jonbass
05-22-2007, 12:15 PM
ASUS EN8800GTX Aqua Tank test
I have had the opportunity to test Asus water-cooled 8800GTX solution, now when HD2900XT and 8800 Ultra are released then maybe this card doesn’t feel super exiting but still I think many who wants a high end card and doesn’t get a HD2900XT will continue looking at 8800GTX because Ultras big price tag.
Anyway I have been testing Asus 8800GTX Aqua Tank last week and will share some of my thoughts and results to whoever is interested, also I hope my poor English are readable.
Asus EN8800GTX Aqua Tank, this is an 8800GTX that Asus have assembled water-cooling on and also this card is over clocked directly from factory.
The cooling that Asus have choosed for this card is Thermaltakes Tide Water, this is maybe not the best water-cooling solution out there but for users that wants to try water but doesn’t feel comfortable assembled it this can be a really good choice.
I have tested Tide Water on another card a couple of months ago and even if the cooling was OK I still weren’t satisfied, but for the Aqua tank it seems like Tide water have been upgraded a bit because the Radiator/pump/tank are bigger than the one I tested before and it seems like this version also performs better.
This card is also like I mention earlier factory over clocked, stock frequencies for the 8800GTX is 575/900 and the frequencies for the Aqua Tank is 626 Mhz on the GPU and 1030 Mhz on the memory’s. This gives a pretty nice boost in both games and 3D mark, there is also some room left to raise the frequencies even more.
.
Now lets go on and watch some pictures of the card before my text gets to boring..
Pictures:
Package:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-020_2.jpg
The manual that comes with the card is really nice looking, at least the depicting
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-002.jpg
Asus Aqua tank comes in a very big box compared to many other 8800GTX cards, Asus have also put some time to give this model a really cool looking cover.
I personally don’t care much about the appearance I think it is the inside that matters.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-022.jpg
The package for the card is really good, Asus uses some kind of hard foam that they have form cut so that the card and cooling stay in place even when it gets the cruel treatment from the Swedish post office.
As usual Asus have bundled both games and other software together with this card, I personally likes big bundles as long as I doesn’t affect the price tag to much.
~3Dmark06
~Ghost Recon Advanced War fighter
~GTI Racing
~2 Molex / PCI-E adapter
~Component Video Out cable
~Manual, both for graphic card and watercooling
~Drivers, winXP & Vista
ASUS EN8800GTX Aqua Tank:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-115.jpg
Spec:
Core frequency:....... 626Mhz
GDDR Frequency:.... 2060 Mhz
Memory Size:........ 768MB GDDR
Memory bus size:.... 384-Bitars
Shader:................ 128 Shaderprocessorer
ROPS:..................... 24
Stream Processor:. 128
Thermaltake Tide Water:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-089.jpg
(Source: Asus)
Brazing copper Waterblock
All copper designed Radiator
Adjustable Fan (1700 , 2500 RPM /17 , 19dBA)
Black Powerful 12 V Tiny Pump
10,000 hours of maintenance free from liquid refilling
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-092.jpg
The cooling doesn’t need any assembling or refilling before running neither does the card so it is just to plug it in and enjoy the performance, according to Thermaltake the Tide Water doesn’t need to be refilled until after approx 10,000 hours.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-087.jpg
If someone feels worried about refilling the fluid, don’t be, it is really simple. On one side of the radiator/pump/tank there’s a screw cork that easily can be unscrewed and then it is just to refill with suitable fluid.
On the tank there’s also a low mark so that you can se when it is time to refill.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-068.jpg
unfortunately the cooling are very big so it hard to use two of these cards in SLI, but if you already have a regular GTX card there shouldn’t be a problem with space.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-044.jpg
The water block seems like a standard Thermaltake block adjusted for 8800GTX cards, the Tide Water does a pretty good job keeping the card cool unfortunately it doesn’t manage to keep up with EK or Danger Den water blocks.
