HD 4850: Ethics, Warranties, and Aftermarket Coolers

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:49 am

Or: A Study in Indecision

I am enamored of the HD4850. Newegg seems like the place to go for this purchase. There's a mail-in rebate that will eventually lower the price by $20-30 on all of their HD4850 cards but one. A few have caught my attention:

Buying VisionTek offers $5 instant savings, a chance to "buy American," and a lifetime warranty. Unfortunately, they're the only manufacturer not offering a rebate right now.
Asus also offers $5 off the top, a decent 3-year warranty, and the biggest rebate of the bunch at $30. However, the company handling their rebates is notoriously shady.
PowerColor seems like a middle-of-the-road choice ($174.99 after rebate, or $177.99 with a remote), but they are the only other manufacturer offering a lifetime warranty.

Of course, while I want the protection of warranty service, I'm likely to risk voiding my warranty by fighting the evil that is the 4850's stock cooler. Do any of ATI's partners have an after-market friendly-ish warranty policy like EVGA or XFX on the green team? Should I replace the stock cooler immediately upon receipt of the card and try to preserve the TIM in case I need service? Is there something else I should try? Is this fight even worth fighting?

As far as specific after-market parts go, SVC has by far the best price on an Accelero S1 rev. 2 (Well... not quite. Full disclosure: Coolerguys has a returned one that ships for a few cents less than a new part from SVC with super-saver shipping), and getting a Thermalright part seems too expensive despite the increased performance.

nafets · Post by **nafets** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:08 am

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:56 am

nafets wrote:You would actually be better off with aftermarket cooling, as it will increase/maintain the life expectancy of the video card, over the crap stock cooling unit...

Proof please.

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:28 am

Erssa wrote:
nafets wrote:You would actually be better off with aftermarket cooling, as it will increase/maintain the life expectancy of the video card, over the crap stock cooling unit...
Proof please.

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:12 pm

Newegg came out with a coupon code for the Asus card (VGA7420) and I bit. So much for trying to avoid the shady rebate company

mattcoz · Post by **mattcoz** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:48 am

zoatebix wrote:Newegg came out with a coupon code for the Asus card (VGA7420) and I bit. So much for trying to avoid the shady rebate company

Yeah, that's a ridiculous deal. $175 before rebate.

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:31 pm

It arrived earlier today. I'm pretty sure the Accelero will arrive a little later today, too. Should I break out a camera for the installation process?

Modo · Post by **Modo** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:51 pm

nafets wrote: You would actually be better off with aftermarket cooling, as it will increase/maintain the life expectancy of the video card, over the crap stock cooling unit...

Of course. I bet the graphics card components designed with good airflow in mind will work just fine with fanless cooling (i.e. almost no airflow).

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:06 pm

I've put a bunch of photos of this upgrade project up on Flickr.

monkiman · Post by **monkiman** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:50 pm

I have the ASUS card and the S1 R2 (passive) - it's running about 20c lower than the stock cooling.

There is one RAM sink that will need to be moved (the bottom most one in your picture) - at least it did on mine. It's hits one of the heat pipes.

What are you using to cool the VRMs on the side? I did the so called "hacksaw mod" which is to cut the stock cooler right at the line and reattach that portion. Very easy to do - really just a score and snap

F for Fragging · Post by **F for Fragging** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:15 pm

monkiman wrote:There is one RAM sink that will need to be moved (the bottom most one in your picture) - at least it did on mine. It's hits one of the heat pipes.

What are you using to cool the VRMs on the side? I did the so called "hacksaw mod" which is to cut the stock cooler right at the line and reattach that portion. Very easy to do - really just a score and snap

I just ordered an Accelero S1 rev. 2 and a PowerColor Radeon HD4850 as well, and I'm a bit concerned about the possible inadequacy of the heatsinks which are included with the Accelero. I intend to run it passive.

Currently the product page of the Accelero on the Arctic Cooling website only mentions that it's compatible with the HD4850, nothing more. No detailed information on installation for the HD4850. I sent Arctic Cooling an e-mail with the technical support form to inquire about this.

I've searched a bit and I encountered the following websites which contain information about the combination of the HD4850 and the Accelero:

My Visiontek HD4850 w/ AC Accelero S1 - [H]ard|Forum
HD4850 Goes From 88C to 39C Using Accelero S1 - The Tech Report Forums
Radeon HD4850 + Accelero S1 - RedFlagDeals.com Forums
4850 vs 8800GT 3dmarks & Accelero S1 test - XtremeSystems Forums
And of course the review on Hardware Canucks which was already mentioned.

All mention that the bottom RAM heatsink needs to be moved slightly to the right to clear the heatpipe. However, this means that a part of the RAM chip isn't covered by the heatsink, isn't that going to be a problem?

Arctic Cooling includes two voltage regulator heat sinks with the Accelero. Doesn't that imply that the two pwm chips (whatever they may be, they seem to be placed to the right of the two voltage regulators) don't need any cooling at all?

Still I see that in these links I gathered, the person who posted to [H]ard|Forum is using Zalman heatsinks on both the voltage regulators and the pwm chips. Any reason why he would not want to use the included heatsinks for voltage regulators?

The Zalman heatsinks which everyone is using, they are the ZM-RHS1, right? In The Netherlands I've seen them for sale at my internet store for â‚¬ 5,18 which I think is a bit much for just eight tiny heatsinks. And I'm reluctant to spend more money on heatsinks because Arctic Cooling should in principle just include adequate heatsinks. So my ultimate question here is, does everyone agree that I really need to buy these heatsinks? Will not using them lead to certain destruction of my HD4850, and has nobody been able to get a HD4850 working properly without them, and without heatsinks for the pwm chips?

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:00 pm

For what it's worth, I've had my Accelero S1 (NON Rev. 2) mounted on both a 7900GTX and 8800GT with NO additional heatsinks over extended periods of time (2 yrs for the 7900) and never experienced artifacting, failure, etc. Caveats are that 1) I didn't OC and 2) I also had a Yate-Loon D12SL-12 ziptied onto the Accelero and some of that airflow must have been hitting the RAM chips and VRM stuff.

Of course, if any of those components on the 4000 series are significantly hotter than my two Nvidia cards, then I might consider using additional copper adhesive sinks. You'd think that with die shrinks, power demands, etc. all going down vs earlier, hotter cards though that this wouldn't be the case.

Minor hijack: has anyone proven that the non-Rev. 2, i.e original and discontinued Accelero S1 fits on the 4000 series? It fits on an 8800GT without that being listed as compatible, and I assume if it fits a 3000 series card it should fit the 4000s, but I'd like to be sure. I don't want to have to buy a Rev. 2, even if it's only $20US.

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:47 pm

Right now I'm using Zalman Ramsinks on the Voltage stuff.

I've got my system up and running again, but I haven't really stressed it yet. I may do the hacksaw mod after I'm sure the card's not going to fail on me. While I'm modifying things, I may switch that bottom right silver ramsink for a Zalman one, since it's in the way of a heatpipe and may be keeping me from making good contact. EDIT: Not to mention I should probably use something besides the stock TIM...

And just in case, I've got the original heatsink pretty well preserved: