S1 Rev. 2 vs HR-03 GT

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Sparkyy

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Trying to find a better cooler for my 8800GTs as pushing 80-90C during game just isn't cutting it anymore as I want those temps lowered. I have been looking for different coolers but being that I am running SLI plus have an 8600 in the case makes it little room for massive coolers.

I found the S1 Rev. 2 and the HR-03 GT, I was hoping anyone with experience on these two coolers could chime in as it seems the HR-03 GT takes up 2 slots itself plus GPU so 3 total slots or does the HR-03 GT just take up the slot next to the GPU?

I am running these in an Antec 1200 with a side fan on high so airflow in this case shouldn't be a problem just need to find one that would fit the best, if there is another cooler out there that might be even better let me know. :)
 
Thanks for the link to the picture but the HT-03 GT does look like a very big heatsink which would be nice if I had a single GPU.
Seems like the S1 is the way to go then.
 
The S1 is decently big as well. The cooler itself will take up a full slot. It would be pretty close to the back of the next card even. With a fan (AC's Turbo Module or a custom slim fan), it would eat into another slot as well. The first pic in http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1387702 shows how much taller it is than the card itself - an issue in some narrower cases. The pics toward the end show straight-on shots of how much slot space it takes up. My temps went down by about 25% with just my 120mm side case fan (had to remove the black plastic trim piece off the S1 and the wire grille off the fan for it to fit), and about 33% with my custom slim fan mounted on it.

The HR-03 has the benefit of being able to be mounted on top of the card like the S1 (the bottom card in the previous link) or wrapped around to the back of the card (top card in the pic). Wrapped around, it might not take up even one slot next to the card, leaving your more room between SLI cards.
 
have you thought about the t-rad2? its similar to the hr-03 gt in performance but its a lot small, here is a link to one of the etailers who sell it. I have the hr-03 gt on my 8800 gt right now and there is no way you can put anything else in your expansion slots with two of these. but they are definitely powerful. But right now if i were going to buy it again id go for the t-rad2.
Heres a review:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1392&pageID=5661
 
tony27310 said:
have you thought about the t-rad2? its similar to the hr-03 gt in performance but its a lot small, here is a link to one of the etailers who sell it. I have the hr-03 gt on my 8800 gt right now and there is no way you can put anything else in your expansion slots with two of these. but they are definitely powerful. But right now if i were going to buy it again id go for the t-rad2.
Heres a review:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1392&pageID=5661
Click to expand...

That looks quite nice I think, really dinky and not bad performance.
I spotted the deliberate mistake:
"With a final score of 8 out of 9 the Thermalright T-Rad 2 receives the Bjorn3D Seal of Approval."
Its scored out of 10 :)
 
While I love Thermalright products (I had a HR-03 Rev. A but currently have a T-Rad 2 on my HD4850), I would say since you're looking to replace both stock coolers in your SLI setup the S1 Rev. 2 may be better. I have not used it myself, but based on a lot of testimonials and reviews of how it can run passively and perform impressively due to its large surface area, you may be able to save your other PCI or PCIe slots without having to have fans directly on them. Add to the fact that buying two S1's is much cheaper than buying two of either of Thermalright's coolers (much as I do love them).

My personal experience is that the T-Rad 2 is no better at cooling the GPU, compared to HR-03 Rev. A (4 heatpipe version versus the GT which has 6 heatpipes) that it replaced as the temps are practically the same. However, I do get a piece of mind knowing that the T-Rad 2 is better at cooling the PCB, which to me was worth the upgrade because the airflow really isn't too great in my Rocketfish case to begin with. Also being that it is shorter, it allows for better airflow since my Audigy 4 is in the last PCI slot and used to obstruct air from getting right into the fan when using the HR-03.

So again, between the HR-03 and the T-Rad 2, I would definitely say the T-Rad 2 is the better overall cooler. However, when compared to the price and efficiency of the S1 Rev. 2, I think the S1 would win - especially with the knowledge of knowing that it can run well passively (or with very little airflow), which the T-Rad 2 wasn't designed to do and subsequently also saving some of your slots on the motherboard.
 
