Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 mini review and support

[OnBoard]

Decided to post it also here, as not all of you read the GTX 260/280 thread, but might be interested in the cooler.

Card used in installation is same name as the cooler GTX 280 by ASUS, forgot to mention that.

Cooler is compatible mainly with 65nm GTX 260 and 280. Can be used on 55nm GTX 260 and GTX 285 (and upcoming GTX 275), but you'll need to have your own heatsinks to the VRM area and couple extra ramsinks.

edit November 20: Arctic Cooling is bringing out Accelero XTREME GTX Pro http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalo...ath=2_&mID=251 with improved compatibility on 55nm cards. It should have every memory and VRM sink needed for those cards straight from the box.

edit June 21: info on compatibility and what you need to do with non 65nm card + possible problems you may encounter
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpo...&postcount=270

Rest of info here:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalo...ath=2_&mID=237

There she is with all the bits and pieces that come along.


Backplate off from stock cooler, took alot of time and patience, even when I knew where the clips are that hold it in place, thanks to W1zzard's pictures. Along with various bits used to dismantle and clean.


Stock cooler off, not too much paste. If backplate was hard to get off, that fan wire was almost impossible! Took me 15min and had to use a small pin to get room for the little clips to come of. It was seriously tight and nothing to hold on (and didn't want to break it).


Cleaned with cotton swabs some Sinol (alcohol) and eraser. Eraser is a must and it's even on the instructions. Memory pads leave an epic grease residue that won't stick anything.


Memory sinks installed and pads for the VRM sink. Picture is mostly to show the blue protective film on top of VRM sink and backplate. Reviewers left it on, but it's meant to come off. Doesn't mention that on the instructions though.


A little bug. Cooler doesn't have those 3M tapes on the mounting feet that are meant to hold those white little spacers on. Doesn't show that well on the instructions, but it has a picture that tells you to peel the tape film off and stick the spacers there. I used a glue stick to overcome it, worked fine.


Cooler installed, it's BIG


Top view to show the space between the cooler and the PCB.


Backside to show original backplate still work with this cooler. No need to use the "uglier" one supplied, if you have 65nm GTX 260/280. My initiative to use it was to keep PCB from bending. Stock cooler weighs 548g and Accelero 632g and the supplied backplate attaches only with thermal tape.


Installed in case, it's long.. and shiny backplate


Hope you enjoyed the pictures and maybe there was some information as well. Some temperature tests to follow (later) and comparison to stock cooler temps. Tomorrow I'll add more sinks to VRM to see what it does.

Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 temperatures

Stock cooler idle, but with 3D voltage and clocks. 22C ambient. | Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 idle, with 3D voltage and clocks. 21C ambient.


Stock cooler FurMark 180s load. 22C ambient.


Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 FurMark 180s load. 21C ambient.
Didn't want to run the 3mins with those VRM temps, but test is a test.


To sum it up:
Core temps idle went down 20C and Load 24C.
PCB temps idle over 10C down and load over 20C down.
VRM temps idle went up 2-4C and Load up 40C!. (edit: read along this thread to know how I fixed that)

Interesting thing to note is that VDDC current went down quite a bit. So the cooler the card runs, less power it also needs (and that should help overclocking).

138C is absolutely horrible for VRM, sorry Arctic Cooling, but you messed it up. I doubt no-one tested those temps with FurMark Tomorrow I'll be trying to get this down to more reasonable numbers, with more sinks.

Other than that, core temps are fantastic load lower than stock cooler idle and noise is "what noise?". I'd give it 8/10 with that VRM sink, still worth the money though (cost was 59.90€/$81.5/£56 with VAT). Those of you with 55nm GTX 260 or GTX 285 should have less problems with VRM temps, as you can(have to) use ramsinks on them. GTX 260 will most likely run a bit cooler too, as it has only 5 of the 7 voltage regulators GTX 280 has.

edit: GTX 260 also has a lot lower core voltage that impacts VRM temps. With my own VRM sink, the score goes now up to 9/10. Would be 10/10 if they'd have supplied similar sink with the cooler as I made at the end of this thread.

[OnBoard]

A little follow up I promised. Those VRM temps were too high for my liking, so I went ahead and tried what adding more heatsinks on top of the VRM sink would do.

Heatsink arsenal I have. Accelero TwinTurbo sinks are too high to fit between the VRM sink and the cooler, but those blue zalman ramsinks fit just fine. Only have two of them left (really like them), so I used ZEROTherm VGA FET sinks. Those 3 biggest ones are too high, but rest work.


Here they are installed right on top were the VRM's area. Also the Accelero thermal paste spread can be seen. They used a bit too little of the paste, not enough to cover the Accelero base even. But temps were good, so I didnt even bother changing the paste. I would have added a bit more MX-2 though if I had it. Batteries on top left corner, just ran out of juice before this pic


Then the results:
Idle with the added sinks, tiny drop. ----------|---------- Idle before added sinks


FurMark 180s load with added sinks. 21.4C ambient. Tiny drop again.


FurMark 180s load without added sinks. 21C ambient.


Then I wondered what would 100% fan speed do for the VRM are. Seems it helps, but still not even close to the 100C with stock cooler. Core temp went down even more, but the efficiency of the cooler is enough even with low fan speed.


So doesn't look like extra sinks did much anything. The supplied thermal pads must be to blame, they are quite thick, so that the VRM sink don't hit the surface mount components.

This will have to do for a while. I'm sure those temps should be fine but I might chop the stock cooler rear off and use it as a VRM cooler. Having stock backplate on, it'll fit nicely with the original screws.

Only thing I don't know yet can it be mounted with just (unconductive) thermal paste, but seeing how flat the thermal pads have gone in the stock cooler, shouldn't be a problem. edit: read below the stock cooler cutting on posts #11 & 12.

[erocker]

At 138c your voltage chips are through the roof hot!! The card is burning up!

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by erocker

At 138c your voltage chips are through the roof hot!! The card is burning up!

I know, hence the above experiment Not really quite "through the roof hot", 28% more than stock cooler That is what is supplied with the cooler though and people will use it happily without even knowing, if they just look at the sweet core temp.

[austinrider]

Nice review. When is that cooler going to be on the market. I'm patiently waiting.

[erocker]

Originally Posted by OnBoard

I know, hence the above experiment Not really quite "through the roof hot", 28% more than stock cooler That is what is supplied with the cooler though and people will use it happily without even knowing, if they just look at the sweet core temp.

I would suggest first taking the supplied plate off of the vrm's and such and really cleaning the reisdue that the stock cooler leaves behind. If possible sinking each chip individually should help a lot.

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by erocker

I would suggest first taking the supplied plate off of the vrm's and such and really cleaning the reisdue that the stock cooler leaves behind. If possible sinking each chip individually should help a lot.

I suggest you first read the review in OP and you'd see that I cleaned them thoroughly

I have individual sinks too, but tiny aluminum, those smallest green ones in the picture. I doubt they are enough, would need copper ones or taller.

Anyways I'll be using stock cooler VRM part, 'dremel' it of the stock cooler in the future. That was the idea even before I tested the supplied sink, as I had doubts on the performance.

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by austinrider

Nice review. When is that cooler going to be on the market. I'm patiently waiting.

Thanks. It's on the market, but stock seems limited. The store here in Finland got 9 of them on 19th (when I ordered mine) and 3 more today.

So look around, should hit that side of the pond soon too

[Kursah]

So doesn't look like extra sinks did much anything. The supplied thermal pads must be to blame, they are quite thick, so that the VRM sink don't hit the surface mount components.

This will have to do for a while. I'm sure those temps should be fine but I might chop the stock cooler rear off and use it as a VRM cooler. Having stock backplate on, it'll fit nicely with the original screws.

Only thing I don't know yet can it be mounted with just (unconductive) thermal paste, but seeing how flat the thermal pads have gone in the stock cooler, shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you for your time and efforts, you verified what I had read from other sites, I was hoping that by the time it hit retail (at least in some areas) they'd have caught wind of the same issue with the HR03 VRM solution and it's poor performance. Sure my VRM's don't get too warm in comparison, if my GPU is at say 70C, they'd be at most 73-4C, with 64% fan speed. But I really like the overall design of the actual GPU cooler itself, and it's cooling performance. So I'm actually kind of curious what would happen if someone hacked off the OE VRM cooling section from the stock sink and gave that a go with the stock backplate...if you decide to go that route please PM me with if I happen to miss this thread for some reason! Again thanks for your efforts, I am eager to see this released at Newegg or somewhere I can get my hands on it at a reasonable price and start working my 260 a little harder and cooler all while having quieter operation.