For the overclocker that wishes to use water-cooling I would recommend to get a regular 8800GTX card and then buy a separate water-cooling, but if you aren’t out to push the card to its limit but wants a card that performs great and keeps a decent sound level then Asus Aqua tank is a great choice.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-060.jpg
Even if there are better performing watercooling gear to get I am still impressed by the Tide Water, in my open air system the cards stays around 55-57 degrees full load temp even after a couple of hours of 3D mark, and that isn’t to shabby.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-108-1.jpg
Beside the waterblock there is also a fan that helps cooling the card, the fan is placed above the water block and blows on the heat sinks that are placed on the memory’s etc.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-056.jpg
The fan is power by a molex connector that you connect directly into the power supply, also the Tide Water system is powered by a molex.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-059.jpg
Beside the two molex for the cooling the card needs 2x6 pin PCI-E to run properly, exactly like a standard 8800GTX card.
..
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-071_2.jpg
The PCB on Aqua Tank have a bit different colour than on my XFX 8800GTX card, I thought that there was green and brown PCB´s for 8800 card but it seems like they are also dark and light brown PCB´s. The major different between Aqua Tank and XFX besides the colour is that Asus uses Hynix memory’s and XFX Samsung.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-094.jpg
As I mention earlier assemble the cooling is really easy, the radiator/tank/pump have this flap that can be placed in a PCI-PCI-E slot and also it have a holder that you can fasten with a screw in the expansion slots.( If you don’t understand what I am talking about then please ask, I couldn’t find the right words for this).
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-069_2.jpg
Resultat:
During these tests i have not pushed the card to its limits because my 8800Ultra card has taken almost al of my attention, so for this card I have just made some basic benchmarking.
These results are al out of the box, no mods or tweaks are done, no extra cooling is provided, the only cooling used is the stock cooler on the card. The rest of the system is cooled with air.
The air temp was aprox 25 degrees Celsius, the graphic card temp was pending between 56-63 degrees Celsius after 2 hours full load of running games and 3D mark, idle was around 50-54 degrees Celsius.
Remember that I use a open air system so inside a case the temp will probably be a bit higher.
Stock:
Stock speeds /
CPU:.........2666 Mhz
FSB:..........266 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.32v
DDR2:.......800 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.0v
GPU:.........626Mhz
GDDR:......1026 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/03_stock_lans.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/Stock.jpg
Overclocking:
CPU:.........2666 Mhz
FSB:..........266 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.32v
DDR2:.......800 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.0v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1026 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/GPU_675_lans.jpg
CPU:.........3729 Mhz
FSB:..........310 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.5v
DDR2:.......1100 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.3v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1055 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/03_675_lans.jpg
CPU:.........3712 Mhz
FSB:..........309 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.5v
DDR2:.......1100 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.3v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1055 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/3D06_675_lans.jpg
A couple of final Words about the card:
So what can i say about Asus 8800GTX Aqua Tank then, well Asus keeps what they promise. The card performs really well and the cooling on the card does a surprisingly good job. After aprox 2-3 hours of full load the temperature stay somewhere between 62-65 degrees depending on the workload, this I must say is a really good result if you take in the calculation that Aqua Tank card doesn’t cost any more than many other factory over clocked cards that uses the reference cooler.
The only thing I would like to point out is that the memory’s gets really hot after a while of running in full load, but this doesn’t seem to affect the performance anything but I may have some effect on overclocking in addition to the already raised frequencies.
Now even if the memory’s are hot there shouldn’t be any problem raising the frequencies 30-40 MHz with Aqua Tanks stock cooling, but if you want higher on the memory’s than I would recommend assemble an extra fan that helps keeping the memory’s cool.
I usually doesn’t like factory overclocked cards with various cooling solutions that will raise the price but doesn’t do any real benefit, but this card can actually be a really good choice to people that wants a fast and quiet card but doesn’t want to overclock or put together water cooling by themselves. Also this card has a pretty amazing bundle witch I mention earlier that I liked it as long as I doesn’t affect the price tag, unfortunately the Aqua Tank bundle is very similar to Striker Extreme bundle witch is kind of boring.
PLUS+
Great cooling
Over clocks really good
Silent
Easy to assemble and maintain
MINUS-The price
High sound level on max
Very similar game bunmdle as Striker Extreme
I hope you guys like this mini review of Aqua Tank 8800GTX, like i said earlier i haven’t had much time to write this so it can both contain misspellings and spec errors but i will try to correct al the errors as soon as i find them.
