X-bit labs

Gigabyte Volar CPU Cooler Review (page 4)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 01/21/2008 | 04:01 PM ]

Installation Tips

Gigabyte Volar may be installed onto LGA 775 and Socket 754/939/940AM2 mainboards. To install the cooler onto AMD k8 platform you should use a steel bracket with the plastic locking tag included with the cooler:

In this case the cooler may be set in two positions, although it is actually more of a CPU socket and its retention bracket peculiarity rather than the cooler design feature.

If your CPU is a pretty one that comes from Intel and hence doesn’t use the old Socket 478 you will need to mount the LGA 775 retention to the cooler base. But before that you need to unscrew the plate above the cooler heatpipes:

You can position Gigabyte Volar on the LGA 775 platform facing in any of four directions, just like in majority of cooling systems. I chose to install the cooler so that the airflow created by the fan blades aimed at the copper MOSFET heatsink on the mainboard and towards the rear panel of the system case:

Since the aluminum heatsink is sitting pretty high above the base, nothing will be conflicting with the electronic components in the area around the processor socket. Even tall RAM heatsinks that are relatively close to the processor socket on Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6, didn’t hit against the cooler fan. Only one of the four cooler fastening screws is a little hard to tighten up as it is placed very close to the mainboard chipset heatsink, but this is a minor inconvenience.

If there is anything you still haven’t figured out about the installation of Gigabyte Volar cooler, you can download a step-by-step installation guide with photographs from Gigabyte’s official site (PDF file, 1.36MB).

Technical Specifications and Price

The technical specs and recommended retail price of this solution are summed up in the table below: