Installing a new GFX Cooler

Hi

I have just ordered a sapphire x800 GTO^2 gfx and an arctic silencer 5 (rev 2) gfx cooler and some AS5 thermal compound. I have never changed my gfx cooler in the past but wanted to try and get the best I could out of this seemingly overclockable card. Should I change the cooler before i even install the card or try the stock one for a bit to let it 'settle in' before then changing to the arctic silencer(which I presume will be a better cooler). As you can probably tell I am relatively new to a lot of this so any advice no matter how seemingly obvious would be much appreciated

Myself I would install it as is & benchmark it just to get a baseline score.

I would install it, and test it out to make sure it works. Imagine voiding your waranty before finding out the card never worked in the first place.

Yuriman said:

I would install it, and test it out to make sure it works. Imagine voiding your waranty before finding out the card never worked in the first place.

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a wise and should-have-been obvious point, thanks for setting me straight