Heat
is without a doubt the single most pressing concern of any PC
hardware enthusiast. Of course when you think of heat and cooling
in relation to a PC, your first thought is to think of the CPU,
and there is no doubt that today's CPU's can give off a fair amount
of heat.
But
the item for this article isn't a cooler for the CPU but a cooler
for you graphics card. Overclockers and general enthusiasts alike
will know that video cards can produce a lot of heat; in some
cases they'll easily pass CPU's for thermal output. Enter the
Titan Eagle
Copper VGA Cooler.
Specifications
| Titan
EAGLE (TTC-CSC82TB(DIY)) |
Outline
Dimension 35.5 x 135 x 90 mm
Fan Dimension 80x80x10 mm
Rated Voltage 12V DC
Rated Speed 2000 ± 10%RPM Airflow 23.58 CFM
Static Pressure 0.93 mm Aq
Noise Level < 22 dBA Rated Current 0.14A
Power Consumption 1.68W
No. of Pole 4 Pole
Rotation Direction Counter-Clockwise |
Full
details and a listed of supported cards (regularly updated)
on Titan's
website.
Included
with the package is the cooler itself sporting a golden winged
appearance as well as a group of self adhesive ramsinks in matching
gold. Unlike the cooler, the ramsinks are apparently not copper
but aluminium. Also in the package is some thermal paste in
a small syringe as well as all the needed bolts and screws to
mount the cooler on to your card.
The
top of the cooler, as mentioned before, has a winged appearance
with a gold bladed fan to provide the active cooling. The copper
cooling fins are anodized black which contrast nicely with the
gold plastic surround.
Turning
the cooler over we can see the (protected during shipping) copper
core and the X shaped mounting plate which in conjunction with
the supplied bolts, springs and screws holds the cooler on the
card. Power for the fan comes from the motherboard 3pin fan
headers and Titan have sleeved the wiring for the cooler to
protect and further enhance the appearance. I was a little worried
I wouldn't be able to find a header close enough but the 5 or
6 motherboards I have to hand all have headers within range
of the 6 inches or so of cable so I don't think you would have
an issue.
Installation
Installation
will (obviously) require you to remove your card from your system
and of course remove the existing cooler. We are going to mount
the cooler on a 6600GT. The instructions for installation can
be found on the inside of the packaging card.
After
cleaning up the core of the gpu and applying a new layer of
thermal paste, you then need to work out which two mounting
points on the cooler match two mounting holes on the card. In
the case of this 6600GT, the original holes were used.
You
then screw in the standoffs to the mounting plate on the bottom
of the cooler use the a rubber washer on each where they touch
the card. Turning the card over you put another rubber washer
on each and then use a screwdriver to tighten up the supplied
spring loaded screws. And that's it. It's a 5 minute job really
and the only thing left to do is plug the card in (not forgetting
to plug in the fan header as well).
Testing
Idle
and Load temperatures from a temperature probe mounted (and touching
the core – something that's very easy to do with this cooler
by the way) by the core of the 6600GT and an X1800GTO were taken
three times and the results averaged. The case used is an Antec
P160 with the side panel in place and a 120mm fan front and back
for entry and exhaust airflow. Case ambient temperature was at
29C (idle) and results ignored if the case temperature was .5C
different either way. For idle testing, Windows XP was allowed
to boot up and sit idle for 15 minutes before recording a temperature
and load testing was done with a looping timedemo of Quake4 (SMP
Enabled).
|
|
Idle
|
Load
|
|
Stock
6600GT
|
43C
|
54C
|
|
Titan
Eagle 6600GT
|
37C
|
50C
|
| IceQ3
X1800GTO |
46C
|
62C
|
|
Titan
Eagle X1800GTO
|
48C
|
65C
|
To
be fair, comparing the Titan VGA cooler with the HIS solution
isn't the greatest test since the HIS IceQ3 is already engineered
to keep the X1800GTO cooler than a stock HSF. However it does
show that the Titan is pretty good in comparison and ignoring
the IceQ3 numbers and looking purely at the Titan numbers you
can see that the X1800GTO core is kept plenty cool enough. The
6600GT shows the biggest difference which isn't surprising as
the stock HSF, while copper and quite sufficient for every day
purposes and some mild overclocking, cannot keep up with the larger
surface area of the Titan cooler. From a noise point of view,
the Titan is pretty quiet although I could hear it in a watercooled
setup easily enough.
Final
Words
The
main thing to ask yourself about the Titan Eagle Copper VGA cooler
is; Do I really need a new VGA cooler? Overclockers and modders
will appreciate the benefits of the Titan Eagle. It's good looking
and looks to be a good performer. Our test results show a significant
decrease in temperatures from a standard cooler you would find
on a basic graphics card. Of course if your card supplier has
already uprated the cooling out-of-the-box then there is little
point in looking at a third party cooler in the first place.
If
you are looking at a third party cooler then the Titan
cooler is a good place to start. It's quiet, looks good, easy
to install and you get everything you need in the package. There
are a couple of caveats here though. The first is to make sure
that your card is supported; Titan regularly update the list on
their website. The second is to keep in mind that this will transform
your single slot card into a double slot card; that is to say
that the Titan Eagle is large enough to protrude into the area
below your cards slot and effectively use up a second slot, something
that could be a big issue for Crossfire/SLI setups.
All
in all this is a good product and one that isn't overly expensive.
One (big) problem I can see is that looking online (at time of
writing) I can't find anyone selling the Titan Eagle, but if you
can find one and you're after a third party VGA cooler, you won't
be disappointed with the Titan Eagle Copper VGA Cooler.
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