X-bit labs

Two New Coolers for Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or Minus 20 Degrees for the Reference (page 10)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 03/04/2008 | 04:44 PM ]

Conclusion

We will start summing up our results from the ZEROtherm solutions. Although the Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 bears the “8800” in its name, it failed to cope with the most powerful graphics card from this family, unfortunately. It is unacceptable for a cooler these days to be just a little better than a reference solution, because you end up paying additional money for it. Of course, being as efficient as the stock cooler Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 works quieter, looks much more stylish, boasts modding fan highlighting and finally is a universal solution, which makes it fit not only for GeForce 8800 GTX but also for other graphics cards. Compared with the other two solutions for high-end graphics cards, ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 doesn’t really win, although costs much less.

 Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800, on the contrary, proved an excellent cooler in terms of efficiency as well as low level of generated noise. There is only one worthy rival to the new cooler these days: Thermalright HR-03 Plus. However, the latter equipped with a 120mm fan will eat up one extra PCI slot off your mainboard, costs a bit more and still is a little less efficient. In fact, Accelero Xtreme 8800 is the today’s absolute best cooler for GeForce 8800 GTX. However, we can’t help pointing out two drawbacks that are closely connected with one another. The cooler is not a universal solution, and GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS graphics cards are being discontinued giving way to a young but ambitious GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB and a cheaper GeForce 8800 GT. I don’t know about the latter, but we failed to install Accelero Xtreme 8800 onto the reference GeForce 8800 HTS 512MB from LeadTek, to our greatest disappointment (the main heatsink is too long and hits against the grid next to the card connectors). So, it is definitely a great cooler but it came out a little later for ultimate success. Hopefully, the new Arctic Cooling solution will fit onto the upcoming GeForce 98800 GX2.

According to the results of our test session we decided to award Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 with our prestigious Editor’s Choice title as the best cooler for GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards.