# Arctic Cooling Accelero X2



## W1zzard (Jan 9, 2006)

The "Silencer" series from Arctic Cooling has been famous for delivering top notch performance while still being quiet. The Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 is the first aftermarket cooler engineered for the ATI Radeon X1800 and X1900 series. It features a completely revamped design and continues the tradition of powerful and silent.

*Show full review*


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## wtf8269 (Jan 9, 2006)

I do believe I am in love, but I'm a little worried about how the side sticks out. It might be too far out because of the side fans I have in my case.


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## zOaib (Jan 10, 2006)

to be honest thats not much difference in temps with this thing , yes there is some reduction but this si just the x1800xl stats , x1800xt's run much hotter !

design looks sleek , but i can get the same cooling by running a 80mm fan facing the power connector end of my x1800xt , which blows over the MOFSETs too while taking that air into and over the heatsink of the stock cooler and sucked ut the other end !


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## W1zzard (Jan 10, 2006)

the side sticks out 4 cm beyond the edge of the card


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## spectre440 (Jan 10, 2006)

i wonder how come they didnt go with their traditional "thermal-sleeve" design...
that kind that blows the hot air out of the case... cause that was one of the main advantages of the "older" silencers, IMO...


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## mR Yellow (Jan 10, 2006)

Nice  
I want one...now!.


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## Megatron (Jan 12, 2006)

It broke this guy's card:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1227220&postcount=38


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## infrared (Jan 12, 2006)

Hmm, seems the design has a few fatal flaws.


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## BIOHazard87 (Jan 12, 2006)

zOaib said:
			
		

> to be honest thats not much difference in temps with this thing , yes there is some reduction but this si just the x1800xl stats , x1800xt's run much hotter !
> 
> design looks sleek , but i can get the same cooling by running a 80mm fan facing the power connector end of my x1800xt , which blows over the MOFSETs too while taking that air into and over the heatsink of the stock cooler and sucked ut the other end !


exactly the way i think, i havent seen anything think like this until now


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## wtf8269 (Jan 15, 2006)

zOaib said:
			
		

> to be honest thats not much difference in temps with this thing , yes there is some reduction but this si just the x1800xl stats , x1800xt's run much hotter !
> 
> design looks sleek , but i can get the same cooling by running a 80mm fan facing the power connector end of my x1800xt , which blows over the MOFSETs too while taking that air into and over the heatsink of the stock cooler and sucked ut the other end !


Yes but think about what the temps would be if you were to do the same thing with that Accelero.


			
				W1zzard said:
			
		

> the side sticks out 4 cm beyond the edge of the card


Yeah that would be REAL tight if it fit. Maybe I'll just get another VF-700-Cu?


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## Megatron (Jan 15, 2006)

wtf8269 said:
			
		

> Yes but think about what the temps would be if you were to do the same thing with that Accelero.


No idea what temps would be but the 2 fans would be blowing against each other with that cooler and 80mm on power end.


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## noneed4me2 (Feb 9, 2006)

will a zalman 700 fit this x1800 or x1900 without issue?


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## mR Yellow (Feb 9, 2006)

noneed4me2 said:
			
		

> will a zalman 700 fit this x1800 or x1900 without issue?



Yes, it fits on the x1800...i don't know about the x1900.


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## anixon (Mar 18, 2006)

*X1800XT temps?*

Hey guys, I just got this yesterday and I put it on an sapphire X1800XT (stock speeds) which i recently got. Does anyone know what the avg temps for a card like this is? The Accelero is really quiet (compared to the stock lawnmower) i'll give it that. Right now i'm at 55 idle and 62-65 load (approx. 20-30 minute of BF2 all settings maxed incl. AA) but i havn't had much time to test more.

I'm not forcing 100% on the fan i'm just running Accelero normal. I've read some reviews on this though such as the one posted above and people are doing 47 idle and 53 load?? Are my temps too high? I think they were about 58 idle before i installed the Accelero. Do you think i botched the install... or is the X1800XT supposed to run hot and my current temps are ok?

FYI:
AN8-Ultra
AMD 4400+ Stock
4x512 (2gb) PNY Extreme (2-4-4-8 2t)
Sapphire X1800XT stock (Accelero X2)
1x WD 36GB Raptor
1x Maxtor 250gb
1x Maxtor 200gb
Antec Sonata 2 (2x 120mm Fan)

Thanks


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## infrared (Mar 18, 2006)

Those temps look fine, you did a good job of fitting it, but it's hard to compare since most people post their idle/load temps with 100% fan. Maybe you should try it and see what you think, the fan on the AC coolers is still very quiet even at 100%

The ATI cards are said to be 'overheating' at 105c i believe. Of course, thermal throttling will have started way below that! The chips can stand high temperatures without being damaged.

Did you buy it for overclocking, or purely to reduce noise?

Good job anyway


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## anixon (Mar 18, 2006)

I bought it for a little of both those benefits, definately the stock cooler was too loud for my taste when gaming but I was also wanting to flash my card with the X1800XT PE bios. I'm not usually interested too much in fiddling with OC tools and stuff so the idea of just upgrading with the bios was really appealing. I thought with this cooler it might be quite stable and safe.

Havn't decided whether to do the flash yet or not right now for my needs all my games run great. I was thinking of waiting for TES: Oblivion to come out this week before making my final decision.


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## gb_drbob (Apr 29, 2006)

W1zzard said:
			
		

> Temperature was measured with *one case side open* by reading the on-die thermal diode of our ATI Radeon X1800 XL PCI-Express.


How does this make for a valid comparison? Surely you should have left the case side closed to get accurate real world results - the Accelero x2 doesn't exhaust air out of the case like the stock cooler, you're totally negating the effect of this by leaving the case open.


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## dimitris (Jan 18, 2007)

*Won't fit on a X1950 AGP!!!*

I bought the cooler but it's mounting screws won't fit on card (GeCube X1950 Pro AGP). 


BEWARE AGP USERS!!! Your card may have a different PCB than the PCI-X version tested here!


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## infrared (Jan 18, 2007)

Thanks for the heads up dimitris. Sorry to hear it didn't fit though  I suppose since the cooler hasn't been used you could return it though.



gb_drbob said:


> How does this make for a valid comparison? Surely you should have left the case side closed to get accurate real world results - the Accelero x2 doesn't exhaust air out of the case like the stock cooler, you're totally negating the effect of this by leaving the case open.



Since everyone has a different case, with different ventilation keeping the side panel on would make it impossible for people to compare to. Everyone can remove the side panel on their computers which will roughly match the conditions W1zzard tested the cooler in.

I hope this clears things up a little


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## dimitris (Jan 21, 2007)

Unfortunately I started the cooler installation by sticking the thermal pads on the memory chips. So they could not be used (sold) again. I could return it based on the fact that it says "1900 - 1800 family compatible" on the box, but its not worth the hassle for 20 euros... especially with the traffic jam here in Athens 

I am dissapointed mostly because i had a silent system (all arctic cooling stuff) and now i have a noisy one. All other "silent stuff" i have on my rig became useless.


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## Wile E (Jan 22, 2007)

dimitris said:


> I bought the cooler but it's mounting screws won't fit on card (GeCube X1950 Pro AGP).
> 
> 
> BEWARE AGP USERS!!! Your card may have a different PCB than the PCI-X version tested here!


Drill and tap new mounting holes into the cooler?


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## JC316 (Jan 22, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Drill and tap new mounting holes into the cooler?



That seems like alot of work, but since they wont take it back..... I would pester them a little bit more, if it says it will work on all X1900 series, then they should take it back.


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## Wile E (Jan 22, 2007)

JC316 said:


> That seems like alot of work, but since they wont take it back..... I would pester them a little bit more, if it says it will work on all X1900 series, then they should take it back.


Sorry, meant to suggest that only if all else fails.


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## JC316 (Jan 22, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Sorry, meant to suggest that only if all else fails.



Oh yeah, if they refuse to take it back, I would certainly do it. I didn't mean to say that it was a bad suggestion, because it's not.


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## tkpenalty (Jan 22, 2007)

Its a nice cooler . The VF700 CU wouldn't do better... (HOLY SHIT VF900 CU IS TINY), its extremely heavy too.

EDIT: Is the X1800XT cooler really 7 CM tall? Thats a bit tall isnt it?


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## Wile E (Jan 22, 2007)

tkpenalty said:


> EDIT: Is the X1800XT cooler really 7 CM tall? Thats a bit tall isnt it?



Sounds about right.


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## tkpenalty (Jan 26, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Sounds about right.



Um.... 7cm? thats like four slots tall or something.


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## JC316 (Jan 26, 2007)

tkpenalty;242683EDIT: Is the X1800XT cooler really 7 CM tall? Thats a bit tall isnt it?[/QUOTE said:
			
		

> No way it's 7 CM. Mine is about 1- 1 1/2 inches tall.


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## Wile E (Jan 26, 2007)

Sorry guys, I used the completely wrong conversion factor. I have no idea how I got that.     to me. lol


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## l3x89 (Mar 6, 2007)

How did you control the fan dynamically and set it to 100%?
It didn't work for me with atitool.


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## mapesdhs (Apr 9, 2007)

[search keywords: X1950 AGP, overlock, ATI Tray Rools, ACCELERO, XEON]

Just wanted to say thanks so much for the review and example installation 
instructions! Along with the info from ricklafay.com, it made it much
easier to install the cooler onto the Sapphire X1950Pro AGP I bought
(actually two of them; one for me, one for my brother's PC).

I thought it might be useful to others if I described the end results, and
how I overclocked the card.

My system is a Dell Precision 650, dual-XEON P4/2.66GHz, 2GB PC2100
ECC memory, 4 x 146GB 15K U320 SCSI disks, 430W PSU, Sapphire X1950
Pro AGP 8X. NOTE: gaming performance is faster (with higher 3DMark
results overall for 03/05/06 tests) with HyperThreading turned OFF.

As other people found, with the stock cooler the load temp on the gfx
card was 75C or more. Ouch! I want to play games, not fry an egg. 

With the cooler fitted, and before the wearing-in period has taken effect,
I already find the load temp has dropped to 53C, which is absolutely
excellent. What's more, this is _after_ I've successfully overclocked the
card to about 11% faster than normal - realibly done I might add; am
playing Oblivion on the system just now, which is what I wanted the card
for (aswell as for Stalker). Before overclocking, the load temp was reduced
to 50C. I expect the 53C temp I see now to possibly drop a little more
as the conductive grease sorts itself out. Note that I do have a tube of
Arctic Silver 5, but one test reviewer said he found no appreciable
difference when replacing the supplied grease with AS5, so I left it alone.

During my extensive research on how to overclock, it was clear many
people had difficulties. I too ran into similar issues, eg. the ATI Tray Tools
would cause the screen to blank if I changed the mem clock by even one
degree, whereas the GPU could be changed ok. Meanwhile, the Catalyst
auto-scan would recommend 631MHz/781MHz just fine, but seemed
unable to actually enact the changes. I tried various combinations, eg.
having only the ATI drivers and using ATT...

In my case the solution was to have the Catalyst Control Center installed
as normal, and use the Overdrive panel to unlock the overclocking, but
to use ATI Tray Tools to make the changes themselves, but doing it at
the _driver_ level, NOT via low level. Plus, before I made the changes, I
manually set the fan to 100% . I expect 95% or less would be ok, but
I initially set it to 100% to be safe; over time I'll back it off bit by bit, see
how low it can be and still maintain the max 53C temp under load. A
quick checked suggests 90%  would be fine, but I'm not in any hurry to
sort out this aspect of the cooler setup. Will do that later.

The most important thing I discovered was that the GPU/MEM speeds
can be increased much more reliably if the changes are made in
increments of 6.75MHz. In practice, whatever speed one wishes to set
by this method, if the number is fractional then request the speed
rounded up to the next 1 or 2 MHz. Eventually, ATT won't allow one to
increase the speeds any further than a certain amount anyway, though
these limits are likely to be 5 to 10MHz too high than is realible.

