Thermalright HR03 GT ATI HD 4870

[affiliate13]

I thought i might share my experiences with the TR HR-03 GT VGA GPU Cooler and HR-09S type2 mosfet cooler on the VRMs.
This was delivered from KustomPC along with some Enzotech RAM sinks and some 80mm Xigmatek fans from Scan.

The review will compare the stock cooling on the 4870 with a mixture of parts i think might work well together.

I should also mention the idea for the HR-09 is borrowed from Kelainefes HR-11 review and his input on this project is evident all the way through so thanks to him.

Here is a picture of the HR-03 GT - Shiny*


And another of the other side.


and again but of the GPU contact plate. This is reversable to allow mount the HSF over or under the card. the other part is the HR05 i need for another little job.



Here is a shot of the contents on the accessory pack.



And some shots of the enzotech RAM sinks i plan to use. These come in a pack of eight.


more shortly.

[affiliate13]

I took off the stock cooling and cleaned the card down with some IPA.
I followed the TR installation guide which was straight foward eneough.
I then stuck on the enzotech RAM sinks which tbh were not needed as any benefits of cooling the ram with these tall sinks on 6 ram chips is lost when i considered the HR-03's heatpipes are tight to the top two ram chips and need very low profile sinks to fit.

Then i added the HR-09s type2, this was difficult to fit tightly and i will need to perhaps get a thinner thermal pad to allow better contact.



I have attached a couple of 80mm fans on to the HR03 with some cable ties, here is the layout of the fans before i tighten them up.




This is it all mounted in the case, i have sinced moved it up to the top PCIe slot to tidy up.


Results and such to follow.

[affiliate13]

Here are screen shots of the temps at idle and load with the stock cooling, but with a tweak to my CCC fan profile to allow the fan to run at 39%



Results to follow after some changes to the VRM/RAM cooling, i believe either the small RAM sinks under the HR03s heatpipes are causing the problems or the VRM cooling through the HR09 is not making the best contact. I think bending the HR03 to accomodate slightly taller, but still low profile RAM sinks to fit will help. I will also attempt to bolt through the mounting holes on the HR09 and perhaps look at finding a better thermal pad too as i have seen the temps rise at both idle and load on these.

I like a bit of a challenge so hopefully i can get around this somehow.

More to follow after weekend. I am not allowed to play with computers at the weekend. It is even a struggle to sneak a read of this forum without a row starting. ho hum.

[GSte]

Crikey mate, been busy I see. Very nice work, the pics especially are great. Looking forward to a proper read tomorrow, just got back from hols after a 10 hour drive and I'm bolloxed.

[Clunk]

Great review mate - I'm thinking of getting something similar for my test bench.

Will the HR-09 not bolt into place? maybe use a backplate of some kind? Was there a VRM heatsink on there to begin with like on the older cards?...If so, what about using that on the other side of the card as a backplate for the HR-09 with a pad to stop it touching anything?

Also could you shrink the screenies a bit please mate, it's stretching the forum template, I think it might snap

If you want to keep the big images, you can do a 500px wide thumbnail and make it clickable - if you want me to show you how to do it, let me know, but it's pretty straight forward

[Kelainefes]

I like the looks of that card
Hurry, check the temps with all that metal on!
I wanna know!

Originally Posted by Clunk

Will the HR-09 not bolt into place? maybe use a backplate of some kind? Was there a VRM heatsink on there to begin with like on the older cards?...If so, what about using that on the other side of the card as a backplate for the HR-09 with a pad to stop it touching anything?

Excellent idea!

[affiliate13]

@GSte- Good to have you back m8, hope you had a good trip.
@Clunk yes please show me how to fix that i thought it looked bad with all the stretching. There are issues with good contact will post up details of the problems i have had and hopefully some fixes i need a little time to attempt reseating it then i will be clearer. Kelainefes has made a couple of suggestions too via PM, i think between all of us it will all work out weel in the end.
@kelainefes, i will be trying your PMed ideas tonite when i get home, I promise i will put up the temps but they are mixed at the moment with the GPU going down but the VRMs going up so i would like to fix that before i post any conclusions.

i will post up any mistakes and gaffs too who knows someone might find my errors useful.

I spend the weekend at my GFs, she is giving me the evil eye right now so we are off out for the day, ill post back tonite.

[affiliate13]

In light of some higher VRM temps i have revisted the mounting of the HR-09S type2. I could see there were some other components that are ever so slightly higher than the VRMs and since i could not in all consience just plank the sink on them with out some protection i took these steps based on suggestions made by my ever present support team..you know who you are, and incase you dont thats Kelainefes and clunk.

I have outlined the trouble makers in yellow:

I applied some sekisui tape to these to insulate them from the base of the HR-09, i think the tape is thin enough not to hold too much heat.

I then applied a little OCZ Freeze to the VRMs and found some bolts washers and springs, (never throw any damn thing away you never ever know when you might need some old crap to bodge a card).
I had to take the TR mount off and reverse it to give me the angle i needed to attach it to the board. i also had to use black spacers to raise up the nut over the heads of the TR fixing screws as they rose up to much to allow the nuts to tighten. the springs gave me more clearance as TBH i would have needed two spacers to make this work properly.


and from the side:



Here is the finised article installed in the top of the case with some cable tidying still to do :/



and one for luck



My concern is still the two little RAM sinks that the HR-03 needs to fit, i think TR really should put some kind of bend into these pipes to allow some taller sinks to fit.

results up next.

[affiliate13]

Results:
As before these are taken at idle on the desktop booted up and sitting for ten or so mins and after a run of 3dmark06.

Please note i did not compare the stock cooler with the standard fan profile, stupidly i forgot to take off the CCC profile i had made to make the fan run at 39%. It is worth mentioning that the card ran at well over 70deg with the standard fan profile of 23%.

Here is a quick note on how to do this if you need to:
RE: hot HD 4870s, I used this method, i found this on Guru3d forums but my link no longer works so if anyone knows who the original poster was let me know so i can credit them please.

If you wish open CCC and create a profile then browse to
"C:\Users\Your Windows ID\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Your CCC Profile.XML.

edit this file with notepad

<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="23" />

Change the "Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value=" from "Automatic" to "Manual"

Then change "Property name="Want" value=" from "23" to your desired fan speed.

Save the file, then reload the Profile you just edited in the CCC. Done.

I created two profiles one was at 49% for games and 39% for idle on the desktop etc. This almost halfed my temps. those 48x0 series are great cards but far to hot at idle. You may wish to set the fan lower, i find the noise acceptable for my needs with the above.


idle

Load


Reconciled results:



It is nice to see the GPU temps lower at load with the HR-03 than at idle with stock. As the real worry was the VRM temps which seem noteably, though not drastically lower i am happy with the progess so far.

These results are at stock clocks, i will flash the Sapphire BIOS to the XOC BIOS or try the new RBE to get a bit more out of this part, i will not as i had hoped be volt modding this card as i reckon the benefits will be limited, i may try this when i get an updated part for experience though.

More tweaks will be required and overclocking and changes will be posted too shortly.

Comments and questions are welcome, i had hoped to contribute something to the forum in the way of a review and since this is my first attempt critisim is a must.

Thanks for all the interest and advice, it is appreciated.

Thanks for reading

[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 for 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.