Installation
Installing the T-Rad² required the removal of the stock heatsinks. Eight small screws needed removed with a #1 Phillips screwdriver to loosen the heatsink and then the fan’s power adapter could be detached from the board, freeing the heatsink from its mount. Two expansion pins held on the PWM heatsink and only required a pinch and slight pressure to remove.
The GPU was covered in thermal paste and the RAM and other components had a slight oily film, but a quick wipe with fingernail polish remover and a paper towel got everything clean.
The kit comes with heatsinks to mount on the RAM. Just peel off the backing and stick them to the required components. The two thin ones attach to memory left of the GPU, with the 10 regular sized heatsinks covering the rest. The extra included narrow heatsinks can attach to the voltage regulation modules, usually on the right-most edge of the card.
It’s easiest to mount the fans to the T-Rad² prior to attaching it to the video card. A single 120mm fan can be attached for quiet performance via two screws along the bottom edge of the T-Rad² and by fan clips to the top.
Dual 92mm fans use smaller screws and mount to the T-Rad²’s frame. A small screwdriver that can fit through the fan’s screw holes makes mounting easier.
Thermal paste needs to then be applied to the bottom of the cooler and to the GPU core. The kit comes with Thermalright’s Chill Factor TIM in a small syringe. Light pressure caused the goop to explode out onto the base of the heatsink so be careful when applying it. I had to spend extra time cleaning up the mess. When the excess paste was removed, TIM was spread across the mounting surface of the T-Rad² and a very thin coat was applied to the GPU core.
Bolting the T-Rad² on is a fairly simple process. The threaded rods screw in to the T-Rad²’s base. The white hard washers then slide onto the threaded rods to protect from over tightening and provide an adequate shim to ensure proper mounting. The rods are then inserted through the four holes that originally held the stock heatsink. The soft rubber washers then slip onto the threaded rods and the four cap screws can be tightened down evenly to provide a solid mount.
In most cases, this process should take very little time. With our Sapphire HD 3870, however, one of the large capacitors on the board fouled the last thick fin by less than a millimeter. The capacitor could not be pushed over to allow the T-Rad² to mount properly, so the offending fin was bent over slightly using a small pair of needle-nose pliers just enough to allow clearance for the capacitor. Fault seems to lie with this particular video card and not the T-Rad² so we do not see this being an issue in most cases, nor should it have a noticeable impact on cooling performance.
Re-installation of the card did not go easy in my case where the mATX motherboard’s different headers and their requisite wires had to contend with the T-Rad-2’s invasion of their personal space. The additional length from the T-Rad² rivals the length of some of the longest cards on the market so be aware that creative wiring may be required to install it in some cases. In the LanBox Lite, fitting the card was like assembling a complex jigsaw puzzle.
The T-Rad² is one of the only three-slot designs on the market, making it one of the few that’s compatible with mATX boards and cases. Other performance GPU coolers often require four slots. In my case, the third slot housed my wireless networking card, so the card was pulled and wireless duty got shoved off on a USB wireless G adapter. Be aware of the space a GPU cooler like this requires.