Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 mini review and support

[OnBoard]

VRM mod part 3 - the VRMs strike back

For the start, yes the previous mod name (hacksaw mod) was from part III or sixth Star Wars and now it's from part V or second one. They don't make sence, don't let it bother you

600th reply and I bring you something special, the final attack on VRM temps. Here is a post of the heatpipe RAM cooler used in this mod.

This is where we started, well it took couple hours already to get to this point. Part of Accelero cut with dremel and rest with hacksaw. Too thick to cut with rotary tool through and with just hacksaw it was taking ages.. The cut off piece weighs in at 38g and the heatpipe brought 44g, so just 6g more of overall weight.

Why I cut part of the Accelero off you might guess from this picture, but I'll explain it later. Same night, bending the pipe to approximate shape. Still looks nice and shiny as that was done just by hand.

My original idea was to use Zalman thermal adhesive that I had for years useless so far. But as you can see from the picture the green tube injection tube black rubber has melted to a goop In the end I could only get a little squirt out of it, no where near enough for this project,so plan B.

Those black ties (don't know what they are called) came handy, would have been impossible to adhere the pipe without it staying in place. This is another day and after a lot of more bending and pressing and molding the pipe it finally got a shape that fitted well enough.

Here is plan B, made my own thermal adhesive. 2 component epoxy glue (really strong stuff, can be seen on 3rd picture holding a car). Mixed a patch of that and put in about 50% of AS5 in. Came out of easy to work with stuff that kinda looks like old gum and also feels like it too

Here's how the pipe runs through the VRM plate on top and bottom. Close enough for the VRM points, still needed to fit under Accelero.

Then we go to back of the card. Original thermal pads finally came apart after so many opened times. Reason was however the last time I added some dried up silicon paste and it stuck to the pads too well.

Replaced with new thermal pads, 1mm in height and three pieces of 3mm thick thermal pads for the VRM area. 0.5mm would be closest to stock pads and RAM is about 1mm high, so 2mm pads for VRM are would have been better. Went with higher ones for memory to compensate for the thick pads on VRM, so they don't have to compress too much.

Doesn't show that well, but smudged the backplate on the VRM are with the original greasy pads, so they don't stick there. Same reason why I left the memory uncleaned from the grease. Don't want backplate to be too hard to remove if needed.

New VRM heatpipe plate in place. Had a problem with the heatpipe hitting the fan power wire and had to reshape it a bit. Luckily I only used the 100% epoxy on top and bottom of the lest side. The back end came off quite easy with just the thermal-mix holding it. This is by the way day 3 of the project.

Accelero back together and in place. Tight, but It fits! The plastic part that has the Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 come down quite a lot. Didn't need to cut it off

Here's a closeup on how it fits under Accelero. Bended the pipes a bit to have a little extra room. Close fit here too, but it's in there.

Closeup on other end, cut out a bit of the fins, that I had bended before. Looks more professional now and I had time while waiting the glue to dry (also changed 12cm input fan from the case to 14cm and moved the 12cm to drive bays).

Here's the explanation that I promised on the first picture. Accelero part cut out so that the middle fan has direct airflow channel to the VRM heatpipe fins. Airflow in the case helps to cool the other side of the fins.

And finally back in case. Looks better with the heatpipe than originally, if I say so my self Won't have any clearance issues with anything, even 12cm side panel fans should fit if I'd use it.

Hope you enjoyed, was a very time consuming mod, though quite fun, but glad it's over Results will follow they are not however anywhere as exciting as this post

edit: the gray foam block in the bottom is to block the empty fan intake and in the empty drive bays they are there to absorb some of the vibration/noise of the HDDs.

 

[OnBoard]

VRM mod #3 - results and explanation to previous post title

Idle, before the mod.

5min FurMark, before the mod.

Idle, after the mod, a bit worse. edit: RPM isn't registering anymore, don't know if the RPM wire didn't like me bending it around so much or what, but not a biggie

5min FurMark, after the mod, a bit/lot worse.

I get that core temp is higher, as I did cut 38g of the cooler, but so much I did repaste the cooler, but temps remained, so I think it's because the center piece now let's most of the air through the hole and not through the fins?

VRM temps is another mystery. 3 days of work and I get worse temps Again I reapplied thermal paste to all VRMs to see if that was the issue and the heatpipe fins do get war, so the mod is doing it's job. Either the backside thermalpads are bringing more heat in from the backplate(memory) or trapping the heat a bit there, as they are thick and not the best in thermal conductivity.

Another thing would be that the epoxy/Arctic Silver 5 mix isn't that great in conducting heat or that the contact points are just too little. I left a few caps under the pipe, as I didn't file it and though air+heatpipe would be better than heatpipe alone.

Well there is always "Star Wars IV: A New Hope", for VRM mod 3 - revisited, but first I'll wait and see what time does to temps. Those before the mod temps are so good that it made me think maybe the Noctua paste does get a bit better after time. Paste is now 1 day old and in before temps it was couple months.

Anyhow I played Fallout 3 couple hours yesterday and VRMs got to something like 70 and run FurMark OCed many minutes and temps begin to even out in the 100C range. Before I started my goal was 5C degrease and I'd be happy, surely didn't expect a 5C increase

 

[mudkip]

cool mod though, looks good!

 

[OnBoard]

cool mod though, looks good!

Thanks, hope I get it cool too some day. I have a feeling though that a 10min run or hot day this might be more effective as is. When I get bored next time, have to try and improve it. Have couple ideas already, even for core temp, that doesn't bother at all, as it's still low.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Ingenious idea, no doubt about that. Too bad it didn't work out very well.

 

[b1k3rdude]

I get that core temp is higher, as I did cut 38g of the cooler, but so much I did repaste the cooler, but temps remained, so I think it's because the center piece now let's most of the air through the hole and not through the fins?

VRM temps is another mystery. 3 days of work and I get worse temps Again I reapplied thermal paste to all VRMs to see if that was the issue and the heatpipe fins do get war, so the mod is doing it's job. Either the backside thermalpads are bringing more heat in from the backplate(memory) or trapping the heat a bit there, as they are thick and not the best in thermal conductivity.

I think the 2mm pads you used on the VRMs are the problem, change them for 1mm ones - these will work because i did a test where I just has blobs of paste inbtween the HS and the VRMS and it cooled the temps down much lower than yours, the VRM temps with 1.5mm pads were 10-20c higher.

Also you should have used proper thermal epoxy, not the hybrid glue you made - if you able buy the proper AC epoxy and use a dremel to reclaim your heatpipe/HS. Also i would suggest using the dreaml to make a proper slot for the heatpipe to sit in, rather than ontop of the edges of the fins...

 

[OnBoard]

I think the 2mm pads you used on the VRMs are the problem, change them for 1mm ones - these will work because i did a test where I just has blobs of paste inbtween the HS and the VRMS and it cooled the temps down much lower than yours, the VRM temps with 1.5mm pads were 10-20c higher.

VRM sink is mounted with thermal paste. Thermal pads are on the backside of the card, I told you that in earlier reply already. One of things I'll try (some day) is to remove the pads and see what it does to temperatures.

Also you should have used proper thermal epoxy, not the hybrid glue you made - if you able buy the proper AC epoxy and use a dremel to reclaim your heatpipe/HS. Also i would suggest using the dreaml to make a proper slot for the heatpipe to sit in, rather than ontop of the edges of the fins...

Yeah Arctic Silver thermal epoxy would be slightly better (62% to 65% silver content by weight), but also costs a lot. I have no other use for thermal epoxy and not going to spend money on it.

A slot for the pipe would be nice indeed, but I also don't want to mess up my VRM plate. Play with dremel on it and soon you're left with no VRM plate and nothing to replace it with.. Anyhow, you can't make a proper slot for the pipe, as in bottom of the fins, it'll start touching components on the card. Something in the middle would work and it'll be the last option to try if everything before it fails. Working card > temps

 

[mudkip]

1 1/2 hour of surfing/chatting and then 35 min of occt (Testing CPU overclock not GPU).

screen was taking while running occt, so probably without occt temps would be 1-2 degrees lower.

 

[mudkip]

1 min after occt (Testing CPU overclock not GPU):

 

[kyle2020]

Wow, I posted in this thread, what, 400 replies ago?

