I will be testing the HR-03 Plus with three different cooling fans. From left to right: 80mm NZXT fan (specs unknown, but it is not loud and pushes a relatively low amount of air), 92mm Coolink fan rated for 35.5 CFM @ 25 dBA, 92mm Vantec Tornado fan rated for 119 CFM @ 56.4 dBA. The 80mm fan was attached using some rubber bands, as the mounting clips are intended for 92mm fans only. My test system consists of the following hardware.
Ultra Products ChillTec Thermo Electric CPU Cooler
EVGA 680i SLI Motherboard
OCZ Technology 8800 GTX
74 Gb Western Digital Raptor 10k RPM HDD
Lite-On Optical Drive
HighSpeedPC Tech Station
OCZ ProXStream 1000w PSU
A room temperature of 22 C was maintained throughout testing. Idle temps were taken after 30 minutes of no system activity. Load temps were taken after playing Just Cause for 30 minutes at max graphics settings. I used an event logger to determine the highest temperature reached during each test. All temperatures were taken using NVIDIA Monitor.
As you can see, the HR-03 Plus was easily able to beat out the stock cooling option. Using a "regular" 92mm fan like the Coolink offered great performance at a very low noise level. The Vantec Tornado was able to keep the 8800 GTX at a chilly 47 C under full load: very impressive. Anyone who has used one of these fans knows full well that it isn't practical to use on a daily basis, as it is insanely loud. But, for benchmarking purposes or maybe even some gaming, a high performance fan like this can do wonders for overclocking. So how far was I able to push the 8800 GTX using the Tornado fan?
Overall the Thermalright HR-03 Plus is an excellent aftermarket cooler for your 8800 GTX/GTS video card. The cooler looks good and performs even better. Everything you need to install the unit is included. The bundled installation guide is only a single double-sided piece of paper, but does a great job of detailing each and every step of the install process. Installation would take about 30 minutes for the average user (it took me longer because I had to take photographs of the entire process). The dual mounting option is a great feature that will give you more flexibility when installing the unit. The cooler is SLI-compatible also, so you aren't limited to just one video card. Those looking for some extreme cooling/overclocking are certainly in store for a treat. With a high performance cooling fan, I was able to obtain some of the best temperatures I have seen on an 8800 GTX card to date - even better than what most watercooling options can offer. When it comes to overclocking, I was able to push the 8800 GTX well beyond the previous 650 MHz barrier with stock cooling.
My one gripe about the HR-03 Plus concerns the included RAMsinks. I cleaned the memory chips on the test card four times, and even still I had problems with the RAMsinks not wanting to stick. Two of the RAMsinks fell off even before I was able to get the card in the test system. As a precautionary measure, I removed all of the RAMsinks before testing. Hopefully this is an isolated issue, but as I said, I cleaned the memory chips four times and they did not feel greasy from the thermal pads I had removed with the stock cooler.
As of writing, the Thermalright HR-03 Plus retails for around $50 USD at a popular online reseller.
