Showing off the power of dual fan: Thermalright T-Rad2 GPU cooler review
◆ The benchmark platform
During the review, the room temperature is 25℃. The platform is inside Casetek CK-1022-5. There are two 120mm fans in the front panel and a 120mm strong fan on the back, and a side-panel with lots of ventholes.
We compare with Thermalright HR-03 GT. Just like T-Rad2, HR-03GT doesn’t come with fan either. So we choose Superred 92*92*20mm fan and Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F-120*120*25mm. HR-03 GT only fits 92mm fan, and T-Rad2 can be fitted with two 92mm fans and one 120mm fan respectively. All the fans are kept at about 1500RPM to test their cooling performance in a silent environment.
Temperature sensor stick to PCB
During this review, we put a sensor to the VRM part of GFX card PCB in order to review the cooler’s assistant cooling performance to other components.
We choose FurMark’s stability test to torture the card
FurMark has been chosen as our temperature testing software. During our previous reviews, we have been using ATITool to get the card work under high load state . But this time we choose FurMark instead of ATITool as FurMark can also heats up the VRM part. You can download Furmark V1.4.0 From here.
◆ Test method
1. Boot and entered the system, Use the fan adjuster to adjust the VGA fan speed to around 1500RPM (you can examine it by software like Everest)
2. Run FurMark, enabling the GPU to work full load for about 15 minutes in order to keep the GPU/PCB temperature stable.
3. Record the temperature of GPU and PCB under Furmark test. The GPU temperature is showed in FurMark, and PCB shown by temperature measuring device.
4. Turn off FurMark.
5. Record the temperatures of GPU and PCB board when they’re stable. The GPU temperature is recorded through GPU-Z.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: a closer look at T-Rad2
Page 3: Installation
Page 4: Multi-card issue
Page 5: Test setup and remarks
Page 6: The performance of T-Rad2
Page 7: Fanless with T-Rad2
Page 8: Who to challenge T-Rad2
August 18th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[...] FurMark has been used to overload the GPU. [...]
August 21st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Detailed and professional review as always.
Hope TR will improve it.
Anyway, an awesome cooler!
August 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
You have made a vital mistake in your review of the Thermalright TRad 2 VGA cooler. You have calculated the total height of the graphics card and cooler to be 58mm, and then stated that this won’t fit in the 55mm space between the slots of a 2 x PCi slot motherboard. However, when calculating the 58mm dimension you have included the 11mm for the bolts, which protrude at the rear of card. Therefore the space required between slots is actually 24mm (heatsink) + 20mm (fan) + 3mm (debatable for PCB) = 47mm
August 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Ahhh no. I see…..
The bolts on the second card would conflict with the fan[s] on the first.
Doh! Sorry
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 am
BTW use the “start-Xtreme-Burning.bat” start file with Furmark, it makes the cards ever hotter!
August 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Where could one find a 92mm x 20mm thick fan. Google tells me no such beast exists.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@wheatbread:
AVC have a 9220 fan. And i believe other company also have this type
http://www.avc.com.tw/china/products/DC-FAN-home.htm
August 30th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
so how thoes this compare to HR03GT + 120mm fan? I bet its a close score.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
A great review! I’ve been waiting to see some real-world results from this cooler for some time now.
@wheatbread, I’m sure a standard 25mm thick fan will fit just fine. 92mmx20mm fans are very rare.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:28 am
[...] Page 1: Introduction Page 2: обзор кулера [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 6:11 am
on the bolts at rear comment , potentially simple fix is just to trim them down and replace the knurled nuts with standard nuts , this would free up a good 5mm , ill test the theory when i get my second 4870 later on this year , ordered one of these babys from usa this week
November 13th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Are there any sites that you can buy those thin 92mm fans from? The link from That Linux Guy is in Chinese and there is no were to purchase from them. Google returns no results for the DA9220 part number.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:01 am
You incorrectly state that the HR-03GT cooler can only use a 92mm fan. I have attached a 120mm fan to the HR-03GT with a little bit of modification of the wire clips.