Thermalright was among first manufacturers, who understood the market demand and developed VGA passive cooler solution. This primacy still makes Thermalright very competitive, and company retains its position on the market. HR-03, which has been on a market already some time, is a very worthy product fulfilling expectations of most demanding users. And there were needs of market, which inspired Thermalright Company to develop improved version of HR-03. The first improved version was HR-03 Plus, which run on a high-end graphic cards nVidia8800 and HR-03rev.A version completed with six-hole adapter kit to install the cooler onto a different graphic cards.

Thermalright, analogous to Arctic Cooling, keeps its standard and instead of fancy packaging, HR-03 rev.A comes in a traditoinal cardboard box, simple but effective.

Box is filled with elastic but firming froth from inside. Like that, cooler, cased in a plastic box is protected from every side. All the accessories are placed in aditional smaller box.

As mentioned above, Hr-03 ver.A is completed with a six-hole adapter kit, also packed in a plastic box. Than there is the gear, same as for HR-03 version: metal X-shaped enclosure with four holes, plastic X-shaped brace, metal framing for securing the base, set of screws and washers, specific passive heatsinks on memory chips (both low profile and full height) and two installation clips to fix 92 mm fan. Thermal HR-03 comes with tube of Thermalright thermal compound and Thermalright label, enclosed with every Thermalright product.

Looking at technical specifications, despite considerably smaller dimensions, HR-03 is heavier passive cooler comparing to Accelero S1. Height of its S-unit is also few millimetres longer. On the other hand thermal interface is much smaller, despite the bigger number of fins and smaller distances between them. This could be a drawback, as only 2 mm long gaps between fins seem to me not very ideally for cooler made exclusively for passive cooling. Also for this reason, possibility to use this cooler in various configurations, with or without fan, is very convenient for this model. I would not mind if the company would extend this possibility on fans bigger than 92 mm, as I guess, there would be enough space on a heatsink for this reason.

You can clearly recognize typical Thermalright features on this model. Structural design and fins setting is identical with other Thermalright products like CPU cooler HR-01, chipset cooler HR-05, memory coolerí HR-07 and voltage regulator cooler HR-09. Foration of individual coated aluminium plates and its construction is also similar to other Thermalright models. However, regarding design, HR-03 beats all of its siblings. If I have said, that Accelero is the jewel, than HR-03 must be a real “gem”, and it would be even pity to hide it in a case without a transparent side plate.

Typical Thermalright cooper base supports initial contact of the passive cooler with a graphic chip. Quality of a surface of cooper base cohere with producer’s standard, it is nothing special, fine grooving is again visible. Heatsink is double sided and both halfs are worked up identically, to support possibility of HR-03 instalation in two different ways. Like that, both sides of a base can be exploited to carry off the heat flow directly from a graphic card.

There are four 6 mm heat-pipes placed in the middle of a heatsink base. On the first sight connection of a base with heat-pipes does not appear to be a perfect match and there are little slots visible in places of attachment. Even I do not know how, I guess that inside the base, this space is filled up. However I was not able to see any signs of soldering.

There are clearly visible signs after soldering on places where heat-pipes connect with plating. Technically it is made on a very good quality. Places of attachment of heat-pipes with fins are in one time also places of connection of both sides of plating, which is due to its shape splitted. These long pipes after coming from a base veer to plating and on the opposite side they make a 180-degree turn and again traverse array of fins all the way down.

HR style perforation is nicely visible in detailed look. Little mouldings in “u” shape, together with upright curved jags situated on five places alongside fins array, make the plating very solid and compact unit, resembling the net.

Installation of HR-03 is very easy. Reading instructions, it is not difficult to understand the install methods for both possible options in accommodation to a graphic card. The first mounting option results in setting, where fins are on the same part of graphic card like the heatsink base, while when mounting in second way, fins are on the reverse side, behind the heatsink base.
This time there is no reason to get stressed, like it was during installation of Accelero. Everything goes easily. During one-two minutes, heatsink is placed onto a graphic card and ready to use. Before placing the cooler itsef, I would recommend to concentrate on sticking the little RAM sinks to the memory chips; smaller flat RAM chips go under the heatsink heatpipes.

After placing the HR-03 onto a graphic card, you have no impression that it is dominant like S1 was, but it is tall enough to take your attention. There is an interspace between base and passive part from where the heat is carried off. That is understandable as this part could be placed also on the top of graphic card. That is a pity, that this part is not stretched out little bit more; there would be enough space for it. According to me that would higher the cooling effect, as fins would not be so close to each other and so the effect of fluctuation inside a box would be different.

If somebody has higher expectation, and passive cooling is not satisfying enough, what is very probable; it si possible to fix on the heatsink the recommended 92 mm fan. There are enclosed clips for its mounting. To install it, follow detailed instruction manual.

I would say, that there is still space on a HR-03, to place even bigger fan than the 92 mm, which I consider like not satisfactory enough. Even the whole space in the middle is covered, and the air is passing the place where heatpipes are, anyway the important part on borderlines of plating stays without a direct “air draught”.

…for above mentioned reasons, I believe that some users might try to fix the 120 mm fan on a HR-03, using selfmade clips for mounting. The advantage is clear, less noise with the same or even bigger air fluctuation.

In my opinion, the 120 mm fan suits to HR-03 cooler much more. And I suppose, that using of 120 mm fan will result in better cooling effect, comparing to 92 mm one. In today’s roundup you will find test results of both installed variations, so you will be able to compare HR-03 in both situations.