Thermalright V2 VGA Cooler Review

Table Of Contents

Intro
1- Compatibility
2- Packaging and Accessories
3- Thermal Compound
4- Ramsinks
5- The Heatsink
6- Base Surface Quality

Installation
7- Heatsink Installation
8- 80mm Fan Installation
9- Case Installation

Benchmarks
10- 7600GT Testing
11- 8600GTS Testing
12- Thermal Compound Performance
13- Conclusion




Manufacturer Product Page: Ultimate CPU Cooling Solutions! USA
Product Number: V2
Price: TBA
Warranty: 1 Year
Availability: TBA
Price: $39USD (MSRP)

Included Fan: None
Optional Fan: 80mm (15mm or 20mm height)



Thermalright has been at the forefront of PC cooling solutions for quite some time and their dominance keeps growing in enthusiast circles. Their products like the HR-03 VGA cooler and Ultra-120 CPU cooler have earned them god-like status among consumers all over the world. While their HR-03 cooled a GPU extremely well, it was a monster in both size and weight. Thus, it was time for Thermalright to design a new cooler with the same legendary cooling properties Thermalright is known for, but with a smaller footprint which is perfect for HTPC applications. Into this void steps the new V2 VGA cooler which we will be reviewing here. Thermalright mentions in its reading material that this cooler is aimed at people who are looking for good GPU cooling while trying to stick to a smaller budget. It is dwarfed by the massive HR-03 but we will see if this relatively small passive cooler is up to the job of cooling some of today’s most demanding graphics cards.


1- Compatibility





2- Packaging and Accessories


As is typical for Thermalright, they have decided to package this cooler in a plain cardboard box without festooning it with flashy graphics like some other manufacturers do. When someone goes looking for a Thermalright, they already know what they are looking for and blinged-out packaging wouldn’t sway their minds. The cooler is well protected in a plastic box within the main packaging though it is surprising to find that the contact base is not protected.

The package includes a full tube of thermal compound, an instruction manual, a Thermalright sticker, short and tall ramsinks, 80mm fan mounting brackets (for 15mm and 25mm high fans) and all of the necessary mounting hardware for the heatsink. It is amazing how this is all crammed into the compact packaging but it is nonetheless a very complete bundle.


3- Thermal Compound


Instead of pre-applied thermal compound, Thermalright has included a full tube which is good for numerous applications if it isn’t wasted. Since it has a twist-cap, it can be easily reused in the future. This saves you from buying more if you decide to change graphics cards and still want to use the V2.

Thermalright has only one thermal compound which is called The Chill Factor and this may be what they use here. Being a long-time user of Chill Factor, I find that this has the same consistency and produced the same temperatures as an application of Chill Factor on the V2. It can be spread extremely easily which makes it simple to cover the GPU with an even application. The problem is that I have always found Thermalright’s thermal compound to be a bit on the watery side and this tube was no exception. You may also want to watch out how much you push the syringe since the applicator tends to spurt out a large stream of compound every now and then. The inclusion of this compound is a much-welcome addition considering the quality of the pre-applied compound some manufacturers use on their coolers.


4- Ramsinks


The ramsinks which Thermalright provides are built from solid aluminum and come in two sizes. The larger size has full fins that are arranged in a way to optimize airflow around them while the smaller ones have a pattern that resembles corrugated cardboard. As you will see later, these smaller ramsinks are used for the ram modules that are located directly below the heatpipes of the V2 when its installation is complete. Both types of ramsinks are adhered with 3M thermal tape which provides a good grip on the ram modules. On the other hand, the tape does not stick with super-glue strength so removing the ramsinks is quite easy.


5- The Heatsink


The first thing someone will notice about the Thermalright V2 is the fact that it is completely made out of copper. Not only does it cast an imposing figure, but copper helps with cooling as well since it is such a good heat conductor. Seeing heatpipes of this size (and four of them to boot) on a heatsink that has a relatively small footprint is impressive to say the least. Indeed, according to Thermalright, these larger diameter heatpipes help immeasurably when it comes to moving heat away from the GPU.


