Introduction

Thermalright is known to produce some of the best performing cooling solutions on the market today. Their design is original and optimized for today’s demands. The cooler I will be taking a look at today is the latest revision of their HR-03 graphics card cooler namely the HR-03 Plus. The Plus appendix is because this cooler supports the NVIDIA GeForce 8800-series graphics card and is capable of dealing with their relatively high heat load. The cooler is made of nickel plated copper and is one of the biggest VGA card coolers on the market.

The HR-03 Plus comes without a 92 mm fan even though Thermalright recommends the use of one if you are going to use it on a 8800-series card. For this review I will be trying the cooler both with a 92 mm Nexus Real Silent fan and a medium performance Papst 120 mm fan even though it's tad too big for the cooler.

Let's see how this behemoth of a cooler performs!

Specifications

• A maximum of 6 heatpipes for maximum amount of heat transfer to work with any of 92mm or smaller fans for best configuration to suit your needs
• Proprietary two-heatsinks-soldered-to-form-as-one design to maximize cooling capacity
• 6 heatpipes soldered immensely close to heatsink fins to increase heat transfer efficiency
• Two ways of mounting the cooler on video card for best space and configuration management in ATX and BTX form factor cases
• Light weight and easy no-tool installation
• SLI compatible for serious gaming enthusiasts
• Cosmetically contoured design for that vanity look
• Dimension: 133 x 156 x 38 mm (L x W x H) (heatsink only)
• Weight: 410g (heatsink only)

The Package

The HR-03 Plus comes in a brown cardboard box. Inside the package is heavily padded with soft Styrofoam making sure that the cooler arrives without a scratch on it.


The HR-03 Plus comes bundled with everything you need to install it on an 8800-series card. Besides the HR-03 GPU cooler you also get both RAM and MOSFET heat sinks. The only thing that you need which doesn't come bundled with the cooler is a fan. If you are going to mount the HR-03 Plus cooler on an 8800-series card it's recommended that you install a 92 mm fan on top of the main profile. Thermalright supplies some fan clips that you can use to fasten a 92mm fan on the profile with. You can also mount a smaller fan with the clips. If you fancy something bigger it's also possible to mount a 120 mm fan with some plastic strips.


Thermalright also supplies some really nice thermal interface with this cooler. It's easy to work with and cools better than most generic pastes.