Artic Cooling Accelero S1 & X1950Pro
Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:59 am
I've just fitted an Accelero S1 to my X1950Pro card and thought you might like to know the results.
Installation was a bit more complex than it need to have been because the ram heatsinks wouldn't stay stuck to the ram! I ended up refitting the ram heatsink that came with my X1950Pro (an HIS ICEQ 3 model) but I had to bend some of the fins (of the RAM heatsink, not the S1) to allow the S1 to fit over it.
As you are no doubt aware the S1 heatsink is very large. It didn't interfere with any of my motherboard (A8N-SLI Premium) components but it did come up against my custom hard disk suspension solution. I've readjusted the latter to imrpove matters although it isn't completely free of the heatsink.
Fired up the PC and the idle temps were pretty much the same as before at around 45 C. Started up the racing sim rFactor which seems to stress graphics cards as much as anything else and the temps started rising steadily. With the ICEQ 3 cooler the temps would max out at about 63 C. I'm not sure how high they got with the S1 since the screen went blank first... The heatsinks felt hot to the touch so I don't think it was a result of my not fitting them well enough.
Oh well, to be honest I had half expected this and had bought a Noctura NF-S12-800 fan in anticipation of needing it. I fitted this to the heatsink using tie wraps, reducing the voltage with the fan's ULNA adaptor. With this the temperatures are great - 37 C idle and 50 C load - the fan can't be heard over the other fans in the case and, in particular, it doesn't have the nasty ticking that the ICEQ 3 one had started to exhibit. Internal case temperatures are maybe a degree or two higher but I can live with that.
In conclusion I don't really consider this cooler suitable for passive cooling of an X1950Pro unless maybe you have very good airflow in your case. But with the addition of a near-silent fan it does very well indeed and is far superior to the ICEQ 3 in terms of both noise & performance. But with the fan attached it does take up a good three PCI slots so certainly not suitable for a crowded case!
Cheers,
Richard
Installation was a bit more complex than it need to have been because the ram heatsinks wouldn't stay stuck to the ram! I ended up refitting the ram heatsink that came with my X1950Pro (an HIS ICEQ 3 model) but I had to bend some of the fins (of the RAM heatsink, not the S1) to allow the S1 to fit over it.
As you are no doubt aware the S1 heatsink is very large. It didn't interfere with any of my motherboard (A8N-SLI Premium) components but it did come up against my custom hard disk suspension solution. I've readjusted the latter to imrpove matters although it isn't completely free of the heatsink.
Fired up the PC and the idle temps were pretty much the same as before at around 45 C. Started up the racing sim rFactor which seems to stress graphics cards as much as anything else and the temps started rising steadily. With the ICEQ 3 cooler the temps would max out at about 63 C. I'm not sure how high they got with the S1 since the screen went blank first... The heatsinks felt hot to the touch so I don't think it was a result of my not fitting them well enough.
Oh well, to be honest I had half expected this and had bought a Noctura NF-S12-800 fan in anticipation of needing it. I fitted this to the heatsink using tie wraps, reducing the voltage with the fan's ULNA adaptor. With this the temperatures are great - 37 C idle and 50 C load - the fan can't be heard over the other fans in the case and, in particular, it doesn't have the nasty ticking that the ICEQ 3 one had started to exhibit. Internal case temperatures are maybe a degree or two higher but I can live with that.
In conclusion I don't really consider this cooler suitable for passive cooling of an X1950Pro unless maybe you have very good airflow in your case. But with the addition of a near-silent fan it does very well indeed and is far superior to the ICEQ 3 in terms of both noise & performance. But with the fan attached it does take up a good three PCI slots so certainly not suitable for a crowded case!
Cheers,
Richard