The first ever TMG ND5 Review on HL!!!

[Pete]

It's good to work at Thermaltake.

Although it's not a very in depth review but here is the jist of it... More pics of my setup will be on my Thermaltake Blog site.

Its been a while since my last review and that's because I didn't have any new toys to play with, until now. Recently I built a Media PC so I can watch movies and DVD's on my newly purchased 37" LCD TV.

The new TMG ND5 came out and I thought to myself, hey! why not use the new cooler on the 8800GTS in my rig. So I did. Now, with the TMG ATi cooler, there was a good difference on my co-workers rig and his X1950XTX. So I'm thinking that the 8800 cooler will be just as good.
Here is the setup for my HTPC:

Case: Thermaltake Aguila Mid Tower
CPU: AMD X2 6000+
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake V1
Motherboard: Abit AN9 32X Fatality
Video Card: EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
VGA Cooler: Thermaltake TMG ND5
HDD: Maxtor 160GB SATA
Accessories: Cyclo Slot fan

VGA Burning Utility: rthdribl

Let it run till temp was steady for 10 minutes.

Stock VGA cooler:



ND5 Cooler:



The design and the air flow of the cooler is drastically different than the stock cooler so it affected the temperature of the entire system. The stock cooler blows out of the back and the TMG blows towards the front... No idea why they designed it like that.

Hmmm... a whole whopping 5 Degrees Celsius.

I dunno about that. I suppose 5 degrees will get you a bit of an over-clock.

Also, as you can tell, from the pictures, this is not the most controlled environment so your mileage will vary. I know the HL team is busy with a other reviews but hopefully there will be a more accurate review from the HL review team.

Installation was straightforward. However, I do recommend that you take a look at the directions because there are some parts that can be missed.

It is however, noticeably quieter and for those that want the silence, this is another plus.

Pros: 5 Degrees better than stock cooler
Noticeably quieter
Fairly easy to install

Cons: Only 5 degrees cooler
Heat sinks for VRM chips could be better


Conclusion: Ill keep it on the card till the DuOrb comes out!

[gvblake22]

Interesting, thanks for the results!! Although it may not cool as well as you had hoped, is it at least quieter than the stock cooler? I know for many they would rather have a 5dBA reduction in noise rather than a 5ºC reduction in temperature. Would you recommend this cooler for people looking to quiet down their 8800 card?

[Pete]

Yea, it's noticeably quieter, but I can't say how many dBA less.

[gvblake22]

Well that's good to hear (no pun intended). Judging by how the TMG ND5 is represented on the Thermlatake website, I get the feeling that lower noise is of more focus than increased cooling performance...


Either way, I'm definitely excited to see how the DuOrb performs!

[Panda Man]

You should have also OCed them to see how well you could take it. But hey, 5C is 5C :D Nice little write-up