Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 mini review and support

[weiern]

Haha it was pretty tricky getting the spacers and screws to line up. I had to put cooler on the ground with the spacers on the feet and guide my card (with screws in the holes) onto it. By the way this thing barely fit into my antec 900.

Here is the picture of the missing tapes http://ht4u.net/images/reviews/2009/arctic_cooling_accelero_extreme_gtx280//liefer.jpg

Yeah i definitely did not have those.

 

[OnBoard]

The part of this card in red was way to tall for the large heatsink to fit right.

So it was too tall with the thermalpads?
http://ht4u.net/images/reviews/2009/arctic_cooling_accelero_extreme_gtx280//pads_nvio_ram.jpg

mine has several differences and doesn't look like this card or for that matter Tux brother either. The main differences are in the rear portion of the card. Also my pcb is green, not sure if that matter but according to the reviews I read it is a ref design made buy Nvidia directly and sold buy PNY.

I was under the impression that all reference cards are black. http://www.legitreviews.com/article/915/3/

I then had to add 6 heatsinks to the ram that wasn't covered by the ram heatsinks that came with the cooler. I also added several misc heatsinks to the vrms. This took me about 3 hours because it appears I received a 280 gtx accelerro extreme without some of the up dated components to make it compatible with a 285 gtx . I can tell you these heatsinks are not compatable with all the 285 gtx cards.

Don't think there is any GTX 285 specific version. Their page has said "the Accelero XTREME GTX 280 is compatible with the nVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, GTX 280 and GTX 285." right from the start, but if you look at the text in the box, it just says GTX 280 / GTX 260. Maybe they'll make a new revision of it, something like just the cooler, that is compatible with all GT200 cards and then a heatsink pack separate.

 

[weiern]

This is what I did for my card, just throwin' that out there.

 

[OnBoard]

Hmm well I am pretty pleased with the results from the Accelero, perhaps I wanted a little cooler for my idle temps but i have at least a 10c difference which is good.

I can't seem to get Nibitor working, if anyone could help that would be great.

Was idle temps a problem ever with these cards ?)

What's wrong with Nibitor? It can't get bios on x64 OS, but GPU-Z saves fine. Other than that I had no problems.

 

[trt740]

Hey trt740 are you using the backplate given. haha mine is so sketchily put on.

No the directions say it's not needed on the 285 gtx

Did you guys look in the screw bag? I said in my review that the tape is missing on the feet, but Arctic Cooling has gone different route and supplied 4x round double sided tapes that you put under the spacers.

edit: oh I don't have them either, saw them on another review and remembered wrong. Just checked the first page picture and only screws on the pag :/

Here is the picture of the missing tapes http://ht4u.net/images/reviews/2009/arctic_cooling_accelero_extreme_gtx280//liefer.jpg

There was no tape in my bag either ( used the glue stick trick) and in the 285 gtx directions online the screws that are longer are used for the rear heatsink and there are two of them and the shorter are used on the main cooler there are four of them, but my package had that backwards and the directions had them in reverse as well for the 280 gtx. Two shorter screws and four longer screws etc. Ac needs to get it's shit together. Also remember my card is slightly different from some other 285 gtx cards I have seen in reviews. Hey guys whats the chip on the rear of the cards function and does it really need such a giant heatsink. I wouldn't think it needs one so big? So why such a giant heatsink? Also could a smaller one be used?

 

[weiern]

Oh i see now, saving BIOS using GPU-Z and uploadding with Nibitor, coolio. And before I was idling at anywhere between 50-55c.

Hey guys whats the chip on the rear of the cards function and does it really need such a giant heatsink.

What do you mean the rear of the card?

 

[OnBoard]

NVIO NVidia Input/Output. RAMDACs there and provides the HDCP stuff + DVIs and tv-out. Shortly, not important, but without it you won't get any picture Don't know how hot it goes, but pretty big heatsinks have come with 8800 series aftermarket coolers and for these.

 

[trt740]

So it was too tall with the thermalpads?
http://ht4u.net/images/reviews/2009/arctic_cooling_accelero_extreme_gtx280//pads_nvio_ram.jpg



Yes even with the thermal pads, the small post in between was too tall, causing a a teeter taughter effect and the screws were too short to reach the holes. Also when center it wouldn't touch the ram when touching the rear chip and vice versa.

 

[OnBoard]

A picture of your card would have been nice, seems it's pretty different from others and even from the PNY card they have on their page.

 

[trt740]

A picture of your card would have been nice, seems it's pretty different from others and even from the PNY card they have on their page.

this post is twice as big as it is in your photo

 

[trt740]

A picture of your card would have been nice, seems it's pretty different from others and even from the PNY card they have on their page.

this is my card. Except for the larger center post and I don't have the metalic square rear top of the other 285 gtx cards posted here (also shown in the 280 photo posted above) my card is almost the same.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133256

 

[OnBoard]

this post is twice as big as it is in your photo

So it has this sort of component there? At least it looks much higher:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_260_Sonic_216_SP/images/front.jpg

 

[trt740]

So it has this sort of component there? At least it looks much higher:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_260_Sonic_216_SP/images/front.jpg

Other than color mines exactly like that. Also your correct and that center post is much bigger . What review is that from. Also notice the metallic square is gone aswell.