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by Kursah

Thank you for your time and efforts, you verified what I had read from other sites, I was hoping that by the time it hit retail (at least in some areas) they'd have caught wind of the same issue with the HR03 VRM solution and it's poor performance. Sure my VRM's don't get too warm in comparison, if my GPU is at say 70C, they'd be at most 73-4C, with 64% fan speed. But I really like the overall design of the actual GPU cooler itself, and it's cooling performance. So I'm actually kind of curious what would happen if someone hacked off the OE VRM cooling section from the stock sink and gave that a go with the stock backplate...if you decide to go that route please PM me with if I happen to miss this thread for some reason! Again thanks for your efforts, I am eager to see this released at Newegg or somewhere I can get my hands on it at a reasonable price and start working my 260 a little harder and cooler all while having quieter operation.

Yeah, I'll hit a PM if I do it. Only thing stopping me at the moment is that, if I cut of the VRM part, the heatpipe that comes to the VRM area also loses it's contact. What would happen to stock cooler VRM temps then if I were to need it.

Would be handy to have a broken GTX 260 192SP to use in the project. Those should have the same cooler too, 216 version has at least. My stock cooler isn't even 2 months old yet

[OnBoard]

Hmm, no-one said I had post the wrong page as the review, it was 55 when it should have been 56

Sorry about that, I'll edit the whole review here, before I add new stuff. Will be easier when everything is on one thread. edit: OP editet to show whole review

---------------

Like I mentioned earlier I wasn't happy about the VRM temperatures and the idea to combat them was to use the stock cooler VRM part with some thermal paste.

So firstly we need to take the stock cooler plastic casing off. Remove the 4 screws circled in red:


Then from the other side under the fan, 3 black screws. They are already off, but spots circled again.


You end up with this:


That's seven! heatpipes and one of them goes to VRM area. Has a black tape on top, so that the heatpipe doesn't show under the fan


Time to cut, don't be scared cooler, I'll be fast.


Kinda late to turn back now.. Was quite easy and didn't take long, just be careful not to cut the screw holes off. VRM part weight about 24g, quite light, but more than individual copper sinks would be.


Old VRM sink off (took some force to take it off, tapes held nicely) new ready for action and Noctua NT-H1 paste as weapon of choice. Unconductive and goes also for core now.


OMG it fits Tried to wiggle it around a bit and seemed like it only rested on the VRM parts, so paste will do fine without the need of thermal pads messing up the performance.


There it is installed with original screws on back. Actually helps a lot in installation, as you don't have to hold the card+backplate+try to screw them to the sink.


Plenty room there for the sink and the components under the sink.

[OnBoard]

So did I finally beat the high VRM temps with this solution? Was it worth the byebye warranty? Read on. Added also a second GPU-Z to show the last 2 VRM temps and the core voltage.


Stock cooler idle, but with 3D voltage and clocks. 22C ambient. | Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 idle, with supplied VRM plate. 21C ambient.


These are the idle temps with the stock cooler VRM part + Noctua NT-H1, 21C ambient:


Stock cooler FurMark 180s load. 22C ambient.


Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 FurMark 180s load with supplied VRM plate. 21C ambient.


Stock cooler VRM part + Noctua NT-H1, 21C ambient:



So a HUGE drop in VRM temps. Almost identical to stock cooler results (remember that the whole bottom of the cooler helps on it, not just the end VRM part).

That's a drop of almost 40C from the Accelero Xtreme VRM sink and now I can comfortly use the card and enjoy not only low core temperature, but low enough VRM temperatures.

Also did a 5min run to see how far core would go and how much more the VRM would heat up. Even the extra time couldn't get it anywhere near the 139C before. Core temp was also starting to stabilize, so I don't thing the fan will speed up ever on me from the minimum 40%.


Do remember that core voltage plays a big role in the VRM temps, if you have a GTX 260 your temperatures will be automatically lower. I did a 1.1250V run on FurMark with the previous VRM sink and temps dropped 15C. I'll try later if I can get the card working with 1.0630V that 260s have.

Hope you liked these results and if VRM temps kept you from buying the Accelero Xtreme GTX 280, worry no more (if you are willing to chop the stock cooler ).

[OnBoard]

Added stock cooler VRM sink removal+installation pictures.

edit: added stock cooler VRM part temperature results.

[Kursah]

Very nice results man! Thanks for your efforts and the PM! I'll definately consider this if my 260's VRM's get too hot for my likings with the thin AC sink. I'd hate to ruin my EVGA warranty...but hey we'll see what happens. I am actually very impressed at that difference, that is huge!

Nice work OnBoard!

[Devil May Cry]

Hey, nice review. I just registered for this.

I got the cooler, it's really good! But I do have all the problems you experienced. I really need to fix my VRM temps they suck really bad. I bought this just so I could overclock even more. And I _can_ it's just the VRM temp stopping me right now. So please is there a easy way to make them cooler?
At idle it's no problem 48-50c but at furmark it gets 130-40, once even 150 when I pushed the clocks really high then the card rebooted the pc.

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by Devil May Cry

Hey, nice review. I just registered for this.

I got the cooler, it's really good! But I do have all the problems you experienced. I really need to fix my VRM temps they suck really bad. I bought this just so I could overclock even more. And I _can_ it's just the VRM temp stopping me right now. So please is there a easy way to make them cooler?
At idle it's no problem 48-50c but at furmark it gets 130-40, once even 150 when I pushed the clocks really high then the card rebooted the pc.

Thanks and really just couple options:

Either do what I did here and cut the stock cooler:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpo...1&postcount=11

Or get those Enzotech copper mosfet sinks:
http://www.enzotechnology.com/mos-c1.htm

Latter obviously more easy solution, if they are available and should do much better than the Accelero sink (and worse than the first method). You didn't however say what card it is, but based on those temps must be GTX 280 as well.

Core voltage also has an impact on the VRM temps, so if you can lower it a bit should help too. Shouldn't impact OC that much, if at all, these seem to have too much @ stock if anything.

[Devil May Cry]

Originally Posted by OnBoard

Thanks and really just couple options:

Either do what I did here and cut the stock cooler:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpo...1&postcount=11

Or get those Enzotech copper mosfet sinks:
http://www.enzotechnology.com/mos-c1.htm

Latter obviously more easy solution, if they are available and should do much better than the Accelero sink (and worse than the first method). You didn't however say what card it is, but based on those temps must be GTX 280 as well.

Core voltage also has an impact on the VRM temps, so if you can lower it a bit should help too. Shouldn't impact OC that much, if at all, these seem to have too much @ stock if anything.

Yeah it's GTX 280 alright. And I can't cut the stock cooler (warranty reasons).
And yeah the VRM temp does get higher if I overclock, about 10c higher actually. The rest on the card is so cool that I love and hate this cooler at the same time. full load@furmark, 56-7c overclocked to 729/1512/2600 (core/mem/shader). and thats in FURMARK in games it usully gets around 47c in full load.

Is the stock cooler in Cu?

[Lethalrise750]

I think I may buy an Accelero for my GTX 260 and use my Thermalright HR-03 GTX's VRM Heatsink.

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by Devil May Cry

Yeah it's GTX 280 alright. And I can't cut the stock cooler (warranty reasons).

Is the stock cooler in Cu?

Yep, losing warranty is a downside. No, stock cooler is aluminum on the VRM part.

Originally Posted by Lethalrise750

I think I may buy an Accelero for my GTX 260 and use my Thermalright HR-03 GTX's VRM Heatsink.

I looked in to that option too, would have bought the HR-03 GTX VRM sink seperate, but it isn't available :/ That should be possible to mount without thermaltape as well and result in better temps.

[Lethalrise750]

Originally Posted by OnBoard

I looked in to that option too, would have bought the HR-03 GTX VRM sink seperate, but it isn't available :/ That should be possible to mount without thermaltape as well and result in better temps.

Yeah the only ones that are sold separate are the 55nm VRM heatsinks.

http://www.crazypc.com/store/merchan...Category_Code=

[Devil May Cry]

Could this work?

http://www.indomo.se/index.php?show=...33b294cdf3ab85

Not buying from that page, just for information.

[Boneface]

Anyway you could post with 100% fan speed as noise doesnt bother me at all lol.

[Devil May Cry]

with idle temps and clocks or 3d clocks annd full load?

[OnBoard]

Originally Posted by Devil May Cry

Could this work?

http://www.indomo.se/index.php?show=...33b294cdf3ab85

Not buying from that page, just for information.

Nope, the VRMs are smaaaaaaaaal (see the above pictures) and have components besides them.

[Devil May Cry]

Well then this sucks big time, how can a 69$ cooler have this many issues, the biggest with vrm temps!