Thermalright HR-03 Plus: Aftermarket cooling for the 8800 overclockers...

[Omastar]

Oh, that's all the HSI heatsink is? How in the hell could the mounting holes be that different on the GTS than the GTX? If need be, I'll Dremel out some new holes to mount the damn thing, or barring that I'll just stick a Swiftech MC14 on the NVIO chip.

[Revv23]

hat monster looks small on a GTX.

It's funny, i always used to say high end air can compete with water, i meant in performance though, not price!!

At this point spending $45 for my set of four speed fans, then $60 for cpu and $60 for video, i could have gotten into watercooling a long time ago. Not only that, watercooling is future compatible where air cooling is usually not.

i should have just started out in WC as i have spent that much on AC in the past few years.

[Baron]

That doesnt look to bad actually.

Its got a decent price tag aswell which is always good to see.

[enz660]

hat monster looks small on a GTX.

It's funny, i always used to say high end air can compete with water, i meant in performance though, not price!!

At this point spending $45 for my set of four speed fans, then $60 for cpu and $60 for video, i could have gotten into watercooling a long time ago. Not only that, watercooling is future compatible where air cooling is usually not.

i should have just started out in WC as i have spent that much on AC in the past few years.

please dont instigate a debate between AC and WC.

[cursivearmy1]

When will they be shipping with HSI so I can put this sucker on my GTS.

[Origin_Unknown]

When will they be shipping with HSI so I can put this sucker on my GTS.

mid march i beleive from the website

[Omastar]

When will they be shipping with HSI so I can put this sucker on my GTS.

What makes you so sure you actually need it? Thermalright's just screwing you, the enthusiast, by advising you to live and die by their schedule when they screwed up. As I said, just stick a decent sized heatsink on that NVIO chip or modify the supplied one and no one will be the wiser.

[trans am]

What makes you so sure you actually need it? Thermalright's just screwing you, the enthusiast, by advising you to live and die by their schedule when they screwed up. As I said, just stick a decent sized heatsink on that NVIO chip or modify the supplied one and no one will be the wiser.

I got mine for a GTS. I just assumed they were universal gtx/gts.
I'm sure they are just giving you an extra heatsink. I have plenty lying around.
@hotrodtheman

nice overclock gains. do those sinks have self-adhesive or do you need arctic silver epoxy?

[cursivearmy1]

They said the HSI will be free to all existing owners. So they probably will not bump the price but include it with it.

[tbone8ty]

Dumbest statement of the day. What is this HSI heatsink, anyway?

its still ugly

come up with a better design, rather than just slapping a few heatpipes on it

they didnt design for the memory, voltage chips or ramdac, theres no fan and heat just disapates inside the case, right next to the cpu and northbridge


again it is a piss poor design and ugly

[enz660]

its still ugly

come up with a better design, rather than just slapping a few heatpipes on it

they didnt design for the memory, voltage chips or ramdac, theres no fan and heat just disapates inside the case, right next to the cpu and northbridge


again it is a piss poor design and ugly

either thats INHO, of you are just ignorant.

[Origin_Unknown]

In regards to the HSI chip ive received an email from thermalright....

From: Hank Peng (Thermalright, USA) [mailto:hpeng@thermalright.com]
Sent: 06 March 2007 09:15
To: Anthony
Subject: RE: support

Hi Anthony,

The HR-03 PLUS will come with its own HSI heatsink. You don’t need a separate HSI heatsink.

Best Regards,
Hank Peng
Customer Relations/ Product Marketing/ Public Relations


----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony
To: support@thermalright.com
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 6:38 AM
Subject: support

Hi,

Im looking at the HR-03 Plus for my 8800gts but im wondering why I need a separate HSI heatsink?

Isnt the hsi heatsink pictured in the installation documents?


Step 5

Insert the push pins though the holes from the HSI heatsink indicated by the red circles and apply thermal compound to the bottom as well as on the HSI chipset and then stick it on top of the HSI chipset.


Regards

Anthony

[Origin_Unknown]

its still ugly

come up with a better design, rather than just slapping a few heatpipes on it

they didnt design for the memory, voltage chips or ramdac, theres no fan and heat just disapates inside the case, right next to the cpu and northbridge


again it is a piss poor design and ugly

you'll notice that the ram, voltage chips and ramdac have heatsinks installed on them, when a fan is blowing over the top it will also blow over the above heatsinks.

[Origin_Unknown]

adding to the above email

From: Hank Peng (Thermalright, USA) [mailto:hpeng@thermalright.com]
Sent: 06 March 2007 09:58
To: Anthony O'Dell
Subject: RE: support

Anthony,

These will be available at QuietPC UK in about a week or so.
Sorry about the confusion.

Best Regards,
Hank Peng
Customer Relations/ Product Marketing/ Public Relations


From: Anthony
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 5:44 PM
To: Hank Peng (Thermalright, USA)
Subject: RE: support

These are available now?

Sorry for the questions but your website is confusing and contradicting what your saying.


