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MoodyB
22-06-2002, 22:49
Hey all,

Okay,obvious question comming up(I think).

I currently have a MSI GF3 which has the stock fan on the gpu.I've also realised that I have a Crystal Orb lying around doing nothing.So,the question is,will this provide better cooling for the gpu on the GF3 than the standard fan?I think I can guess the answer,but I thought I'd check with people that know a lot more about these things than I do(after being an Amiga user for 11 years!,you could say that I'm a bit 'out of the loop' :))
Kynoch
22-06-2002, 23:53
The crystal orb cooler will be better becuase it has the copper insert for the base! and a good quality fan which isnt quiet but isnt loud either! The only downside that you will find is that the crystal orb wont plug into the gfx card fan header, you will have to plug it into a mobo fan header instead! this means that the gfx card might whine about having no fan detected on it! That is if the card came with monitoring software!
MoodyB
25-06-2002, 02:01
Thanks for the reply.The card was bought second hand,so no monitoring software.I'll use the thermal probe on my Soltek DRV2 on the back of the card(MSI GF3)and check the temp with MBM.What is considered a high temp for a gfx card to run at?Is there a webpage I can read with this sort of info on it?,instead of hassling you guys on this forum about it :)
ZStation
29-06-2002, 14:38
Amiga forever! :p
The Pimp
05-07-2002, 00:31
Anyone know if the Frag Tape supplied with the TT RAM Cooling Kits is sufficient to hold a Crystal Orb to a MoBo Chipset????
Kynoch
05-07-2002, 01:05
I answered this in the forum for you! (frag tape is sh*t for this application the cooler is abit heavy)!
The Pimp
05-07-2002, 07:28
Originally posted by kynoch:
<STRONG>I answered this in the forum for you! (frag tape is sh*t for this application the cooler is abit heavy)!</STRONG>

That's what I wanted to know (& it was posted before I came into the chatroom last night :D)
Mr_Nemesis
06-07-2002, 04:54
Kynoch! I don't mean to sound rude but are you on drugs! You just seem to be perfectly happy and always cheerful in your dispersal of exclamation marks!1one

;)

I've heard that the crystal orb can also be used to cool the northbridge - is this true? If so, does it use a clip or will I need adhesive?

I could do with one on my graphics card too(it's a TNT2 with a heatsink only, and you could fry ostrich eggs on the damned thing), but I can't afford to lose a PCI slot...
Kynoch
06-07-2002, 11:59
I was on drugs last night. ;)
But the crystal orb comes with clips usually depending on where you bought it from, if you have spare clips use them to connect it to the northbridge, darren wanted to use the frag tape coz he didnt have any clips on his old northbridge cooler to nick and use on the orb.
so thats why i sed dont use the frag tape!
(and the exclamation marks are a habit so if u dont like me doing it tell me and i will try and stop)!!!!! :D
The Pimp
06-07-2002, 13:25
NO, the reason I asked was that the Crystal Orb's mounting points (along with the Blue Orb's) are too wide to use the old Northbridge mounting holes, without serious modification to them. The Orb's are 50x50mm whereas the Abit Northbridge coolers are 40x40mm. If they were the same size then it wouldn't be so bad as I could have used the mounting holes obviously & I am a little bit wary of using Thermal Epoxy on the Motherboard in the case that should the Orb fail, it would be a right nightmare trying to remove it to replace (& prob mean a new motherboard as well!!!!), where as Thermal Tape is much easier to unstick.
Kynoch
06-07-2002, 23:42
hmmmmm thats weired coz i have fitted a blue orb to my mates Northbridge using the pins! He has an asus mobo! but i also thought that the grc cards and mobo used the same distance from there pins!
The Pimp
07-07-2002, 00:53
Nope, the AT7 (& other Abit boards) all use the same Northbridge cooling, & I remember quite a few articles from sites trying to fit Blue Orbs to KT7A-RAID's & having to do some modifications to get them to fit.

Here is just one that I found
http://pages.prodigy.net/webvanguy/blorb/Page1_frm.html

The Blue Orb's mounting points are not as large as the original Abit fitted chipset HSF (59mm on Abit HSF & 55mm on the Blue Orb)
Mr_Nemesis
09-07-2002, 09:03
I saw one of those blue orbs in Mapiln's yesterday... : drool :

But why is it that everywhere I want to install heatsinks on my comp is surrounded by a forest of capacitors?!?!?!

Gah, need tobuild my own comp sharpish...
Spacerider
30-07-2002, 22:19
Firstly, the weight of a Crystal Orb means that u will DEFINATLEY not be able to use frag tape to affix it, Ive had one fall of my Radeon and that was with more than enuff Thermal Adhesive(Or what I thought was more than enuff)so dont try it...PLEASE lol

Secondly, the Crystal Orb is a hell of alot better than the original Blue orbs due to there copper bases and increased CFM`s

Spacerider
Kynoch
30-07-2002, 23:09
How noisey do you find yours to be?
Ive heared numerous reports with mixed things.
Spacerider
07-08-2002, 19:45
Well, I have to say that its not very nosiey at all. The official d/bs are 26.4 but if your running fans in your comp or a HSF, generally they are all higher than this and you will hear the case/HS fans before you here the crystal orb. Deifnatley the best chipset cooler out there at the mo in my humble opinion