Conclusion

The results were very impressive indeed!

The Thermalright SI-97, when paired with a TT-8025T fan managed to keep the card 11.2°C cooler than the Jetart JACSH1. Even when the GPU ran with a very high voltage, the combination was still able to maintain the card at a reasonably low temperature.

In the past, I modded a copper CoolerMaster Aero7 cooler for the same card but even it did not allow me to run the GPU at such a high voltage. But with the Thermalright SI-97, I could now push the GPU to run at 460MHz with a voltage of 2.0V! But of course, that is not a very good overclocking result. My card is a very poor overclocker, since most Radeon 9800 cards can reach 460MHz with a GPU voltage of 1.75V to 1.85V.

Still, there's something to be said about modded coolers. Before I tried modding my own GPU coolers, my card wasn't even be able to reach a GPU clock speed of 412MHz (the Radeon 9800XT standard core clock speed) with the Zalman ZM80C-HP GPU cooler! Whenever I tried to overclock beyond 400MHz, I would end up with display artifacts.

But thanks to the CoolerMaster Aero7 modded cooler, and now the Thermalright SI-97 modded cooler, I am able to push the R350 GPU to reach 460MHz! That's a 60MHz or 15% boost in GPU clock speed!

As far as costs are concerned, the Thermalright SI-97 is not an expensive heatsink. I purchased mine for around RM 140 (~USD 36). That's about the same price as a Zalman ZM80D-HP. But if you add in a little bit of effort, you will end up with a much better cooler!

But please note that you will need to sacrifice at least 2 to 3 PCI slots with this modded cooler. And of course, this would not be a possible cooling solution for SLI cards! But if that's not a problem, go for it!

Questions & Comments

Please feel free to post your questions or comments here!