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eVGA's
Geforce 4 MX440
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Author : Martyn
Date : 20th Feb '02
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3DVelocity
wish to thank eVGA.com
and particularly Joe for providing this graphics card for review.
| ...Product |
e-Geforce
4 MX440 |
| ...Manufacturer |
eVGA.com |
| ...Supplier |
eVGA.com |
| ...Price |
$179.00 |
Part Four: eVGA.com's ACS...
Nvidia based cards are well known for their attractive HSF
units, but all too often the advancements are purely cosmetic.
Sure the card looks nice but how often do we see the card's
cooling solutions? (Those with case windows need not respond!)
The point is with so many coolers on the market it's nice
to see a company trying to break away from the norm' while
still attempting to provide you with the best possible cooling
for your GPU. Enter eVGA.com's ACS (Asymmetric Cooling
System) quite possibly the strangest unit I have seen
to date but just how does it perform? Let's take a look at
the theory...
Part Five: ACS In Depth
This is the principle in depth, a simple idea but one that
you can genuinely recognize as different yet with real promise.
Here is the theory expressed in diagrammatic form, 'a picture
speaks....' etc.
As you can see from the above picture, the concept
is generally sound. The air sucked in by the inverted fan is
moved across and over the GPU and ejected out of the right side
of the unit. What you can't see from the picture above is the
small grills on the right side of the unit that act as an outlet
for the outputted air. The major plus with this HSF is that
it also utilizes the standard pin settings should you still
consider a Blue Orb type cooler more effective. This is also
good if you wish to move to more extreme measures such as water-cooling
your GPU. The following section explores the concepts of the
unit as quoted from eVGA's own website.
Part Six: The Word From eVGA.com...
Information contained in this section is quoted
from eVGA's website.
It's content does not necessarily represent my own feelings
but we will evaluate the unit in more detail later on when we
look at the cards overclockability.
'The eVGA.com ACS was designed using the best
in thermal principle and flow mechanics, resulting in a very
compact and very efficient cooling unit that easily competes
with the top coolers in the market. All of eVGA.com's impressive
design considerations culminate to create a number of serious
advantages.
Longer Fan Life - Because the cooling fan
is located asymmetrically, it is not subject to the heat damage
that normal FAN/HEATSINK coolers are. This results in longer
fan life and more consistent long term cooling.
No Clearance Limitations – Most high
powered cooling solutions are very large and heavy, ultimately
causing the user to loose the PCI slot right next to the AGP
slot because the cooling unit extends out too far. At only 11.5mm
in thickness, the ACS allows full access to every slot on the
board.
Real Active Cooling – Because the
cooling fan is located asymmetrically, it can pull in colder
air and use it to cold the heatsink and GPU. Traditional fan/heatsink
coolers use the air that is immediately around the heatsink,
resulting in poor cooling performance. The colder air that the
ACS uses allows the heatsink to function more efficiently, and
helps contribute to overall system stability by venting the
hot air away from important system components.
Larger Surface Area - The ACS uses most
of its body as surface area for cooling. When combined with
10 internal radiation vents, the ACS has almost twice the surface
area as traditional FAN/HEATSINK solutions. This results in
higher cooling performance across the board.
Easy to Install and Service - Because the
ACS was designed with the end user in mind, it is very easy
to install and service. It attaches directly to the video card
using the pre-drilled heatsink mounting holes, and uses easy
to use rubber knots that makes installation a breeze. The ACS’s
fan, its only moving part, is attached from the bottom with
three easy to access screws - this means that should the fan
every need replacement (an unlikely event) that the repair can
be preformed quickly and easily.
High Grade 1070 Aluminum – Allows
for rapid exchange of heat from the GPU to the heatsink to the
surrounding air. Traditional solutions use aluminum with a thermal
conductivity of 200 w/mk, but the Al 1070 used in the ACS has
a thermal conductivity of 221.5 w/mk – allowing for the
cooling of your GPU with far greater efficiency than traditional
fan/heatsink solutions.
Designed For Looks and Performance - Quite
often, cooling solutions that look good don’t always work
so well. This is not the case with the ACS. Designed using real
world physics by engineers who specialize in cooling system
technology, the ACS easily out performs more traditional solutions.
The new eVGA.com ACS will be shipping on all eVGA.com
e-GeForce4 MX 440 and 460 cards, and will made available as
an upgrade kit for selected models in the future.
Thermal Comparison
eVGA.com ACS 39 C
Thermaltake Blue Orb 45 C
Standard Fan/Heatsink 46 C
Specifications
Length: 45 mm
Width: 93 mm
Height: 11.5 mm
Weight: 50 g
Noise Level: 28.5 dBA '
Certainly a great sounding unit, of particular
interest to upgrade enthusiasts will be the low clearance of
the unit. This allows for maximum usage of all your motherboards
PCI slots. We now move on to one of the most important factors
when purchasing a new graphics card, the retail package. Many
people now feel this is just as important as the card itself.
What goodies will we find upon inspecting eVGA's stylish box?
Page Four: The
Retail Package
>>>
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