Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 installation

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:50 am

Hi all,

I'm a long time reader, first time poster on these forums but just thought I'd let you in on my own experience of installing and using the Accelero S1 I've just got my hands on.

I heard about this passive cooler a while ago but only tracked one down from PCSilent.de a couple of days ago. I wanted one to go on my Sapphire 1950pro, so I ordered it, it arrived and that's where the fun began!

It comes with a load of little RAM heatsinks and a big one to go over the voltage regulators, but these certainly weren't designed to fit on the sapphire version of the card, so in the end I chucked them.

Instead, I took a hacksaw to the original heatsink/heatspreader that came with the card (which was very easy to disassemble anyway) to give enough room to fix the new (enormous) heatsink to the GPU.

It basically went something like this:
1. Undo all screws.
2. Remove lid from original heatsink, exposing innards and fan.
3. Pull off the whole original heatsink and remove the central section designed to cover the GPU.
4. Unplug the original fan and remove it if you want - I left it on.
5. Cut off side of original heatsink/heatspreader to give enough room for the 4 copper heatpipes the Accelero S1 has.
6. Screw it all back together again and plug it back in!

That's what I did, and it looks pretty ugly, if I had more time/equipment, I could've done better. However, it seems to be pretty effective.

So far it has been far better than the stock heatsink and fan! On startup its 33'c. After a while it heats up a bit, idling at 43-45'c. I've not fully tested it under load yet, but I'll add that information later when I do, probably play Battlefield 2 for a while and see how it copes. Case temperatures overall have not changed.

But the best bit of course is that it's totally silent! I couldn't have asked for more, I love it! Now I need to replace a 120mm fan that before I could not hear, but now in the silence has a definite buzz to it.

Overall: Well chuffed.

I've got photo's but I'll post them in a bit.

PS. I'm a first time poster, so sorry if this is in the wrong section, though I'm pretty sure it isn't, admins feel free to move this to anywhere more appropriate, cheers.

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:50 am

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Sun May 27, 2007 10:36 am

thanks for sharing! I have been wanting this cooler for the 7600gt that I had. It was too loud, and since this took forever to make it to the market, I ended up just selling that 7600gt. Hope the accelero fits my new 8600gts!

The only concern I have about this cooler is the size, it is quite wide.

Thanks for sharing!
Derek

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sun May 27, 2007 12:23 pm

Nice

Got any reference temps on the original cooler?

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Sun May 27, 2007 12:56 pm

Interesting. I hope you won't have VRM issues, like I have... Without the GPU heating it, I guess the original HS could provide decent cooling for the memory and VRMs. I might try that as a last resort, but then I've really voided the warranty

mLy! · Post by **mLy!** » Mon May 28, 2007 3:12 am

so both ram and vrm heatsinks don't fit on the sapphire 1950 pro?

I have the sapphire one, but mine is a red board i think :p

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Mon May 28, 2007 5:57 am

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated. To answer some of your questions:

Stock HSF temperatures were consistently 55-60'c when idle, rising to 65'c max under load. Still not managed to test the accelero s1 under load yet, but it's much better at colling when idle.

As for the RAM sinks, they all fit on fine, but the adhesive on them is rubbish - they kept falling off, and the VRM sink was one long sink with screw holes at each end - this just didn't sit right and the holes didn't match up with any free areas on the underside of the board, so I couldn't drill any in either.

I did want to take photos as I went through the installation - might take it apart again to show the layout of the chipset on the board.

I think the original heatspreader should keep all the chips cool enough - at least the s1 itself is doing a good job of cooling the GPU. I added silver thermal compound to all the RAM contacts to make this a bit more efficient before screwing it back together. I'm fairly sure my hacksaw modifications may have voided my warranty. :p

Edit: Just found this other thread: viewtopic.php?t=40734
I'm definitely going to take another look at my installation to make sure the VRMs are ok.

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:50 am

You might want to take a look at my thread as well

I'm going insane with this card...

Do you have any idea where the temperature sensor is located?

mLy! · Post by **mLy!** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:10 am

Hello again,
Is this the 'long' VRM heatsink that came with the accelero?

http://i10.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/86/6e/9f0b_1.JPG

so how did you attach the ram and vrm sinks if they didn't stick or the holes didn't match?

Phlebas · Post by **Phlebas** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:14 pm

tuna_armadillo wrote:As for the RAM sinks, they all fit on fine, but the adhesive on them is rubbish - they kept falling off, and the VRM sink was one long sink with screw holes at each end - this just didn't sit right and the holes didn't match up with any free areas on the underside of the board, so I couldn't drill any in either.

