Arctic Cooling TwinTurbo on HD4850

[jdrom17]

Arctic Cooling TwinTurbo: Review



Currently I'm using the latest BIOS I could find which happens to be from Sapphire. It has a much more aggressive fan profile than the original HD4850 BIOS and thus my temperatures using the reference cooler are lower than most but with that quite a bit of noise.

With the stock reference cooler, my idle temperatures were around 60C and it was pretty much inaudible over my other case fans. When gaming, this climbed to about 75C and it was extremely audible. At times I thought there was somebody vacuuming upstairs...

Installation
Firstly you need to remove the reference cooler which is pretty simple, just unscrew all the screws on the backside of the card and twist the heatsink off. Next, clean up all the thermal paste on the GPU core. To clean the memory and MOSFETs, use an eraser and some isopropyl alcohol.




Next attach the included memory and MOSFET heatsinks. This is where I had some issues. The first row of MOSFET sinks wouldn't fit side by side due to a capacitor or something sticking up. So thus I had to use my tin snips and cut off a bit on each side of the sink. Also one of the RAM sinks apparently hits the heatpipe so I bent it in advanced but once I got the TwinTurbo installed, I don't think I really had to but it would of been very close.

I don't honestly know how long the MOSFET sinks are going to stick as they seem to have very little hold since its such a large piece of aluminum to adhere to 2 small MOSFETs. I have a feeling I'll have to do something about it eventually and I think I'd replace them with Enzotech MOS-C1s.

Mounting the actual heatsink was fairly easy, pull off the adhesive backing, place the plastic spaces over the correct mounting holes, put it on the GPU and screw it in. The stock mounting setup worked perfectly without any adjustments.

Plug the fan in and your done.




Word of advice: This takes 2 slots easily and I'd be inclined to say 3 so that you can have some airflow. If I didn't have a bottom mounted PSU, I think Crossfire would be feasible with my motherboard at least but it would be tight. (Mind the dust )




As for the final temperature results, it idles at about 45C and is inaudible over my other fans from what I can tell. I'd say a 15C drop is damn good and also gaining silence. Load temps seem to be about 60C and still silent.

My next plan of action is to tweak the fan profile accordingly, maybe even just run it at 100% if it's silent still.

[Eagle Eye]

Excellent review I like the pictures a good high res photo to really showcase an excellent cooler from Arctic Cooling. I must say shame on antec for not leaving enough room between the motherboard and PSU, does the motherboard extend past psu and sit slightly behind it?

EE

[Dwayne]

Maybe it is the MB and not the case. I have ample room between my PSU and my lower crossfire PCIe slot. And what is it with dust and sound cards?

[jdrom17]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

Excellent review I like the pictures a good high res photo to really showcase an excellent cooler from Arctic Cooling. I must say shame on antec for not leaving enough room between the motherboard and PSU, does the motherboard extend past psu and sit slightly behind it?

EE

Thanks, and yeah the motherboard is wider than the PSU and there's a small gap between the PSU and back panel where the motherboard mounts. The PSU is pretty much in line with the bottom of the motherboard though.

I guess because the Antec 900 is only a mid-tower so they couldn't make it taller. I guess it's also somewhat my motherboard's fault too since my first PCIe x16 slot is much lower than most. I have a PCI and PCIe x1 slot above mine.

[misterlarry]

Great pics and insight JD. I love the passive one that I've got on my 8800 GTS.

[mchutch]

I popped one onto a Sapphire 3870 and it really made a difference over the stock cooler, from 70 load down to mid 50's.

And clean your sound card off will ya...lolz

[jdrom17]

Originally Posted by mchutch

I popped one onto a Sapphire 3870 and it really made a difference over the stock cooler, from 70 load down to mid 50's.

And clean your sound card off will ya...lolz

Pfft Creative deserves no respect

[Eagle Eye]

Its what creative sound cards do best these days "collect dust"

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

strange; my sapphire 4850 dual slot fansink version idles at 35C, and has hit 70C under intense load... idling at 35C it uses 37% fan speed.

This is the version I have:

[TopDogZero]

Thanks for the review jdrom17 great to see someone take the time out to inform others.
I do agree with Mr. Gruntsworthy that the temps seem high for a after maker cooler, I have the Palit 4850 Sonic 512MB which is factory overclocked and my idle is 44C and I have yet to see it go above 60C with the few benchmarks I've run so far (just go the card last night ). Maybe some thing to do with air flow in your case or the like. Just can't see this thing getting that high a temps it's huge compared to the cooler on mine and it's a Artic Cooling product.