Accelero X2 Testing on X1900XT with XTX Bios.

this is just a small preview of the write up I got to do on this thing, plus, it's just initial testing so I got alittle poking around to do, to find out why it's doing a few weird things.
but on with the preview.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1141510833

Package :

the heatsink in it's package, is smaller and lighter then I thought it would be.
from the pics I had seen before this, it looked like a giant chunk of metal, that one could lay down and start bench pressing with, if they needed some muscles... this is not so.
the card is alot lighter then I had anticipated.
about half the weight of the actual stock ATI cooler.
for some reason, I guess the heatsink just looks bigger then it really is, in the pics I've seen of this so far.
the instructions are easy to read, and pretty much idiot proof.
the mounting hardware is smaller then I thought it would be.
which can be a bad thing, if you lose a washer, the mounting hardware is pretty much gonna be useless till you can get washers for it again.

Thermal Pads :

heres the thermal pads used for the mem chips.

they are made by 3M, and are double sided sticky pads.
they seem more effective then the ones on the ATI cooler, and the results will show what I mean in a few moments here...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1141510833

Dimension :

once you install the card, it's still going to be a 2 slot cooling solution...
but honestly, if this card used anything low profile, I wouldn't put it on this card. in my opinion, the X1900 cards, just run too damn hot for air, and I want all the cooling I can get for it. if that means a 2 slot cooling solution, then do it. I am not going to complain, as long as it cools well.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1141510833

Installed.

installing the X2 takes about 20 minutes.
theres nothing awkward or difficult about it.
if you can remove the original heatsink, you can definatly put the X2 on there with no hassles.

looks good, matchs it just fine.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1141510833

Results :

For testing, I just used 3 things so far.

Fear at 1440 x 900 AA at 2X, AF at 16X. Vsync On. All other details at max, except Soft Shadows Off.

Doom 3, I love this game, and wanted to see it in Ultra Mode.
1680 x 1050, 2 X AA, 16X AF, Vsync on, All options at Max.

3DMark 2006 Pro.
default run, with the 2 (3 extra?) extra portions of the benchmark ran too.
this benchmark takes about 13 minutes to complete, if you run the entire thing.

with Doom 3, and the stock cooler, I was having major problems with the card overheating and crashing back into windows.
upon looking at my temp logs, the temps were hitting 83-84C after about 10 minutes in the game... which is where I would get a crash, and VPU Recoverd error.
this is with stock XTX clocks...
needless to say, I was pissed, cause whats the point of having a 512 meg card, if you enable ultra mode, that supposedly uses 512 megs... then the card itself isn't stable enough to actually be able to run at that setting cause the card overheats?

with the Accelero X2 However.... its a much different story.
I still routinely hit 70C in Ultra Mode.
but now, I almost never see anything higher then about 72C.
plus... the game is nice and stable now, no more crashing :)
the X2 was 11C lower in this case for me.

With FEAR I've never had a issue with heat or anything else crashing this game.
I just find the X1900 card isn't fast enough to be able to keep 1680 x 1050 playable unless I give up way too many features... and I kinda refuse to play a game, if it looks like crap... whats the point of a high end card, if you have to run the games looking like crap?
so I usually run the game at 1440 x 900, with good settings so it looks great, and still plays good too.
my temp logs with this game usually hit between 77-78C.
with the X2, again, they are around 70-72C.

so not really any different then Doom 3 was, however, still lower the the stock cooler ever did.

Lastly, 3DMark2006 this benchmark, suprisingly doesn't really seem to stress the videocard very much, in terms of heat.
but it did show me a few interesting things, when I began comparing the temp logs.

Stock GPU hits about 75-76C tops.
X2 Cooler hits about 70-71C tops.

Again... 70C seems about the normal temp range for this heatsink.

