AC Accelero S1 is the BEST cooler for 8800GT / ATI38?0 cards

Jerry_03 · Post by **Jerry_03** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 5:05 pm

i just built my new comp and as expected my 8800gt ran a little hot. it was running up to 75 degrees celsius at load with the fan at stock settings so i upped the fan to 80% now it about 60-65 degrees Celsius load. im still waiting on my AC S1 & Turbo Module cooler, i should receive it on Monday.

ill post the results when i install it.

tyeh26 · Post by **tyeh26** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:21 pm

the AC S1 stock Ramsinks are fine in my opinion. When I installed them I had some problems, but I figured out all you have to do is press down relatively hard and hold it there. After putting them all in place I flipped the card upside down for a bit for 10-15 minutes to see if any fell off. Once they stayed all in place ( i had to replace one ) I put on the cooler and everything has been well since. I actually ran the computer sideways at first as a precaution but have upright my computer since.

Temps:
idle (not gaming, reading digg/IMing): 41C
load (3dmark06): 54C

I replaced the original TIM after some use with some AS5 and saw a 2C drop from load, but it's probably from not cleaning the core surface enough when I put on the sink on the first time.

Jerry_03 · Post by **Jerry_03** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:23 am

i installed my S1 with the turbo module on tuesday and its cooling my card great.

its a bit of a tight fit, a couple more mm i wouldnt be able to use one of my SATA connections. as expected it takes up 2 additional slots which in my mobo the Gigabyte DS3L, its 2 PCI-E slots. but i still have another PCI-E slot above my VGA card.

i used some arctic silver adhesive on the s1 vram heatsinks instead. and i also got some zalman vram heatsinks for the voltages.

about 2 fell off after i had it installed but it was probably my fault cause i was rushing and i didnt put the adhesive on good enough. 2nd time around i cleaned the surfaces carefully and took my time, hadnt have a problem since.

i also used AS5 thermal paste on the gpu instead of the one that came with the S1

Temps with Stock Cooler:

Idle Temps: 52 degrees celsius

Load Temps: 65 degrees celsius

my temps went down by more than 10 degrees celsius, rarely do i see it go above 50 degrees when gaming

Temps with S1 & Turbo Module:

Idle Temps: 41 degrees celsius

Load Temps: 50 degrees celsius

Seedog · Post by **Seedog** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:28 am

What's the noise like from the Turbo Module fans?

Jerry_03 · Post by **Jerry_03** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:31 am

i can hardly hear it over my 2 case fans and my raptor

Conroy · Post by **Conroy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:33 am

Seedog wrote:What's the noise like from the Turbo Module fans?

In case you missed it, this site finally reviewed the turbo module too
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article798-page7.html

@5V and @7V: Inaudible in our lab. Ticking could be heard from within one foot, but other than that, the noise was below ambient. At 5V, the GPU temperature was a chilly 49Â°C. Increasing it to 7V effected a marginal improvement.

@9V: In the open, the fans were audible but not unpleasant. Close up, the ticking was slightly less noticeable as the sound of airflow drowned it out. However, it was inaudible from more than two feet away. Inside the test system, the fans' presence was barely detectable. The temperature difference was just measurable.

@12V: The noise signature was very smooth. At close range the ticking became a slight buzzing but most of it was overtaken by the sound of rushing air. Inside the case, it was audible, but very benign. A two degree improvement over 9V was not enough to justify the extra noise, especially in a silent PC.

lemonparty · Post by **lemonparty** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:06 am

There's a very nice review at http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1261100

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:17 pm

halcyon wrote:Anybody got it working easily with 8800GTS (the 512MB G92 variant)?

What kind of temps are you getting?

The replacement cooler for my 8800GTS 512mb arrived.

It now has an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 cooler fitted, along with a Thermalright HR-11 cooler on the top of the card. A 120mm Scythe Slipstream 500rpm fan is suspended under the Accelero S1 to ensure there is some airflow on the underside of the card.

The GPU core temperatures would probably be ok without the fan but I wanted to make sure that the VRMs on the card won't overheat.

The graphics card originally had the stock Nvidia two slot cooler fitted.

8800GTS 512mb stock cooler

When the cooler was removed there was a large amount of thermal paste on the GPU core, along with the usual white pads on the rest of the cooler. The poor application probably helps explain the 62c idle temperatures with the stock cooler.

