I'm kind of wondering, why is a Condor needed for 7600 if a Raven can cool 6800 excluding AGP Ultra, surely 7600 is noticeably(sp?) cooler than 6800 and about as cool as 6600?

The 7600 mid-size series is a tough call with some of the OC versions drawing over 65 watts. And with 60 watts being our cut-off point between the Raven and the Condor they threw the 7600 in with the high-ends. But, like all of our products, you have to make the call and tell us what you want built; all we can do is make recommendations. The ATI X850 is a similar mid-range card that we suggest a Condor, but could go either way. If you aren't a big game player and aren't going to be using 3d for hours on end, then yes, a Raven wing is going to work just fine for you. Those 60-70 watt mid-size video cards are going to become increasingly popular as we see it, and we would rather lean towards being conservative with our recommendations.

SG

So now, my new ATI X1900XTX has arrived and with it the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2. Believe it or not I haven't installed the darn Accelero yet.
Why? Because I'm afraid I won't be able to take it out because of the sticky killer RAM thermal pads. So I'm surviving the noise of the stock heatsink, which by the way is not that bad, but definetly something to get rid of in the next days.

I'm really waiting for what Stealth-Girl has to say about the test of the Condor heatsink on a Radeon X1900XTX.

More than that, I haven't seen any reviews of the Condor yet. I want to see pictures, I want to see it installed inside a case, with all the other components, I want to see how it looks WINGS UP and WINGS DOWN.

I'm really tempted, but I cannot make an intelligent purchase without first knowing for sure what I'm dealing with here.

What's up Stealth-Girl...

BTW, as many have asked here I wonder why Areo-Case hasn't tried a Condor version moving the wings outside the case (like the Thermaltake Schooner heatsink), instead of relying on the case ventilation.

The real goal here for us is to achieve silence, and adding more fans to the case to intake/exhaust the hot air from the Condor, doesn't really help reducing noise right? Come on!

I mean you guys are a startup company, but don't you have any prototypes like the one I'm describing? Can I custom order something like that? And of course that cools my X1900XTX fine.

Now lets talk business. I've been trying to achieve silence in my computer for almost a year now. And this is the last step to conquer it.
I sincerely don't give a damn about the Accelero that I bought, I can give it to my daughter if necessary.

I don't know how much time more I have to wait to see decent VGA coolers for these new card, all of them are garbage, and design is getting worse. Aero-Case Do you see an opportunity here to blow the competition?

Fine, but please just DO IT!! Have it tested, certified, reviewed, and guaranteed and I'm willing to spend on it. If you are a startup company, I understand, but you plan to sell your products under no certified reliable basis, yet. If you are serious, I'm serious too. Give me the product I want and I pay, strictly business, satisfied customer, word of mouth, and more money for you.

Thank you!

Dear SPCR members,

First we’d like to thank all of you for your interest and excitement about our products. Our website is getting deluged with visits from all over the world, and front page exposure here certainly isn’t hurting. Secondly, we DO understand your frustration about the lack of a review. We’ve been hard at work trying secure reviews since our release date last month; however, it’s not as easy as you might think (typically these take months to get scheduled). I can tell you our first review looks like it will be published in 3-4 weeks … (and believe me, I realize that’s a long time to wait).

Therefore, given the overwhelming demand, we have decided to provide you with a self-review, (or pre-review, if you will), of a reversed-wing Condor running today on an ATI X1900XTX, in 80 F room temperatures. Right now, even as I write this, we have everyone in the lab running around like crazy taking pictures and getting measurements. So, please give us 24-hours and we’ll try to have something available to you by this weekend.

Thanks again for your interest!
SG

Make sure you give complete configuration of test PC including case and all fans including their speeds (this is SPCR after all, any 12cm fan rotating at higher than 1000RPM is considered loud ).

Wow, what a cool company. I wish all was like this.
I do know that some companys read SPCR but I haven't seen any official posts and some doesn't really seem to listen either.
Nice to see one company atleast does

StealthGirl: You can most likely do a massive version. 3 heatpipes going normaly upwards with a fin and 2 heatpipes going inverted with 1 more wing (acctually the heatpipes can be shoter and have just 1 massive wing)
Most likely to heavy but it's a solution. It will need some support. Having a support-plate from the wing to the screw that holds the graphiccard should work

Sorry StealthGirl, too much wait, and I cannot rely anymore on waiting for a company to implement ideas that should have been implemented months ago.

I'm ebaying my X1900XTX starting at $150 (in case there is anyone interested)

My money just went to this, and should have in the beginning.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/r580-4.html

This is by the way an interesting Canadian artice about how sloppy ATI is becouse of their stupid noisy and inneficient heatsinks.
Man I love Canada!!

Period, as long as there are solutions that keep hot air recirculating on my case, thus harming my other hardware, there is no way I will put my money on it.

The solutions avaliable right now for High-End Cards are just a PIB:

VF900, can't even keep from locking up your card, unless you keep your case open.
Accelero X2, is garbage, blowing hot air directly to your motherboard. Its so stupid!!!
Thermalright V-1 same deal, keeping hot air on the case.

They've all failed. And for the cost of trying each one of them and pay shipping every single time, you'd better pay little extra and get a HIS product. Period.

BTW: I found out that Arctic Cooling has nothing to do with the creation of the HIS IceQ3 cooler. It's just a copycat from the Silencers, nothing more.

Stealthgirl, I wish you the best with the tests on your new product, unfortunately this is how the market moves, agressively. Consumers are not willing to wait much longer for a solution, specially when they buy expensive cards and want to enjoy them right now.

Like it or not, lets face it, for the X1900XTX HIS is the way to go.

BTW i purchased the X1900XTX not the Xt on the article.

You wanna know where do you get it in the US?

MonarchComputer

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant ... =ATI-PCI-E



So go get it. I know this card goes out of stock fast.

Be weary about this review. This is english front for russian review site www.ixbt.com while I love their videocard performance reviews, I would never trust their noise claims. Unfortunately spcr ideas have not been spread in Russia yet, so when they claim it's dead silent it may actually be deafening loud to an average spcr'er.

StealthGirl,

how about it, is it possible to have the wing customized? Different size or fins another direction.

Agreed, there was a thread that mentioned this cooler a while back and they seemed to think it wasn't actually that quiet. I also read a review somewhere which said that it cools better that the stock cooler but is only slightly quieter. It seems like more of an overclockers solution to me.

It's just too bad that the fins aren't turned 90 degrees. I will have to build one that has, to my mad cooling project with lots of Vm-102 fins. I will use fans.

Good morning SPCR,

If anyone is interested, we have posted the results of our thermal stress testing we performed on Friday. In this, the Condor was tested on a new ATI X1900XTX in 82°F (24°C) room-temps.

You may find this write-up at: www.aero-case.com/preview.html

Also, if anyone is interested in acquiring one of these hot graphics cards, we have one available on e-Bay. (Of course you'll still have to order the cooler from us).

And yes, Aerocase will be glad to customize our cooling systems to your specifications.

Thanks for looking.

That cooler isn't quiet at all. It's too bad that you bought it already, you're going to be really disappointed when you hear it.

given that test was in a case with restricted airflow (80mm fans over poor stock grills), that's pretty impressive.

2 points though:
1- are you sure the difference between the card with stock cooler and with the condor is only ~90g?

2- I think the stock fan exhausts out of the case - this would explain the CPU temp rise with the condor, as those 120+W of heat isn't getting dumped out of the case.

Still, the various configurations certainly open up lots of different possibilities, especially with ducting.

Now, next Q - when are you going to make a condor-like HS that goes outside the case in the exhaust path of the rear case fan? that'd be awesome, if a bit technically challenging

well done on your customer relations too!

How about one that'll cool the new 7950GX2's?

That'd be really impressive!

Hi Stealthgirl,

I've seen several systems where the heatsink for the cpu doesn't have a fan attached directly, but instead the fan is blowing air through the heatsink towards the rear case grill. If the fins on your video cooler were rotated 90 degrees so that they allowed airflow along the length of the cooler, your heatsink could be custom fitted to be very close the cpu cooler and both could share ducted airflow. I've been looking for a video cooler that would work with such a system.

[sarcasm] With the BTX standard right around the corner [/sarcasm] have you found this cooling system will fit well into the redesigned cases? It looks like you'd just get the reversed wing and be good to go. Adding additional fins to the die directly will also help there, making sure they allow airflow along the length of the card.

Thank you for discussing your products with the folks here, and for making such a product!

2nd that!

