8800gt

In an effort to modernise my gaming rig, I purchased a second nVidia 8800GT to compliment my first.  Benchmarks and reviews indicate that this setup yields comparable performance to many of today’s more expensive offerings.  This is a log of the installation and testing of the cards.

The Accelero S2 is an aftermarket heatsink used to provide additional cooling to video cards.  Although it was originally intended for lower-end cards, the greater surface area is able to cool an nVidia 8800GT adequately.  It has 2 heat pipes routed through the base of the sink and bend into a U-shape, protruding through a massive array of fins.  The kit also includes 8 RAM sinks.  This is enough for the RAM modules, although you’re on your own for cooling the voltage regulation sections of the card.  The Accelero S1 heatsink is physically larger than the S2, and includes additional heatsinks for cooling the FETs.  Luckily, I had spare Swiftech MCP15 heat sinks available from a previous project.  3 additional sinks per card were needed.