Packaging
I received 3DfxCOOL's "TheVoodoo2 Fan," in
a small box which had enclosed the Fan itself and a sheet of paper which listed steps on
how to install the fan with a nice diagram to accompany it.
Hardware Layout
This cooler has two fans joined together to provide a good amount of cooling. They
are mounted side by side on a long metal strip which is held in place by the same screw
which secures the card in its slot. The Fans are strategically placed so that
they blow across the center of the board where the frame buffer and the two Texture
Mapping Units reside. 3DfxCool chose to go with a noncontact method of cooling. In
choosing this method they have a very well constructed and laid out voodoo2 cooler.
Features
Both fans use sleeve bearings, preferably they would use ball bearings for
noise reasons. However, to my surprise they are extremely quiet. Even due to
the fact that there are two fans, there is still hardly any noise. I have been
running my system with the case open for quite a while and I can't even tell they are
running.
Installation
Installation was extremely easy.
The Voodoo2 card doesn't even have to come out of its slot. All that is needed is
the removal of the screw that secures the card. Place the metal strip along the side
of the Voodoo2, replace the screw and finally plug in the power cord to a free one inside
of your case and voila your done.
Benchmarks
| System Configuration
#1: |
System Configuration #2 |
- AMD K6 250MHz
(83Mhz Bus x Clock Multiplier of 3)
- ASUS TX97-E Motherboard
- 64 MB SDRAM
- Diamond Monster II 12MB
(July 20th Reference Drivers)
- Sound Blaster AWE64
- Matrox Millenium 4 MB WRAM
- Pioneer 32X CD-ROM Drive
- Quantum Fireball ST 2.1 GIG UDMA HD
- WD Caviar 3.1 GIG HD
- Microsoft Windows 98
|
- Pentium II 300 MHz
- AOpen AX6BC Motherboard
- 64 MB PC-100 SDRAM
- Diamond Monster II 12MB
(July 20th Reference Drivers)
- Sound Blaster AWE64
- Matrox Millenium G200
- Pioneer 32X CD-ROM Drive
- Quantum 2.1 gig UDMA/33 IDE
- Fujitsu 3.5 gig UDMA/33 IDE
- Seagate 2.5 gig UDMA/33 IDE
- Microsoft Windows 98
|
Using System #1:
| Game |
90MHz |
95MHz |
100MHz |
105MHz |
% Increase 90-105MHz |
| Forsaken (640x480) Biodome |
92.1 |
95.7 |
101.5 |
106.6 |
15.7% |
| Forsaken (800x600) Biodome |
87.3 |
92.5 |
94.2 |
97.8 |
11.1% |
| Quake II 3.17 (640x480) demo1 |
28.9 |
27.9 |
30.1 |
31.3 |
8.0% |
| Quake II 3.17 (800x600) demo1 |
28.2 |
28.7 |
29.1 |
31.0 |
9.9% |
| Unreal (640x480) timedemo 0.2 |
25.2 |
25.9 |
25.9 |
26.3 |
4.3% |
| Unreal (800x600) timedemo 0.2 |
23.6 |
23.9 |
24.6 |
25.0 |
5.9% |
Using System #2
| Game |
90MHz |
95MHz |
100MHz |
105MHz |
% Increase 90-105MHz |
| Forsaken (640x480) Biodome |
118.2 |
126.5 |
136.2 |
144.2 |
21.9% |
| Forsaken (800x600) Biodome |
100.2 |
105.7 |
113.2 |
115.9 |
15.7% |
| Quake II 3.17 (640x480) demo1 |
70.2 |
75.4 |
77.3 |
79.1 |
12.6% |
| Quake II 3.17 (800x600) demo1 |
58.9 |
61.1 |
63.5 |
65.2 |
10.7% |
| Unreal (640x480) timedemo 0.2 |
40.0 |
43.1 |
43.9 |
45.2 |
12.4% |
| Unreal (800x600) timedemo 0.2 |
32.8 |
33.7 |
34.2 |
35.9 |
10.4% |
Rating
Area
Price
Fan Construction
Installation
Noise Level
Overclocked V2 Stability
Overall |
Score
89
85
97
97
95
92.6 |
Conclusion
Gamers and PC techies always want to squeeze
maximum performance out of their systems. If you are one of those people and you
want to overclock your V2 to anything above 95MHz, then you're definitely going to need
cooling. 3DfxCOOL's Voodoo 2 cooler is a worthy choice. With its dual fans it cools
all three major chips of the V2. To be quite honest, I wasn't expecting my V2 to
push 105 MHz with a non-contact cooler but this fan does the job quite well. I was
able to get up to 105MHz without any lock ups at all in both Quake II and Unreal. As
you can see in the above tables, the performance benefit is much higher on faster CPU's.
This is because the V2 is highly CPU dependent and therefore if you are using a
slow processor it doesn't matter how much you overclock your V2, it will always be limited
by how much data the CPU can send it. So, to make a long story short, overclocking
definitely increases performance, and is worth it if you have anything higher than a
Pentium II 233 but as always, there is always a risk when you overclock so do it at your
own risk, having a cooling device reduces this risk. Click on the image below to
visit 3DfxCOOL's web site.
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