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EVGA AKIMBO

If you are looking to add an "aftermarket" cooler to your very hot video card, EVGA looks to be serving up some very fine cooling with their AKIMBO cooling systems it launched a few months ago.

Introduction

Today we are going to look at a cooler from a company better known for making some of the fastest video cards and best motherboards than heat sinks for your GPU. But when you think about it the two really go hand in hand. What better way to keep those GPUs going strong and the RMAs to a minimum than by producing a solid cooler for the job. The company is EVGA and the cooler is the AKIMBO. In case you wondering what AKIMBO means you’re not alone. It is one of those words that has evolved over the years. Depending on who you ask the word AKIMBO can describe a standing position with your arms on your hips and elbows pointed outwards (Think of mom after finding out you played WoW all night and didn’t study for your finals). More likely is the meaning that came into use during the 1990’s and early 21st century where it means to dual wield a weapon such as a pistol in each hand. Regardless of the origin of the word we are here to see just what sort of performance we can expect from this cooler. What makes this really exciting is the option to purchase an EVGA 8800GT with the AKIMBO cooler or just the cooler alone for use with an 8800GT you already own.

System Setup

All testing of the AKIMBO will occur on our new test bed. This consists of the Asus Maximus Formula paired with none other than the Intel QX9650.

CPU

For this article the CPU will be kept at stock speed to keep any excess heat away from the video card that could impact the results. Since our CPU is of the 45nm variety there will be no skewing of the results caused by heat from the processor. Additionally, the application we are using, ATiTool, requires little power from the CPU to load up the GPU core to the max. This will further assist us in isolating the video cards temperature from the rest of the system.

GPU

To further aid in GPU isolation the video card will be tested in the second PCIe slot of the motherboard. It will be tested at both its default settings of 600/900 (Core/VMEM) and overclocked settings of 700/1000

Thermal Paste

Testing each cooler will be done under very strictly controlled conditions to ensure an even playing field. Zalman's STG1 thermal paste was selected again for this test for a few key reasons. Firstly, the thermal paste has been shown to require no curing time allowing us to test each heat sink with equal results. Any curing time could have introduced variables into the equation causing at best dubious results and at worst unreliable ones. Secondly, thanks to the unique applicator of the STG1 it is very easy to apply a thin layer across the GPU consistently thereby removing yet another possible variable from the mix.

Idle

Idle temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Load

Load temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of 100% load. To obtain this we will be using ATITOOL. This has been shown to place a heavy, constant load on the GPU. The benefit of this is that we will be loading the GPU in a consistent, repeatable manner. This is truly a worst case scenario. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Sound

Sound levels will be measured with a Reliability Direct AR824 sound meter from a distance of four feet away. With everything turned off and the room completely silent the meter registered a sound level of 38dB(A). This is a very quiet room where a simple pin drop could be heard. All sound measurements are recorded in the very late evening to further reduce any ambient noise.