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Advice for new GPU cooler?

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<Grisu4>

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Hi,

The fan of my ELSA Erazor X² (GF256DDR) sounds as it will not see the next year, so I need a back-up for it.

There are the following ones to choose of:

Titan CUV1AB (24dB)
THERMALTAKE Orange Orb (30dB)

which are not blocking a PCI slot, and ...

THERMALTAKE Crystal Orb (26dB)

which blocks the first PCI-slot (USB-connectors) ....

Who has the TITAN and can tell me about the quality and the performance. I think the orange orb is a little to noisy for me.
 
The crystal orb is supposed to be incredibly efficient. It is made from one piece and uses better conducting metal than the orange orb. I would buy one for my GF3, but i dont think I would achieve much more than what I have because its an a3 stepping core :(
 
I know about the performance of the crystal orb, but I wonder if I need this for the GF DDR. I just need a cooler, which allows me about the same settings than the stock one.

Maybe somebody already uses one of the mentioned coolers and can tell me about his experiences ....
 
I read somewhere that it let an oc hobbiest get his Leadtek GF3ti500 to like 260/590 The main point is that the 260Mhz core is rock stable. I think he said voltage stopped him going any higher.

IMO any gfx hsf that doesnt take up a PCI slot means it prolly has too little surface area to be effective. The crystal orb is made of better material than its competition and it has a good fan and good surface area. Also notice, unlike the other orb hsfs the crystal orbs hs goes across the top of the fan increasing surface area still.
 
The best gpu cooler at this time so they say is the Crystal Orb, you can get it for like $10 US which is a deal, I paid $30 canadian for it but it is sweet and did allow me to overclock my clk to 342 from 290 on my 7500 radeon.

Look how nice and shiny it is!!!!

Cisco Kid:cool:
 
The best GPU cooler is a Rackmount IU heatsink and they are 25mm in height in comparison to the Blue and Crystal orb @ 15mm in height


Performance wise there is no comparing as one is a Mack truck and the other a normal car.


I can tell you that the Corb performs better that the Titan copper gpu cooler which doesnt do a good job.

Nexfan.com has a few rackmount coolers suitable for GPU use between $9.99-$15

alphapal15uoverhead.jpg
 
Silversinksam said:
The best GPU cooler is a Rackmount IU heatsink and they are 25mm in height in comparison to the Blue and Crystal orb @ 15mm in height


Performance wise there is no comparing as one is a Mack truck and the other a normal car.


I can tell you that the Corb performs better that the Titan copper gpu cooler which doesnt do a good job.

Nexfan.com has a few rackmount coolers suitable for GPU use between $9.99-$15

alphapal15uoverhead.jpg


I think I gotta agree with you on this one that thing is F***** massive lol, whats sound like though?

Cisco Kid:cool:
 
BAH!

[arnold voice]all your little puny heatsinks disgust me [/arnold voice] :p. this is mine on my radeon 32mb ddr :D takes up 2 pci slots :burn: hehe
103-0393_IMG.JPG

103-0390_IMG.JPG

103-0394_IMG.JPG
 
Last edited:
Cisco Kid said:



I think I gotta agree with you on this one that thing is F***** massive lol, whats sound like though?

Cisco Kid:cool:

Side view its not so massive
alphapal15u.jpg


Cisco,

The 21 cfm fan on the Alpha Pal 15u is relativly inaudible to me, especially since all my 12 fans in my case are on Rheostats :)

All except the Digital Doc 40mm fan which is silent and would be a B$tch to rewire and hook to the rheostat wiring harnesses.

Seriously the Alpha pal15's fan is pretty quiete as the blue orb seems to put out more racket.

I couldnt fina a Corb locally to compare the temps to my Silver Based blue orb so I ordered one and should have it any day



bluetosilverorb.jpg




PS It looks like Bigred subscribes to the same theory as me, 'Performance over asthetics'

wtg red!
 
The blorb is great but I must remind you all that once you get an orb I suggest you start lapping it and not put it on till you lap it since the orb does not have a good flat surface. As you lap it you'll see the outside very uneven.

Remember to get the waterproof sandpaper and yes use it as wet sandpaper.

Start with

180 or 200 or 220 grit
400grit
600grit
800grit
1000grit
1500grit
and then 2000 for a smooth mirror finish
 
hmmm.....i need to get pics of my cooling setup, its similar to bigreds, just not as big and good looking...
 
man....i guess i'm a newbie...i assume lapping just means getting the surface flat...anywhere i can find good, detailed instructions on this process (so i do it right :)) thanx!!
 
I got a blue orb the other day from my gf and its awesome I didn't even lap it. I just wanted to beat the Ti500 GF3 by a bit so I oced at 530memorey clock and 220 coreclock.
 
I have actually reviewed the Crystal Orb. It is actually a two peice design. The main peice is the sink itself, and the second peice is the part that says Tt on it.

Here are some of my pics (imo it works VERY well, i have 3)

ORBBOT.jpg
ORBBOTSAT.jpg
ORBFRO.jpg
ORBFROCOV.jpg
GF3Cry.jpg
 
That's quite amazing!

So well, but I don't want to invest that much in a GF256 - it would be okay to get the same clock settings than with the stock heat sink. I got 135/340 stable. I read a few tests about oc'ing a GF256 DDR and it seems even with a blue orb there's not much chance to get over 140. So why waste a PCI-slot for getting possibly 145 or even not?

And isn't it the mem-clock which gives you higher FPS in comparison to the GPU-clock? So how did you manage the heatsinks stay on their place?
 
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