 

[weiern]

I have seen pictures with heatsinks added to the back of the 285. Any reason for this?

 

[OnBoard]

yes and that center post is bigger than it looks and my card is green

Yep. So the cards were reference desing black at the start, but now they are custom build by PNY. Bigger profit for them.

So if you card isn't black, only thing that will fit for sure is the cooler.

 

[OnBoard]

Other than color mines exactly like that. Also your correct and that center post is much bigger . What review is that from. Also notice the metallic square is gone aswell.

It's a Palit card review from here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_260_Sonic_216_SP/3.html

 

[trt740]

Yep. So the cards were reference desing black at the start, but now they are custom build by PNY. Bigger profit for them.

So if you card isn't black, only thing that will fit for sure is the cooler.

well, true but you can always , one cut the big heatsink in half or two use a S/B low profile heatsink, but you would need to use thermal adhesive to hold the on as I did. Something like this but shorter http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ensllowprcoc.html

 

[OnBoard]

I have seen pictures with heatsinks added to the back of the 285. Any reason for this?

Nope. Link? Shouldn't be any GTX 285 cards with memory on backside. Sure you could stick sinks there to cool the backside of the core mainly, VRMs shouldn't need sinking the back.

well, true but you can always,one cut the big heatsink in half or two use a S/B low profile heatsink, but you would need to use thermal adhesive to hold the on as I did.Something like this but shorter http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ensllowprcoc.html

I'm not a fan of thermal adhesive, as I like non permanent solutions. Might use this cooler for something in the future and stick stock cooler back (or not). But then again you can always get a new cooler to a new card

That heatsink looks nice and would work plenty fine if holes match. Any low profile NB/SB sink with adjustable mounting mechanism would be ok. They might just need a trim on top.

 

[weiern]

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia-cooling/483233-review-arctic-cooling-accelero-xtreme-gtx280.html

If you take a look at the attached thumbnails in the last part of Chris Ihao's first post, he has some heatsinks on the back of his card.

 

[trt740]

Nope. Link? Shouldn't be any GTX 285 cards with memory on backside. Sure you could stick sinks there to cool the backside of the core mainly, VRMs shouldn't need sinking the back.



I'm not a fan of thermal adhesive, as I like non permanent solutions. Might use this cooler for something in the future and stick stock cooler back (or not). But then again you can always get a new cooler to a new card

I stole this idea here but couldn't use the plastic pins because the heatsink couldn't rest on the tall center post, I slid the heat sink back and glued it the back of the vga out put and to the top of the chip. I had to attach it in more than one place because that chips so darn small it had to little surface area. I used arctic silver adhesive. I don't like to use it either but had little or no choice. It's not my most artistic looking job but since it's under the heatsink who cares and I only used one non matching ram heatsink. Had to use a Thermaltake heatsink with my old Accelero ram heatsinks. I was one heatsink short. Still all of that is under the heatsink and cannot be seen and this card looks killer and runs cool as heck.

 

[OnBoard]

If you take a look at the attached thumbnails in the last part of Chris Ihao's first post, he has some heatsinks on the back of his card.

He has GTX 280, like me. Zalman ramsinks on the back to cool the 8 RAM chips there.

 

[OnBoard]

I stole this idea here but couldn't use the pins because the heatsink couldn't rest on the tall center post, I slid the heat sink back and glued it the back of the vga out put and to the top of the chip. I had to attach it in more than one place because that chips so darn small it had to little surface area. I used arctic silver adhesive. I don't like to use it either but had little or no choice.

Surely it'll stay put now and cool too.

You should really use the orginal image links, or crop those images (right click on image and copy image location)

 

[weiern]

Oh okay. Comparing the picture above to the one i uploaded upwards on this page, I am not covering all the chips. I doubt that would make a difference in temps? Seeing how I did not have enough heatsinks I just covered the chips that I could.

 

[OnBoard]

http://i40.tinypic.com/r9jxbr.jpg

This is what I did for my card, just throwin' that out there.

Oh okay. Comparing the picture above to the one i uploaded upwards on this page, I am not covering all the chips. I doubt that would make a difference in temps? Seeing how I did not have enough heatsinks I just covered the chips that I could.

You should fine on VRM chips not covering all, but that in yellow should be sinked (as stock cooler does that).

 

[weiern]

What exactly are those yellow ones? Good thing i have two heatsinks left

So this means I am going to have to re-thermal paste up the gpu then right? Seeing how I have to take off the main sink.