Now to the radiator:
I changed the first time a GPU cooler.
This was due to my EVGA GTX 580 Superclocked me in Idle was too loud and the temperature under load quickly rose above 80 degrees.
My PC is on my desk about 1m away from my ear and is optimized for very quiet operation.
First of all I want to say that the cooler is very long. It towers above even the NVIDIA GTX 580 by about 3-4 cm. I even had the middle hard disk cage in my case (Cooler Master Silencio 550) to expand enough space to have. So you should check before buying if the space in the case is sufficient.
Assembly:
If you have the original cooler dismantled first time the installation is relatively simple. One should only take a few moments to the cooler for the voltage converter and the RAM select and place so that you will not cause a short circuit or kolidieren later with the cooler. The longest it took to wait for the curing of the thermally conductive adhesive (approx 60 min). Then simply attach the selected according to the instructions enclosed with the spacer strips on the radiator, put the graphics card to the cooler and screw it to the backplane. Previously, of course, attach the plug for the fan. ^^
Operation:
I was skeptical at first whether the 3 fans really are as quiet as promised by the manufacturer. After the first start I had to make sure if the fans really run because I could not hear me again. I let the fans automatically control of the graphics card. In Idle run at 40%. Thus, the radiator almost not heard, the temperature has dropped compared to the stock cooler 45 ° C to now only 35 ° C.
After about an hour full load with Heaven benchmark, the fan has turned up just 60%. You can now hear a slight noise from the PC. The temperature is compared to the stock cooler 85 ° C, 75 ° C Arctic still 10 degrees cooler.
Even if I manually the fan to maximum speed (85%) point is the fan in relation to the original very quiet.
All in all I have to say that the cooler has exceeded my expectations in every way. Not only is it significantly quieter than the stock cooler but also much more powerful. Thus, even when overclocking is still a lot of air.
The only minor drawback I could find is that the air due to the structure of the Arctic is not promoted as the original cooler directly to the rear of the chassis.
One should ensure a good ventilation of the housing.
In addition, it should be noted that the graphics card with the Arctic instead of the previous 2 PCI slots now 3 occupies.
