4670 fanless - which Accelero model?

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:33 am

Hi all,

Can you recommend either the S1 or the S2 for running the 4670 fanless? For case ventilation I have a 135mm fan in my power supply as the only fan in the system, which gives a case temperature around 32C.

I've been looking at either the Asus EAH4670/DI or Sapphire 4670 (512 MB), which are the least expensive here. Reading the HD4670 thread didn't make it clear to me which 4670 cards are better or worse.

Currently I have the HD 3450, but I'd like to play games on my ED plasma (852x480), but it still doesn't cut it. I like fanless and low wattage.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:16 am

Both S1 and S2 will fit. I recommend the S1 since it's larger, just make sure you'll get a rev2 since rev1 won't fit.

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:50 am

Hello scandinavian brother,

thanks for the reply. It's good to hear any of the two fits the 4670. I can see from your signature that you're also using a similar configuration. Can you check for me how tall the card with the mounted cooler is?
I've measured the clearance from the top of the PCI-Express port to to highest point in the case, to be 13,6 cm. Do you think it'll fit?
From the manufacturer specs, the S1 heatsink is 13.8 cm tall.

edh · Post by **edh** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:12 pm

Esben wrote:I've measured the clearance from the top of the PCI-Express port to to highest point in the case, to be 13,6 cm. Do you think it'll fit?
From the manufacturer specs, the S1 heatsink is 13.8 cm tall.

Watch out with this measurement. The cooler may not mount at the same point on different cards, being offset by different amounts on different cards, hence the case width requirement varying between cards. What you can do to get a few extra mm is remove the plastic shroud from the outside of the cooler, this will get you another 4mm. Beyond that, it is also possible to bend the S1 up around the end of the card meaning you only need 20mm beyond the edge of the graphics card.

Still, the S1 is so cheap that if it doesn't fit and you have to mod it, you've not got much expense to worry about!

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:31 pm

Although either cooler will fit, even the smaller S2 is overkill for that card and should have no trouble keeping things cool in a reasonably ventilated system. The price difference is small, so if you have extremely limited airflow (less than a single typical 120mm fan at ~800 RPM) you can certainly get an S1, but the S2 is a bit shorter and perfectly effective.

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:01 pm

edh wrote:Watch out with this measurement. The cooler may not mount at the same point on different cards, being offset by different amounts on different cards, hence the case width requirement varying between cards. What you can do to get a few extra mm is remove the plastic shroud from the outside of the cooler, this will get you another 4mm. Beyond that, it is also possible to bend the S1 up around the end of the card meaning you only need 20mm beyond the edge of the graphics card.

Thanks for the answers, and clearing up how height varies with different cards. I can only hope the GPU is mounted fairly low on the Asus card. It's not easy to see when comparing it with the Sapphire card. If the card with the S1 mounted gets too tall, it's good to hear the top of the S1 cooler can be bent.

The Asus 4670 graphic card looks to be the same height as my sound card. From the top of the PCB, there's 3 cm clearance. I've made an illustration showing the amount of space inside my case.

Do you think it'll fit?

tehcrazybob wrote:Although either cooler will fit, even the smaller S2 is overkill for that card and should have no trouble keeping things cool in a reasonably ventilated system. The price difference is small, so if you have extremely limited airflow (less than a single typical 120mm fan at ~800 RPM) you can certainly get an S1, but the S2 is a bit shorter and perfectly effective.

I'm happy to hear both will work. I don't want to install more fans, so it's probably the safest bet to go with S1 taking the limited airflow into account.

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:31 am

A quick follow up.

I bought the Asus 4670 card and the Accelero S1 rev. 2.

The Asus card comes with a very noisy stock HSF, that's only capable of running 1 fan speed. So no matter what you're doing, the noise is always there.

I quickly removed the stock HSF, and used some time to clean up the GPU core. The I mounted the S1, but didn't notice a capacitor preventing flush mounting on the GPU core. That resulted in crashing after running 3D-applications for a short while. After bending the radiator part of the S1, proper mounting was possible. The card now ran 3D-apps without problems, but unfortunately it was higher than the case.
On the part of the S1 that you put on the core, it's possible to adjust it ~3 mm, and that was just what was needed, along with removal of all the black plastic parts. The pipes now touch the south bridge heatsink, but everything is working well, and perfectly stable.

Using ATI Overdrive, I've overclocked to GPU from 750 MHz to 825 MHz, which is the highest it can go without the display driver stops responding.
Memory (with included heatsinks) can only be overclocked from 1000 MHz to 1050 MHz, not very impressive.

With rthdribl, temperature completely stock is 59C, case 34C.
With my CPU overclocked to 3 GHz, and Overdrive enabled, temperature is 72C, case 35C. Running 3DMark 2006 gives a temperature of 67C.

Looking at the cards BIOS, it has the following PowerPlay profiles:
GPU RAM Voltage
750 1000 1.25
165 250 0.90
300 500 1.1

At Windows desktop it properly switches to the most frugal power profile.
Power measuments will be made sometime later, when I pickup a measurement device from the library.

When mounting the S1, I couldn't find the voltage regulator. Where on the graphic card left or right is the VRM?

JCe · Post by **JCe** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 3:57 am

Hello

I have a couple of questions for you that have accelero s1 v2 with the 4670 asus card.

There are two types of heatsinks, 4 for voltaje regulators and 4 for RAM chips. Which ones are these on the card?? I cannot identificate them (no helping caption writen on chips)

And I cannot remove thermal grease (is solid) with a tissue (like they say in manual). How did you get to remove it?

Thanks in advance

Jorge

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:57 pm

You can remove it with a tissue and a lot of work, but I found a few Stickies(tm) and a bit of patience made for a nearly factory clean result.

Edit - use the glue section to get up the stuff - lots of little dabs with the adhesive backing.