My vote is for S1s as well - I ran them with fans on my 4850s for a while but I can achieve almost as high of an OC without them so I recently removed them.

I'd suggest these 25mm deep Yate Loons if you want to add fans, they work quite well and have a smaller profile than a standard 120mm: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6174/fan-344/Yate_Loon_120mm_x_25mm_Fan_D12SH-12.html

I tried a T-Rad2 on a 4870 before I owned these cards and it wasn't sufficient to keep the VRMs from overheating even with a dual-fan setup. Also, Thermalright tech support was downright rude and straight up refused to help me with this issue (they only have one tech support rep in total :eek: and he is a huge jackass) so I promptly returned the cooler.

Those who say the price of the TR gear isn't worth it over the AC would definitely be correct - you can find the S1s as low as $15 on sale.
 
Yeah it seems like the S1 is the best fit for my case, my NB on the 780i is quite large so couldn't use the HR-03 the the first position and my second PCI-E has an 8600 in it so no go there either. Also I cannot mount any fans on the coolers as I will have to trust that my Antec 1200 with all the fans on high give it enough air flow.

What coolers do people run that are using Tri-SLI? Surely those stock fans are a little better then single slotted 8800GT but not much I am sure.

Thanks though for the replies, just want to get these temps down before the summer comes and my apartment with little window A/C units don't fry my boards.
 
The S1 is the best choice if you have the space.
I had one on my 20% overclocked/overvolted 8800GT and the temperatures were amazing, never breaching 50C on the hottest summer day with a silent 120mm fan strapped to it.
Load temps were mostly in the low 40's.

You can blow a fan down the gap between the cards, that will aid cooling tremendously with an S1.
 
Nenu said:
You can blow a fan down the gap between the cards, that will aid cooling tremendously with an S1.
Click to expand...

This is actually what I was thinking. If your cards don't have dual-slot coolers stock, the S1 does come with vented slot covers to use. If you put a 120mm fan (or maybe a couple smaller fans) at the far end of the cards (perpendicular to the cards, near the drive bays), you may be able to blow some of the heat out the slot vents, without sacrificing more slot space.

If you have reference G92 8800GTs, you might want to look into the iandh custom heatsink kits (black and silver). Unfortunately they don't match the holes on my XFX 9800GT, or I'd have a set on mine. The RAMsink is a single piece that bolts on (rather than AC's 8 sticky-tape sinks) and it includes a VRM heatsink. A number of people reported issues with the VRM getting too hot with fanless S1's, but that heatsink should help as long as there's at least a little airflow.

Petra's Yate Loons have been shown to be a slightly different version from some other vendors, and they seem to be a little better (and they're cheaper than the link above). If you're looking at full-size 120mm fans, keep in mind that the slim one I used (pics in the other thread) is 12mm thick. A regular 25mm fan will take up twice that much, which is approximately a full slot-width.
 
Figured I would update this and let people know that the S1 Rev 2 for my 8800GTs is one of the better purchases for a video card. My cards literally did drop 20C by adding these two on to my SLI cards as my apartment gets hot and unfortunately stays warm so our second bedroom hoves around 80F.

Well they would at times hit 100C when in a game, L4D, Crysis, Crysis WH, CoD4 or CoD5, now they barely break 60C if that even in the 80-82F room!

Just got to make sure you have plenty of airflow as my 1200 has all the stock fans on high, then I couldn't use the door fan anymore so I placed in an empty hard drive bay so the 120mm fan is a couple inches from both S1s and keeps them cool. Well worth the $25 a piece for these coolers. Now my only problem is the 8600GTS runs at 65C but atleast nothing heavy, just powering the two 24s on the sides and occassional PhysX. :D

I managed to stack the cards as such:
8800GT
S1
8600GTS
X-Fi
8800GT
S1

PSU
 
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