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I head straight to the BIOS settings. CPU temps unaffected, so far so good! I boot to desktop and open Everest Pro to grab some system temps, I scroll down CPU, RAM. ah GPU... GPU... 64C! I shut down. I stare into my open case, which suddenly looks more like a patient in distress to me than an oasis of blue... what... could... I... have... possibly... done... so.... very.... wrong? I knew the card was safe as 64C is within it's operating temps... at max speed and very overclocked.... I reworked my work in my head a hundred times I knew I had never done a better assembly of card to jacket, I used guide pins so I wouldn't have to shift at all when card met the metal...it was right, less that a quarter of the screw hole off, and that's right ON! I went to bed and didn't cry, just whined about my fate a bit.
Next morning, I knew what I had to do. I emailed Koolance. Never hurts to talk to the guy that outfitted you when you get into trouble. I was told that this is actually quite common.and that there was an easy fix. It seems that as each manufacturer takes some liberty with reference design from Nvidia, getting the stand off pins which create the proper distance from all the desired contact points, hopefully without crushing any was problematic. In short, the pins were to long and preventing proper contact. It was explained to me that I should shorten the four pins surrounding the GPU. I look at my $500.00 dollar investment, I re-read the e-mail and visualized the procedure.
I would pull my card, dissemble cooler from card, look at the impressions left from the Thermal pastes and thermal pads, see where contact was lacking and file the standoff pins to fit. Then from out of the blue (I was staring into my case again) the old adage about the guy who wanted to shorten a table came to mind, he only wanted to take of an inch, but he had trouble getting the legs level and ended up with an uneven platform... "Send me some pins that fit please"
I went on to explain that I wasn't at all set up to do this job properly and if I was, due to past illness I no longer had the hands I once had for the finer things. To keep the cooler I would need extra Thermal pads and pins of the proper length. This GUY! He wrote back asking if I could send him my card and Koolance jacket and he would assemble it for me. Now just so everyone understands. This is not the way Koolance does things.This was just one person reaching out to help another, with Koolance's permission. If you buy one of these coolers please do not expect Koolance to assemble it for you. The level of difficulty seems low, but there are valuable things at stake should things go wrong at any point. Make your own judgment as to your skills and comfort with risk.
My card came back after an eternity spent on my wifes computer, I didn't care what temperature it ran at if it would just boot and let me sit at my own desk again! It had been 5 days! ( the week end, Koolance turned it around in two.) But as I opened the shipping box I started to care....":O}
Everything tubed in and system charged, I gain the desktop and read the temps
Ambient 75.7F
CPU at 3600 40C
GPU at stock 576 MHz core, and 850 MHz memory 39C
I weep with joy! After much , much messing about I settle on GPU 661 MHz and memory set to 1020 MHz as being proof against the climbing ambient as summer comes even at long last to Seattle. What does she idle at Overclocked? Why 39C of course! But I was able to heat the GPU to 45C when ambient hit 79.8. Running 5 consecutive 3Dmarks of followed by three 3Dmarks 03, I was drunk with the power to cool! I ripped open Aqua marks just to see them zip about like water bugs.
Like Overclockers every where I wait for winter. This card has yet to begin to bench. I was successful at 65F in getting a 168/140 to bench 3Dmarks, but with some artifacts, better ambient temps may help us out there. I've been asked sever times in the forums to comment upon the effect of adding a heat monster like the 8800 to my watercooling circuit.
The truth is I'm have a hard time diagnosing this. I think it minimal but there. But it only shows up after 75F and I just haven't had enough experience with this system in hot weather without a water jacket. VID-280 replaces my 7950 GT OC water jacket. My best guess is that the Exos II isn't a problem as it's rated to 750 heat watts. My case runs 3C above ambient, my water runs 2C above that. but at 79.8 I noticed that my case was only at 4.5C above ambient and that my ICH chip was at 47C (measure by next to chip probe.) So as temps go up, water temps go up, case temps go up, CPU and GPU temps all go up on their own unless cooled to compensate. So far I haven't found a direct connection, you see the card itself is so much hotter!
So I'll say this, I'm very happy with the set up. I'm miles ahead of where I could hope to be on air. I just don't have recent experience with other cooling systems to make a fair comparison. I am having to run my EXOS full out to maintain my overclocked system. Another difficulty is designed running temps. The 8800 doesn't even slow itself down until it hits 120C It was made to be bathed in heat.
My CPU cores on the other hand are always dancing just below temperature instability due to their overclocked state. I'm pretty sure I would have had to drop from 3.7 GHz to 3.6 Ghz at around 75F, with or without the card, but others are running 3.7 GHz and 3.8 GHz in the same temperature range and doing fine. So, no conclusions, just a few observations. Perhaps someone reading this will offer us better insight in the forums?
Buy the Koolance Exos-2 watercooling unit here. 
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