Problem mounting Accelero S1Rev2

They make noise, too.

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doveman
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Problem mounting Accelero S1Rev2

Post by doveman » Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:39 am

I've got an Accelero S1rev2 fitted to an AGP FX5600, which I've been using for some time until it recently decided to stop working. It works at POST but at some point during XP boot, the display goes into standby. Once XP has booted, I can VNC in and everything looks OK.

Anyway, I've noticed that it doesn't seem to fit very well as there's only one plastic washer per screw (it uses two screws) on the GPU side and if I try to tighten the screws, it causes the board to bend. To avoid bending, I have to leave the screws quite loose, to the extent that there's a gap between the washers and the board of about 1/2 the thickness of the washers.

The only thing I can think of that would remedy this is for there to be an extra washer per screw, or one thicker one but I don't recall there being any other washers supplied with the S1. It might be a moot point now if the card really is knackered, but I'd still like to know what the answer is to fitting it properly, as I may use an S1 in future on another card.

Wibla
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Post by Wibla » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:03 pm

Wut? I would tighten those screws up a fair bit, and check how the ramsinks are. The board wont die from being abit bent, but it will die from overheating...

Also I thought the accelero has four screws?

http://bilder.wibla.net/p182rebuild/DSC_7273_Big?full=1 <- 7950GT + HR-03, that board is bent.. works perfectly tho

http://bilder.wibla.net/p182rebuild2/DSC_8213?full=1 <- GTS250 + S1rev2, four screws as you can see with the red washers, card not noticeably bent, but probably wouldnt be a problem.

doveman
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Post by doveman » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:41 pm

I think it depends on the card. With my FX5600, there's only two holes that are possible to use. The ramsinks look fine.

Compared to that first picture, I think my card bends quite a bit more when the screws are tightened. I have been running it with them tight but as I say, the cards not working properly any more and I'm just trying to work out if this is how it's meant to be mounted.

HammerSandwich
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Post by HammerSandwich » Sun Dec 20, 2009 9:52 am

Note that I'm simply picturing your installation in my head, so this comment may be wrong. </disclaimer>

When the cooler clamps tightly onto the washers, the washers take the load. That force needs to press the cooler onto the GPU instead. This is like having loose handlebars on a bicycle. Torquing the clamp more tightly won't help once its gap closes; you need a shim between the bars & clamp at that point.

Is the S1 getting hot? How about the chip itself? Can you wiggle the cooler around, or is it solid?

Wayne Redpath
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Post by Wayne Redpath » Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:45 pm

If your card is dead perhaps you can find a used replacement card at a used computer parts shop for 5-10 pounds. Possibly you could find a card the Accelero will fit on...

doveman
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Post by doveman » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:45 am

HammerSandwich wrote: When the cooler clamps tightly onto the washers, the washers take the load. That force needs to press the cooler onto the GPU instead. This is like having loose handlebars on a bicycle. Torquing the clamp more tightly won't help once its gap closes; you need a shim between the bars & clamp at that point.
I think I understand what you're saying, but in that case I don't understand what the point of having washers is at all, if we don't really want them filling the gap between board and cooler.

The S1 never got very hot but I think it's just this card doesn't emit that much heat. I monitored the temps and they were fine (and lower than with the stock fan cooler). No wiggling room, cooler is pretty solid.

doveman
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Post by doveman » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:55 am

@Wayne

I might try and get the same card (FX5600) for about £25-30 as I'm thinking of giving this PC to my brother as an HTPC, and he'll need a graphics card that can handle SD playback/Media Portal and that has an S-Video/Composite output (he's only got a 4:3 CRT TV and isn't likely to be getting anything newer anytime soon) and the FX5600 meets both criteria. My current one's VIVO as well, which he might find useful too, so hopefully any replacement will be.

I've always had an issue with the S1rev2 fitting the clips on though. One end the clip sits almost flush with the cooler, but the other end there's a great big gap. As you can imagine, this makes it almost impossible to get the other part of the clip to attach, or stay attached. As I'll have to courier the PC up to my brother, I want to be sure everything's solid so I might have to consider a different cooler.

Parappaman
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Post by Parappaman » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:23 am

At that price you will get an ATI HD2600 Pro AGP, don't waste that kind of money on an obsolete piece of hardware like the FX5600. It will fit the S1 nicely, will have MUCH more gaming power and DX10 compatibility, will probably use less electricity, will accelerate video decoding and so forth.

doveman
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Post by doveman » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:56 am

The 2600 Pro 512MB AGP seems to go for about £40-50 actually. It also doesn't have video in but at least supports s-video/composite out.

My brother doesn't play games at all, so that wouldn't matter to him. As for video, the only thing the P4/5600 couldn't cope with was HD video, but my brother's only got an SDTV and is unlikely to be upgrading any time soon, so the DXVA probably won't be of any use to him.

So it comes down to paying an extra £15-25 to gain (probably unused) DXVA but lose video in.

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