Cooler Master CoolViva

Zitat

The CoolViva Pro, while not without faults, didn't fail to impress us. Using our factory overclocked XFX 7800GTX (490MHz / 1300MHz), we saw a drop of up to 13C during our 3DMark06 run, and it never ran less than 8C cooler, whether at idle or when shooting bad guys in Counter Strike Source. Equally impressive is that these temperature drops didn't come at the expense of noise, as we nary heard a peep from the 74mm fan.

We do have a few minor gripes, all of which relate to the installation process. The metal studs that attach the heatsink to your videocard's PCB takes some maneuvering, and if you over tighten the spring nuts, you can actually break the stud. Under tighten and you're in danger of making less than optimal contact, resulting in ordinary thermal performance. We also take some exception with how easy the memory heatsinks become dislodged, and we have concerns over any memory chips that sit directly above the GPU, as you'll have to leave them naked in order to fit the cooler.

When all was said and done, our issues didn't detract from our overall experience with Cooler Master's latest GPU cooler. The CoolViva Pro earns its moniker with stellar thermal performance, runs quiet, and is relatively easy to install. Of course, DX10 is right around the corner and this cooler isn't meant for next gen cards. But rest assured, if you have a compatible videocard in need of a kick in it's thermal pants, the Cooler Master CoolViva Pro will put a cold boot right up its...PCB!