8800GTS 512mb with cooler removed showing stock TIM application

The only difficult bit was getting the 3M thermal tape off the Accelero S1 ramsinks. After eventually getting them clean the ramsinks are fitted using Arctic Silver 5. I left a small clear patch at one end of each ramsink and used a small drop of superglue to make sure that they wouldn't fall off.

I did basically the same for the VRMs on the card. They're in sets of three and I put thermal paste on two with thermal paste and a small dab of superglue on the third one. You don't get enough heatsinks with the Accelero S1 so I used some spare Zalman aluminium and Akasa copper ramsinks for the VRMs.

You have to be careful with the three at the bottom right of the card. It took a few goes to make sure that the ramsink doesn't touch anything else on the card.

8800GTS 512mb with ramsinks fitted

When the cooler is fitted the card looks like the pic below. You have to tighten the screws gradually working round them in order to make sure that it keeps a smooth contact with the GPU core.

I gave the back of the card a quick wipe with Arctic Silver Arcticlean before fitting the Thermalright HR-11. The included screws threaded into the Accelero S1 and it went together easily. I tightened the screws until they were fully tight: The edges of the HR-11 had begun to bend slightly.

8800GTS 512mb with Accelero S1 and HR-11 fitted

This is a side view of the card showing clearance. The fan is suspended from the Accelero S1 and doesn't touch the cooler.

8800GTS 512mb with Accelero S1 and HR-11 fitted showing suspended fan

Here's a pic of the card installed in an Antec Sonata case. There's actually quite a lot of room for the HR-11. I was worried that the Scythe Ninja might interfere with fitting but there weren't any issues.

8800GTS 512mb installed in Antec Sonata case

At a room temperature of 18.5c approx the stock 8800GTS 512mb cooler idled at 62c approx. It went up to roughly 80c under load.

Using the aftermarket cooler the same card now idles at 35c!

For comparison a Nvidia 7900GTX with Thermalright HR-03 and 500rpm Scythe Slipstream fan in the same Antec Sonata case idled at 45c approx.

My watercooled 8800GTS 640mb (in the same room but a different PC) is idling at 39c.

Knocking 27c off the GPU temperatures simply by changing the cooler can't be bad.

If you're interested about how the G92 8800GTS 512mb compares to a G80 8800GTS 640mb at roughly the same clockspeeds:

This new card is a G92 Inno3D 8800GTS 512mb currently running at stock speeds of:

Core 650mhz
Shader 1625mhz
Memory 972mhz

That compares to my G80 8800GTS 640mb card which is overclocked to:

Core 648mhz
Shader 1600mhz
Memory 999mhz

The rest of the two PCs spec are very similar too. At the same clock speeds though the new 8800GTS 512mb is clearly faster.

In 3DMark 2006 for example the 8800GTS 512mb was visibly 3-10FPS quicker in nearly all the tests:

Overclocked 8800GTS 640mb 3DMark 2006 Score

Stock Speed 8800GTS 512mb 3DMark 2006 Score

It was doing a good job of running Crysis too, although you'd struggle to tell from the game experience which PC was which if you just swapped between them.

The other notable thing is that it doesn't appear to have anywhere near the whining issues that my 8800GTS 640mb card has: That buzzes like crazy in 3Dmode.

walle · Post by **walle** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:37 pm

Thatâ€™s some really impressive results there WR304, and itâ€™s nice to see that Thermalright HR-11 in action too, although I have no experience having used the cooler, hm perhaps time for a purchase?

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:04 pm

There are some reviews of the Thermalright HR-11 here:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... eview.html

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/therma ... er_review/

It's not something that makes a huge difference but maybe knocks a couple of degrees off GPU temps.

Load temperatures after 15min of Crysis look like they're about 49c (room temperature of 18.5c). That's not as good as other people have been getting but could be down to the only cooling in the PC being the 800rpm Scythe S-Flex SFF21D 120mm exhaust case fan and a Scythe Slipstream 500rpm 120mm fan on the graphics card. (The PSU is a Nesteq in semi-fanless ASM mode). The three hard drives right next to the graphics card probably don't help.

