X-bit labs

Passive Cooling Solutions for Graphics Cards from Arctic Cooling and Cooler Master (page 7)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 05/31/2007 | 05:29 PM ]

On the photo above you can see CoolViva Z1 installed onto Radeon X1950 GT that is not listed among the supported graphics accelerators:

Nevertheless, we didn’t have any problems with installation. The procedure is very simple and intuitive that is why it doesn’t really make sense to describe it in detail here. Note that in case of Radeon X1950 GT the two heatpipes will go right above one of the graphics card memory chips, so you will not be able to top it with the aluminum heatsink included with the cooler.

The plastic frame on the second heatsink is removable, so you can install an 80-mm fan onto it, if necessary (the fan is not included with the cooler):

With the fan installed the cooling system looks like this:

Inside the system case (as well as in an open testbed) CoolViva Z1 will block the next mainboard slot. However, the rear heatsink with the fan on it will not be in the way of anything:

At the time of testing the price of this cooling solution wasn’t announced yet, but we believe it is going to be around $20, not more.