Rated: 73.33% (3 votes)
Loading ...Akasa Vortexx Neo vs Radeon HD 3850
khenry
The Akasa Neo Vortexx 1000 (See issue 59, p59) may have won an award and in my opinion, lives up to it. However, when replacing a single-slot reference ATi HSF on an entry-level card, you’ll notice a major issue (which you can see on the online version of the review, now up here) – the front of the Neo, which raises the fan away from the top of the card, doesn’t cover the quartet of chips at the top of the card (hereafter known as the VRMs even though I’ve no idea what they do). These heatsinks are sold as separate items. That certainly wins an award from me as stupid idea of the year, as opposed to just charging more money for a more complete upgrade set.
This is a quick guide to how to add this cooler to the 256Mb version of the 3850 which many gamers on a budget are still running (unless it’s just me).
Firstly you should know how to Apply TIM (or see print issue 46, p98). My GPU’s overheating problems were caused by a leakage of the shipped thermal paste causing the copper base to almost touch the die. This is what led to my 41-50 degree temps when idle in Windows, my 70-degree temps in Source games, the low to mid 80s for Crysis (even when tweaked) and the crashout temperatures of more than 90 degrees in Call of Duty 4. Follow all instructions to Remove Your GPU Cooler (or see issue 56 p90). This will rid you of the stock HSF. Unlike the X1900 series card in the guide, the 3850 GPU looks like an AMD Socket A CPU with a central silver die surrounded by green ceramic packaging. So you can apply your TIM to just the silver area of the chip after you’ve cleaned off the old paste with TIM cleaner. Also apply a smooth but thin layer to the surface of the four “VRMs” at the top – but use the replacement thermal pads as directed in Akasa’s kit on the eight RAM chips that make up the 256Mb.
Once all thermal pads are in place and the GPU and VRMs have had TIM applied, jump back to the Make Your Own Thermal Epoxy guide (Issue 53, p102). The only thing you need to change in these instructions is your preferred brand of TIM – I used the old fashioned 80s variety of Araldite as well, bought from B & Q but either type will do. Also, you can either construct or just buy RAM chip heatsinks as directed in issue 59’s Hands On which is yet to reach the site (See the update for the link to buy them, below). If you are stuck without new ones or old flat motherboard heatsinks to recycle, and you were fed up and wanted a quick fix, then do what I did (Pretty sure CPC won’t vouch for this, but it worked for me)…
Take a pair of recently minted (2004 onwards) 2pence pieces – whose circumference covers two of the VRMs and which are literally 1mm thinner than the Reference HSF’s own layer of copper. Clean them up with any solution famous for cleaning copper coins (that’s Coca Cola, Cillit Bang or just TIM Cleaner). Once dry, use your thermal epoxy to bond them to the VRMs, which have already had that single layer of TIM applied. They need a single dollop each as they have to cover two chips – use the centre of the plumage on the “tails” side as a guide – they need to cover a total length of 5.1cm or exactly 2inches). Then place the two coins on the VRMs and gently press them down (if like me, you’d already fitted the cooler by then then you can clamp the edges of the coins with a pair of scissors to place and press the coins to the VRMs). Then carry out the final fixing of the Akasa cooler with the enclosed washers and screw-on caps on the underside and leave the entire upgrade to “dry”. After a decent 45mins to an hour, slot the card back into its case.
If your case is the Cooler Master RC330 Elite V2 from the Issue 55 Build Your Own PC or Mr Geiseric’s BBB or BBBB PCs on the forums, the rear of the Vortexx Neo won’t stretch to the back of the case like a flush double-slot cooler as shipped with the early Radeon 3870 or GeForce 8800GTS/GTX. Naturally, you should still snap out the blanking plate below the first PCI-E slot to allow some hot air to escape. You have the option of fitting a second 80mm cooling fan to the air vent parallel to the top-most PCI-E slots if you don’t feel that the Neo Vortexx is successfully expelling the maximum amount of heat. Despite the lack of a metal backplane, My tests have shown no increase in the surrounding case temperature of 30 degrees. When you first put the cooler through its paces and leave your PC running for a few hours, that will finalise the natural bonding process of the new layers of TIM. I’ll report my results in the next post but thanks to this Cooler, for my preferred resolutions, the card now lives up to issue 53 and 54’s results, rather than issue 58’s.
UPDATE: If you don’t like the idea of gluing money to your VRMs/other types of capacitor, then you can also obtain the Zalman Coolers pictured in Issue 59’s guide (page 98), separately and direct from good old Scan or quick code LN9907 - they cost £5 for a pack of eight heatsinks in total, four standard “high sprung” memory coolers and another four of the flat, “fanned out” variety (the flatter type are the ones in the bottom right-hand/final photograph). They’re so small when bought with the Vortexx, as to add next to nothing to the delivery charge. I’d be the first to admit they probably look more techy than a couple of coins. Whether they’d match the required length to cover the VRMs/non-memory chips/capacitors on every single graphics card remains to be seen. However, at five pounds, it won’t break the bank to find out.
Excellent tip Ken, I’ll link to this when the review goes up
[…] Henry Author Profile | Next Post | Previous Post Not yet rated Loading […]