And also i hope my English are understandable, Jonbass
I have had the opportunity to test Asus water-cooled 8800GTX solution, now when HD2900XT and 8800 Ultra are released then maybe this card doesn’t feel super exiting but still I think many who wants a high end card and doesn’t get a HD2900XT will continue looking at 8800GTX because Ultras big price tag.
Anyway I have been testing Asus 8800GTX Aqua Tank last week and will share some of my thoughts and results to whoever is interested, also I hope my poor English are readable.
Asus EN8800GTX Aqua Tank, this is an 8800GTX that Asus have assembled water-cooling on and also this card is over clocked directly from factory.
The cooling that Asus have choosed for this card is Thermaltakes Tide Water, this is maybe not the best water-cooling solution out there but for users that wants to try water but doesn’t feel comfortable assembled it this can be a really good choice.
I have tested Tide Water on another card a couple of months ago and even if the cooling was OK I still weren’t satisfied, but for the Aqua tank it seems like Tide water have been upgraded a bit because the Radiator/pump/tank are bigger than the one I tested before and it seems like this version also performs better.
This card is also like I mention earlier factory over clocked, stock frequencies for the 8800GTX is 575/900 and the frequencies for the Aqua Tank is 626 Mhz on the GPU and 1030 Mhz on the memory’s. This gives a pretty nice boost in both games and 3D mark, there is also some room left to raise the frequencies even more.
.
Now lets go on and watch some pictures of the card before my text gets to boring..
Pictures:
Package:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-020_2.jpg
The manual that comes with the card is really nice looking, at least the depicting
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-002.jpg
Asus Aqua tank comes in a very big box compared to many other 8800GTX cards, Asus have also put some time to give this model a really cool looking cover.
I personally don’t care much about the appearance I think it is the inside that matters.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-022.jpg
The package for the card is really good, Asus uses some kind of hard foam that they have form cut so that the card and cooling stay in place even when it gets the cruel treatment from the Swedish post office.
As usual Asus have bundled both games and other software together with this card, I personally likes big bundles as long as I doesn’t affect the price tag to much.
~3Dmark06
~Ghost Recon Advanced War fighter
~GTI Racing
~2 Molex / PCI-E adapter
~Component Video Out cable
~Manual, both for graphic card and watercooling
~Drivers, winXP & Vista
ASUS EN8800GTX Aqua Tank:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-115.jpg
Spec:
Core frequency:....... 626Mhz
GDDR Frequency:.... 2060 Mhz
Memory Size:........ 768MB GDDR
Memory bus size:.... 384-Bitars
Shader:................ 128 Shaderprocessorer
ROPS:..................... 24
Stream Processor:. 128
Thermaltake Tide Water:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-089.jpg
(Source: Asus)
Brazing copper Waterblock
All copper designed Radiator
Adjustable Fan (1700 , 2500 RPM /17 , 19dBA)
Black Powerful 12 V Tiny Pump
10,000 hours of maintenance free from liquid refilling
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-092.jpg
The cooling doesn’t need any assembling or refilling before running neither does the card so it is just to plug it in and enjoy the performance, according to Thermaltake the Tide Water doesn’t need to be refilled until after approx 10,000 hours.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-087.jpg
If someone feels worried about refilling the fluid, don’t be, it is really simple. On one side of the radiator/pump/tank there’s a screw cork that easily can be unscrewed and then it is just to refill with suitable fluid.
On the tank there’s also a low mark so that you can se when it is time to refill.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-068.jpg
unfortunately the cooling are very big so it hard to use two of these cards in SLI, but if you already have a regular GTX card there shouldn’t be a problem with space.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-044.jpg
The water block seems like a standard Thermaltake block adjusted for 8800GTX cards, the Tide Water does a pretty good job keeping the card cool unfortunately it doesn’t manage to keep up with EK or Danger Den water blocks.
For the overclocker that wishes to use water-cooling I would recommend to get a regular 8800GTX card and then buy a separate water-cooling, but if you aren’t out to push the card to its limit but wants a card that performs great and keeps a decent sound level then Asus Aqua tank is a great choice.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-060.jpg
Even if there are better performing watercooling gear to get I am still impressed by the Tide Water, in my open air system the cards stays around 55-57 degrees full load temp even after a couple of hours of 3D mark, and that isn’t to shabby.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-108-1.jpg
Beside the waterblock there is also a fan that helps cooling the card, the fan is placed above the water block and blows on the heat sinks that are placed on the memory’s etc.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-056.jpg
The fan is power by a molex connector that you connect directly into the power supply, also the Tide Water system is powered by a molex.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-059.jpg
Beside the two molex for the cooling the card needs 2x6 pin PCI-E to run properly, exactly like a standard 8800GTX card.