(Load temperatures with the Thermalright HR-03 and Nvidia 7900GTX in the same case were 68c approx)

EDIT: Corrected 7900GTX load temperature.

walle · Post by **walle** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:18 pm

Thanks for the review links WR304, currently checking them out

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:49 am

WR304,

excellent! Very informative with useful pictures/instructions. Thanks!

My old GPU just gave up and I have to order a new one, so this came at just the right time for me.

psymanproductions · Post by **psymanproductions** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:00 am

i have the s1 on a hd3850. gets 65.c at load in a porrly ventilated case (one 12cm fan @ 500 rpm at the rear) the ramsinks do work if you use a rubber to get rid of the left over resindue from the stock cooler's thermal pads. overall i am very happy with the s1 and at the price its goin for now would recomend it

line · Post by **line** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:34 pm

Does anyone know what the RAM/VRM temperature is like when 3870 runs in passive mode with S1? If GPU temperature is ok, is there a place to worry about other components overheating?

fabre · Post by **fabre** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:15 pm

Do the S1 rev. 2 come with the same VRM heatsinks as the rev. 1 or did they improve compatibility on these as well?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:40 am

line wrote:Does anyone know what the RAM/VRM temperature is like when 3870 runs in passive mode with S1? If GPU temperature is ok, is there a place to worry about other components overheating?

If you look stock cooler, you will see that it won't give any air flow to ram's and vrm's. So changing into passive cooling isn't a problem since with passive heatpipe cooler card runs still cooler than with stock cooler.

yamahaSHO · Post by **yamahaSHO** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:02 am

thejamppa wrote:
line wrote:Does anyone know what the RAM/VRM temperature is like when 3870 runs in passive mode with S1? If GPU temperature is ok, is there a place to worry about other components overheating?
If you look stock cooler, you will see that it won't give any air flow to ram's and vrm's. So changing into passive cooling isn't a problem since with passive heatpipe cooler card runs still cooler than with stock cooler.

No, there is no direct air flow, but they are thermally coupled to the heat sink which has a fan blowing across it.

walle · Post by **walle** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:05 pm

line wrote:Does anyone know what the RAM/VRM temperature is like when 3870 runs in passive mode with S1? If GPU temperature is ok, is there a place to worry about other components overheating?

I would say that the ram are better off cooled independently; being thermally coupled to the stock cooler means that they are in effect thermally coupled to the GPU, and the GPU will be running hot affecting the temperature of the ram modules in a negative way, so the aftermarket cooler is in this respect (and others) a better solution IMO. So no, I don't think you need to be all to worried about the ram modules overheating line.

Edit:

I was viewing the Nvidia card instead of the ATI card for some reason, goes to show that it helps if you read the post, Still, my point stands in terms of cooling the ram independently and viewing the picture thejamppa posted of the ATI cooler, overheated ram using the Accelero should not even be on the map.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 2:51 pm

yamahaSHO wrote:
thejamppa wrote:
line wrote:Does anyone know what the RAM/VRM temperature is like when 3870 runs in passive mode with S1? If GPU temperature is ok, is there a place to worry about other components overheating?
If you look stock cooler, you will see that it won't give any air flow to ram's and vrm's. So changing into passive cooling isn't a problem since with passive heatpipe cooler card runs still cooler than with stock cooler.
No, there is no direct air flow, but they are thermally coupled to the heat sink which has a fan blowing across it.

hmmmm: http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/7 ... age_08.jpg
That might move some air near vrms and cool it like that way indeed. But not too much. Rams are still spearated. But I stand corrected by the vrms.

Jerry_03 · Post by **Jerry_03** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:34 pm

a bit off topic about what you guys are talking about above, but my turbo module for the S1, the left fan has died. i only had it for about 3 weeks, maybe i just got a bad batch. lucky the other little fan and the S1 is keeping it within reasonable temps.

im either gonna buy another turbo module from newegg as its only $8 or buy a 120mm case fan and attach it with zip ties. i dont like the idea of running it with just 1 of those turbo fans or entirely passive as my case airflow isnt the best.

Conroy · Post by **Conroy** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:16 pm

I just got my S1 installed and tested, after some minor panic when I got the stock thermal grease all over the place while cleaning it off, stuck my finger into the thermal grease preapplied on the S1, and then had trouble spreading out my tx-2 evenly. I don't remember having so much trouble spreading arctic silver with a credit card the last time I built a PC 5 years ago... oh, and I had a little trouble getting the clips on too.