Glad your trying to improve an already excellent formula, but remember, OCCT / Furmark are epic fail synthetic tests that overstress components, and no game, no matter how demanding, will ever push your card as hard as those 2 deadly programs will. So even if you just get a 2*C improvement on idle, thats still a cracking achievement.

And, if I do say so myself, that heatpipe looks wicked

 

[mudkip]

I didn't run occt for testing my videocard but for my CPU

 

[OnBoard]

Glad your trying to improve an already excellent formula, but remember, OCCT / Furmark are epic fail synthetic tests that overstress components, and no game, no matter how demanding, will ever push your card as hard as those 2 deadly programs will.

And, if I do say so myself, that heatpipe looks wicked

Thanks. Yes, I remember that games push less, but in summer with low airflow games do get there It's more of if it handles FurMark it'll handle anything and no need to worry about temps ever again.

 

[Eenhoorn]

'Bump'

I was suprised of the abrupt end of this tread after reading it from op.

@OnBoard
Did you continue on improving your nr 3 mod?

 

[OnBoard]

I was suprised of the abrupt end of this tread after reading it from op.

@OnBoard
Did you continue on improving your nr 3 mod?

Not yet, been busy playing Need For Speed: Shift (and that's hard to do if card is not inside case )

But yeah, should try something in near future, soon people will go 5870/50 or GT300 and there is no point. Although I'm not upgrading anytime soon.

Thanks for the read

 

[wolf]

Not yet, been busy playing Need For Speed: Shift (and that's hard to do if card is not inside case )

But yeah, should try something in near future, soon people will go 5870/50 or GT300 and there is no point. Although I'm not upgrading anytime soon.

Thanks for the read

NFS Shift was good enough to keep me from TPU also, happen to use a G25 too? such a good experience...

Well I guess it wont be long before the accelero GTX300 comes out and we need a guide for that brah.

 

[Eenhoorn]

The reason I asked is because I have a rig with 2 Asus GTX275 cards folding F@H 24/7 (non SLI).
Both cards run at 70% fan speed, witch is way too loud , with core temps at 70C or above (room temp around 23C).

I'm tempted to mod these cards with Accelero's because I have another rig with an 8800gtx modded with an Accelero 8800, also running F@H, and that one is quiet as a mouse and has a core temp of 56C running at 60% fan speed.

I'm only hesitating because:
a - the Accelero's aren't readily available
b - will it fit in my Coolermaster Centurion case on a Asus P5B mobo?

 

[OnBoard]

NFS Shift was good enough to keep me from TPU also, happen to use a G25 too? such a good experience...

Well I guess it wont be long before the accelero GTX300 comes out and we need a guide for that brah.

Nope with 10year old Logitech FormulaForceGP, but great experince too. If not counting the few cars that simply don't move and a bit iffy loading times that were even worse online. Though that was just a quick try, need to almost finish SP before I'll start MP.

Accelero should fit GT300 cards too, as It has 2 mounting holes. Either NVIDIA uses the current holes, or goes back a bit for 9800/4800 holes, which I doubt, because it'll be a monster in size.

The reason I asked is because I have a rig with 2 Asus GTX275 cards folding F@H 24/7 (non SLI).
Both cards run at 70% fan speed, witch is way too loud , with core temps at 70C or above (room temp around 23C).

I'm tempted to mod these cards with Accelero's because I have another rig with an 8800gtx modded with an Accelero 8800, also running F@H, and that one is quiet as a mouse and has a core temp of 56C running at 60% fan speed.

I'm only hesitating because:
a - the Accelero's aren't readily available
b - will it fit in my Coolermaster Centurion case on a Asus P5B mobo?

a: you can always get it from quietpc.com for example.
B: you say what P5B is a single card mobo, don't know how you'd have 2 cards there. For the case, you need to be a bit more specific, there are a lot of cooler master centurion cases with different numbers.

On general note, the VRMs are only issue on GTX280, you don't need my mods to your card.

I did try to improve the last one a bit. The pipe is too securely in there, getting it off was almost impossible, so I gave up that. Filled the holes under the pipe with AS5 and blocked the ends with the mixture. Also took off the thermaltape on the backside of the VRMs.

