Just installed Cyrstal Orb...

[Jman13]

I just finished installing my Crystal Orb on my GF3ti200. So far, it looks good. I haven't seen if I can go further, but it seemed stable at 233/520 after several runs of 3DMark. Usually, it'd crash after the second run, but it hung steady this time. Ran it at 220/500 for about 1.5 hours today playing MaxPayne with no troubles.

Not really concerned with the EXTRA cooling...that's just a bonus. No, my stock fan would stop spinning from time to time, and this gives me peace of mind. Plus, it looks frickin' sweet!

If you want to see the process I did (of course, most of you have probably done this anyway) you can
see it here.

 

[THUGSROOK]

remove that stupid "Tt" cover for better airflow

 

[TheYetiMan]

What he said, for sure !

Talk about your marketing gimmick over function !

 

[Howard]

If it's not actually a single-piece unit, take it off. If it were, you'd have extra surface area with which to cool.

 

[Swissbeatz]

How does the noise from the Crystal Orb compare to the noise from the original fan/heatsink?

 

[FlowerMan]

Remove that stupid crorb and replace it with a decent heatsink for better airflow!

www.millisec.com still has some of the square pin Alpha heatsinks... better grab some before they go out of business

 

[Jman13]

Well, this mod was to get a good cooling solution that would replace my failing stock HSF, not so I could overclock the chip till it smoked. While I know the card is a bit cooler with the CrOrb, (much better HSF and AS3 vs crap therm gunk) I still can't go beyond my maximum overclock with it. It runs longer at that speed (233 core), but still locks up after a while, so I doubt giant heatsinks would help at all. Plus, they're ugly. Plus, I just bought this thing, and I'm not spending more money on a new HS and thermal epoxy.

Anyway, to answer Swissbeatz question: I can't hear the CrOrb. Now, I have a somewhat noisy case: 4 80mm case fans (2 silencers, 1 enermax adjustable, and 1 Galaxy), the chipset fan, the CPU fan (retail 60mm), the PSU fan, and 3 hard drives. In any case, the CrOrb gets swallowed up by the other noise, and I notice no increase...it may be even a bit quieter, but it's hard to tell.

 

[FACTION95Si]

I just bought one too. I have a question though. Can I wire it so the fan wire goes back to the card like the stock heatsink was setup? Right now I have the Orb plugged into my motherboard (Case Fan plug) and its SUPER LOUD at 6080 RPMs. Will this mess anything up?

 

[jiffylube1024]

<< it may be even a bit quieter, but it's hard to tell. >>



That's kinda impossible

 

[Lizardman]

<< That's kinda impossible >>



Not if his stock fan was louder than the corb.

 

[Jman13]

I have not found a way to plug it back into the card...I think it might draw too much power from the card header, but I'm not sure. You could try splicing the two power wires from the CrOrb and put the socket that was on your stock HSF on to the tails of the CrOrb, but I have no idea whether that'll blow out your card or not....do it at your own risk. Mine's on my mobo, running about the same speed as yours; but like I said, I have a noisy case so I don't hear it.

And jiffylube, I did mean in comparison to the stock fan.