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Evercool Formula 2


Date
: 11/23/08 – 05:32:28 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Evercool

Evercool has recently introduced their latest video card heatsink, the Formula 2. Evercool bases its interests in the cooling market, and as they continue to grow, their variety increases as well.

As we look over the Formula 2, we will focus on its appearance, the quality of its build, and of course, its cooling performance.

Page 2 : Package & Content

The Formula 2 comes in a very simple package. The plastic mold surrounds the contents, providing a simple protective layer. Inside, there is no Styrofoam or any cushioning of any sort. This could pose as a hazard, and I'll show you slight damage that was actually caused to the product during shipping.

Here is the back of the package, amply displaying all of the product information. Take note of the ‘Installation Guide’ on the bottom. This is the only support given to you for all of the product.

Here is a simple guide to help you through the installation.

Also, don't forget about the specifications.

And even more important, the performance comparison graph. As for exactly what ‘Other(N)’ is, we aren't told.

Let's move on to the manufacturers specifications and see what this cooler is all about.

Page 3 : Specifications

According to the Evercool website, these are the exact specifications:

Features are as listed:

• Compatible with multiple VGA card in market
  
  
• By using 8cm fan with Ø6 dual heat pipe and huge fin in order to make heat dissipation, keeping the VGA card working smoothly
• ‘FORMULA 2′ design with bright silver shape to make fashion and conspicuous looking
• Easy and quickly installation

I will bring attention to the compatibility of the cooler. Though this is a cooler designed for the NVIDIA 8800 series, it is also compatible (and incompatible) with the following video cards:

Let's have a close look at the Formula 2 now.

Page 4 : Exterior

Here we have the cooler, the necessary mounting screws, a small tube of ceramic thermal paste, and a 4 pin Molex power adapter. You might be thinking ‘Where are the RAM heatsinks?’. The truth is, there aren't any. I was quite uneasy about testing this heatsink with my memory modules unattended, but I still went through with it.

The right side of heatsink…

…and the left.

With the Formula 2 completely flipped over, we can see the aluminum fin array and the copper base plate. You can see that some of the fins are slightly bent due to either rough handling through delivery or inadequate packaging.

Looking even closer at the plate, we can see its perfectly flat surface. Though not exactly reflective (seen by the tack resting on it), it's still a clean base that will do the job.

Let's keep moving forward and see how easy this heatsink is to install.

Page 5 : Installation

First, I applied the supplied thermal paste on the GPU die. It's ceramic and slightly thinner, compared to an application of Arctic Silver 5 (And it smells somewhat like paint).

The next step is slipping on the rubber washers.

Then, you slip the video card down on top of it, lining up the screws with the holes.

The final step is placing the rubber washers down around the screws, then the springs, and finally the tightening screws on top of that. As always, be sure not to over-tighten these.

And here is the final product! (And remember kids, if the heatsink doesn't work for you, you could always use it as a Checkers board!)

Again, the right and left sides.

Here it is installed in the system. Note that it takes up two expansion slots.

Now that it is installed, let's go see how it performs!

Page 6 : Testing and Performance

The following system configuration will be used to test the Formula 2's cooling capabilities:

• XFX nForce 780i SLI
  
• Cooler Master Cosmos 1000
  
• Intel C2D 6750 @ 2.66GHz, OC'd to 3.60GHz
  
• OCZ EL Platinum Rev.2 2x1024MB @ 5-6-5-16, 450MHz
  
• OCZ GameXStream 700W
  
• eVGA e-GeForce 8800GT @ 650/1620/950MHz
  
• Scythe Mugen
  
• Seagate Barracuda 250GB

For the test, I will have the 8800GT run idle for one hour. Once the hour is done, I will record the temperatures of the GPU core, and the ambient air of the GPU using Everest Ultimate Edition. I will then stress the GPU with ATI Tool for one hour. Temperatures will be recorded again. The Formula 2 will be tested against the 8800GT's stock cooling (fan running at 30% and 100%) and Zalman's VF1000. The ambient room temperature is ~20 degrees C.
Here are the results:

The Formula 2 performed very well. All the while it was one small degree behind the VF1000, and it always performed significantly better than the stock cooling; even up to 24 degrees C cooler then stock at 30% on full load!

Page 7 : Conclusion

In the end, I was very impressed with the Evercool Formula 2's performance. Using only 2 heat pipes, it boldly kept the pace with the VF1000, which uses a total of 4 heat pipes. Though the build of this product felt somewhat cheap, installation was a breeze, and it looks pretty snazzy inside the tower. Would I recommend this product to anyone? Let's weigh it out:

Advantages

• Super easy installation
  
  
• Exceptional cooling performance
• Not overly expensive

Disadvantages

• No RAM heatsinks
  
  
• Takes up the space of an expansion card

Overclockers Online would like to thank Evercool for making this review possible.