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Coolink GFXChilla Graphics Card Cooler Review

Posted by Spawne32 | Published in Cooling | [-no comments-]

Continuing with our line of reviews on high quality products by Coolink, the european based company, we are pleased to have a first hand look at their new graphics card cooler, the GFXChilla. This low profile, whisper quiet performance graphic cooler comes equipped with four 6mm heatpipes for maximum heat dissipation through aluminum cooling fins. Strapped to those aluminum fins are two 80×10mm fans with a rotation speed of 2000rpm at 18dB. The kit includes all the nessecary components including RAM & VR heatsinks with self adhesive tape. Lets have a look at the GFXChilla up close…

Coolink GFXChilla up close, Click to Enlarge.

Coolink GFXChilla up close, Click to Enlarge.

GFXChilla bottom, Click to Enlarge.

Close up of the GFXChilla base, Click to Enlarge.

Our testing today for the GFXChilla will take place on a Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 graphics card. The GFXChilla is compatible with multiple ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, and the compatibility list for your card can be found on Coolinks website listed here. The included cooler with our 3650 is comprised of aluminum, with no heatpipes to speak of and a small fan which sucks air in and passes it out through vents on the right side. The design of the retail cooler is not well thought out, as the hot air coming off of the card itself is venting back into the center of the case.

Sapphire Radeon HD 3650, Click to Enlarge.

After removal of the retail cooler, we begin with the installation of the GFXChilla. The instructions provided with the GFXChilla are well thought out and easy to read, however the install procedure seems to be a little bit more complicated due to its wide range of compatabilitys. For our particular card, the installation required that we move the mounting bracket attached to the base into a different location, per the instructions. After making the nessecary adjustments you can procedure to apply the pads included with the kit around the GPU die, as not to cause damage when tightening the cooler to your card. Through our testing we reccomend at this point you test fit the card before installing your ram sinks or thermal paste. During our installation we found that the heatpipes do interfer with several areas of the card itself. First and foremost, as observed in the pictures above, you will need to remove the plastic fan header located at the top of the card. This is a rather simple procedure with a pair of needle nose pliers. Secondly, the RAM chips at the top of the card will interfere with the heatpipes if you use the included low profile ramsinks. Our retail card did not provide any extra cooling for the RAM chips out of the box, and we do not foresee a problem with not using the included RAM sinks with the GFXChilla. After you have fit the cooler to the card, and made sure that there is no interference with components. You can procedure with the rest of your install, this includes mounting the RAM sinks provided with the GFXChilla. The RAM sinks themselves are sturdy, but feel more like plastic then aluminum, and are of rather cheap quality with no particular specified sizes for other indivudal components. After you have mounted your RAM sinks, install the mounting studs and and thermal paste and procedure with the rest of the install which consists of easy to use screws and washers.

Naked 3650 graphics card, Click to Enlarge.

GFXChilla mounted to the 3650, Click to Enlarge.

Testing

Our testing of the GFXChilla and retail cooler, consists of load bearing using the rthdribl (Real Time High Dynamic Range Image Based Lighting) program, and monitoring temperatures with our ATI Catalyst Control Center. Our room temperature at the time of testing is aproximately 70F (Farenheit).

GFXChilla under testing, Click to Enlarge.

Testing our retail cooler at >90% load shows that the GPU puts out signifigantly less heat then its 3800 series counterparts, however temperatures still remained quite toasty at 57 degrees celsius. Our GFXChilla using the same >90% load testing, put us at 37 degrees celsius. A signifigant 20c drop in load temperatures for our 3650, while maintaing a low profile stance and extremely quiet operating with 2 cooling fans. Excellent results by our standards.

Retail cooler testing results, Click to Enlarge.

GFXChilla test results, Click to Enlarge.

Comments/Suggestions

The Coolink GFXChilla passed our tests with flying colors, a 20c drop in load temperatures is an excellent performance number for this low profile cooler. We especially like the fact that it is able to incorporate 2 80mm fans that are extremely quiet. The added bonuses of the design include extra cooling for the rest of the components on the card. The 2 80mm fans are positioned where they continously blow air down onto the card itself. Our only suggestions for this product would be to improve the cheap quality RAM sinks with something a little beefier for higher end cards, and update the product compatability list for issues that users may run into during mounting, like we did with our fan header and RAM sinks. Overall, a great product for the area of graphics card cooling once again.

What we liked…

High quality construction
2 whisper quiet 80mm fans cool entire surface of the card
Low profile design
3 pin connector with 4 pin molex adaptor included, and also comes sleeved in a lovely white color
Performs great under high load

What we didnt like…

No mention of possible install issues on compatability list
Cheap RAM sinks, feels more like plastic then aluminum

Follow Up Report: Coolink has been kind enough to report back to us that necessary modifications are being made to the compatibility list to include mounting issues for both our particular model card among others. In addition to those changes they have also told us that newer models will also feature improved RAM sinks so that there will be no interference with the sink and the heatpipes making contact. We thank Coolink for taking the time to update their products for the users need, excellent customer service indeed.