duorb hsf on 3870's

[purecain]

its taken me nearly a month to get my hands on two of these for my 3870's.
before i installed these coolers my cards were limited to gaming at 840mhz core 1250mhz mem...
with the duorb i'm running crossfire at 885mhz core 1326mem.
i'm really enjoying the testing with these cards now as the original hsf was garbage...
i'd be interested to hear if anyone else has this comabination of card and cooler and what clocks theve been able to hit...

[ChaosMinionX]

ive had them all the way up to 900mhz / 1350 on memory... new benches comin up

[purecain]

on the the duorbs... this is good news.. i've reached my limit on the mem until i do the mods to my card... i think i might flash a bios which gives me more room in overdrive... so can you game for hours at 900mhz????
thanks for the info....

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

i just recieved the duorb for my 3870

and I'm gonna be working to get up around 1 ghz with a voltmodded card (shipped to me @ 1.4), so this thing is gonna take a beating.

[purecain]

sounds like fun m8..... i'm looking forward to trying the powercolor extreme bios... if i cant get my hands on it within a couple of weeks i'm going to do some hard mods....

[ChaosMinionX]

Just benching at 900mhz, no real gaming unfortunately needs more voltage, but it stayed cool

[purecain]

well at least were ready for the voltage mods and better bios versions.

[hashi]

I should have my duos around next thursday, Ill see what i can do then. Thus far ive been able to bench 860/1300 with the stock fan (temps do get high so i have to manually set fan speed in riva tuner). Not sure If i wanna flash bios, because 860/1300 is pretty comfortable, need better temps though!

[purecain]

anyone come across some better bios version???? post em here...
my duorbs are pretty loud, just wondering what other peoples are like....

[bacon612]

I am running an old school 939 3200 xpress rig with Pcie slots that are quite close together. My HIS 3870s almost touch one another (1 MM apart). What is everyone noticing about the size of the orbs vs stock cooling?

I am concerned that they will make contact.

My temps are rediculous on my top 3870 because it barely has room to draw air.

[purecain]

they wont touch, you can take my word for it.
get em on....

[Truckchase!]

Nice. Got any pics?

[bacon612]

they wont touch, you can take my word for it.
get em on....

Thanks Cain Lord, ill take your werd for it. Where is everyone getting their orbs? Who has the deals? The egg have a good price on them?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106112

Also, do the orbs provide the same molex headers as the OEM fans? Do you still have control over fan speds etc...?

[PhilDoc]

What kind of load and idle temps are you guys getting out of the orbs? Just trying to compare it with the V2 I'm using at the moment.

[purecain]

Nice. Got any pics?

i cant be bothered to open my case up right now but i'll give you a through shot.........
48-52c load

[xMrBunglex]

is everyone using their DuOrbs with the stock ramsink still on the card? does the stock plate seem better than aftermarket ramsinks?

[Truckchase!]

i cant be bothered to open my case up right now

LoL... you solder that thing shut or.....?

[purecain]

lol nah i have one of my fans controlled be the motherboard and it has to be disconnected when removing the side panel... i'll take some propper pics tommorow, i'm having a benching day...
by the way i used the stock ramsinks but i was very tempted to remove them. would love to here of anyone getting superior results using alternative ramsinks...

[bacon612]

anyone come across some better bios version???? post em here...
my duorbs are pretty loud, just wondering what other peoples are like....

Just mounted my orbs. These things are loud. My temps fell like 30C tho. Cain, r u using stock BIOS?

WHat Kind of Core/Mem speeds are you getting?

[purecain]

i'm using the updated bios, my clocks for both cards are
860mhz core, 1311mhz mem....
i'm glad its not just me that think these things are loud. good performers though. we just need a better bios now....

[bacon612]

Hey Cain, Mind linking me to the bios you are using? Ill be overclocking them tonight.

I really need to find a way to get my case shut to deal with the noise. ive already lopped the ihs off my x2. It seems that I have too much stuff in a small case.


Here are some pics...

[bacon612]

Hrm... how bout these?

[xMrBunglex]

gawd, those new GPU's are teeny. that's awesome. if the noise is really bothering you, you can get a fan speed controller and 3-pin to Molex converters. that will just add to your wire clutter, but a 5 1/4-bay fan speed controller would be the most convenient way to handle the situation. you could also get a Molex to 3-pin conver to plug the DuOrbs directly into your motherboard and use software to control their speed. ThermalTake messed up by not offering these with 3-pin connectors in the first place.

Bacon, my experience with Zalmans and my old CrossFired 1900's showed me that the fans are louder when there is another card right up next to them. looks like your mobo is full, so the only thing you can do is lower the fan speed or sound-proof your case.

[Skyguy]

I tested a DuOrb on an 8800 Ultra and it came nowhere near the stock cooler. Performance at idle was good, but who runs their cards at idle? At load, the DuOrb was beat on temps when running several different GPU benchmarks by the stock cooler which was running at only 80% fan speed. At 100% on the stock fan, the DuOrb simply couldn't come close. Not to mention with the DuOrb the back of the card was very hot to the touch and was adding heat upward to the CPU and mobo VRM's, etc. And this was with RAM sinks on the Ultra as well. Without the ability to exhaust the hot air out the rear of the case, this poses additional problems with heat on other components.

Not sure if the 3870 coolers are inherently worse than the one on the Ultra and therefore the DuOrb performs well on a 3870. My guess is the smaller GPU and design of the 3870 cooler makes the DuOrb proportionately better........but against a stock 8800 Ultra, the DuOrb was simply outclassed. It would seem the Ultra's stock cooler is actually very efficient at removing heat from both the GPU and the case. Rather disappointing, I was expecting a better showing by the DuOrb. I'm hoping the new Zalman VF-1000 puts up a fight..........

[purecain]

of course the original hsf is worse.... infact its on par if i use the old hsf at 100%.... but who wants to do that(oh i just noticed you did, you were using the original hsf at 80%). at least the duorbs can be run at full pelt without too much whining.


@bacon here ya go m8.... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=2606896
the bios you need is in that thread, you should give it a read if you havnt already.
post back with your results m8....
by the way m8, i just noticed you dont have a fan to exhaust hot air out the back... or youve taken it off for some reason. dont forget to put it back on before you put the side of your case back on.... have fun m8