So, you say you want to get the most out of your video card or mainboard chipset? Maybe you consider yourself some kind of icon of uberclocking? Well then, feast your peepers on this little number manufactured by Thermaltake. I must say that without having even powered it up yet, that it’s quite an aesthetically pleasing little beauty ! That means “good looking” to you linguistically challenged types. However, reading the box and staring at it isn’t going to help you attain your goals, so let’s take a look at the specs and various info as provided by Thermaltake…….
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Well there ya have it. There will be a test later. Especially in the event you fry your video card or anything else within the confines of that thing you call a case. All of which I bear no responsibility for. With that out of the way and with you knowing that most of the applications, for which the Crystal Orb is suitable for, will most likely void your warranty for that component, lets discuss the possible uses for said product ! Jeesh, I shoulda been a lawyer…( apologies to PCA lead counsel WVJOHN ). Maybe he’ll let me clerk.
Enough of the ancillary legalese crap, let’s get on with the installation. I suppose now you’re thinking I’m going to yank my stock fan/HS off of my Radeon 8500 and replace it with the nifty Crystal Orb right? Well I hate to let you down but I’ve read just about one post too many about peeps trashing their video cards whilst doing just that. Sorry, but having paid over 200 bux for this graphix card, I think I’ll take the chicken route and use the C-Orb for less hazardous duty. You see the C-Orb can also be used as a chipset cooler for your mainboard as well. Seeing that my Abit KR7A-R already has a decent fan/HS on it’s chipset, I’ll use our family rig for this experiment.
Basically the task at hand here revolves around removing the stock passive HS on our Iwill KK266R’s chipset and substituting the C-Orb in hopes of cooling down the chipset even more than what the stock HS is capable of. I removed the mobo and used some needle nose pliers in order to slide the HS mounting pins up and out of the holes which are used to secure the stock HS. Once this was done, I attemped to line up the C-Orb and sure enough, the mounting brackets lined up perfectly with the holes. Thermaltake includes pushpins for mounting C-Orb. After applying a thin coat of Arctic Silver II that I had on hand, I lined up the C-Orb and with some firm pressure, inserted the supplied pushpins. VOILA…..all done. Well, all except getting power to the fan on C-Orb that is.
I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that in addition to the 3-wire connector that is already installed. Thermaltake has also provided a 3-wire to Molex ( 4-wire ) adapter in the event you choose run the C-Orb off of your power supply as opposed to your mainboard fan headers. A nice feature and typical of Thermaltake’s attention to detail with their products. I had an extra mainboard header available so I used that method. I guess it’s time to see if it works.
I powered up the system with the side panel off and a flashlight trained on the C-Orb so I could make sure that it was getting power. It was and made just the slightest hum of a noise. The sound isn’t anything that’s going upset anyone other than the totally anally retentive “quiet freaks”. With the C-Orb in place, I decided to really “gas” ( overclock ) the system as anyone who knows anything about Iwill KK266’s can testify that they are capable of some SERIOUS front side bus speeds with an unlocked T-bird or Duron. I used a 1.4 t-bird that I just got today for the cpu. Equipped with an SK6 HS and a 7K+ Delta screamer, I was able to attain 9.5 x 167 FSB ( 1587 MHz ) with KK266R and the C-Orb. I was also able to run 10 x 162 ( 1620 MHz ), both settings stable as heck. I did have to run the memory at cas-3 to hit 167 FSB. That my friends ain’t bad !! Especially for an older KT133A based chipset mainboard.
Well there you have it kidz. This is an excellent and relatively inexpensive addition to your rig that can have multiple uses, be it as a video card cooler or a chipset cooler. As usual, Thermaltake has paid close attention to cosmetic detail, user friendly installation, necessary fan connector options, as well as functionality. While I didn’t have the requistite “minerals” to attempt the vid card mod with it, I know that at least one of our esteemed colleagues has ( Nexus_7 ) and reported that not only was the mounting a success, but that the C-Orb allowed him some extra OC-ing headroom as well. That said, I think we have a winner on our hands here. I’m giving this little sweetheart a 9.5 on a scale of 10. In addtion, I’m going to label this unit as a “VidmanII must have” for no other reason that if you’re into overclocking your system, chipset, and/or video card, this is absolutely something you want to have around the house. Better yet, inside your case. Thanks goes out to Thermaltake for sending us the Crystal Orb for review.