one for the 6600 so far... Here are some images of that cooler setup pretty cool.
