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My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:29 pm
by makutaku
I've recently bought an Accelero S1 to replace the noisy fan on my Gigabyte Radeon 4670 card, located in a Sonata II case.

Using the stock fan, the temperature was stabilizes at 97C on stress.
Using Accelero S1 (fanless), the temperature stabilizes at 110C on stress.

Besides the fact that the temperature is much higher, even when the case is opened, it's making a hissing noise. Not bad, but louder than my 120mm Nexus fan.

I can only hear the noise when stressing the video card. If I stop, the noise is gone. I am sure it's Accelero making the noise.

My question is: Is this normal or do I have a defective unit?

Does this happen with your Accelero?

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:44 pm
by Vicotnik
The only way an S1 would make a noise is if a heatpipe is broken I guess. And even then it would not "hiss" for very long.

Are you sure it's the S1 that makes the noise? Seems more likely it's the graphics card or maybe the motherboard or PSU, only you couldn't hear it with the stock fan running.

I would refit the S1 on the graphics card, 110C on a 4670 is insane. Either it's not properly mounted or the heatpipes are defective.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:03 am
by makutaku
Vicotnik wrote:Are you sure it's the S1 that makes the noise? Seems more likely it's the graphics card or maybe the motherboard or PSU, only you couldn't hear it with the stock fan running.
If it's another component on the graphics card I will only find out if I use the same Accelero on another card. However, I am pretty sure it's not the motherboard. I put my ear very close to the graphics card and the noise comes from it. Besides, the instant I stop FurMark stress, the hissing noise is gone and CPU usage is under 40% during the test.
Vicotnik wrote:I would refit the S1 on the graphics card, 110C on a 4670 is insane. Either it's not properly mounted or the heatpipes are defective.
I will mount it again tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks for the help!

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:07 am
by Matija
Something is wrong with your card. 97C with the stock fan is absurdly high and more than double of what it should be.

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:32 am
by rpsgc
makutaku wrote:I can only hear the noise when stressing the video card. If I stop, the noise is gone. I am sure it's Accelero making the noise.
Ha :D


Why would a passive cooler make any noise? There are no moving parts. Think about that for a moment. Then, google "video card whining under load" and you'll see that pretty much all modern video cards whine or buzz under 3D load which you didn't notice because, like you said, the default fan was loud.

Yes...


/thread

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:33 am
by blackworx
+1 for something being out of whack with your card. If your S1 is hissing constantly, I would think it can only be a high frequency vibration being transmitted from elsewhere, most likely the card itself.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:01 am
by edh
That will be the card making the noise although the fact it's hitting 110C is more of an issue and possibly the reason why it's making that noise. Some cards will throttle at high temperatures and make a funny noise while they do it.

Remount the S1 checking for component collision which might be preventing correct contact with the core. What kind of airflow do you have around the card?

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:44 am
by Olle P
Matija wrote:Something is wrong with your card. 97C with the stock fan is absurdly high and more than double of what it should be.
It's a bit higher than recommended, but not necessarily due to a fault with the card. Probably more of an issue with too warm air (due to too small air flow in that part of the case).

Cheers
Olle

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:13 am
by Matija
Olle P wrote:
Matija wrote:Something is wrong with your card. 97C with the stock fan is absurdly high and more than double of what it should be.
It's a bit higher than recommended, but not necessarily due to a fault with the card. Probably more of an issue with too warm air (due to too small air flow in that part of the case).
No way.

It's a Gigabyte 4670. Their fan speed cannot be changed, and it's pretty high to begin with.

Stock 4670s are between 30 and 45 degrees, depending on how well the case is ventilated and how fast the fan is spinning. He has a temperature of 97C, and 110C with the Accelero. The only way this would be possible is if his entire computer is passively cooled, no fans whatsoever, and he has the most power-hungry Prescott ever made, all in a very small case, and an ambient temperature of 40C.

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:32 am
by antivenom
rpsgc wrote:
makutaku wrote:I can only hear the noise when stressing the video card. If I stop, the noise is gone. I am sure it's Accelero making the noise.
Ha :D


Why would a passive cooler make any noise? There are no moving parts. Think about that for a moment. Then, google "video card whining under load" and you'll see that pretty much all modern video cards whine or buzz under 3D load which you didn't notice because, like you said, the default fan was loud.

Yes...


/thread
Exactly what I was thinking, the S1 is a passive cooler, therefore no fan and therefore its simply a heatsink, a big hunk o' metal! I can't imagine how it would be your S1. And that kind of temp can severely shorten the life of a graphics card by melting it to your motherboard! :lol:

I'm sure a graphics card should never produce that much heat, unless it's propped up by a radiator.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:26 am
by Lawrence Lee
Unless there's zero airflow in your case, there's no way your GPU temp. should be that high. The Accelero improved my HD4850 by 25C without a fan, and that's a 110W card. It is either damaged or installed incorrectly

Take off the heatsink and check the footprint made by the thermal compound.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:52 am
by jhhoffma
And make sure your actually reading Celsius and not Fahrenheit.

110C would pretty much destroy any videocard I've ever come across.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:11 pm
by edh
jhhoffma wrote:110C would pretty much destroy any videocard I've ever come across.
I measured a 5900 with a dislodged shim at 118C. Card still works fine having fixed it. There also was one guy claiming 167C with a Zalman HP80-D somewhere.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:17 pm
by jhhoffma
edh wrote:
jhhoffma wrote:110C would pretty much destroy any videocard I've ever come across.
I measured a 5900 with a dislodged shim at 118C. Card still works fine having fixed it. There also was one guy claiming 167C with a Zalman HP80-D somewhere.
Was it at that temp for extended usage?