Once I'd worked out the 'how', making the changes was easy. Trying
with various settings, I eventually peaked at testing the GPU at 648MHz,
but 3DMark06 froze during one of the tests, so I backed it down one
level and at 641MHz it runs reliably, no artifacts. Has anyone run the
Sapphire faster than this? Either way, here's the end result:


```
GPU: 641.25MHz
MEM: 783.00 MHz
3DMark2006: 4781
```

I noticed elsewhere one person with a GF8800 in a system with 3GHz P4
and FSB800 got 4829, so I'm quite pleased given my system has just
PC2100 ECC, FSB533 and P4/2.66. See:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1091311

Their HDR1 result is much higher, but their HDR2 result is only 16%
better. I would never have expected my system to come that close
to matching a GF8800 in any respect, not with the older CPU/RAM
technologies that my system has.

Anyway, my X1950 gfx stock speeds were 580MHz/702MHz, so it's
now running ok with 10.5% faster GPU and 11.5% faster MEM. I could
probably push the memory even faster, but I'm happy with the setup as
it is, and I figure it's probably sensible to boost each by a similar amount
if possible. I decided at the beginning that if I could get a 10% boost in
each then I would be more than satisfied.

I am very impressed with the cooler. The ACCELERO X2 is really good.
The idle temperature is actually now lower than the case temperature! 
With the stock cooler, idle temp could easily be 50; now it is down to 35C
or less (in my brother's PC, which has better cooling than my Dell, the
idle temp is down to 32C, while the max load temp is currently 50C
without overclocking - should get better results with his system though
as his PC has dual-channel PC3200 RAM).

I have to say, it's a shame Sapphire didn't offer a premade version of the
X1950 with the ACCELERO X2 already fitted, though I guess for some the
physical height of the fan casing might be an issue. Best of all though,
awful loud noise of the original fan has completely vanished; I can't hear
the new fan at all, even with it set to 100%.

To round things off, here are my 3DMark2006 results (will add
3DMark05, 03 and 01 results here aswell if others are interested):


```
3DMark 2006:  4781
    Shader Model 2.0:  1921
         Game Test 1:  15.283
         Game Test 2:  16.736
        HDR / SM 3.0:  2196
          HDR Test 1:  21.709
          HDR Test 2:  22.203
   CPU Overall Score:  1364
          CPU Test 1:  0.436
          CPU Test 2:  0.682
  Fill Rate / Single:  4938.664
Fill Rate / Multiple:  7664.101
        Pixel Shader:  248.800
     Vertex / Simple:  166.340
    Vertex / Complex:  60.920
    Shader Particles:  N/A
        Perlin Noise:  70.612
```

Note that on a different forum I've already posted full test results
for this system before any overclocking was done, along with PCMark
results for the system as a whole:

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=games_mygames&thread.id=8659

The overclocking gives an overall 3DM06 increase of around 5%, though
individual tests can benefit much more (eg. Pixel Shader has gone up
by 25%) and the difference in Oblivion is very noticeable indeed, much
more than a 10% speed increase I'd say. I'm running Oblivion at 1024x768
but with 'high' features/quality; for the X1950 series, this seems to give
better results than trying to run at a higher resolution with 'medium'
quality settings. Note that this is without any Oblivion updates or tweaks
just yet.


Final tips: I used cotton buds with isopropanol to clean all surfaces before
attaching the new cooler. Works well, but handle with care as it's a skin
dessicant. I also had a proper inert-gas airduster can (CPC/Farnell
Electrolube GDP) to help clear away any trace dust before the final fitting.
A 0.5mm watch maker's screwdriver was perfect for disconnecting
the stock cooler's power connector. Lastly, when removing the plastic
cover from the copper base of the ACCELERO X2, be careful to make
sure the plastic outer strip doesn't 'flick' at the last moment and score
over the conductive grease layer. It did this with the first cooler I fitted
to my own system, though thankfully the mark was really small (less
than 1mm wide) and made no difference to performance, but it could
have been worse. I was more careful with the 2nd cooler, made sure
the plastic cover was removed while firmly held.

Can't think of anything else...

Hope this helps!

Cheers! 

Ian.

SGI Depot: http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/sgidepot/
Email: mapesdhs@yahoo.com       (eBay ID: mapesdhs)
Home: +44 (0)131 476 0796


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