| The
Test System
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-
Intel
Pentium III – 450 MHz (overclocked to 558 MHz @ 2.1V)
- Abit
BX6-R2 (MN BIOS)
- Spectek
64MB x2, LGS 64MB x1 (all rated to operated at 125 MHz)
- 300W
PowerMan ATX
- Creative
5x DVD-ROM
- Yamaha
CD-RW 4416S
- Seagate
10.1GB UDMA/66, Seagate 4.3GB UDMA/33 and Seagate 3.4GB UDMA/33
- Win98SE
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Before
starting to stress the TNT2U card / CPU:
- Outside
air ambient temperature: 26 degrees C
- Card
ambient air temperature: 35.5 degrees C
- CPU
temperature 40 degrees C
(PCI
cards in order of slot distance from the AGP slot)
- Creative
3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra 32MB (reference 2.08 drivers)
- 12
MB Creative 3D Blaster Voodoo2 SLI
- Adaptec
AVA-2902 PCI SCSI card
- Creative
Encore Dxr2 DVD Decoder
-
Creative
Soundblaster Live! Value
Temperature
Measuring Equipment
The temperature of the TNT2U chip surface was measured by placing a
type-k probe of a thermocouple as close to the chip as possible.
Card
ambient air temperature was measured with a thermistor placed near
the back of the CL TNT2U.
CPU
temperature was measured with an external probe supplied with the
motherboard.
The
Test Card
The
Creative 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra comes with 32 MB 5.5 ns Hyundai SDRAM.
On continuous 3DMark loops the highest stable core setting was 165
MHz and highest memory speed was 210 MHz. The TNT2U chip surface
temperature was 43.4 degrees C.
(Note:
The card was overclocked with the Creative Overclocking Utility
version 1.09).
Installing
The Cooler
The hardest
part of installing the Tennmax cooler was getting the original
active heatsink off. The original heatsink was attached to the TNT2U
chip using some kind of glue. Getting it off is a matter of breaking
the brittle glue – on a cool card I eased the old heatsink off
using a flat head screwdriver, applying pressure carefully along the
edges of the heatsink. It comes off pretty cleanly.
(Warning: Tampering with the original heatsink voids your warranty)
To
remove the excess glue on the TNT2U chip, I used a glue removing gel
purchased from the hardware section of Metro Tampines. The glue
comes off almost immediately.
Having
a clean and flat contact surface is essential to ensure optimal
cooling. The TNT2U chip surface was cleaned thoroughly using rubbing
alcohol, following which a thin layer of silicon based heatsink
compound was applied.
Installing
the Tennmax cooler was simply a matter of fitting the push pins
through the matching holes adjacent to the TNT2U chip and securing
the pins.
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