Diamond Viper X1900XT

The base of the cooler is made from cast Iron, and the contact point for the core is made of Copper that links to the heatsink. Thermal pads are used for the memory chips to make contact with the cooler. Something not noticeable in the first picture above is a thin sheet of clear plastic that keeps the electronics from touching bare metal. It's cut out around the thermal pads and heatsink.


The heatsink/fan is made of three main pieces - the cast base, the heatsink and the fan unit.


The heatsink itself is made from copper and includes heat pipes to help increase performance, this all mounts to the base via four screws.


A long red heatsink is used to cool the voltage regulators (black rectangle) of the card with a thin thermal pad attached, running from the top to the bottom of the card, it's held on with spring loaded pegs. These get very hot and require the additional heatsink to keep them cool. Even though they are designed to withstand high amounts of heat, it's always good to keep them as cool as possible to increase life span.