SPCR

FWIW...An article on installing a monster heatsink.

The good news is that it’s possible to cool AMD’s flagship Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition to less than 75 degrees Celsius under full load, maintaining a quiet 32 dB(A) at the same time. The bad news? It'll cost you five expansion slots and more than $100.

Read more:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dee ... ,3246.html

I think this retail listing is the heatsink they're using:

http://www.xoxide.com/deepcool-draculavgacooler.html

Why would anyone want to use this 5 slot monster when the ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme 7970 is better, cheaper and blocks less slots?

I guess because that Deepcool's is quieter using picked fans for this purpose.

rpsgc wrote:Why would anyone want to use this 5 slot monster when the ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme 7970 is better, cheaper and blocks less slots?

From reviews I've read it actually outperforms the Accelero Xtreme at idle and load while being quieter. Of course with a huge heatsink like that this makes perfect sense - 5 slots is definitely a trade-off.

Look at all that wasted space between the heatsink and the fans, and the whole thing still sags downwards... Could easily be a 4 slot cooler if the fans were directly attached to the heatsink. Use a suspension wire (DIY job, one end attached to a heatpipe, the other end attached to the roof of the case or any sturdy point) or a support column (like HIS provide with some of their high-end AMD cards such as the blower-style IceQ models) to prevent sagging.