Yes, I also found the adhesive on the RAM heatsinks to be completely useless, did no one at Artic Cooling test this?? Regarding the VRM heatsink, you should have had two different ones in your package. The long one with screw holes is NOT for the X1950Pro and not only would it not fit but it wouldn't cool the actual VRMs even if you could fit it! The one with the screw holes is for the X1950XT and other cards. The X1950Pro VRM heatsink is a flat-ish piece of metal that is attached by adhesive (which actually sticks) and looks like the one in the link that mLy! gave.

NB: I see that you have not installed the black clips which keep the S1 attached to the top of the graphics card and as a result your S1 is flexing away from the card. Was this on purpose because it looks like it will be placing unnecessary stress on the heatpipes.

FWIW, I couldn't use my S1 / X1950Pro combination under load, see viewtopic.php?t=40734. I think I'll recheck the installation of the S1 as I might not have gotten it quite right.

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:09 am

Sorry about the picture overload:

The old lid removed:

The old heasink and fan after my hacksaw mod (section removed accross the top):

The central section of the old heatsink and fan:

The naked card (I applied fresh thermal paste):

The much discussed VRMs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/ ... VRMs-1.jpg

The old heatsink reattached (with thermal paste on all RAM chip and VRM contacts) because RAM sinks and VRM heatspreader where a bit rubbish IMO. I detached the fan's powed connector so it's silent.:

The S1 with thermal paste applied rather crappily:

Screwed in:

Copper heat pipe slightly touches old heatsink edges, had to bend it very slightly to make it fit, but it works well.

mLy! · Post by **mLy!** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:48 am

Hi,
Thanks for all the info and pictures, but I have a few more questions.

Did you have to 'wash off' the ram and vrms after taking off the original heatsinks the first time? Or did they not have much thermal past on?

Does your card perform well under load? has it crashed? Was it easy to remove the central bit of the original heatsink?

I would like to do the same you did, but I am still a bit unsure as I am new to PC hardware/modifications in general and I am not a very handy man :p

Thanks

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:27 am

Ok, here goes:

mLy! wrote: Did you have to 'wash off' the ram and vrms after taking off the original heatsinks the first time? Or did they not have much thermal past on?

When I originally took it apart there was no residue on the RAM or VRMs - nothing at all - there's only residue on them in my photo because I took it apart again after installing the S1 to show you how I did it, so the residue is from thermal paste I put on myself - I strongly recommend anyone installing an S1 use a decent thermal paste.

The only part with thermal paste on it is the GPU, which you do have to wipe/scrape off quite carefully - but don't worry too much about that, its not hard, I just used some soft cardboard to scrape the worst off before reapplying my own thermal paste.

mLy! wrote: Was it easy to remove the central bit of the original heatsink?

The central heatsink part that originally covers the GPU is totally easy to remove. Once you've unscrewed everything on the underside of the card the whole heatsink (with the central unit in the middle) lifts off the card and you can simply pull the central section out with a little force.

The hardest part was cutting one of the sides off the original heatsink after I decided to reinstall it due to the supplied RAM sinks not sticking to the RAM chips properly. This involved taking a hacksaw to remove enough of the side of the heatsink so that the copper heatpipes could fit through, allowing the S1 a good contact with the GPU. Again, this is not hard - I did a bit of a rush job on it and had to recut it a few times to take a bit more off each time until it fitted. The metal is fairly soft - I used a junior hacksaw and put the heatsink in a vice to do it.

mLy! wrote: Does your card perform well under load? has it crashed?

I've tested it briefly in Battlefield 2 with all settings maxed (res 1280x960) but AA off. It's been great, temperatures haven't breached 60'c and tend to sit steadily at 57-58'c. I've had no crashes at all, so its been totally stable so far.

I have seen other people have had instability afterwards and this seems to be mainly due to insufficient cooling on the VRMs, which I think are being cooled very well in my installation by the original heatsink that I've modified.

Hope that helps. This was my first ever attempt at a bit of computer DIY bar building the actual machine itself and I'm delighted with the results.

mLy! · Post by **mLy!** » Wed May 30, 2007 10:34 am

Hi,
Thank you very much for all the detailled information. I think I will try the exact same with my card.

Those themps are indeed very impressive, mine idles at 47 and goes up to 85 under load (with stoch cooler).

tuna_armadillo · Post by **tuna_armadillo** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 2:50 am

Just a quick update for anyone out there still interested. Having started playing stalker and with it being considerably more graphically intensive than battlefield 2 I had the my system crash completely and reboot itself.

I wasn't monitoring the gpu temp at the time, but assuming its down to the card overheating I've now propped a 120mm fan at an angle underneath the S1 so that it blows accross the fins and keeps it a hell of a lot cooler - idles at 35-37'c with the fan on its lowest speed setting.

When playing stalker with the fan up to it's highest setting (on medium settings, no AA) temps never breach 50'c (max it rose to was 48'c), which is pleasing considering that was it's idle temperature before. No real increase in noise either becuase I can adjust the speed of the fan as and when I'm gaming.

Result: no crashes since.