XP-90 success

That XP90 heatsink is awesome.

Just received it after a rediculous Fed-Ex circus (thanks, fedex) early this morning, and then had to figure out how to install it on my IC7 max3.

Used it to replace an SLK-947U heatsink.

First thing I Noticed is a few fins were bent. This isn't the first time this has happened.

I can only assume that the bent fins occured from the packing material the heatsink was shipped in. Fortunately, aluminum is soft enough to bend them back into place (not perfectly ,there were a couple of major bends) with a mini flat screwdriver. Also, one of the long thin fins at the end was slightly bent inward. Wasn't really fixable since each fin is a separate mount apparently, making outward bending very hard without ripping off the entire fin. Anway, there was still air space between the 1st and 2nd fins so I just let it be.

I had to then figure out the best way to install it.
Decided to mount the heatpipes facing the OTES so the fan mount will be closer to the AGP slot. That way, the power supply fan has enough clearance from the Tornado fan, and the video card gets cooled.

Installation was a big tricky, and I did slightly scratch the surface of the heatsink with the cpu slug when trying to lever it on (not a big deal though), but after some levering, the front side was on. Then I mounted on the OTES side.... that was pretty hard. Took some force to get the other 2 levers down, without leverage room from the OTES. One GOOD thing about the OTES is, it protects the caps from your thumb slipping and breaking off a cap

Everything else was simple.

I then powered up.

43c idle in Bios......nice. (remember, temps are reported at least 8-13C too high in bios).
The SLK was slightly higher idle, at least 2-3C.

Time for the acid test.

I decided to crank up my P4 EE up to 3.81 ghz, 1.60v. Previously at this speed, it bluescreened with just 1 instance of UT 2004 running, when the Bios reported 59.5C. Usually it would get to 58-59C with the 947U.
(also causing case temps to rise).

Hmm...
53C load ! Not bad !

I then decided to load dual UT 2003+UT2004. (again 9 player botmatch).
Temp never exceeded 54.5C (except for very short periods. That's a HUGE drop!!!).

With 947U, with dual UT2003+UT2004, temps would quickly reach 60.5C-61C and the system will crash fast.
Occasionally it peaked at 55C but usually leveled off at 54.5C and stayed there. Didn't crash either.

All I can say is, that is pretty damn impressive !
Note that the hardware monitoring reports all temps too high, so deduct 10-13C from temps.

Hmm same board, Tornado and XP-90. What is your ambient temp. So I can get a more accurate assesment versus an XP-120 with a 190 CFM 120mm Delta.

Electron Chaser said:

Hmm same board, Tornado and XP-90. What is your ambient temp. So I can get a more accurate assesment versus an XP-120 with a 190 CFM 120mm Delta.

Click to expand...

Hmm....
Case temp is 33 C at idle, and 35 C at load (??). At least that's what the BIOS is reporting. This is with my CPU underclocked to 2833 mhz,1.55v

Beats me if it's accurate or not.
My case side panel is removed, too. And I know for a fact that it's NOT 91.4 degrees F (33C) in my bedroom !!! My room feels no warmer than 80 F. Probably slightly under 80 F

But when it did get warmer in my bedroom at load, the case temp only said 36 C...

And when I had it at 3813 mhz, 1.60v, full load with dual UT2003+UT2004, case temp was 35 C, CPU 54.5C. (subtract 10-13C from the cpu temp= 43 C).

Really funny how my case temp is hardly changing....

BTW it's a lian-li (4809a?) midtowercase...I forgot the model.

Perhaps the volcano fan is blowing warm air directly over the motherboard heat sensor..... the volcano fan is also cooling the back side of the 9800pro....