Even after reading the reviews here, I am amazed by this heat sink.
It dropped my highest 3dmark06 temp from >80 degrees on my stock 3870 cooler to around 55 degrees!

I was intending to hang a fan off the heat sink, but I don't think I'll have to do that with these results.

I can't believe a passive heat sink could be 20 degrees cooler than a stock cooler with a fan, especially with my questionable paste spreading technique.

I am using a Solo with a 7v slipstream exhaust, blocked off my top front intake hole with a piece of paper, and opened up one slot below the S1 for more intake there.

yamahaSHO · Post by **yamahaSHO** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:21 pm

thejamppa wrote:
yamahaSHO wrote:
thejamppa wrote: If you look stock cooler, you will see that it won't give any air flow to ram's and vrm's. So changing into passive cooling isn't a problem since with passive heatpipe cooler card runs still cooler than with stock cooler.
No, there is no direct air flow, but they are thermally coupled to the heat sink which has a fan blowing across it.
hmmmm: http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/7 ... age_08.jpg
That might move some air near vrms and cool it like that way indeed. But not too much. Rams are still spearated. But I stand corrected by the vrms.

That was my mistake. I thought you were talking about the 8800GT.

JaYp146 · Post by **JaYp146** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:50 pm

Hey guys,

I recently got a used BFG 8800GT with a pre-installed Accelero S1 for cheap ... he didn't, however, install any RAMsinks on the RAM (either that or they fell off and he gave up, as a result).

I'm not overclocking the card; are the ramsinks really needed? I haven't had any problems with the card overheating or artifacting one bit. (Games I've played include CoD4, Portal, TF2, Sins of a Solar Empire, very 3D intensive stuff)

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:30 am

From what i gathered they're not needed per se (the ram doesn't seem to heat up much at all), but of course, it never hurts.

JaYp146 · Post by **JaYp146** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:38 am

seraphyn wrote:From what i gathered they're not needed per se (the ram doesn't seem to heat up much at all), but of course, it never hurts.

Pretty much what I figured. Thanks!

Jerry_03 · Post by **Jerry_03** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:50 pm

yeah i agree with seraphyn, i got a PNY 8800GT at stock clocking with a S1 attached. i do have vram heatsinks on a couple of the vrams but most of em fell off. however ive been playing CoD4, Crysis, HL2, BF2 and Medieval Total war. i havent had any problems with artifacts or overheating.

kike_1974 · Post by **kike_1974** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:07 pm

I don't know if you have already seen this vga heatsinks comparative in silenthardware.de (including s1, hr-03 among others):

With fan:
http://www.silenthardware.de/reviews/vg ... index.html

Fanless:
http://www.silenthardware.de/reviews/vg ... index.html

Accelero S1 impressive performance is confirmed in those comparatives

Blacktales · Post by **Blacktales** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:29 pm

Hello all !

I am planning on purchasing a HD3850 AGP for my current system to extend its usable life for a few more months but i would like to know if anyone has any information about possibly coupling it to a Accelero S1 (Rev.1) ?

So far i could not find any picture of the naked AGP HD3850 PCB or any get any direct answer from manufacturers or forums (yes i even used the search function

) so it's pretty hard to tell whether of not it will be compatible.

The one i'll get will probably be the slightly overclocked Sapphire.

Any information ?

Thanks IA

tdotcbc84 · Post by **tdotcbc84** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:31 pm

Just added some PIX of my 8800GT with a S1 w/ SFlex E

viewtopic.php?t=43793

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:23 am

I'm very VERY happy right now. I got my Accelero S1 last night from SVC, and dropped about 25oF in idle (110 -> 86!), and 60oF on load! (165 -> 106). I've found that the opening screen for World of Warcraft actually puts the most load on the GPU (more than gameplay even), and it's stable, so I'm convinced.

My P150 has only 4 low-speed fans in it. 2 12cm Antec Tri-Cools on low, 1 PSU fan, and 1 Zalman fan on my CPU on lowest - very quiet, but not much airflow at all.

If you can get an Accelero to fit in your case (or even find one!), get one!

-Dan

AC Accelero S1 is the BEST cooler for 8800GT / ATI38?0 cards

got my s1 rev 2!

Put an Accelero on my 3850