All of the fins on the Thermalright V2 are a lesson in precision engineering; they are all evenly spaced and machined for optimal heat dissipation. There are however a few problems which may present themselves with this type of dense fin placement; one of those problems is lack of proper airflow over all of the surfaces. In order for this cooler to efficiently disperse heat, there must be (at very least) minimal yet constant airflow over all of the copper fins. In addition, there still has to be enough surface area (read: enough fins) to conduct the heat away from the GPU. All cooler manufacturers have this constant juggling act to perform and some do it better than others. Thermalright’s V2 has its fins so densely packed that very little airflow can pass between them to draw heat away. You may also notice that the airflow paths are somewhat blocked by the heatpipes which bisect all of the fins. We will have to see if these observations have any bearing in our passive stress tests.


Here you can see a clearer picture of how the airflow paths are a bit blocked by the upper portion of the heatpipes. If you look closely and refer to the pictures from above, you can see that the air has quite a convoluted path to follow; the upper portion of the fins is obstructed by the heatpipes while further towards the center the airflow is completely stopped (in the lower portion) by the bases of the fins. Straight and unobstructed airflow on a GPU cooler and good case airflow are the key to good passive cooling.

On the plus side, it must be said again that the build quality of this heatsink is remarkable. The base is one solid piece of copper while the heatpipes make excellent contact with the base.


6- Base Surface Quality


The surface of the base of any cooler must be flat and as free of machining marks as possible in order for it to make good contact with the GPU being cooled. For some reason, Thermalright did not choose to protect their base with any find of film or protective coating like some manufacturers do. This in no means diminishes the quality since it seems protected enough that it did not have any scratches or nicks on it.

The base is extremely flat over the whole surface and shows very few machining marks. It is not polished anywhere near a mirror shine but it is as smooth as a baby’s bottom without any perceptible defects. All in all, it looks like the quality we have seen on the rest of this cooler has carried over into the manufacturing of the base.


7- Heatsink Installation


Thermalright has provided all the components necessary to install the heatsink on any of the listed graphics cards. In addition, their installation booklet is extremely well written with all of the steps laid out in easy to understand pictograms. We are going to install ours on a BFG 8600GTS OC.


The installation of the ramsinks went without any problems but make sure you place the shorter ramsinks on the opposite side of the card from the PCI-E connector.


The next step is to install the screws in the holes which correspond to your graphics card heat sink mounting locations. These can be installed without using any tools. After this is complete, the rubber spacers are placed on each of the screws.


The next steps are the self-evident application of the thermal compound and aligning the holes of your graphics card with the screws installed on the V2 as well as a final application of plastic spacers. The alignment of the screws and the holes of the 8600GTS (as well as a 7600GT it was later installed on) was spot on.


The last step of this installation is to install and tighten the screw caps which are basically hollow thumb screws with threading inside. You can also see the reason for those short heatsinks.


The installation is now complete with the card now looking like is has a piece of contemporary art sitting directly on top of it. The whole installation process was completed without problems which is a testament to great engineering on the part of Thermalright’s product team. It is also refreshing to see a completely tool-free installation process. To be honest, I have never had the installation of a heatsink go so smoothly.


8- 80mm Fan Installation


Thermalright includes brackets for a 15mm or 25mm high 80mm fan for mounting on top of the V2. The brackets slide into holes on the side of the heatsink for secure mounting. The only small problem is that the clip which attaches to the fan is bent far too much and will not pass between the mounting hole on the fan and its plastic edge. A few quick pulls with some pliers fixes that in no time at all.


9- Case Installation


This installation was done in a Gigabyte 3D Aurora Case on a DFI Lanparty SLI DR Expert motherboard. It is good to see that this cooler only takes up one expansion slot which is a far cry from the amount of space many GPU coolers use. As you can see even with the 80mm fan installed, there is still enough space to add a second card for SLI. In this situation, the benefits of the 80mm fan may be a bit less considering airflow into it will be a bit restricted and heat will increase because of its proximity to the second card. You may also notice that we have set up a 120mm intake fan in a position that pushes cool air over the V2 when it is being used in its passive guise. In addition, the rear expansion slot cover has been removed to increase airflow as well.


