As our video cards become more powerful so does the heat they produce, and sometimes those stock coolers just aren’t good enough. One option is to buy a replacement heatsink for your video card, but that is risky and most likely will void your warranty, so what is a person to do to cool down that hot card? A great option is a slot type cooler and today for review I have one of those from JetArt, it is the Storm 2 VGA Cooler. Let’s find out if the Storm2 can handle the heat…
JetArt Storm2 VGA Cooler (VC1000)
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: JetArt
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Product Name:
VGA Cooling Kit Storm2 VGA Cooler (VC1000)
Description:
VC1000 is a full sized VGA cooler for NVIDA & ATI VGA Cards. Built in speed adjustable fan with blue LED and a movable fan above, especially designed for SLI VGA card. Easily it enhances the heat dissipation for the GPU and side memory modules. Quiet, high performance and fancy look designed VC1000 satisfies your overclocking need and allow you enjoying silence and unique modding outcome.
{amazon id=’B00092DAFG’ align=’RIGHT’}
Features:
-Full heat dissipation for VGA Card
-Powerful heat dissipation for SLI VGA Card
-Adjustable fan speed, silence and high performance
-Movable side fan, no heat build up
-Blue LED silent fan
Specifications:
-Cooler Dimensions 172.1 x 132.6 x 21.6 mm
-Main Fan Dimensions: 70 X 70 X 10.5 mm
-Main Fan Speed: 1800 ~ 3000 RPM
-Side Fan Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 10.5 mm
-Side Fan Speed: 4000 RPM
-Rated Voltage: 12 V DC
-Rated Current: 0.24 A
-Power Consumption: 2.88 W
-LED Color: Blue
-Material Transparent: Blue UV
-Screw: 3 x 6.0 mm
-Weight: 142 g
A Better Look at Things
:
First up the packaging, the retail package is very bright and colorful, you can plainly see the Storm2 through the package front so you know exactly what you are getting.
Ont eh back of the package we find specs, features and installation instructions. Installation seems easy enough.
Taking the Storm2 from its packaging we can get a closer look at it; we can see the cool Storm2 logo on the top, the main fan and the side fan as well. JetArt also included a screw for installation.
Flipping the Srtorm2 over there’s really not much to see, just the underside of the fans. The fans are powered by a standard Molex connection, that is pleasantly a pass through type. On the bottom we can see the tabs that will be inserted into a free PCI slot to further reinforce the Storm2 while installed.
On the PCI slot end of the Storm2 is a knob that is used to adjust the fan speed, with the marks ‘H’ and ‘L’ on either side indicating High and Low speed for the fans.
The Storm2 is made of UV reactive plastic and is very lightweight. The JetArt Storm2 seems to be durable and sturdy as it doesn’t twist very easily when pressure is applied to it.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is very easy, it is just like installing any other PCI type product, insert the tabs into the PCI slot and lock it in place with the included screw or other mounting system, of course you will need to plug it in as well.
Turning the system on the JetArt Storm2 emits a cool blue glow from the LEDs in the fans.
Using either the high or low setting the Storm2 is virtually silent, when setting the speed higher the LEDs do get brighter.
For testing I had to re-install the stock cooler on my XFX 7800GTX video card, which was fun indeed, all thi stime I had it water cooled.
To apply load to my video card I ran 3dmark06 and recorded the highest temps the core reached. Ambient temperature was approximately 27C during testing. I ran tests with the Storm2 fan on high and on low to see if there was any difference.
IDLE:
Storm2 (fan low): 52c
Storm2 (fan high): 51c
XFX Stock: 55c
LOAD:
Storm2 (fan low): 75c
Storm2 (fan high): 73c
XFX Stock: 78c
{amazon id=’B000CN5SES’ align=’RIGHT’}
While there isn’t a huge improvement there is still an improvement and a few degrees cooler is always a good thing when dealing with computer components. The Storm2 while on high or low speeds was barely audible over the XFX stock cooler. The performance was a bit less that I expected actually, the temperature reduction is not that significant. If I had to actually remove on of my PCI cards that were in use to use the Storm2 then I might think twice, but if the slot was free anyway, then I wouldn’t hesitate to install the Storm2 VGA Cooler as it does actually cool the video card, and it does it without adding any extra noise to my system.
Summary:
In summary I have to say that the JetArt Storm2 VGA cooler does what it is advertised to do, it does cool your video card. It’s not a drastic drop in temperatures but a drop nonetheless and cooler is always better. If you have the space then I can say get it, every little bit helps, as it is very quiet and it does work. The JetArt Storm2 VGA cooler is something that everyone can use to help cool those hot video cards off.
DragonSteelMods gives the JetArt Storm2 VGA cooler (VC1000) a 4 out of 5 score.
{amazon id=’B000GFYGWC’ align=’RIGHT’}
PROS:
-Looks cool
-Well made
-Very quiet
-Cool your video card
CONS:
-Takes up a PCI slot
-Does not cool all that well