Showing off the power of dual fan: Thermalright T-Rad2 GPU cooler review
◆ Who to challenge T-Rad2?
Thermalright brings T-Rad2 to the customers in a creative design, and its flat shape and unusual length enable heat pipe to do its best at dual fan setup. Actually, the change of T-Rad2‘s design also represents the coolers are made to meet the card’s cooling demand. Especially the cooling performance to GPU and other components of T-Rad2 with double fan is much better than HR-03 GT, not to mention the original cooler.
We don’t suggest users to go fanless with T-Rad2. If you want it to be more silent, then consider a fan with low speed. We recommend users to use double 90*90*20mm fans other than single 120*120*25. because a 120mm fan with T-Rad2 requires more space an it looks quite ugly.
Of course, we can’t say T-Rad2 is absolutely perfect. It causes difficulties in building SLI/CrossFire, which is the problem that most other VGA coolers also share. As it is still an unlisted product, still got some time to be improved, such as cutting the screws by 5mm, which would be very helpful in space savings.
According to the information we get, Thermalright T-Rad2 will begin to manufacture in large quantity in mid August, hits market in the incoming September. The SRP (suggested retail price) is N.T 1400 (about 45USD), even cheaper than HR-03 GT, which is N.T 1800.
Can any of these coolers have a better performance than T-Rad2?
Who can challenge T-Rad2? Please keep tuned, because we have GPU cooler roundup incoming!
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.