Installation

The installation process is one that many can be a bit wary of if it's their first time. In reality though, it's usually a simple process... finger's crossed for the VPower.

The first step of any graphics card cooler replacement, is removing the original and cleaning off the old, gnarled heat paste. We use Akasa Tim Clean, but white spirit, turpentine or nail polish remover will do.

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Once that step is completed,, the next move is to attach the ram sinks. In the case of the VPower - and most other coolers - These come with adhesive heat pads stuck to their base, making the mounting process very simple indeed.

However, you do have to pick the right size RAM sinks to mount on certain RAM chips. This is because the heatpipes of the VPower block where the larger 'sinksl go if placed on any of the "top" RAM chips on our x1900. This means you need to use the included short 'sinks for this area. While in theory this isn't the end of the world, it probably means unbalanced memory cooling across the card which could be irritating for those pushing for the ultimate overclock.

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After that, the only thing left to do is fit the main cooler itself; first step, applying the fresh heatpaste. I'm normally an advocate of the spread method - using a flat edged apparatus to evenly "spread" the paste across the core. However, due to the strange viscosity of the supplied heatpaste, I had to go with the "blob" method.

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After that you turn the card over and line up the VPower with the mounting holes on the PCB. Once done, you take the spring loaded screws and attach them to the cooler.

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Click to enlarge

With this completed your VPower cooler should work perfectly. However, Gigabyte bundle a small accessory that is designed to improve it's cooling by exhausting the air out of the back of the case. Using a customized PCI bracket and shroud extension, you can direct the air right out the back of your case. Now all cards come with at least one PCI bracket already attached so the extension can simply be mounted on it's side. However, for those of you - like myself - who have a double slot card, this means removing the original bracket.

The bracket does fit on with the stock double PCI bracket, but it sits very loosely so we need to remove the original.

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There are 4 spacers that attach the bracket to the card; 1 on each side of the DVI ports.

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And a screw on the underside of the card:

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Once removed you just need to attach the new ones. This was a little fiddley in places but I managed to get it on after 5-10 minutes.

Using the same spacers, you attach the new bracket to the card, then attach the extension to the second bracket and put it in its place.

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Click to enlarge

After all this faffing about, you might think you are all done. There's one last thing to do I am afraid, sort out what's powering the fan. Due to the included fan controller you can manually control your VPower, but for some reason Gigabyte have made this a ridiculously over the top thing to do. You first attach the shockingly short 3pin power cable to a 3pin male to female connector, which then connects to a fan converter box which feeds the fan controller through another cable. It also feeds a molex converter, should you want to power your VPower by that instead of a 3pin motherboard connector.

What a mess...

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