Seems they were not the issue and more paste didn't help, temps remain the same. Though I just run 7min of Furmark and barely broke 100C, so I don't know if I'm interested of dremeling the pipe off at all.

 

[trt740]

I'm putting an Accellero Extreme 280 on my 280 gtx

and I found the best way to shorten the Enzotech heat sinks was simply nip 3 mm of the ends using wire nippers and a ruler. It took all of about 15 minutes and it pinches the heatsink tips into a cool spear tip look.

I'm going to use this 1.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186032 and these 2.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011. 3. and a tool similar to this to cutt 3mm off the heatsinks http://www.apogeekits.com/images/diagonal_cutters_vt057.JPG

Thx to Onboard and Biker I'm going to use the stock back plate. I will post some pictures when I'm done . Using the voltage hack and evga tools I should be able to easily reach 285/5850 performance for about 30.00 to 90.00 less depending on the card plus get a much quieter fan.

Here is the voltage tool patch that makes the evga voltage tool work for any 65nm card http://www.box.net/shared/b2noixtllj


Also did anyone try to use the included thermal tape from Enzotech to attach the heat sinks to the voltage regulators and if so how well do they hold.

 

[Eenhoorn]

a: you can always get it from quietpc.com for example.
B: you say what P5B is a single card mobo, don't know how you'd have 2 cards there. For the case, you need to be a bit more specific, there are a lot of cooler master centurion cases with different numbers.

a: I finally found a store in my hometown that has 1 in store, so first thing tomorrow ....
b: My bad. You're absolutely right. A P5B is a single card mobo. I meant a P5B Deluxe.
The case is an Centurion 590

On general note, the VRMs are only issue on GTX280, you don't need my mods to your card.

I know. I only asked because I was curious if You continued modding it.

I did try to improve the last one a bit. The pipe is too securely in there, getting it off was almost impossible, so I gave up that. Filled the holes under the pipe with AS5 and blocked the ends with the mixture. Also took off the thermaltape on the backside of the VRMs.

Seems they were not the issue and more paste didn't help, temps remain the same. Though I just run 7min of Furmark and barely broke 100C, so I don't know if I'm interested of dremeling the pipe off at all.

So I reccon You're happy with the mod as it is now.

I'll gather al the components mentioned in post 270 for the 275 card and will start modding after I reached the 5 million points in F@H (about 2 weeks from now).
Will report back with results and pics, or questions if I run into problems.

Thanks in advance for all your hard work to make it easier for others to mod their video cards.

 

[Retro*]

Also did anyone try to use the included thermal tape from Enzotech to attach the heat sinks to the voltage regulators and if so how well do they hold.

Although I used an HR-03GTX cooler, I originally used the included thermal tape to attach the Enzotech sinks to my former GTX 280 vrm's (see photos a few pages back). After a day or so of use to heat up the card and adhesive, they stayed attached, and stuck fairly well considering the tiny size of the vrm's.

 

[OnBoard]

I'm going to use this 1.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186032 and these 2.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011. 3. and a tool similar to this to cutt 3mm off the heatsinks http://www.apogeekits.com/images/diagonal_cutters_vt057.JPG

Thx to Onboard and Biker I'm going to use the stock back plate. I will post some pictures when I'm done . Using the voltage hack and evga tools I should be able to easily reach 285/5850 performance for about 30.00 to 90.00 less depending on the card plus get a much quieter fan.

Good luck with the project 285 performance should be pretty straight forward. Memory can be a bit iffy to get that high, mine does just 285 speed and nothing more (well haven't tried with the new thermal pads).

 

[trt740]

Good luck with the project 285 performance should be pretty straight forward. Memory can be a bit iffy to get that high, mine does just 285 speed and nothing more (well haven't tried with the new thermal pads).

maybe a moot point just sold my card and will refuse and auto rma the cooler.

 

[OnBoard]

maybe a moot point just sold my card and will refuse and auto rma the cooler.

You sure don't kee your cards long

 

[trt740]

You sure don't kee your cards long

just like playing around with video cards and cpus..

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Is there an Accelero thread for the 4870x2? I figured this would be the best place to ask. Any word on the vrm cooling on those? Sorry for the ot.