Thermalright Trad2 VGA Cooler
Considering just how often these guys slide us primo product, it's almost redundant to introduce Thermalright by this point. But here's the short version of their history - Thermalright came to be, providing performance solutions for the hottest CPU of 2002 - quite literally, producing one of the few heatsinks at the time which could tame this thermal beast. To this day, Thermalright has had a reputation for producing heatsink after heatsink to keep the ever advancing generations frosty. yet, there's one area where Thermalright has just recently come into it's own.
That area where Thermalright has just recently come into it's own, is the videocard market; first with the HR-03, then the GT, and now-a-days with the GTX. But alas, not every user can afford the 5 slots that cooler eats up when a fan is strapped to it. That's where the T-Rad coolers come into play. By sacrificing just two slots after your graphics card, you too can keep it chilly with either 2x92mm or 1x120mm fans. Will it turn out to be a winning blow? There's only one way to find out - tear it from the package, slap it on a card, throw in a healthy measure of thermoster, and finally... we'll see how it does. Come on in, this is going to be an interesting one.
Features & Specifications:
Again, another product with proper PR - it must be a miracle, that there's no charts to slice up this week! Along with the usual fare, I've opted to roll in the brief compatibility chart Thermalright has given for users wishing to apply these coolers in crossfire, or SLI. Here's a quick hint - if you don't have two slots between PCI-E slots, don't even think about it.
Right, with that out of the way, there's a brief note to cover about that compatibility list - in regard to the HD4870, the small heatsinks given with the videocard don't really do that good a job of cooling the PWM circuitry, and since the heatpipes lay so low to the base of the cooler, it's impossible to use the stock baseplate to cool the components. That, could be an issue. But that's a discussion for the testing section. Let's see how it's packaged.
A Closer Look:
Coming packed inside Thermalright's signature, nondescript box, each TRad2 is very well packaged, held snugly in place by the soft foam blocks which extend to the well fitting sides. Sitting below the cooler in the package is the bevy of mounting hardware; one, which though varied really only does suit a few cards. As well as providing quite a few ramsinks, Thermalright has gone the distance to throw in a tube of their Chill Factor thermal paste, as well as a Thermalright case sticker, and a brief installation manual. Before we take a look at the superb construction of the sinks themselves, let's take a brief moment to explain how things are done with this heatsink. The average sized rectangular heatsinks are intended for memory modules, as well as small groups of Mosfets in close proximity. The rectangular, although flat heatsinks are intended to cool memory modules lodged under heatpipes. Finally, the long and thin heatsinks are intended for the strips of power circuitry found on videocards. When you mange to apply these all, your card will look pretty swank. But more about that later. Let's take a look at the cooler itself.
 Twin boxes |  With a simple common bundle |
Now, onto these sleek slabs of metal themselves. Each heatsink is composed of quite a few fins, each with six broad heatpipes passing through it. Though five of the heatpipes bunch together towards the top of the cooler, this does little to impeded airflow, ensuring that the memory modules below this portion of the heatsink do not overheat. Turning the cooler over, we pass the heatpipes yet again, seeming in themselves as a section of Atlanta highway. Though they thread around each other here, seemingly effortlessly, they all straighten out to enter the flat, albeit not so shiny base, with but a thin slice of copper, and a plating of copper between them, and the formerly steamy graphics die. Situated around this base plate are the four mounting ears, which take the threaded mounting studs that will extend backward through the card. Though Thermalright recommends that the user place the four self adhesive, thin rubber washers on these posts before the cooler slides onto the card, I found few problems here. Bringing the cooler back topside, the variety of mounting holes for affixing 2x92 or 1x120mm fan can be seen - though keen users will notice that a 120mm fan in fact overhangs the cooler - something which is rectified by the two small wire clips included with the heatsink
 Sexy, no? |  Fins-on-pipes |
 Base Plate |  Your options. |
With that part of today's show covered, it's time to take care of the steps and gripes of installation, and finally the most important part - performance!
Installation & Performance:
As with almost any other heatsink on the market, the first step to this program is to get your target device naked. In this case, it was a pair of HD4850s, now with stock coolers stripped free, and thermal paste scraped off. Getting things rolling is quite simple. Use the appropriate ramsinks on the appropriate spots, making sure to peel off the backing first, and if they don't want to stick, try heating the sinks slightly before pressing them down. Getting the cooler itself seated is no more a matter of threading in the rods, sliding the card with a fresh coat of grease onto the card, then tying down those posts with a hard washer and a knurled nut. Overall, the process can be done in under 15 minutes. Then it's just a matter of screwing (and clipping, if you need to) the fan on, and voila! It's time to test!
 Naked card |  Ramsinks! |  She POSTed! |  Sinks On |
 PWM Covered |  Sink installed |  It's VERY tight to the PCB |  Two by two... |
With the heatsinks installed, there's now just the means of testing to be concerned. Due to the 4850's inability to measure it's own PWM temperature, as well as memory temperature, I used four thermosters from the previously reviewed Sentry LX for this purpose - first slid underneath the heatsink between memory modules, then stuck among the pins of the PWM sink. When it came time to test the TRad2, the probes were wedged in the approximately same spaces. Monitoring of the card's core temperatures was care of RivaTuner. In order to assure that I hit the card's maximum temperature, I looped 3DMark '06 for 30 minutes on the same test (Canyon) at 1680 x1050, 8x AA 16x AF. Here's what we found!
A Great reduction in core temperatures can be seen right off the bat.
As are the memory temperatures - probably a product of the memory being off the same hot plate.
and of the three, the power circuitry sees the best reduction, mostly helped by the dedicated airflow.
With these stunning tests aside, it's time to fetch the conclusion.
Conclusion:
These heatsinks perform well, and despite their limited compatibility, they are very easy to install. Though I found the thermal tape given with the ramsinks to be a little on the side of lax, they still managed to keep the chips under their watch quite chilly - and that's an important start. Though, this review is unfortunately not with an entirely sunny outlook. Effectively speaking, it is impossible to use these heatsinks to cool a tri-SLI array, as well as normal videocards in multi card configurations on many motherboards. Yes, it can be done, but it's difficult as 92x10mm fans are very rare. But beyond these issues, this is a great product, a well supported, well though out, and all-round intuitive product. Despite it's flaws in versatility, the ability to silently cool a wide variety of videocards without eating up all of your expansion slots is irrefutable. It's truly worthy of a recommendation.
Source: http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Thermalright_TRads/index.shtml
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