But, theres a anomally here.
the PCB temps are 1C higher with the X2, and the Power Regulator is about 4-5C hotter with the X2.

the PCB temp, is well within the margin of error range. 1C isn't really gonna tell me anything, so theres not much I can say there.
but the Power Regulator Temps being higher is a definate thing to look into.
I have a theory on that however.
see the X2 has a small little flap at the back of the card, intended to cool the power regulator...
I don't think it's actually helping, so much as, just blowing hot air over them.
see, the X2's core, does indeed, keep the actual GPU cooler, but I suspect this also means, the heatsink itself is alittle hotter.
the fan, is just pushing hotter air, over the Power Regulator now...
Better Cooling of the Core means hotter fins, meaning air gets hotter passing over those fins which = Hotter Power Regulator...
thats my guess at the moment.

but in the end, the card does OC better, and does run cooler.
except for the power regulator...
so it seems to be a trade off so far.
but in this case, I will definatly take it. :D

I can figure out a way to cool the Power Regulator better, I haven't been able to do much about the core temps of this videocard yet... so if a cooler core, means a slightly hotter power regulator, then thats fine by me.
I can always pop a fan over the Power Regulator, but theres not much I can do, if a heatsink sucks and is generally ineffective... like the ATI Stock cooler seems to be.

if anyones Curious, heres my actual Temp logs from the 3dmark2006 runs.

HERE

And Finally...

heres the real reason one should be interested in this card...
it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo damn quiet.
even at 100% it's about 3 times quieter, then the ATI cooler was.
the ATI cooler at 100% is seriously loud enough to hurt my ears after a few minutes.
its like listening to a hair dryer from a few feet away.
this heatsink, at 100% is pretty much silent from a few feet away, and even up close, is just a small "whirr" sound and little else.
nothing like the horrible noise I been hearing with the Stock Cooler :)

I think both the stock cooler aswell as the Accelero are not very impressive, 70C is just too hot for my liking. Remember that's in your case under normal conditions. When you have an ambient temp of 30C+ you are going to have a problem with both.

Could you also include the stock cooler with some good thermal paste like AS5, and maby lap the base? When you are done testing can you take the plastic enclosure of and make some pics of the heatsink?

quiet is good but the temps are still pretty high.. only wished they kept the exhast design so the warm air doesn't stay inside the case.

I also got one for review. Try to remove it after those 3m thermal pads are heated - its damn near impossible to get them off without tearing them. I found the unit to be quiet but dumping all that hot air onto the motherboard and in the case of the DFI board right into the chipset not all that wise an idea.


Overall I was not impressed at all -

I've never understood how people complain about heatsinks dumping heat on the motherboard.

every heatsink from the begining of computing has done that.
take the Zalman VF900 coming out...

where do you think that heats gonna go?
its just pushing air onto the videocard, which in turn will push hot air, off the videocard... right over the south bridge, just like any other heatsink would.

only a few don't, like ATI's for example won't cause it's a exhaust design.

but what about heatsinks for CPU's...
not a single one that I am aware of, exhaust heat anywhere but inside a case.

how come no one complains about that?
after all, thats going to generate a hell of alot more heat.

heatsinks have always had that one design issue...
the hot air, has no real place to go, after it does what it needs to do.
it's not a issues unique to this videocard cooler, or even heatsink...
its a basic design of all heatsinks in general.

the stock ati cooler I use, has already been modded in every way I could.
I have mentiond this from time to time in the 3D area...
the cooler was using ceramique.
the core was lapped.
it did help, cause my temps before that modding was far worse.

Quite good solutions - finally some decent replacement for that loud-mouth stock. Great review Kunaak. But I have one question - did you tested on open rig or inside the case. Haven`t noticed that in the article.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

I've never understood how people complain about heatsinks dumping heat on the motherboard.

every heatsink from the begining of computing has done that.
take the Zalman VF900 coming out...

where do you think that heats gonna go?
its just pushing air onto the videocard, which in turn will push hot air, off the videocard... right over the south bridge, just like any other heatsink would.

only a few don't, like ATI's for example won't cause it's a exhaust design.

but what about heatsinks for CPU's...
not a single one that I am aware of, exhaust heat anywhere but inside a case.

how come no one complains about that?
after all, thats going to generate a hell of alot more heat.

heatsinks have always had that one design issue...
the hot air, has no real place to go, after it does what it needs to do.
it's not a issues unique to this videocard cooler, or even heatsink...
its a basic design of all heatsinks in general.

the stock ati cooler I use, has already been modded in every way I could.
I have mentiond this from time to time in the 3D area...
the cooler was using ceramique.
the core was lapped.
it did help, cause my temps before that modding was far worse.

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Any of the Arctic Cooling solutions before the retarded Accelero exhaust out the back of the Case.

Which direction should the fan rotate?
The fan of all ATI or NV Silencer coolers should rotate clockwise.
Since a diagonal fan is used, the air is drawn in in a twister. This gives you the feeling of blowing air. Nevertheless the cooler is drawing air out of the case, even it is not a big amount.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pics/faq/fan_rotation.gif

The stock X800, X850, X1800, X1900 exhaust out the rear too - they just have loud fans.

Nice flow in case with few 12cm fans will solve this problem easely ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cooper

Quite good solutions - finally some decent replacement for that loud-mouth stock. Great review Kunaak. But I have one question - did you tested on open rig or inside the case. Haven`t noticed that in the article.

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it was in a embarassingly ugly case, that I almost hate to admit I still have, haha...

the Original Black Prometia case.
no prometiea anymore...
but I still have the case.

this is with my back up PC.
Board used was the DFI Ultra D.
Ram Corsair XMS 4000 PT at 283 cas 3-4-3-8-1T.
CPU was Opteron 170 at 10 x 310, with the 180 divider for the ram.
cooling CPU is a Chilly1 unit.

temp logs... Systool. latest version... 649 I think it is...

can't think of anything else.

The Silencers were wonderful. God I hope they don't give up on blowing the heat out of the case. That would just be stupid. It makes a huge difference.

I own one for both my 9700 and X800GTO2. I was sold the minute I noticed how much cooler my case was running with it on the 9700.

id like to see a silencer with heatpipes tbh.

a m8 of mine also has a X1800 wich tends to run damn hot, il give him a link on this topic as hes looking for a 3rd party cooler.

although atm its cold overhere i wonder how hot his X1800 will get once its summer and we got another heat wave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Starscream

id like to see a silencer with heatpipes tbh.

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it does have heatpipes in it.

I gave up on air cooling and went to water. The Maze4 with a MCW6000 on the CPU is cooled by a single 120MM BIP and my idle temps are 28 CPU, 32 GPU - load cpu 38, GPU 41. The CPU is at 3 Ghz @ 1.44v and the GPU (1900xtx) at 690/800.

Though it looks a bit odd to the regular coolers, I still like Thermalright's V1 Ultra. Someone did a slight mod by bending the heatpipes, so the fins attached to it's end could be cooled down by a casefan in the sidepanel, blowing fresh air on them.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=89653&page=2
Check Bull Dog's post and his funky mod.
Also, scroll down to the last post, it seems Thermalright is busy on a fully compatible version for X1800 / X1900. Me = pending ... :)

Hey Kunaak, sorry if I missed this in your article but what fan speed was the stock cooler running at? ATIs default profile or set to 100% or some other fixed speed?

Am I missing something? But with this installed, the heatpipe is upside down, with the cool end lower than the hot end.

The heatpipe works with the hot end generating steam, and the cool end cooling it back to water. Then the water flows downhill back to the hot end, to be heated again.

That cycle ceases to work well when the pipe is oriented incorrectly.

Thoughts?

I've been a Silencer fan since the VGA model.

It's :( to see this new Accelero's not blowing the hot air to the outside of the case.

As for noise and performance are the Accelero's mutch better then the NV/ATI Silencer's ?!

Thanks for this review kunaak, I have been trying to find a review of the X2 actually on a X1900 based card. All the reviews out there are testing this cooler on an X1800XL or AIW card which run much cooler by default the the X1900 cards making results comparisons useless. I am glad you got a 10c difference on the core, that is fantastic. I get up to about 78c on the stock cooler with the fan running at 82%. I hope to run the X2 at 100% speed and maintain no more than 75c max at all times,this is in the summer when room temps here reach quite high. I really hope this is going to hold up cause I have no other options when it comes to aircooling this card. I am looking very, very forward to the noise reduction as well. If you have anything else to share, please do.

One last thing, Dnottis mentioned a washer issue in the review sample he had had back in the beginning of February. Are those washers present on your retail sample? I just want to make sure there is no outstanding issues I need to be aware of when installing this thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Atomicpineapple

Hey Kunaak, sorry if I missed this in your article but what fan speed was the stock cooler running at? ATIs default profile or set to 100% or some other fixed speed?

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I was using ATI's Dynamic cooling.
I had it modified to run about 5% faster per temp setting, so it was always alittle faster then normal.

the top speed of the ATI fan was about 5500 RPM's.
the top speed of the X2 fan is about 2150 RPM's.

but the X2 at 2100 (full speed) is still cooler, then the stock ATI cooler at 5500... and a hell of alot quieter too :D

Quote:

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One last thing, Dnottis mentioned a washer issue in the review sample he had had back in the beginning of February. Are those washers present on your retail sample? I just want to make sure there is no outstanding issues I need to be aware of when installing this thing.

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I had no problems with washers.
I actually had 4 screws and washers more then I needed.

Guys, I emailed Arctic Cooling regarding making silencers for the 1900 series as I too have used the silencers for years and just feel a lot better knowing that the hot air is being pushed straight out through the back of the case instead of the Accelero's where they dump the heat internally. My only concern would be the heatsink on the regulator(s) at the back of the card not getting cooled at alldue to the fan sitting directly above it.

Anyway, this is the reply that I got back from Arctic cooling a couple of weeks back:

"Dear Nicholas,

Thank you for your enquiry and your great support.

The Accelero are our latest development and the cooling performance is appropriate for the latest 1900 series card that dissipate so much heat.

Anyway, we will feedback to our engineering team and see if we will have a silencer that is compatible for the latest VGA cards.



Kindly visit www.arctic-cooling.com for more information.



Best Regards,

Arctic Cooling Technical Support"


Just FYI guys. I too personally agree with the Silencer approach being better than the Accelero one so if you want a chance in hell of them making Silencers for out new cards than by all means go spam them via their contact page! ;)

Cheers,

Nick :).

I have emailed them too. The response I recieved is the same as what is mentioned on their page. They are no longer supporting DHES as they feel it is no longer needed with todays cases being BTX. I guess they think we all have those case types =/.

See here, the quote in question.

Fully Crossfire and BTX compatible
The Accelero 2 is Crossfire compatible with all mainboards and offers in such a configuration exactly the same performance. In contrast to our ATI Silencers, the Accelero is 100% BTX compatible, thus a DHES is not possible/necessary anymore. The hot air is removed by the BTX airflow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cantankerous

... thus a DHES is not possible/necessary anymore. The hot air is removed by the BTX airflow.

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:slapass: to arctic cooling

1st - we don't all have BTX cases (personally I hate the BTX standard).

2nd - no standard is more effective than the DHES. DHES was the leading advantage of the Silencer's over the other brands/vga coolers. Now the others brands like Zalman are equal to AC.

Wake up AC !!!

Like i said, the heatpipe design is oriented incorrectly...for ATX. It is oriented CORRECTLY for BTX!!!

So they shipped this for BTX systems, they must be on drugs. Write back to them and tell them 99.9% of people who'd buy the prodict are in ATX cases.

Meantime, it could be dangerous to use the cooler in ATX, as it will actually SUCK.

They could do a heatpipe version, running the pipes over the top to the back, with the fan mounted to blow over the fins on the backside end of the pipes, blowing OUT the back using a second PCI opening on the back, but instead of 2slots card, above card.... it would be behind card, card. If you get my meaning. then everything would line up, the pipes would work correctly, and you could then have the fan blow out the back, rather than directly down aat the motherboard (frying any motherboard based voltreg's next to the x16 connector.

It boggles the mind when industrial/mechanical/thermal design idiocy rears its head.... laughable.

Kunaak did you have stock cooler @ 100% when comparing these two? I just got rid of my FS-V7 to back on a lapped stock cooler which I think was a wise decision.

Quote:

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Daveb2012]Kunaak did you have stock cooler @ 100% when comparing these two?

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I ran the stock heatsink at 100% during the 3DMark2006 portion of the review process.

but during actual gaming part, where I used FEAR and Doom 3, god no...
the stock heatsink is unbearably loud at 100%.

theres just no way I could possibly play a game, with that heatsink at 100%... unless the whole computer was in another room or something. haha...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

I ran the stock heatsink at 100% during the 3DMark2006 portion of the review process.

but during actual gaming part, where I used FEAR and Doom 3, god no...
the stock heatsink is unbearably loud at 100%.

theres just no way I could possibly play a game, with that heatsink at 100%... unless the whole computer was in another room or something. haha...

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ever had a tornado ? :p: 24/7 for 18 months straight baby :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by biohead

ever had a tornado ? :p: 24/7 for 18 months straight baby :toast:

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sure.
I have a few of them.
a 120mm and a 80 mm one.
they are purely for benching though.
I could never live with those.
some people are willing to put up with ridiculous amounts of noise when it comes to air cooling, and it still makes me scratch my head wondering why don't they just move to watercooling, and get the better cooling they obviously seek... and not deal with the headaches so a screaming fan?

personally, I like silence in a PC.
some noise is fine, but not much.

I'm a silence FREAK when it comes to cooling since pc is 24/7 and is in the room I sleep in. Nice to know this cooler does the job

hi, I sent this via PM but never got a response and its been a good few days ago now. Perhaps you missed it?

I was wondering if you are still happy with your X2? They are readily available in Canada now so was thinking of getting one. I was curious to know if your thoughts have changed on this cooler or if results have varied/changed since your little review?

If you have anything to add or share on this matter please do respond as I am curious on your response. You are the only one to test this on an X1900XTX.

Just a few quick questions, is this mounted in an ATX style case in your setup? What temps are you getting now at idle and load and what is your ambient temps at that time if they have changed since your initial test postings.

Thanks.

why don't you guys just lap the HS instead of buying a new setup?

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...xtxvoltage.jpg

Don't take the CCC Clock Configuration lightly, this utility will get your GPU burning red hot if you are not careful.

Probably because of the extreme noise it generates. You are using 100% fan speed...do you realize how loud that is for us quiet (not even silent) pc users?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cantankerous

hi, I sent this via PM but never got a response and its been a good few days ago now. Perhaps you missed it?

I was wondering if you are still happy with your X2? They are readily available in Canada now so was thinking of getting one. I was curious to know if your thoughts have changed on this cooler or if results have varied/changed since your little review?

If you have anything to add or share on this matter please do respond as I am curious on your response. You are the only one to test this on an X1900XTX.

Just a few quick questions, is this mounted in an ATX style case in your setup? What temps are you getting now at idle and load and what is your ambient temps at that time if they have changed since your initial test postings.

Thanks.

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am I still happy with the X2?

let me put it this way... you couldn't pay me enough to put the stock cooling back on this card...
I've lapped it.
I've changed the thermal paste.
I've ran it above noise levels that I am comfortable with...
at every point, the stock cooling disappointed me.

the X2, may not be better then the Zalman VF 900, but that remains to be seen... so I will stick with the X2 for now.
it has not disappointed me, and definatly cools alot better then the stock heatsink ever did.

this card rests now in my little brothers PC.
he has just a plain old, ugly case that I got him 2 years ago, and believe me, theres nothing fancy about it... from it's cheap 2 80mm fans... 1 bringing air in, and one bringing air out... thats it.
the PSU has a fan on it, but I doubt that does much other then prevent the PSU from heating the case too much.

the temps in my house are usually about 65 F.
ambient temps in the case... not a clue.
havent touched that card in a week or so (try telling a kid to get off a game, when it's his day off... and he did good on his homework)

last time I played with the card, believe it or not, I was still testing it... even well after I wrote this up.
the paste must have settled alittle, cause now I almost never see 70C.
68C seems to be where it sits at most of the time now.

Thanks a bunch Kunaak. I have just ordered myself one today and look very forward to recieving it towards the middle of this week coming. I hope it does just as well for me. I am not expecting much but would love to see nothing higher than the mid 75c range with zero noise. If I can get that I will be one happy guy.

What thermal paste did you use again? I am usually a ceramique guy but am wondering if AS5 would do me better in this case. With the X1900 running as hot as it does I want every last degree drop I can get.

BTW you mentioned lapping, did you lap the X2 or only the stock? Thanks again.

I'm using the Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 with an HIS X1900XT and everything runs nice and cool and quiet...and it looks prettier then the Accellero as well...current GPU idle temp= 46 C

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

it does have heatpipes in it.

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He said silencer not accelero. :slap:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

but what about heatsinks for CPU's...
not a single one that I am aware of, exhaust heat anywhere but inside a case.

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scythe ninja, zalman 9500, Arctic cooling tower heatsinks (forget the name), pretty much every tower heatsink exhaust air towards the rear exhaust fans.

Im sorry, but i hate the new accelero, it blows bad! I have a 1900XTX and have the stock heatsink. The temps at full load have never gotten past 65C, never. I have good air flow however. I cut two perfect holes (holesaw) in my clear side pannel and placed two 120mm fans so they blow inward on my motherboard and all the components. I have em hooked up to a fan controller as i am a silence freak. Anyway, im hoping that Artic goes back to the original design as i cant have the hot air blasting on my MB. Have you ever felt the air from the back of the stock heatsink? Its hotter than anything ive ever felt and ive been making computers for years! Im actually about to make my own heatsink like i did back in the day for my old 9700pro. Ill hook up a 80mm fan to an all copper heatsink and make sure the fan is connected to my fan controller. I use the plastic from my old NVsilencer (7800GTX) and attach it to my newly made heatsink so that the heat leaves my case. I did this with my 7800GTX and i think the time has come to do it with my X1900XTX. I hate the Accelero with all my being. Stupid design. The good news is they ARE making a NVsilencer, but who knows when it will be out. The reason i dont like the stock is becuase its just too loud for me.

it seems to me you are only knocking the Accelero due to the fact that it does not exhaust the air out of the case. Do you even have one to try out? Do you have any proof on its temp lowering or worthyness as a cooler? I don't disagree that I wish the Accelero exhausted air from the case but I won't go saying that it 'blows bad' and that 'I hate it with all my being'. Regardless of what you 'think' there are others that have 'proven' this cooler to be better than the stock even if not by much. I would take a couple degrees cooler than stock with zero noise anyday. If your case cooling is as good as you say it is you should have zero worries on the hot air coming from the video card as you seem to have more than enough precautionary measures in place with your many other fans.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

am I still happy with the X2?

let me put it this way... you couldn't pay me enough to put the stock cooling back on this card...

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QFT.

And to finally begin to ease "heat bad for mobo!!" opinions (myself included!), I've run a few tests for us all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...T/accelero.jpg

$30 bucks for silence AND performance? Yes please!!

EDIT: Here's a pic of the case to illustrate airflow...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...uh/stacker.jpg

I can vouche for the above. I installed my X2 a couple days ago. It is absolutely DEAD silent. I don't even think a dog's accute hearing could pick up this fan running, even at 100%. I get between 40-42c idle and at max 68c depending on what I'm doing. This cooler is doing great on this card. With my stock fan at 82% I would still hit 75c. I dropped a good 8-10c idle and 5-7c full load with the X2. This thing is for sure staying on my card. I have never really noticed a change from cure time on any thermal pastes I have applied but we will see what happens with this install. I used ceramique on the core and am hoping for another 1-2c drop when it cures. It has only been 2 days, a far cry from the 200 hours it says it needs to properly cure. My temps on my chipset are surprisingly not bad even with the worry of the hot air from the video card being dumped onto it. I idle around 39-40c on the chipset with the stock chipset fan on my DFI Ultra-D at 4000rpm. I barely get mid 40's on the chipset under load. Mind you I am only running stock 1.5v through the chipset as I need no more to run what I am. I know the chipset gets no hotter for two reasons. To start I use systool to log my chipset temps and as well I setup the bios to speed up the fan on the chipset to the full 7000rpm only after the chipset exceeds 50c. The fan never kicks up so all is good. I have a 120mm panaflo M1A on the side of my case over the video card and chipset area so I am sure that helps. The fan is running at 5V via my Vantec Nexus controller. I also removed all PCI brackets under the video card and replaced them with the slotted brackets I have been collecting from all my other ATI Silencers over the past couple years. The real test is going to be how this cooler holds up during the hot summer months which are yet to come. I get about 22+c ambient temps in this room now but they get much higher in the mid summer so I am expecting the card to get a bit hotter than it is now but nothing too worrying. As mentioned above I used to get 75c full load with the fan at 82%. I told myself I would be happy with the X2 if it does the same 75c, no more than that but with dead silence. I think I should be just fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cantankerous

The real test is going to be how this cooler holds up during the hot summer months which are yet to come. I get about 22+c ambient temps in this room now but they get much higher in the mid summer so I am expecting the card to get a bit hotter than it is now but nothing too worrying. As mentioned above I used to get 75c full load with the fan at 82%. I told myself I would be happy with the X2 if it does the same 75c, no more than that but with dead silence. I think I should be just fine.

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I've got your answer too. Apparently, I left the heat on by accident today and came home to 30c office instead of the typical 22c lovin. I left the Ruby demo running all day too. The gpu topped out at 74c. How thrilled was I, lol! I thought the sucker would have fried for sure.

And I too was looking for "equiv to 50-70% stock fan" performance at quiet db's. How great that it actually cools as well as 100% stock fan and is completely inaudible.

Jodiuh! thanks mate! That is wonderful news and thanks for your response. It is a shame your card had to learn from your mistake at leaving the heater on but at least it help up well! 74c is still pretty hot but more than safe for this card I believe. The stock cooler can get this card at least that hot but with much more noise. It truly is dead silent and it seems your expectations from the card were the same as mine.

Maybe this

Evercool turbo2

http://forum.tweak.pl/index.php?act=...e=post&id=5890

On Ati x1800xl idle 38'C stress 49'C

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miramp

Maybe this

Evercool turbo2

On Ati x1800xl idle 38'C stress 49'C

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The Evercool has been tested...... It didn't fare so well.

Hey Jod, how is the Accerlero compared to the Tidewater?

Almost as good. If I remember right, the Tide Water had a max of 61c on low speed during the 3D2K6 run. Just not worth 3x the price IMO. Also, the power/voltage area got hot due to lack of air.

If the VF900 does better than the Accelero on Ranger's setup, I may swing that way. Cause the Accelero has those lame thermal paddies that just don't cut the mustard compared to say...those big a$$ Swifties.

I'll probably order some Microcool Black MicroSink's for the phase converters. Suckers get HAWT!

Overall, the Accelero's been a gift from God for now. Complete silence while playing Oblivion for only $35 bucks...yes please!

EDIT: Weekend + Silent Fast PC + Widescreen Monitor + Oblivion + Comfy Chair + Beverages = Bliss

I am really enjoying my X2 as well. I get under 70c temp max after hours and hours of gaming at 1.4v with 685/756 clocks. The only time I get higher and max I have ever seen is 77c is when I have the door closed to the room and ambient temps are at 30+c and hours and hours of looping 3D.

Please let us know how those microcool microsinks work out. If they are small and easy enough to install I will get some too. I don't expect them to do too much but anything is better than they are now which is bare. Thanks.

Looking at the pictures, heatsinks there (microsinks or otherwise) will not fit in the middle part with the accelero x2?

I have spare zalman ram heatsinks, would those be okay? I think they are wider, but lower than the microcool microsinks, but not sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jodiuh

QFT.

And to finally begin to ease "heat bad for mobo!!" opinions (myself included!), I've run a few tests for us all.

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That's cool and all, but I'm fairly sure a single run isn't enough to really heat up the case. I'm not saying your results aren't correct, it could just be that after running it looped for 10 hours you have the same results. But I think you should give it a lot more time if you want to get the right picture.

Thanks for running the test by the way. I don't have this card nor cooler so i can't test it. I just saw your post reading this thread and thought I could add something.

SKiNNiEH:
Sorry mate, I'm selling my pc rig and goin' 360!!

alexio:
Actually I've played Oblivion for 4+ hours with ambient of 26c and the gpu got to about 72c. Also, from above post...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jodiuh

...and came home to 30c office instead of the typical 22c lovin. I left the Ruby demo running all day too. The gpu topped out at 74c.

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I know this is bringing up a somewhat old topic, but it you want to exhaust the air out of the case wouldn't it be possible to build your own exhaust to direct air out the back of the case like the stock cooler.

I am not sure how much room is under the heatsink fins, but if there is around 1/2" you could build your own plastic exhaust port and just direct it to the back of the case through the PCI slot like the stock cooler did.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

but what about heatsinks for CPU's...
not a single one that I am aware of, exhaust heat anywhere but inside a case.

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any tower heatsink will push hot air out of the case if a duct is added,

so that includes, the scythe infinity, tuniq, most fo everythign which is used today.