Regards

Anthony



From: Hank Peng (Thermalright, USA) [mailto:hpeng@thermalright.com]
Sent: 06 March 2007 09:40
To: Anthony
Subject: RE: support

Sorry Anthony,

I should’ve added that if you’re a GTX owner you should be fine.
Otherwise a free HSI heatsink will be provided given that the heatsink was purchased from a legitimate reseller.

Thank you.
Best Regards,
Hank Peng
Customer Relations/ Product Marketing/ Public Relations


From: Anthony
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 5:28 PM
To: Hank Peng (Thermalright, USA)
Subject: RE: support

Thanks for the reply but im curious as to why it says on www.thermalright.com

Compatible with Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX video cards only.
For 8800 GTS card, a seperate HSI heatsink is required (available by mid March, free to existing HR-03 Plus owners.)

[LuckyNV]

I can't believe the GTS HSI heatsink is an issue on here, sure its a hassle and TR should have dealt with this from the start, but its already going to be supplied for free (provided you bought from a legit reseller).

Surely any potential buyer on XS would have a multitude of suitable heatsinks that they've accumulated over the years...

[Battle_Rattle]

To bad about the GTS issue...

Here's a tech media review... with this article and the comments above I think ill be getting one...

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=624&p=0

[Jodiuh]

Just hate to drop $50 + $12 for fan when I may ditch it for the R600...hmmm. Right now, I'm idling @ 54 and loading around 78 w/ stock and an Antec Cyclone below it. That's stock cooling w/ a room temp of 24C.

[1cem4n]

how does this compare to the Swiftech MCW60-R waterblock?

[Speederlander]

Just hate to drop $50 + $12 for fan when I may ditch it for the R600...hmmm..

Yeah, I would skip the R600 if you have the 8800 now. R600 is so insanely late that the next bump of nVidia is shortly to follow.

[ign0]

well. I guess some people have different taste.

However, some respect to other people are still welcome.

after all, I believe many people including me feel the design of this hr-03 monster is elegant, efficient, flexible( two way installation, and can diy mounting plate), and even future compatible ( given that its base is similar to a water block, should be able to be mounted on different chips)

its main flaw (if any, in my opinion), is the area of heat sink is still limited so that six heat pipes shouldn't bring too much gain over a four-heat-pipe version.

I already see people realise SLI setup of this heat sink by bent heat pipes gently to 90 degree. in that way not only installation becomes more flexible. Heat dissipation should be benefited.

MCW60 = apogee. so as long as you have big radiator. you can lower the temp all the way down. but it's really not necessary for the video chips are based on different design and manufacturing procedure and can generally endure higher temps than cpu's.

[Speederlander]

This looks like it takes up RAM space...

Notice they didn't slap any RAM in that demo board.

http://www.legionhardware.com/pic.ph...s/Image_27.jpg


Also no fans in SLI, aftermarket NB questionable and getting close to CPU cooling zone.

[Istasi]

There's definitely enough space to fit ram into those slots, the cooler doesn't get that close to the mobo.

[Speederlander]

There's definitely enough space to fit ram into those slots, the cooler doesn't get that close to the mobo.

Yeah, hard to tell from the angle in the photo, at least to me it is. But the issue of no fans with the heatsink in the "up" position for standard ATX or in SLI is an issue for some.

[minsc_tdp]

I really want, but I'm holding off buying this until the following questions are answered:

1. If I order from HeatsinkFactory, will they know to add the HSI heatsink into the package for the GTS?
2. What NB cooler should I get for my XBX2 to make it all fit, and get good OC on the NB?

Just a side note, the Installation Procedure on the website indicates to attach the fan to the HS using zipties. Seems a bit hokey, surprised there's no screwholes..

[Omastar]

Well I installed mine, and these were my findings:

The included HSI heatsink with pushpins almost fits, but not quite. There's some damned voltage regulator in the way, preventing the HSI heatsink from seating correctly. The supplied HSI is a tad too long, but as I suspected earlier it should be no hard feat to just Dremel a bit off and clear the voltage regulator in the way. Alternately, you could just stick another heatsink on the NVIO chip, like a Swiftech MC14 or similar.

Secondly, I'm idling now at 41C with a 92mm Rexus fan (35cfm I believe, not sure) and a 120mm Yate Loon exhausting hot air being blown against the soundcard. Load temps never got higher than 55C, which I think is pretty good considering I hit 77C with the stock cooler while gaming. And on this eVGA card, I swear to God, they must've used an entire tube of AS5 (or some shoddy knockoff of it) on the GPU, and it took a good 20 Q-Tips to clean off completely using Arctic Silver Thermal Surface Remover/Purifier.

Lastly, the heatsink itself is not that heavy, but it is long. If you try to mount it with the fins extending over the back of the video card, you will likely encounter clearance issues with taller northbridge coolers, so it's a good idea to do some measuring if you plan to mount it this way. Barring that, you can always mount it with the heatsink extending over your empty PCI-E/PCI slots, but with a fan it turns into like a 4 slot solution, so take that into consideration.

Overall, I think it's a good cooler. Knocked 22C off my load temps and about 9C off my idle.