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Thermalright T-Rad² review

Thermalright T-Rad² review

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 victim card, prior to going under the knife.

The victim card, prior to going under the knife.

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.

We can rebuild it...

We can rebuild it...

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.

Two long screws are provided to make fan mounting quick and easy.

Two long screws are provided to make fan mounting quick and easy.

Fan clips on the top of the card make installation a breeze.

Fan clips on the top of the card make installation a breeze.

A single 120mm ready to rock.

A single 120mm ready to rock.

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.

The small screws take a little more work to install.

The small screws take a little more work to install.

It's a very compact package.

It

A completed dual 92mm install.

A completed dual 92mm install.

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.

Ready to go!

Ready to go!

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.

They don't get along.

They don

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.

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Comments

  1. Komete
    Komete Wow that thing looks monstrous. Looks like video card heatsinks are catching up with cpu heatsink in size and design categories. Great review.
  2. BuddyJ
    BuddyJ Thanks Komete. It's pretty large, but when compared to what else is out there on the market, it's a small fry.
  3. Komete
    Komete I guess it's been about two years since I last looked at VGA coolers. I once had a zalman v something. Taking a look on newegg, they are bigger. But that one looks like it is running with the pack. I'm thinking, sooner or later they'll have to redesign cases and cooling paths to accommodate the need for future gpu coolers.
  4. BuddyJ
    BuddyJ Yep, from what I gather, this one runs well above average, but if you want the best in VGA air cooling, there are others that'll net you a few more degrees. The other Thermalright model is one of them, and the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo supposedly is equal to or better than the TRad2. I'd love to review both of them and compare results to the TRad2.
  5. Leonardo
    Leonardo
    the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo
    I don't know about the "Twin Turbo" part, but I run two of the Accelero coolers on 8800GTs. They are superb. Although you can easily run video cards with the Accelero with no fan at all, I've mounted low-flow (quiet) 120mm fans on mine. Overkill? Definitely! :bigggrin:

    With these big coolers, I assume the T-rad thing also, you can run video cards dead silent at full load.

    Nice work on the review, Buddy J!
  6. BuddyJ
    BuddyJ The engineers at Thermalright don't recommend running the TRad2 without a fan for whatever reason. I took their word for it instead of risking roasting my only good video card. ;)

    The Accelero Twin Turbo is pretty much what you've got, but they've gone and mounted dual 80mm thin fans to it. The guys over at Legion Hardware have reviewed both coolers if you're interested.
  7. Leonardo
    Leonardo OK, I know what you're talking about now. I already had quiet, low-flow 120mm fans in my parts bin, so I just mounted them. Think back to just a few years ago. Who would have thought of a VGA cooler that would easily accept a 1 2 0 millimeter fan! LOL

    I have two machines running 8800GTs, overclocked and at full load. Both those video cards are cooled with Acceleros mounted with 120s. Ambient room temperature now is 74F (heat in the house radiates up to the top floor). One card is running at 41C and the other at 44C.

    I think the TRad2's design and execution is very good, but at 50-80% higher cost than the Accelero, I just don't see it.

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