Thermaltake TMG AT1 cooler for X1900 series review **56K WARNING**
This is my first attempt at a hardware review so if there is anything I need to do differently let me know :)
I know many have been looking for something to cool their X1900 cards better and quieter than stock. Arctic cooling has the accelero X2, and zalman has the vf900. Both though had some issues with dumping all the heat inside the case, making a heat pocket underneath the card, then recycling the air. So those didn't work for everyone. Thermalright has their HR-03, which vastly outperforms the others, however its size could be a problem with those wanting to run dual cards, have other cards in their system, or just don't have room.
I've noticed many who wanted Arctic Cooling to make a silencer for these cards but they didn't. Well Thermaltake did a silencer ripoff, the TMG AT1. This is what I am reviewing today. I got it from Newegg for $40.
OVERVIEW
The packaging looks like it is meant to be displayed on a shelf. The front shows off the cooler and a few key features of the cooler. Notice the 6 year warranty - hmm sounds like Arctic Cooling's warranty.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9275.jpg
On the back is more info about the cooler: A compatibility list listing all flavors of the X1800 and X1900 (no X1950 listed however), dimensions, heatsink material (aluminum/copper), fan size, noise, etc.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9276.jpg
Here is a closeup of their performance chart. Will it perform as well as they say though? We'll find out in a bit.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9280.jpg
The contents of the package include the cooler itself, mounting hardware, vented PCI bracket (good for those who have a single slot X1900GT), instructions, and a green sheet of paper that has a separate case sticker on it.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9281.jpg
What is that green paper though? Hmm, interesting... I don't know if I would agree with all of it, but you be the judge ;)
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9286.jpg
Here is a closer look at the cooler itself. Notice it has aluminum fins that are more widely spaced than the stock cooler's denser packed copper fins. There are also 2 copper heatpipes, one is visible here, the other is on the opposite side of the cooler (you can see the end of it on this side). The fan uses a pass-through 4-pin molex connector.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9294.jpg
Flipping it over, we see the whole base is one solid sheet of copper. There is preapplied thermal paste covered by a plastic cap.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9302.jpg
A little closer look at the copper base. It is a little rough. Personally I think they could have gotten it a little bit smoother, it would probably help with thermal transfer. However I have seen worse, the bottom of my X1900 stock cooler was rougher than that and had a couple grooves in it.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9295.jpg
Closeup of the fan label. Rated at 12V, 0.18A. From those ratings my guess would be it can't be too loud, but I'll have to wait to pass judgement on that until I actually hook it up. Notice also how the backside is vented as well, allowing air to be pulled through from the back. This actually plays an important role as we'll see later.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9311.jpg
INSTALLATION
First the stock cooler has to come off (obviously). This pic is more for for interest of seeing the stock cooler taken off than anything else ;)
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9318.jpg
Thermaltake includes 2 strips of 4 thermal pads. They actually look exactly like the ones on the stock cooler itself. The directions are to stick them to the ram 1st, with the pink side to make contact with the base of the cooler. Opposite of how they are stuck on the stock cooler, makes me wonder how well they would come off of the chips if I removed the cooler.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9324.jpg
The cooler mounts only by the 4 screws around the GPU and uses none of the other mounting holes. However this cooler is lighter than the stock cooler so I don't think it should be much of a problem. Also it seemed that the X bracket was slightly too long-armed, you can see the screws weren't perfectly lined up in the holes of the arm. Didn't seem to affect anything though.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9339.jpg
And here are a couple pics of it mounted. The fan sticks out beyond the back of the card about 3/4 inch or so.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9329.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9335.jpg
And now inside the case.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9354.jpg
Notice in this pic where the fan is, right over the voltage regulator heatsink. Remember those intake slots for the fan? Looks to me like the fan is going to cool the vregs. This would be good, I was a little worried about those regulators at first but if this cools them I'll be happy.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1/IMG_9346.jpg
PERFORMANCE
First off let's talk about noise. We all know how loud the stock X1900 cooler is, right? Well this Thermaltake cooler is certainly much much quieter, I honestly can barely hear it over the hum of the rest of the system. The fan does have a little bit of a dull whine to it but not noticeable inside a case with the rest of the fans going. However I wouldn't say that it is 16dBA, in a quiet room by itself it was more audible than that. Not by much though, I would say low to mid 20's (just a guess). Suffice to say, your ears will thank you for running this instead of the stock cooler :p:
How about cooling performance? I tested using the F@H GPU client which can really get the GPU pretty toasty, and used ATItool to overclock and monitor temps. Under normal fan speeds it could reach 90 degrees C. Not liking that I turned the fan up, didn't exactly like the noise but it put my mind at ease a little to know that it wasn't running that hot constantly. So here are some numbers.
X1900XT 512MB @ 654.75MHz/720MHz (core @ XTX speeds - ram sucks, won't OC)
Ambient ~20 degrees C
Installed in a Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 case with mesh side panel
Stock cooling:
Fan speed 55%
GPU 82 C
GPU VRM 87 C
Subjective noise - noisy but tolerable
Thermaltake TMG AT1
Fan speed 100%
GPU 76 C
GPU VRM 66 degrees C
Subjective noise - can't hear it over the rest of the system
Definitely an improvement. Notice the placement of the fan certainly helped to cool off those vregs! Side effect is it probably runs the GPU a degree or two warmer but it still cooled better than the stock cooler at 55% and was much quieter about it.
I don't have any hard numbers for the stock cooling at 100% fan speed, but let's just say it did cool down to just below the 70 C mark but was so darn noisy it was unbearable ;) The vregs didn't benefit much from the fan at full.
CONCLUSION
The thermalright HR-03 from past reviews of it cools better than the Thermaltake TMG AT1, no doubt about that. But it also takes more space. If space is an issue, I would recommend the TMG AT1. It certainly does its job well, and helps the ears out quite a bit!
I hope this was helpful in some way. If you have any questions, or suggestions about how to conduct a review better let me know, just bear in mind I don't have any fancy equipment to test actual sound levels and such ;)
:toast:
