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Introduction
There are alot of passive coolers for video cards out there.
The stock heat sinks just don't cut it anymore. Many overclockers
replace stock heat sinks with something better that would control the
temperature of the video cards in the passive and in the performance
modes. I’ve come across a lot of manufacturers in the years I’ve been reviewing
cooling systems and Arctic Cooling has proven itself in being ones out
there.
Today I’m reviewing a
passive GPU cooler from Arctic Cooling Accelero
S1. Accelero S1 doesn't have any fans so it
utilizes heat pipe technology to distribute heat from the GPU.
About the
Product
Following information
is taken from the manufacturer’s web site.
Radically new
passive 4 heat pipes cooling solution for high performance graphics
To provide passive cooling for high-end graphic cards, Accelero S1 is a high performance passive cooler
featuring 4 heat pipes connected with extra large surface area. It
effectively removes a great deal of heat from the graphic cards keeping
the components cool. Thanks to the elegant design, Accelero
S1 outperforms some active cooling solutions. Accelero
S1 creates a true industry leading zero noise cooling solution for all
enthusiast gamers.
- Noiseless Cooling
- 4 Heat Pipes
- Special Heat Spreader for
Voltage Regulator Cooling
- Memory Cooling
- High Reliability
- Low Weight
- 6 Years Warranty
The cold air is drawn from outside to cool the
fins directly:
The fins design optimize for air ventilation
that enhance cooling performance:
Accelero S1 features 4 thick copper
heat pipes which connect directly from the GPU core. The heat pipes with
sintered powder wicks provide ultimate heat conductivity. Heat from the
GPU is rapidly dissipated through 32 fins that extend beyond the height
of the graphic card. Optimized fin design allows better air flow thus
removing the heat more effectively. Together with the bundled RAM heat
sinks and voltage regulator heat spreader, Accelero
S1 provides an all-round passive solution that achieves the best cooling
performance.
Noise Level:
Temperature on ATI X1950Pro:
Never
compromised on noise
Install and forget about it – No moving parts means it is maintenance
free. An extra pair of mounting clips provides extensive protection to
the graphic card that prevents damage from improper handling. With the
help of the new mounting design, Accelero S1 is
widely compatible with high end ATI and nVIDIA
graphic cards.
The list of supported
video cards is below.
ATI:
X1950, X1900 series
X1800 series
nVIDIA:
7950, 7900 series
7800, 6800 series
Now that we got the
basic information out of the way, let’s take a look at the pictures. ^^
Closer look
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Front of Accelero
S1 |
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Rear of Accelero
S1 |
The Accelero S1 came in a nice sealed-off plastic package;
very secure. The package is a sea trough and from the back of it you can
see the actual heat sink of the Accelero S1.
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Out of the box |
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Accelero S1 |
The package contains
an instruction manual, heat sinks for memory modules, an AC sticker,
mounting screws, and a PCI air vent. The whole package is very light thanks
to the aluminum materials which compose Accelero
S1.
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Heat sink |
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4 Heat pipes |
The actual heat sink
part of the Accelero S1 came with a very solid
heat sink which has a Thermal MX-1 solution on it. I have taken a few
close-ups on the actual heat pipes to show you how they are connected.
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Thermal Paste MX-1 |
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Close up of the heat pipes |
Arctic Cooling uses
its own Terminal Paste called MX-1. This is their homemade cooling paste
that hardens as it gets hot. Accelero S1 also
uses 4 heat pipes that disperse the heat throughout the cooling blades.
The actual blades are made of a light aluminum to allow the Accelero S1 to heat up and cool down fast.
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Accelero S1 vs
6800XT |
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Memory modules |
For testing purposes I’ve
used the Nvidia 6800 XT 256 meg card. Nothing
special card about the card; just standard but it will do just fine for
the Accelero S1 testing. The 6800XT has 8
memory modules, which are spread around all over the board.
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Nvidia 6800XT |
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Clean GPU |
While preparing for
the modding of the 6800XT I took some close-up
pictures of the GPU. The actual GPU had a similar conducting compound as
Thermal MX-1. Never the less I removed the silicon compound from the GPU.
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Memory heat sinks |
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Close up of memory heat
sinks |
The second step was
to attach the memory modules heat sinks. Mounting the heat sinks was very
easy. All I did was remove the protective seal
from the bottom of the heat sinks and gently apply the heat sinks to the
memory modules.
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Mounting screws |
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Additional cooling |
Accelero S1 came with 6 mounting
screws and 4 washers. I have taken some close-up shots to show you how
the Accelero S1 is mounted. The shot on the
right shows the long heat sink which cools one of the memory modules.
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Close up of heat sinks |
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Finished assembly |
The pictures above
show the overview of the total installation of Accelero
S1.
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Profile |
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Secure locks |
One question I had was, "If the heat sink sits on the GPU, won’t it
break the mountings?” My question was answered by 2 locking clamps. These
clamps lock the Accelero S1 onto the main board
for stable operation.
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Secure locks |
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Secure locks |
Shots above show you
the complete modded package with locking tabs.
It truly is a great design.
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Testing rig |
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Testing rig |
The testing rig used
for this review was an Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz cpu, ECS P4M800 Pro -v 2.0 motherboard, 1 gig 3200 Patriot ram 2 Western Digital 250 gig SATA hard drives in Raid 1 and 1 500 gig Western Digital SATA drive. All of this was powered by Ultra power
supply.
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Accelero S1 installed |
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Accelero S1 |
Installation of Accelero S1 didn't cause any complications. Just a
few turns of the knob screws and the video card was installed.
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Clearance |
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Closed box |
Everything fit
perfectly without any problems. The space between the RAM and one of the
heat sinks is very tight, but you can still open the ram slots for a
future upgrade.
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Outside View |
By request from Arctic
Cooling I did my testing in a "closed lid" environment. As you
can see Accelero S1 looks very sweet from
outside of the testing rig. Now that we got all of the pictionary out of the way, let’s take a look at some
data.
Testing
The testing was done in two parts. First part was to test the Accelero S1 against a benchmark application so i could heat up the GPU and see how well the 6800 XT performs in the benchmark and second part is to take actual readings from the gpu. The applications i have used were 3DMark 06 and Speed Fan. My testing rig was Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz cpu, ECS P4M800 Pro -v 2.0 motherboard, 1 gig 3200 Patriot ram 2 Western Digital 250 gig SATA hard drives in Raid 1 and 1 500 gig Western Digital SATA drive.
Lets take a look at some data.
First test was performed with stoc kheat sink. As the results of 3dMark 06 our test was graided at 741. Since this isint the fastest set up ever been made, this readings will do just fine. Upon the completion of the 3DMark 06 i have quickly captured the pemperature readings of the GPU. As you can see the Temp 1 readings came out to be around 59C that is 138.2F. This is a normal temperature which is sudjested by Nvidia for 6800XT video card. Lets move on and see how the Accelero S1 performs.
Stock Heat sink/Fan
Accelero S1
I re-ran the test with Accelero S1 being a GPU cooler and the results much better than the stock cooler. I have gotten a 842 on the 3dMark 06 benchmark and the temperature of the GPU ended up to be 52c which is 125.6 F. Amaizing! This trully is a performance factor!
Conclusion
Very "cool"
product as always expected from Arctic Cooling. The light weight of the
heat sink is a great addition to a stock cooling for 6800XT. One of the
cool features of Accelero S1 is that it comes
with locking clips to keep the heat sink in place while in operation. Use
of Thermal MX-1 was a wise choice and I definitely recommend it for every
silicon application. Accelero S1 is a passive
cooler and for a passive cooler, the drop of 6 degrees was really a good
improvement. Just because the Accelero S1 is a passive cooler this doesn't mean you cant take it to the gaming level. By the readings which i got, i can clearly see that the overheating of the gpu would be pretty much impossible with Accelero S1 in place. In addition if you are looking for a quiet PC, may I recommend Accelero S1 and PWM fans from Arctic Cooling. For its grade, I’ll give Accelero
a 10/10! Keep up the good job Arctic Cooling!!
Some pros we found:
Extremely light
weight
4 Heat pipes
Thermal MX-1
Secure locking tabs
Stylish
Some Cons we
found:
None
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