I'd love to see how resilient the old "hair dryer" can be.

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:03 am
by makutaku
rpsgc wrote:Why would a passive cooler make any noise? There are no moving parts. Think about that for a moment.
There are no moving parts, but there are moving fluids inside. Therefore I think it's reasonable to consider that a possible defect with the heatsink would explain the hissing noise.

I could mount it on another video card, but it's easier for me to replace the S1 since I bought it in a local store.



That being said, I remounted it today. The temperature on load is much better: no more than 68C! :) On idle it's 31C. Ambient is around 24C.

The ventilation on my case is not good, but I have two 120mm Nexus fans, one exhausting air, and another mounted on a Ninja for the CPU.

On the other hand, the hissing noise continues :x . Much lower noise (probably because the temperature is not so high), but still a little annoying. I will replace the Accelero tomorrow and try again.


Thanks for all of your comments. I am really impressed with this forum!

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:00 am
by edh
makutaku wrote:There are no moving parts, but there are moving fluids inside. Therefore I think it's reasonable to consider that a possible defect with the heatsink would explain the hissing noise.
Why would it make the same noise previously when it clearly wasn't even taking any heat from the card and hence there would be hardly any flow in the heatpipes? It's the card making the noise.
makutaku wrote:That being said, I remounted it today. The temperature on load is much better: no more than 68C! :) On idle it's 31C. Ambient is around 24C.
In an ambient temperature that high I would say that temperature is fine. Problem solved.
jhhoffma wrote: Was it at that temp for extended usage?

I'd love to see how resilient the old "hair dryer" can be.
It ran like that for probably a few hours in total while I was testing to find the fault. I'd remounted the heatsink several times and replaced it with several different custom fitted ones until I found that the shim (polished metal cover on the chip) could be removed, doing this fixed the temperature problem. The shim had been slightly raised when removing the stock heatsink and hence wasn't in good thermal contact.

The chip would clock throttle at this temperature and black dots would appear on the screen but never I had any crashed.

The NV35/NV38 core is the most bomb proof I've come across. That particular sample has been flashed to a 5950U and further overclocked to 542MHz from a stock 400MHz, all fairly quietly too with a big Pentium 2 heatsink and an 80mm fan. It might be the fastest air cooled non volt modded 5900 ever. Water cooled volt-modded ones can get 650. When it finally has to go I might just for the hell of it volt-mod it and put some nitrogen on it to see if it can crack 700.

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:11 am
by nutball
makutaku wrote:
rpsgc wrote:Why would a passive cooler make any noise? There are no moving parts. Think about that for a moment.
There are no moving parts, but there are moving fluids inside. Therefore I think it's reasonable to consider that a possible defect with the heatsink would explain the hissing noise.

I could mount it on another video card, but it's easier for me to replace the S1 since I bought it in a local store.



That being said, I remounted it today. The temperature on load is much better: no more than 68C! :) On idle it's 31C. Ambient is around 24C.

The ventilation on my case is not good, but I have two 120mm Nexus fans, one exhausting air, and another mounted on a Ninja for the CPU.

On the other hand, the hissing noise continues :x . Much lower noise (probably because the temperature is not so high), but still a little annoying. I will replace the Accelero tomorrow and try again.
Everything you are saying is still pointing to the noise being coil whine from the card itself. This comes and goes with load on the graphics card.

To test this put the stock cooler back on, then whilst stressing the card put your finger on the fan to stop it (you won't hurt it if it's only for a few seconds) and see if the hissing noise is still there.

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:03 pm
by makutaku
nutball wrote:To test this put the stock cooler back on, then whilst stressing the card put your finger on the fan to stop it (you won't hurt it if it's only for a few seconds) and see if the hissing noise is still there.
Nutball, I followed your recommendation and the hissing noise is still there. *** Yes, it's the video card! *** What a piece of garbage! I wonder if it's just a problem with mine (Gigabyte Radeon HD 4670).

So I will keep the S1 and mount it again once I figure out how to attach the memory heatsinks again - I had to remove them to replace the stock fan, but now their adhesive surface is gone! :(


I'd like to thank - all of you guys - for your useful input!

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:25 am
by rpsgc
makutaku wrote:What a piece of garbage! I wonder if it's just a problem with mine (Gigabyte Radeon HD 4670).
rpsgc wrote:Then, google "video card whining under load" and you'll see that pretty much all modern video cards whine or buzz under 3D load which you didn't notice because, like you said, the default fan was loud.
*ahem* :roll:

The answer was given, you just chose to ignore it

Re: My Accelero S1 is making noise. Is it defective?

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:36 am
by makutaku
rpsgc wrote:The answer was given, you just chose to ignore it
I didn't ignore it. I just chose to prove it.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:58 am
by nutball
I don't think it's by any means uncommon for current video cards to have this problem. My HD4870 squeals like a stuck pig under load. What to do about it is entirely a different issue of course - there are some here who use hot glue on some of the components which supposedly suppresses the noise (search for "coil whine" in this forum, should show up the relevant threads).

Personally, my solution has been to wish that the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of all ATI employees, which makes me feel better but doesn't really solve the problem. :)

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:38 am
by Vicotnik
This is the first case of a squealing 4670 that I have heard of though. I've tested two 4670s (Sapphire and HIS) and none of them had that problem.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:41 pm
by sgtsmith
The start of this thread shocked me with those temps. My 4670 is idling away at 35C with only an S2 and a couple case fans at 700 RPM, so I knew something had to be wrong. Glad to see you have it resolved.