I know this is a little off-topic, but did anyone else notice the Aria case? I'd like to know more about it but I can't seem to find any information on the site about it. Looks pretty nice too with the dark grey chrome like colours.

That would be really really hard to do, if not completely impossible. You guys do know that 7950 is basically two SLI'd cards in two adjacent slots? There just isn't any room between cards for any decent heatsink mount with heatpipes leading away from it. I'm afraid it's a lost cause.

I know, I've got one. But then it not being easy was the point... I think there would be space for a mount over the bottom chipset, just a copper base like you get with a Ninja/whatever, then a couple of heatpipes coming around the side leading to the main heatsink.

Found a user review posted in the arstechnica forums:

How loud are the fans on this card? I've been waiting to pick a SPCR's brain about what to expect... picking up one of these next month, due to the high-res horsepower and HDCP readiness.

I have been watching for WC blocks for this card, I've seen one company that is putting one out, covers both GPU's/memory areas.

So just to let you know, to the people that said "Don't buy the HIS X1900XTX IceQ3". I've posted my results on another thread.

Just to share my happiness. The HIS Radeon X1900XTX ICeQ3. Is the quitest card I've ever had in my hands. I was afraid I was going to be dissapointed, and I know that spending $530, is like an overkill just to get the heatsink.

At Idle I don't hear anything, no I'm not kidding. Even the Seasonic S-12 fan emits more noise.

I've been playing Battlefield 2, Oblivion and Half Life Episode 1, for a 5 hour round. And the on load noise is something comparable to an ATI Accelero 2. Which is to me super quiet.

Ambient temperature in my place is about 75F, and after 5 hour on LOAD this X1900XTX hardly reached 76C!!!

In conclusion, this card has the quietest cooler ever made, and if it took $530 from my pocket, so be it. I've finally conquered sinlece in my machine.

I want to thank SPCR for all the help and advice provided.

So this is myopinion the final silent config for a high-end super silent gaming system.

-Antec P-150
-Tricool Exhaust Fan running at 6-7v plugged to a Fanmate, to balance quiet/cool on summer temps.
-Scythe Ninja/ with AC5 with a Nexus 120 an running at 5v with a Fanmate.
-Intel Pentium IV Prescott 670 3.8 Ghz.
-2 Akasa Sata Power/Data PCI brackets.
- 2 hard drive enclosures Smartdrive 2002 (Copper) with 2 hard drives.
(hard drives are outside the case)

-And finally finally the more hot, top of the line and hands down more silent gaming video card: HIS X1900XTX with ICeQ 3 technology.

Thanks!

Would it be possible to have a version where you could blow air through the heatsink? Something like a Thermalright HR-01 meet Condor.

Thermalright HR-01, with the HR-05 chipset cooler. Clickable thumbnails:



Really excited about your company's potential.

The company that will do the water cooler is Club3D, the same lot who made my card

The fans are disturbingly small to look at (think mobo fan size - about 40mm~ maybe). I've not got Windows on yet (still waiting for my cd to show up), but I have turned the system on to get an idea of how loud it is. With 4 Nexus fans and an AM2 stock cooler (waiting on the AM2 Ninja...) its very good to my ears during the day. At night with no ambient noise its noticable, though not loud by any means. I don't know if its running at full speed when I run it w/o Windows installed, or if there is still some sort of fan controll running. Either way, I should have the system up in about 2 days, so I'll post back here to let you know. If I forget, then just PM me a reminder!

Working on the thoughts of DrCR, a high performance "passive" heatsink that has the option of being "actively" cooled would be something special.

Very much like the Scythe Ninja, which is designed to be passive, but also allows one or more fans to be attached to aid cooling.

What really made me think of me replying to this post is that after some time of NOT having my AC VGA Silencer for my X800XT PE as it failed and then Royal Mail (bastards) lost it and dont want me to refund me for it...........

Anyway, ignoring the rant, I have NEVER actually used my AC Cooler within my P180 until now, I have found that the GPU is perfectly happy running fanless on the desktop, the current temp is 43C (usually about 45-50C (its a little cooler today).

I have set up speed fan so the fan doesnt start until the GPU temp hits 55C, therefore I essentially have a 3xfan system on the desktop, and a 4xfan system during games.

Most people wont really mind a quiet slow running fan whilst they are playing games as it really wont interfere.

The solution, a GPU heatsink that can cool the hottest cards with ease on the desktop, and the hottest cards with ease during games with the option of being fan assisted. In theory the Heatsink could also be made smaller, so its easier to manage placement.

As a side note, and not directly related to Aero-Case's products, but of interest, my AC VGA Cooler has dropped my CPU temp by 5C, my system temp by 1-4C depending on what I am doing, and strangely enough my GPU temps INCREASE, and the fan kicks in when I DONT have the side on my case.!!!

Q.1: Does Aero-Case have any plans to produce a GPU cooler that can be fan assisted when it need to be.???

Q.2: Does Aero-Case have any plans to produce a CPU cooler.???

Q.2: Does Aero-Case have any plans to produce a chipset cooler.???

I am no engineer, but I believe that I understand what is needed to cool something passively.

1, Good transferal of heat from the hot object (GPU, CPU etc), heatpipes being ideal.

2, A large surface area.

3, A decent amount of space between heat dissipating fins, to aid convection.

4, A small amount of air movement.

However graphics card have a massive dissadvantage to Chipsets and CPU's they are offset by 90 degrees, this would of course pose no problem in a desktop case for a CPU style tower cooler on the GPU as the fins would be vertical. However most people have tower cases.

The only idea I can think of would be to have the heatpipes vertical and have the fins vertical as well. Think of the restorator design, and think of the water tube as the heatpipe(s), I dont know how easy this would be to engineer, but it would make airflow around the fins and between the heatpipes possible.

Q.3: Has Aero-Case toyed with any designes like I have described, or should I visit the Patents Office right away

On a side note, I dont remember anyone asking, your company is called Aero-Case, yet all of the attention you are getting is for the GPU coolers, can you tell us something about your cases, I have noticed that you have a modified Antec Aria shown on your website, but with little information, and no prices.


Andy

Hello SPCR,

Sorry, I’ve been on the road for two weeks, so I’m just getting to catch up here at the lab. I know some of you guys have been asking about our enclosures, and I can tell you we are about ready to announce a product release date shortly. For those of you talking about CPU, chipset, and external VGA cooling ... our enclosures are the real answer, and what we’re all about here in the first place. I’m sure you’ll all agree, as long as you have heatsinks on the inside of a box, you are going to need fans to get the heat out. Put the heatsinks on the outside, make them big enough, and you don’t need fans. So, I can tell you that’s where we are going ...

So, as for CPU heatsinks, the answer is a resounding no ... the company doesn’t want to compete against 40 other products. Maybe we can do a motherboard chipset cooler ... we have a prototype on the drawing board here that we want to test, but you guys have to tell us if you want / need that kind of product. Our VP of marketing doesn’t think it’s marketable; so you are going to have to tell him otherwise. (The attachment is the tricky part … who wants to pull out their motherboard to put on a heatsink? Thermal tape won’t hold in the upright position and thermal adhesive has to be held on for 5 minutes … so we don’t have a good answer yet.)

We have several Condor reviews in the works right now, so you are going to see a LOT of press in a few weeks. We have our fingers crossed that they are wonderful and glowing ... a bad review means we start looking for new jobs. In the meantime, I promise to check in more frequently.

StealthGirl

I'd try making up a prototype, then comparing the performance to other chipset coolers, fanless AND fanned. There's not as big a market as with CPU or VGA coolers, but there is enough of a demand for other companies to make and sell them successful. My recommendation would be to make it primarily fanless but with an option to mount a fan - maybe bigger than 40mm if possible, and market it towards the overclocker crowd - do some "free" advertising by go around to different forums like ocforums, anandtech, hardforum, etc. and simply let them know about the product, then send out a few samples for review to major review sites. But you need to concentrate on places that cater the most for overclocking for it to really be profitable until you build a reputation for great chipset coolers. Zalman fanless coolers are still the most recommended chipset coolers I've seen on any forum, and its fanless. There is a growing acknowledgement of computers being too loud, and even overclockers are moving towards quieter cooling. Make it consistently better than at least the Zalman passive coolers and you WILL get some business.

We are selling one of our X1900XT video cards on eBay, and for our SPCR friends we are giving away a Condor cooler with this auction. Of course you have to win the auction, but it's a great opportunity to get one of these HOT video cards and a COOL video cooler to go with it for free.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0007655563

SG