Cooler Master CoolViva Pro Videocard Cooler Review

[One4yu2c]

"Viva la cooling! Or so we hope, as videocards know how to turn up the heat. When left unchecked, these toasty chips exhibit all kinds of nasty behavior, from distracting artifacts to game lockups and system reboots. And if you're an avid overclocker, pushing your GPU past it's rated speed can yield more problems than frame rates. But that needn't be the case, or so Cooler Master hopes. Today we install their new CoolViva Pro videocard cooler, and we have the skinny on whether it's a phat solution, or a big fat waste of time." - Paul Lilly

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[Tyreal]

Nice cooler! But design wise, I'd choose a two slot rear exhaust design any day.

[simple_inhibition]

pretty cool review paul (no pun intended lol)

i would also like to thank you for reminding me to clean out my pc! that was just icky :P

[gvblake22]

Yeah, it was amazing to see the temperature difference after just cleaning out the dust bunny invasion from the stock heatsink. And then the drop afterwards from the CoolViva. Just too bad it has such limited compatability.

[fps justin]

anyone know how this thing performs against a VF-900, HR03, silencer, accelero etc.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Just too bad it has such limited compatability.

I'm trying to find out from Cooler Master if they plan on releasing a version compatible with the next-gen cards. It's a bit difficult at the moment, as the rep we were working with is no longer with the company as of 2 days ago. I'll update when/if I find out anything though.

[Casecutter]

Hi, I’m new to H_L. Found a link from Frosty Tech on the review of this CoolViva Pro cooler, and as I’ve been in the market for a cooler it caught my eye. I like that it compatible with almost all current cards, that makes it easy for both retailers and consumers. Construction and overall appearance is fairly nice and looks to be of reasonable quality; although, those stickers and plastic color isn’t as gratifying considering the industry now has a new vanguard ambience for the ascetically pleasing.

The biggest drawback is it just recycles all that heat from VGA chip around and around, adding that burden to all the other things I’m working to keep cool. Not having a direct exhaust puts a big damper on a product offering that would’ve surly forge ahead to counter those who have abandoned the market.

The savvy “in the know types” would say just get an Arctic Cooler Silencer for the card if that’s how you feel. Well, I’m here to tell you Arctic Cooler has discontinued many of those units, at least that’s the word from two different E-tailers. They’re quickly sell through their stocks, while other have them at garage sale fodder pricing!

Arctic Cooler now intends to sell us the Accelero nothing more than a humongous passive radiant heat-pipe “radiator”. I don’t see why any self-respecting air cooled case would be the proper place to disperse all the heat a modern graphic chip produces and then mount under the board so it just grills its self (rotisserie chicken anyone). Arctic Cooler has had good products, sure some people have installation problem on some non-reference board design, while I’ve read occasional complaints of noisy or dead fans; overall a good company with decent warranty and would made good by a replacement fan. So why drop a product line for a one size (actually 2 types) fits all solution, less hassles for product SKU’s is my guess.

I want to see reviewer sites start taking about the overall effect in heat-rise the entire system must bare when companies take the easy route. I ended up with a Vantec Iceberq 6 as theirs is the only rear exhaust cooler that fit my ATI card. Sure their not the quietest, but at least it won’t permit self-induced failure. I’m holding out with this card until Direct X10 cards are reasonably priced upgrade.

I'll post my final judgment on the Iceberq 6 in another couple of days, it just came in today. Actually it's better looking in person...

Well I’ve said enough on this topic for now.

[One4yu2c]

First off, welcome to the forum Casecutter. Having made it over here, poke around the site and forums.

As for the cooler, I actually intended to record both case and processor temps with the CoolViva installed, but I broke one of the installation studs during a second install. Because this cooler isn't even on retail shelves yet, it will be about a month before I can get replacement parts, at which point I'd like to go back and update that data.

My hunch is that it won't be a dramatic difference, for two reasons. For one, while the air isn't actively blown out of the chassis by the CoolViva, it is oriented in such a fashion that air is directed towards the back PCI slot (they provide a vented PCI slot cover). And secondly, my systems have decent airflow, so in theory the heat should get whisked out the back rather than continually cooking the innards. It's not too much different than installing a better processor heatsink/fan that doesn't actively push the air directly out of the case. I do expect temps to rise, but would be surprised if they rose to a point greater than the benefit of having a cooler running GPU.

In any event, this is an area I definitely plan to update once I can get some replacement parts for the cooler.

[Casecutter]

Well I got around to installing that Iceburq 6. Now it could’ve been an EZ install, except for the fact I had a Zalman North Bridge Flower (ZM-NBF47)heat sink and that kinda’ got in the way… I had to trim a few things, but it all worked out OK.

As for the Iceburq 6 it’s not bad, it didn’t drop VGA temps a whole bunch, only about 3°C at load; although the Arctic Silver hasn’t completely settled. The difference in noise is better… less high pitch “leaf blower” and now a low hum. Actually it probably better as I re-tuned everybody and probably kick up the other fans in the system a little. I would have to say 20-25% overall reduction in noise and easier listening than before.

One place I did notice improvement is the CPU temps are down 3-5°C under load. Yep, all that heat that was in the case is no longer an additional load on the Arctic Cooling 64 Pro. The Nvidia chip (North Bridge) is at 40-42°C, which is what it was before with the old video cooler blow heat right on it. While I had another fan pointed at it, that area got bathed in heat. Now, considering I chopped about 60% of the fins off the Zalman, just to make everything fit, it’s still where it had beed and no need for the additional fan.

When you just have to get your baby back the Dermal takes over. No, I didn’t chop a big open hole in the Iceburq 6, there’s another inner wall closer to the fan blades. Actually, why Vantec added all that extra material right in the area of many north bridge chip placement was a big oversight. Heck, even when I checked the original Asus fan/sink/buzz-saw was a very tight fit. So the pictures tell it all, it was a little touchy trying pull the pins out of the mombo (I knew I should‘ve drilled a couple matching access holes for those in the tray when I install the board) which both broke (crap)! Lucky me… Zalman’s HQ is only 10 minutes away, one call and a quick drive and I was all set again. I know it’s not pretty (I took the picture before I cleaned up cooler) but heck you don’t really see it once installed

So that was my adventure… on a scale 1-10 it came out about a 7.5; and I’d recommend the Iceburq 6; however, with this you can go into the process with a little more knowledge. Hope it was informative!

Notes To Vantec, when you revise the cooler try shifting the fan away from the motherboard. Most ATX/cases/systems have a bunch of room to play with and I really can’t think of to many times something would be in the way. Lastly, use a larger slower fan and you might approach an almost silent unit.