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

They make noise, too.

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GavinAshford
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Post by GavinAshford » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:32 pm

from what i've been reading and from the technical info here: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... ta=7&disc=

you dont have to replace the memory/voltage regulator heatsinks on the stock 3870s - you may get better performance from the new heatsinks though...? can anyone confirm this?

also, since you're getting the sapphire 3870, i dont suppose you also have a 1080p tv to test the hdmi connection on the sapphire card do you?
i ask because ive scoured the internet for an answer whether the sapphire cards do work at 1080p as the sapphire spreadsheet http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/productf ... -vga-1.xls says it only supports upto 1080i over hdmi but im not convinced, i'm used to analogue svideo/component only supporting 1080i but if the card can support 2560x1600 dvi then why cant it do 1080p (60hz)...

i'd ask on the sapphire forums but i've heard far too many stories about the people there, i'd rather not.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:59 pm

tutu wrote:Is it necessary to replace the RAM sinks? I have ordered a Sapphire 3870 XT 512 but it's not here yet.
No. For the HD3870 you use the stock RAM/VRM heatsinks.

GavinAshford wrote:you may get better performance from the new heatsinks though...? can anyone confirm this?
I sincerely doubt it.

tutu
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Post by tutu » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:50 am

GavinAshford wrote:you dont have to replace the memory/voltage regulator heatsinks on the stock 3870s.

also, since you're getting the sapphire 3870, i dont suppose you also have a 1080p tv to test the hdmi connection on the sapphire card do you?
Thanks for both of the replies! One more question - Would I be better off using MX-2 instead of the pre-applied pad? I already have some.

I have a 720p TV I'm afraid. I get a blank screen on 1080p (this is from my Xbox 360). I have the PC connected by VGA at the moment.
Last edited by tutu on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:58 am

tutu wrote:Thanks for both of the replies! One more question - does the Accelero come pre-applied with thermal paste/pad? Would I be better off using MX-2? I already have some.
Yes. It comes with a goo like the stock Intel cooler. Ditch it and put some real thermal paste :P

tutu
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Post by tutu » Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:55 am

Thanks i've ordered it - should be here on Tuesday. On more question I'm afraid (the last I promise).

What would be the best way to apply the MX-2? Put a dollop on the GPU core and then let the heatsink squeeze it or use a credit card and smooth it out? Should I only put it onto the GPU core or should I put it only on the heatsink?

Secondly should I use the stock backplate/screws instead of the S1s? I noticed noobb did that with his 3850 (I'm using a 3870 XT).

Thanks :D

FartingBob
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Post by FartingBob » Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:17 am

Put a very small amount (not much bigger than a grain of rice) in the middle of the GPU, then put the S1 on, it'll squeeze out the paste to cover pretty much all of the GPU. Dont use too much though, it wont help and may hinder the heat transfer.

Plekto
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Post by Plekto » Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:06 pm

If you got the Rev 2.0, it comes with a heatsink for the ATI power controller chips(both types!), plus it has a thin layer of Arctic Silver applied to it.

I just put mine together hand here are a few observations:

- heatsinks are good but not the best. then again, they appear to be at least equal to the stock ones. Decent glue. The power regulation heat sink is like the stock one but 4x wider. A vast improvement.

If you have a X1900 or similar series, you'll need to get a couple of low profile heatsinks for the chipset processor.(it's usually right underneath the fan)

- Getting the screws and the little plastic spacers to line up was a total PITA. I had to use a small screwdriver to get it all centered correctly and then carefully drop the screw in. A magnetized screwdriver is almost a necessity.

- The auxiliary fan is great. Works well at ~7V and is essentially silent. passive it runs about stock, maybe a tiny bit hotter. With the fans and an exhaust fan as well 3 slots over, it runs a a good 10-20C lower than stock with essentally no noise(the air moving makes more noise than the fans)

- The clips are hideously hard to get in place as well, but efficient. It took me two tries to get the card aligned straight, though. There's a LOT of play in the screw/mounting holes. Tighten them halfway, put the clips in and align it all, and then screw it down as per the instructions.

That said, it's not too heavy and it works very well.

Note - the auxiliary fan is a *TIGHT* fit between the controller heat sink and the clips. You may have to move the clips around a tiny bit.

P.S. Once together, it's frustratingly hard to get apart. This isn't re-useable unless you want to risk breaking things. No big deal to me, though, since I don't plan to ever remove it.

tutu
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Post by tutu » Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:02 am

zoob wrote:3850 with S1 + stock "backplate"
Are the Accelero washers required using the stock backplate/screws? Edit: Just noticed the spring loaded screws on the stock.

The 4 "spacers" that come with the accelero - on one side they are flat and the other they have two small indentations - which way is it meant to go? Or does it not matter.

The instructions also do not cover the 3870 XT that come with it. Minor details I know but i'm a perfectionist when it comes to these kind of things (mainly because I suck at DIY :D)

I've also noticed that the screws are about twice the size of the stock ones.

Plekto
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Post by Plekto » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:15 am

tutu wrote: Are the Accelero washers required using the stock backplate/screws? Edit: Just noticed the spring loaded screws on the stock.

The 4 "spacers" that come with the accelero - on one side they are flat and the other they have two small indentations - which way is it meant to go? Or does it not matter.

I've also noticed that the screws are about twice the size of the stock ones.
The washers are good but optional. Some cards have solid screw holes with plenty of reinforcement, like a typical motherboard, some do not(or there's a chance of short). They aren't thick or wide enough in any case to provide actual reinforcement. Nice touch, though.

The spacers - I saw no real difference. Those indentations probably are to help keep it all aligned until you get the screws in. Since mine didn't seem to stay still either way(nothing for the indentions to align with), I just screwed it all together. It took me three tries. If you breathe too hard on them - literally - those spacers will move or fall out of place. I had to resort to using a #00 jeweler's screwdriver to align them and a very steady hand. At least that's how my ATI X1800XT worked. An Nvidia card is probably a tad different.

Use the replacement screws that come with it. Oh, and use a bit of superglue on the corners of the heatsinks as well so that they won't fall off. The glue on most heatsinks is a typical thermal set type, so once it has heated and cooled a couple of times, it's rock solid. The trick is getting it to not fall off before then. In any case, it's vastly superior to the thermal pads the stock setup uses.

Also, be very VERY careful of the lowest memory heatsink. It will be within 1-2mm of the rightmost heatpipe. It's easy to knock the heatsink off of the chip and have to reattach it. Oh - use a piece of paper or sticky to make sure it isn't touching metal to metal with the pipe or else the chip's heatsink will suck a lot of heat off of that heatpipe.(the CPU is far hotter than the memory) If you hear a metal *tink*, it's that lowest heatsink touching it.(it's a bit tricky to align with an ATI card)

All in all, a very nice product once it's together. Just go slow and you should be done in under half an hour.

EDIT:
http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=3978
These are the best heatsinks. Pricey, but worth it, IMO, if you overclock. The glue is crap, though, so use a dot of superglue. Stock speeds, any heatsink will do - just use the included ones.

tutu
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Post by tutu » Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:56 pm

I've got it installed - sitting at 33-39c for the last 3 hours on windows! I haven't been able to install the L brackets (I've got the first part done easy, it's getting the top on is difficult as you need to push both ends).

I will try again in a few days. The bog standard 3870 XT heatsink/fan only lasted 4 days in my new system :D Too noisy even in idle.

lemonparty
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Post by lemonparty » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:14 pm

Does anyone have an Accelero S1 installed on a 8800GTS 512?

If so, then what temperatures are you getting?

Ant6n
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Post by Ant6n » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:28 am

has anybody ever tried installing it on a cpu?
it might seem useful when there is not a lot of vertically, but enough horizontally above the mainboard. could make a fun project to mod one of these.

FartingBob
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Post by FartingBob » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:09 am

Ant6n wrote:has anybody ever tried installing it on a cpu?
it might seem useful when there is not a lot of vertically, but enough horizontally above the mainboard. could make a fun project to mod one of these.
Why would you want to? Youd have to bend the end up to make a U shaped tower, but that would be very difficult to do without breaking it. And how would you mount it?

Ant6n
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Post by Ant6n » Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:55 am

I wouldn't to bend it; that would defeat the purpose of getting a large, flat heatsink (i.e. when there's only 6 cm space above main board, like 1u,2u).
One could possibly screw or superglue it to one of those 1u heatsinks (i think there are some that are flush at the top).
The question is whether it would be more efficient then just getting a larger heatsink ... but it would be cool!

psklenar
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Post by psklenar » Sat Apr 12, 2008 12:09 pm

Has anyone put an S1 on one of the newer Diamond HD3870's with the heatpipe based sinks? According to the Arctic Cooling site, the S1 should fit on an HD3870 w/o problem, but "you are supposed to leave the stock memory chip coolers in place". Well, I found this review on Nordic Hardware that has a picture of one with the shroud & heatsink removed and it doesn't look like there are any separate heat sinks for the memory ... it looks like the main heatsink handles both the GPU and the memory.

So. Has anyone put an S1 (or an HR-03) on one of these cards and if so, did it have memory heat sinks, or do I need to buy those in addition to the S1? And If I need to buy them in addition to the S1 ... what should I be shopping for? I have to assume I'm going to have some height limitations there ... ?

Thanks for any guidance anyone can provide!

pat----

PartEleven
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Post by PartEleven » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:18 pm

rpsgc wrote:Yes. It comes with a goo like the stock Intel cooler. Ditch it and put some real thermal paste :P
Lies! The S1 Rev 2 comes with MX-2 already applied to it. You just told him to replace the pre-applied MX-2 with MX-2 =P

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... ta=3&disc=[/b]

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:53 am

PartEleven wrote:Lies! The S1 Rev 2 comes with MX-2 already applied to it. You just told him to replace the pre-applied MX-2 with MX-2 =P

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... ta=3&disc=[/b]
"Real thermal paste" like Arctic Silver 5 :P

tutu
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Post by tutu » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:05 am

PartEleven wrote:
rpsgc wrote:Yes. It comes with a goo like the stock Intel cooler. Ditch it and put some real thermal paste :P
Lies! The S1 Rev 2 comes with MX-2 already applied to it. You just told him to replace the pre-applied MX-2 with MX-2 =P

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... ta=3&disc=[/b]
LOL I read reviews of rev 1 which said MX-1 which is why I removed it and applied MX-2. :oops: I never noticed that about MX-2 coming with Rev 2 - but at the time I remember thinking to myself why they didn't do it themselves.. which they did. :oops:

I think it might be better the way I did it anyway? The GPU does not have a heatspreader like CPUs (the core is exposed). The MX-2 on the heatsink would cover pretty much the entire GPU and surrounding area (inlcuding those little metal things that stick up around the GPU - whatever those are). So I think it is only best to cover the core with MX-2 and not the whole "package"?

MX-2 is better than AS-5 Btw.. :D

PartEleven
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Post by PartEleven » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:19 am

Yes reapplying it is still a good idea, because you won't have extra goop everywhere. When I installed mine I just scrapped off all the MX-2 on the S1 and reapplied it after cleaning both surfaces.

Wedge
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Post by Wedge » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:37 pm

tutu wrote: MX-2 is better than AS-5 Btw.. :D
Is this true or are you just joking? And what is MX-2?

walle
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Post by walle » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:34 pm

Wedge wrote:...And what is MX-2?
Thermal paste from Artic Cooling. In my experience MX-2 is somewhat more effective than AS-5 (~2-3°C), which of course could be viewed as within the margin of “errorâ€

tutu
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Post by tutu » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:17 am

Wedge wrote:
tutu wrote: MX-2 is better than AS-5 Btw.. :D
Is this true or are you just joking? And what is MX-2?
Not joking. I was going to buy AS-5 for my new build then someone replied MX-2 is better. Checked out some reviews and they are right - it's only 1 - 2c but I will take anything! (could be margin of error like walle said!) :D

Plus its not conductive and it's cheaper!!

WR304
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Post by WR304 » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:20 am

lemonparty wrote:Does anyone have an Accelero S1 installed on a 8800GTS 512?

If so, then what temperatures are you getting?

There are some pics of an Accelero S1 installed on a 8800GTS 512 on page 5 of this thread. :)

viewtopic.php?t=44916&start=120

It looks like you should be able to use the same cooler with a 9800GTX too.

Regarding the pre-applied thermal compound: There doesn't seem any benefit from not using the pre-applied Arctic Cooling paste. If anything people seem to get better results with the original paste than when they use a replacement to fit the cooler. :)

Plekto
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Post by Plekto » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:41 pm

I got mine plus the aux fan module and completed my 24 hour burn-in.

40C running full-blown 3d games. Crazy low core temps on an X1800XL.

jimmyzaas
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Post by jimmyzaas » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:04 pm

tutu wrote:
Wedge wrote:
tutu wrote: MX-2 is better than AS-5 Btw.. :D
Is this true or are you just joking? And what is MX-2?
Not joking. I was going to buy AS-5 for my new build then someone replied MX-2 is better. Checked out some reviews and they are right - it's only 1 - 2c but I will take anything! (could be margin of error like walle said!) :D

Plus its not conductive and it's cheaper!!
Then there's also Tuniq TX-2 and OCZ Freeze. It'd be like 0.25 degrees better than the AC MX-2.. WOW

psklenar
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Post by psklenar » Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:01 am

psklenar wrote:Has anyone put an S1 on one of the newer Diamond HD3870's with the heatpipe based sinks? ...
I've now done this. The RAM chips are connected to the main heatsink via long, non adhesive thermal pads. Luckily the S1rev2 comes with eight RAM heat sinks and they fit just fine. As for a summary of what I've done ...

For my new machine, I went with a 512MB Diamond HD3870 Ruby Edition. it's a dual slot card due the heatsink & fan it comes with.

Since install, GPU temps at idle (just showing the desktop) have been in the low 50C's. Yesterday when a friend came over and we played Crysis (only types of deathmatch for multiplayer :( ) for an hour, the GPU was hovering in the high 70C's.

This morning I replaced that stock heatsink & fan with the Accerlo S1 Rev2. Now ... idle temp bounces between 32 & 33C and load temp seems to have maxed out at around 46C.

Now since it doesn't have a fan trying to force some air out the back of the case any more, that means that heat is staying in the case and being exhausted by the case fan and the PSU fan. So what impact has that had? No change to reported Motherboad (aka environmental) temp. CPU Cores, 1C, maybe 2C increase under load? If that (it bounces around a hair). Very, VERY nice!

Thanks SPCR!

pat----

jimmyzaas
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Post by jimmyzaas » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:44 pm

I purchased one of these after alot of thought. I needed a dual slot and lightweight solution and this seem to fit the bill. The money I've spent on this cooler however, costed as much as the HR 03 GT after all the additional ram sinks were added in.

My first impression of this was that it was very poorly built. The fins are flimpsy and some of them are bent. From a purely aesthetic point of view, this sucker is ugly. It's not until you compare the two side by side, that you realize what a cheap piece of crap this is. But hey, it performs well and I don't have a window in my case anyway.. so I can live with it :)

From a reselling point of view, I think having the HR 03 GT would probably help sell the card faster.

It's a shame the HR 03 GT blocks up 1 too many PCI slots. Or I would have purchased another one of them. I also tried flipping the cooler around on that one, the temps were unbearable.

Plekto
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Post by Plekto » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:38 pm

I thought it was just fine looking. It's a big radiator - straight and to the point. And it cools my ATI card like nothing I've ever seen.

psklenar
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Post by psklenar » Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:56 am

jimmyzaas wrote:I purchased one of these after alot of thought. I needed a dual slot and lightweight solution and this seem to fit the bill. The money I've spent on this cooler however, costed as much as the HR 03 GT after all the additional ram sinks were added in. ...
What did you need additional RAM sinks for? My S1 came with eight of them?

pat----

jimmyzaas
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Post by jimmyzaas » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:54 pm

Plekto wrote:I thought it was just fine looking. It's a big radiator - straight and to the point. And it cools my ATI card like nothing I've ever seen.
I dunno, my fins were bent.. not really pleasing to look at. If you look at the picture on Newegg, that don't look so good either :)

The HR 03 is just damn fine to look at. Machined to perfection.

Anywho, I decided to purchase ram sinks knowing that it does not come with VRM sinks and that the included ramsinks don't stick too well. Better safe than sorry.

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