TR HR-03 Plus question

[carholmes]

Does anyone know if a Thermalright HR-03 Plus will fit with a fan on a Ultra-D with a sound card in the bottom PCI slot? If it won't fit it seems I have very limited options. Does anyone know of any other after-market air cooler for the 8800? I thought there would have been more after market coolers for the 8800 by now.

[carholmes]

Anyone?

[schoolslave]

If it is correctly installed, doesn't the fan go on top of the card?

 

 

EDIT: Yea it does

So technically it should fit.

 

[carholmes]

Unless a HR-03 plus with fan takes up less than one PCI slot it will not fit an Ultra-D with a Ultra 120 Extreme with the way you described . The only way it will fit with the heatsink and fan above the card (like you described) is if I put my video card in the bottom PCIE slot, and if I do that the PCIE will run at x2 not a full x16 and I dont want to have a crippled PCIE bus runnig my video card.

I want to know if it will fit in this configuration with a fan and with a sound card on the bottom PCI slot

[Dark_Gear]

The HR-03 mounted on the bottom of the card will not allow you to fit a sound card if you are in the lower slot. You should have no problems if you're in the top slot.

 

I ran into some problems because I have a Zalman 9500 for my CPU. The only way I could an aftermarket HS was to install it on the non-gpu side of the card and plug the card in the lower slot.

 

What I have found however is that if you bridge the second PCIe slot then the Ultra-D splits the x16 to x8, which barely affects performance. You'll then have enough room for a soundcard in your bottom slot and you can even fit a fan in between the two cards to increase airflow to your 7900's RAM.

 

If you look at the second pic in this post you'll see it's still a pretty tight fit even in the second slot. While you could run the HR-03 without a fan, the extra cooling you gain is too important to ignore especially if you've oc'd your gpu.

[carholmes]

Well thanks for your input But I'm afriad it will be too close. Right now I'm doing some upgrading on my S939, including a 8800GTS 640MB (comming tomorow, yay) and a TR Ultra-120 extreme, and a new PSU. I just don't know if it will fit with the Ultra -120 X, but hell I'll probably get it and try your way, and if it doesn't fit I'll get rid of the sound card.

[Dark_Gear]

I didnt think of checking for fit before I bought it. All I knew is that It was the best cooler (next to Watercooling of course) for oc'ing the 7900gs, which I bought for such a good price that even after buying the HR-03, I was still saving 120$ off a 7900gt. The combo definitely hasnt let me down.

 

However, once i discovered how much better the sound was with an X-Fi instead of the on-board sound module, there was no way I would go back. Which is the extra handy feature of the HR-03 over other models, you have options for mounting. Personnally though, I would go for a roomier board were I to run an SLI box as the layout of the Ultra-D is too cramped for a good sized cpu and gpu heatsink combo.

 

Also, even though you would prefer not to run the HS in the top-facing setup, keep in mind that the extra airflow next to your cpu and chipset will knock down the temps from 2-4 degrees as an added bonus.

 

post your temps when you have it running, I cant wait to see how cool the 8800 will run with that bad boy installed

[carholmes]

I got a question. Lets say I do have to put in my 8800 in the lower PCIE slot would I have to do the SLI mod, or could I just switch the jumpers and have it running at 8x. cause when I wanted to to the sli mod just for the hell of it the little resister or whatever had this junk on it that was to hard to get off and I never did that mod cause I was too afraid I would damage the chipset. Seems kinda wierd, since then I've modded my case, and taken apart alot of my electronics just for the hell of it, and curiosity. lol today I took apart a old hard drive just becasuse I wanted to see what the inside looked like, and bordem. I thought hard drive platters where thinner and that there were alot more of them in a HD, but then again it was an 80Gb.

Anyway...

[WintersFury]

You only need to do the SLI mod to get SLI. If you just want the bottom slot to run at 8x all you need to do is move the jumpers.

[carholmes]

Thanks man, I finally got it and it is a beast! Runs every game I own on max settings without breaking a sweat. But god-damn this thing is HOT.

[aclays]

there's this cooler, the Thermaltake TMG ND5:

 

http://www.sharkacomputers.com/thermaltakend5.html

 

can't find the cooler anywhere but ebay and sharkacomputers.com, they've got very good yahoo and resellerratings reviews and been in business for about 7 years, so shouldn't be any worries about buying from an obscure company. I don't know how good the cooler is yet though. There are zero reviews out there for it.

 

I bought one anyways, because the hr-03 plus wouldn't fit with this mobo, since I need to use more pci slots than it would leave open, and the cpu is right above the video card so I can't switch the sides. Apparently I got unlucky with my 8800gts, the fan is noisier than other people report. I get a high pitched whiney noise anytime I play any game at all, it goes off and on, off and on again. Can even hear it over my headset. It's pretty maddening, wouldn't be as bad if it were a constant noise, but as much as it goes off and on..

 

I'm just hoping this TMG ND5 will still let me oc.

[carholmes]

Thanks for finding another option, but I pulled the trigger and got the HR-03+, a few fans, a new power supply, and a new hard drive. I also won a opty 165 off of ebay, hopefully it will OC well. These upgrades will probably be the last for my S939 . Well anyway I'll post some pics of the new setup once I get everything up and running.