Thermalright HR03 GT ATI HD 4870

[GSte]

Originally Posted by affiliate13

@GSte- Good to have you back m8, hope you had a good trip.

Cheers mate, unfortunately it all went to s**t though, after I'd been there 4 days I almost died on a mountain and it took me 8 days to recover, giving me only 2 days left.

Really good review, the only thing I would say would be perhaps to add a small conclusion section at the bottom that shows what you found, i.e. any temp differences or extra overclocking the cooler enabled. I know I've said this once, but the pics are great.

[affiliate13]

Originally Posted by Kelainefes

It's a nice review man don't worry.
The pix are well made and let us see the details of that configuration, it happens to me so often to read a well written review on some big site, and be let down by pictures that look like attempts at artistic shots showing some shiny metal from weird angles than to help the reader understand.
As fot the contents, they are alright and you didn't keep any details for yourself, except ambient temperature.
But: it looks that the HR09 is not sitting flat on the power transistors because of those resistors? Or is it just me.

I should have got a thermometer for ambients but i forgot
Your right its not, they force that angle as they sit higher than the VRMs (is that what you mean?)
I was thinking a small strip of copper might be eneough to level that out, i will try to find some as i am almost positive it will make a difference.

[affiliate13]

Originally Posted by GSte

Cheers mate, unfortunately it all went to s**t though, after I'd been there 4 days I almost died on a mountain and it took me 8 days to recover, giving me only 2 days left.

Really good review, the only thing I would say would be perhaps to add a small conclusion section at the bottom that shows what you found, i.e. any temp differences or extra overclocking the cooler enabled. I know I've said this once, but the pics are great.

Pix of your survival effort? glad you made it home anyways.

Gah, your are absolutely right, i thought the screenies would be ample. i will add something to clarify maybe with a little bar chart or summut.

[affiliate13]

Added graphs

[GSte]

Aye, will get some pics up shortly.

The graphs are excellent mate, a really great review. Love seeing photos of the modding taking place, that's one beast of a cooler.

[Kelainefes]

Originally Posted by affiliate13

I should have got a thermometer for ambients but i forgot
Your right its not, they force that angle as they sit higher than the VRMs (is that what you mean?)
I was thinking a small strip of copper might be eneough to level that out, i will try to find some as i am almost positive it will make a difference.

Yes exactly what i meant
But finding a really flat strip of copper will be tricky, maybe the best shot is taking a fin off an old copper cooler and saw it to the right dimensions.

[Clunk]

DUGG!

[affiliate13]

I have some overclocking results but the temp readings might be slightly skewed.
When i take the screen print of the results at the end of the 3DMark run I have noticed that the infomation it catches is a few seconds late.

What i mean is the VRM temps captured are maybe 5 seconds after the run completes.
I caught a glimpse of the VRM temps in Everest before 3DMark started saving itself and it was a good 7/8 degrees higher than the captured image.

So if anyone can recommend something that will allow me to read the temps in real time while testing let me know please.
I was thinking everest would allow me to run a report to log the peaks but i can't see how to do this with 3DMark running so any suggestions are welcome.


This first result is with the maximum CCC setting 790/1100.





These next results are with AMD Clock tool.
AMD Clock Tool disables CCC and if you are using the CCC fan profile fix this will also be disabled. The stock fan runs at 23% and the card get quite hot when overclocked so some kind of aftermarket cooler is useful when using this tool, maybe even a fan lashed to the the air intake as i recall someone mentioning.



I couldnt go to 840/1100 3DMark failed during Proxycon.
So i upped the memory instead to 1150 but this started artifacting in the hot air ballon ship thing test. I am guessing this is the fault of the smaller memory sinks under the HR03 heat pipes?
I had to settle at 830/1125



Hope these are of use, i will cure the problem with the temp recording and try again later.

[affiliate13]

Furmark results:
I needed to get the issue with the slanted HR09 sorted so i cut three fins off the VRM sink for the AC S1 I had used for mt HD 4850 project last month.
These fins are aluminium and nicely tapered which with a little ocz freeze and patience fitted OK on the card.


Here are results before and after the revision





This rather helpfully reduced temps by 17C, which is nice.

I make the changes to the BIOS tomorrow and post up more results.

[Kelainefes]

You can use any program that logs the temperatures, such as Everest or Rivatuner.