Benchmarks

All benchmarks were run twice to ensure accuracy

System used:

Processor: AMD X2 3800+ (at 2.6Ghz)
Processor Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty SLI DR Expert
RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS PC4000 DDR (at 520Mhz)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 250GB, 7200Rpm SATAII
Case: Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 (Review)
Case Cooling: 4x Noctua NF-S12-1200 fans @1200rpm (2 intake, 2 exhaust) (Review)
PSU: Silverstone Decathlon 650W (Review)

Video Cards:
BFG 8600GTS OC (710/2000)
BFG 7600GT OC (580/1450)

Methodology
All benchmarks were run with the side of the case closed. The temperature of the room was a constant 26.5°C and if the temperature rose above that, the test was not run. All GPU temperature measurements were made using Rivatuner while all room temperature monitoring was done with two Compunurse digital thermometers. All tests were conducted twice to ensure accuracy.

Any “Idle” number you see is the temperature of the card after 1 hour of displaying the Windows desktop.

The program used to stress the GPUs was ATItool with its “spinning box”. We have come to understand that this test utilizes more GPU power over a longer period of time than playing even the most stressful game. A game will have peaks and valleys in GPU usage while the ATItool spinning box uses a constant (and very high) amount of GPU power. Therefore, this is a very stressful test for any GPU cooler. This test was also run over a 1 hour period of time with the temperature being recorded as the 1 hour timer expired. Remember, both of these cards are overclocked out of the box so they will be operating at a slightly higher temperature than the stock version.

The 80mm fan we used had its speed cut down to 1300rpm by using a custom resistor.


10- 7600GT Testing



The results of this test were interesting to say the least considering the 7600GT is not known for its massive heat production. Nonetheless, our test pushed the card pretty hard but the Thermalright V2 was up to the task even in passive mode…though the temperature of the card was slightly above that of the stock cooler. Things got really interesting when the 80mm fan was installed and the temperatures plummeted to an impressive 44°C under load. So, the Thermalright V2 is a good passive cooler for the 7600GT but it really stretches its legs with a cheap 80mm fan installed.


11- 8600GTS Testing



In this test, the Thermalright V2 really struggled to disperse the heat produced by a slightly overclocked 8600GTS when it was operating without a fan. The temperatures were well above the stock cooler in this case but still witing Nvidia-specified tolerances. We are probably seeing the result of lackluster airflow through the copper cooling fins even though we had a 120mm fan pointed directly at the cooler from the right of the card (see picture of case installation). It was once again stunning to see how well this cooler did when we installed the optional fan. Not only were the temperatures brought down but they were reduced to such a level that we had to run the test three times to believe what our eyes were seeing.


12- Thermal Compound Performance

In this test, we will be testing the quality of the thermal paste versus the popular OCZ Ultra 5+. In this test, the 8600GTS card was used in conjunction with the actively cooled Thermalright V2.



From the looks of it, it seems that the thermal paste provided by Thermalright is of very high quality. While the differences aren’t earth-shattering, it is good to know that the included thermal compound is something worth keeping. And don’t forget…you get a whole tube of it.


13- Conclusion

Thermalright has earned their legendary status in the cooling arena and with the V2, they have proven once again that they mean business. Not only is this heatsink the picture of quality and precision but it works very well without a fan when paired with cards that produce moderate amounts of heat. On the other hand, when using a passive cooler such as this one it becomes apparent just how much heat the 8600GTS cards produce. True, the heat did not rise to a point where the card shut itself down but a temperature of over 90°C is a bit higher than I want a G84-based card to go. Nonetheless, even this result is still quite impressive considering how small this heatsink is. Adding a cheap 80mm fan running at a leisurely 1300rpm brought the V2 into a totally different light. The temperatures it produced were nothing short of amazing. It is also incredible that Thermalright kept the height down enough that adding a second card for SLI would not be a problem.

Add to this great cooling performance the easy tool-less installation, a full tube of great-performing thermal compound, a small footprint and great quality and it looks like we have a winner on our hands here. Indeed the V2 does everything Thermalright promises and then some. This product gets the full 5 out of 5 and the Hardwarecanucks Dam Good Award!!!


Pros:
-Great passive cooling performance on the 7600GT
-Easy Installation
-Excellent build quality
-Stunning performance with an 80mm fan
-Excellent choice for HTPC applications

Cons:
-Moderate passive cooling performance with a 8600GTS