Canadian Darling, CoolIT Systems has been kicking ass and taking names in the high end CPU cooler market with their excellent MTEC systems which combine watercooling and peltiers (TEC’s) into quiet and dependable cooling systems with high overclock potential. You would think that with big OEM wins with Shuttle and DELL under their belt, the Calgary, Alberta company would be happy just making CPU cooling solutions. Not a chance. After CPUs, their next stop is the VGA cooling market and today we get a chance to check out one of their Dual Drive Bay VGA Coolers for nVIDIA 8800 series GPU’s.
The NV Reference Series dual drive bay cooler was first seen at COMPUTEX 2007 in Taipei. At the time, CoolIT was working closely with both nVIDIA and ATI to develop a custom cooling solution that mated their MTEC cooling system with both company’s latest GPUs. As a result of this collaboration, they were able to create cooling systems for both that promise maximum cooling with high reliability and ease of installation. Our focus today is to see just how well our NV Reference Series coolers perform, but most importantly, how easy they are to setup and get going. But at about $325 US for this system, is it worth the price of admission?
Features and Specifications
The Dual Drive Bay NV Reference Cooling System features the following specifications…
Radiator
High performance, custom designed radiator
Dimension: 143 x 83 x 55 mm
Fan
Power usage: Max 1.5 Watts
Airflow: 63.5 CFM
Noise: Max 34dBA
Bearing Type: Ball
Life Cycle: 100,000 hrs
Type: Dual offset internal
Overall Dimensions: 217 x 146 x 86 mm
Pump
Power usage: Max 8 Watts
Design: 12VDC coreless outrunner
pump w/ integrated
expansion vessel
Noise: <15dBA
Life Cycle: 50,000 hrs
Dimension: 50 x 50 x 75 mme
Flow: 3.5 L/min
Weight: 205g
The Dual Drive Bay Cooler systems come totally pre-plumbed for a crossfire or SLI systems. Just plug it in and go. However, the mad scientists at CoolIT will also do triple SLI or CrossfireX versions if you want to give them some extra green.
Once installed, CoolIT claims that this system will improve GPU Performance, reduce noise, all while being very simple to install and be totally maintenance free. As a result of the extra cooling, the Dual Drive Bay VGA Cooler should also improve the reliability of your GPU’s by maintaining consistent temperatures throughout the operating range.
What’s In The Box?
Our system came to us with all the necessary hardware to totally replace the stock coolers on our pair of Vanilla eVGA 8800 ULTRA Video Cards which run at totally stock speeds. There were a large number of very small screws and springs in the packages so I’d totally recommend installing them on a clean light coloured surface so you don’t accidentally lose something. A manual with good illustrations comes as part of the package and will guide you through the installation step by step. There are no drivers to install so no CD or software comes part of this package.