..
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-071_2.jpg
The PCB on Aqua Tank have a bit different colour than on my XFX 8800GTX card, I thought that there was green and brown PCB´s for 8800 card but it seems like they are also dark and light brown PCB´s. The major different between Aqua Tank and XFX besides the colour is that Asus uses Hynix memory’s and XFX Samsung.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-094.jpg
As I mention earlier assemble the cooling is really easy, the radiator/tank/pump have this flap that can be placed in a PCI-PCI-E slot and also it have a holder that you can fasten with a screw in the expansion slots.( If you don’t understand what I am talking about then please ask, I couldn’t find the right words for this).
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/EN8800_-069_2.jpg
Resultat:
During these tests i have not pushed the card to its limits because my 8800Ultra card has taken almost al of my attention, so for this card I have just made some basic benchmarking.
These results are al out of the box, no mods or tweaks are done, no extra cooling is provided, the only cooling used is the stock cooler on the card. The rest of the system is cooled with air.
The air temp was aprox 25 degrees Celsius, the graphic card temp was pending between 56-63 degrees Celsius after 2 hours full load of running games and 3D mark, idle was around 50-54 degrees Celsius.
Remember that I use a open air system so inside a case the temp will probably be a bit higher.
Stock:
Stock speeds /
CPU:.........2666 Mhz
FSB:..........266 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.32v
DDR2:.......800 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.0v
GPU:.........626Mhz
GDDR:......1026 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/03_stock_lans.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/Stock.jpg
Overclocking:
CPU:.........2666 Mhz
FSB:..........266 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.32v
DDR2:.......800 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.0v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1026 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/GPU_675_lans.jpg
CPU:.........3729 Mhz
FSB:..........310 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.5v
DDR2:.......1100 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.3v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1055 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/03_675_lans.jpg
CPU:.........3712 Mhz
FSB:..........309 Mhz
Vcore:.......1.5v
DDR2:.......1100 Mhz / 4-4-4-15
Vdimm:.....2.3v
GPU:.........675Mhz
GDDR:......1055 Mhz
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q2/Jonbass_121/3D06_675_lans.jpg
A couple of final Words about the card:
So what can i say about Asus 8800GTX Aqua Tank then, well Asus keeps what they promise. The card performs really well and the cooling on the card does a surprisingly good job. After aprox 2-3 hours of full load the temperature stay somewhere between 62-65 degrees depending on the workload, this I must say is a really good result if you take in the calculation that Aqua Tank card doesn’t cost any more than many other factory over clocked cards that uses the reference cooler.
The only thing I would like to point out is that the memory’s gets really hot after a while of running in full load, but this doesn’t seem to affect the performance anything but I may have some effect on overclocking in addition to the already raised frequencies.
Now even if the memory’s are hot there shouldn’t be any problem raising the frequencies 30-40 MHz with Aqua Tanks stock cooling, but if you want higher on the memory’s than I would recommend assemble an extra fan that helps keeping the memory’s cool.
I usually doesn’t like factory overclocked cards with various cooling solutions that will raise the price but doesn’t do any real benefit, but this card can actually be a really good choice to people that wants a fast and quiet card but doesn’t want to overclock or put together water cooling by themselves. Also this card has a pretty amazing bundle witch I mention earlier that I liked it as long as I doesn’t affect the price tag, unfortunately the Aqua Tank bundle is very similar to Striker Extreme bundle witch is kind of boring.
PLUS+
Great cooling
Over clocks really good
Silent
Easy to assemble and maintain
MINUS-The price
High sound level on max
Very similar game bunmdle as Striker Extreme
I hope you guys like this mini review of Aqua Tank 8800GTX, like i said earlier i haven’t had much time to write this so it can both contain misspellings and spec errors but i will try to correct al the errors as soon as i find them.
And also i hope my English are understandable, Jonbass