GPack III Xtreme

Date Reviewed: September 14, 2000
Reviewed By: Jason Rabel
Company URL: http://www.millisec.com
Cost: $30 USD

First Impressions:

I'm here to say that Millisec's GPack III Xtreme has set a new standard in video card cooling. The heat sinks are custom made from Alpha, so you know they are top notch quality. The fan used for video cooling is a double ball bearing Delta 50mm pumping out 16.25CFM. Included to attach everything to your video cooler is two Berquist thermal pads (also top quality), and a Chromerics T412 pad which outperforms all other thermal pads, and even most thermal compounds! For those of you who like to see a list, here's what you get for your $30 of hard earned green:

• 1 - VIce III Xtreme Video Cooler

• 8 - VIceMem Video Memory Coolers

• 2 - Berquist Thermal Pads

• 1 - Chromerics T412 Pad

***Please note, the inclusion of the Chromerics pad is a very recent change at Millisec and the kit we got for review was before they stocked those, so temperatures *should* be even lower than what our numbers show.

Installation:

Installation was pretty simple. Removing your existing stock heat sink from your video without damaging the card will probably the hardest task as some companies like to epoxy the damn buggers on there good. First thing was to mount the Video Cooler, I applied one of the thermal pads on the back of the cooler first, then proceed to apply it to the GPU. I was kind of afraid that the VIce III Video Cooler wouldn't fit because of so many other things sticking up around the GPU, but it managed to squeeze between all the obstructions without any modification whatsoever. If you want to be stingy with your thermal pads (to use for something later), you can always cut a chunk to fit the GPU and mount it on there first, then stick the cooler on, but Millisec gives you more than ample thermal pads to get the job done. Mounting the memory coolers was simple too, I just cut pieces out to the size of the memory, and stuck the coolers on. The Berquist thermal pads give excellent adhesion, once you apply it to a surface, it's on there good.

If You Can't Take The Heat:

To give you an idea of the versatility of the GPack III, I used both a Geforce 256 DDR board, AND a Geforce 2 MX board. I also have included temperatures comparing it to the Tennmax Lasagna BGA cooler. Reason for using both the old school Geforce and the newer MX board is two fold: First, many people have the older first generation Geforce cards which put out an extremely insane amount of heat. Second, I feel the MX board is going to be (if it's not already) very popular since the cost is very reasonable (As low as $110) compared to the GF2 GTS (We won't even go there on cost). I also have a Geforce 2 MX that comes stock with a little heat sink that I threw in for comparison. Ambient temp was about 79° F.

Scotty, what does this mean? Well Jim, let me graph it out for you...

See the difference? The GPack III kicks mucho ass! There is just no comparison when using it on the older Geforce boards, but with the GF2MX it's a little different. The Tennmax cooler does a decent job with the MX, keeping it below 100° F, but the GPack III improves that by about 10° F!!! I have to say the GPack III rules when it comes to raw cooling power. If you feel that $30 is too expensive, or you have no need for the eight memory coolers, you can buy just the VIce III Xtreme by itself for $17.

Millisec has also added a Copper (Cu for you scientist types) VIce III Xtreme that is $2 more for the complete kit, or $1 more by itself. We haven't gotten a hold of one of these units yet, but have read that the performance is equal to it's non-copper brother, it's just a little smaller in size (10mm in height vs 15mm for the non-Cu version).

Pro's:

• SUPERIOR video cooling performance, period.

• High quality components

• Backed by Millisec's excellent warranty

Con's:

• Semi-expensive

• Large size can prohibit use of an adjacent PCI slot

If you liked this article, be sure to check our original Video Card Cooling Comparison and our complete review on the Tennmax BGA cooler.

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