Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo VGA Cooler Review

[Hardware Secrets Team]

There has been a new article posted.

Title: Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo VGA Cooler Review
URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/630

Here is a snippet:
"Accelero Twin Turbo is a VGA cooler from Arctic Cooling compatible with a myriad of video cards, including Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 from ATI/AMD and GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GTX from nVidia. We tested thi..."

Comments on this article are welcome.

Best regards,
Hardware Secrets Team
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com

[Olle P]

Nice article, but it doesn’t provide much information that couldn’t be concluded from a quick glance at the coolers involved.

Reasoning by the looks:

The standard cooler

• Use a by comparison small heatsink to cool the GPU, so one would expect it to be relatively warm.
• Use in practice a separate, but small, airflow for cooling the RAM, keeping it pretty cool too.
• All heated air is blown out the back, keeping the case interior cool.
• The fan speed is regulated to keep the GPU at convenient temperatures with a minimum of noise. (With the GPU at full load the fan can be expected to run at full speed too.)

Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo (ATT)

• Lots of heatsink area, requiring a smaller airflow to keep the GPU at convenient temperatures.
• Blow heated air onto the RAM sinks, the slower the fan speed the hotter the air.
• No net air outlet in the back, but possibly a smaller loop. Most of the heated air will move upwards to cool the CPU and other components before being vented out from the case. These components can thus be expected to become a few degrees warmer than when using the standard GPU cooler. To get a net airflow out at the graphics card it’s required to either use a separate evacuation fan at the site or to make sure that the case’s intake fans overpower the exhaust fans, producing an overpressure inside the case.

Test results

ATT on PWM:
Warm RAM. No surprise there. The heatsink is so efficient that the GPU will stay at the threshold temperature with the fans running very slowly. They thus blow fairly warm air onto the RAM heatsinks, keeping them warm.

Air output temperatures:
Here the standard heatsink produce the highest temperature. No surprise, since all heat is vented out the back in a concentrated flow right onto the thermometer. The ATT produces larger volumes of less heated air, most of which is vented out from the case at other locations.
This measurement is flawed by nature and shouldn’t have been done in the first place.


Missing results

• Noise levels. One of the main reasons for considering a switch of GPU cooler in the first place is to reduce the noise.
• Temperatures at the CPU and general upper part of the case. The standard cooler should make a better job keeping the CPU cool.

Cheers
Olle

[Gabriel Torres]

Hello

Thanks for your suggestions.

The main problem I have is that I am only one and I have to review all products manufacturers send. Depending on the product, I can't do a more detailed review as I wished. We don't have a noise meter, for example.

In fact I am still looking for a person to review coolers for us. If you are interested, please write us at webmaster [at] hardwaresecrets.com.

Thanks,
Gabriel.

[Olle P]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Torres

... I have to review all products manufacturers send.

Do you really have to review all, or can you chose not to test some products?

Originally Posted by Gabriel Torres

Depending on the product, I can't do a more detailed review as I wished. We don't have a noise meter, for example.

Lack of time and material resources might be prohibitive, but that shouldn't prevent you from presenting relevant information rather than irrelevant dito.

In GPU cooling reviews RAM and air output temperatures are irrelevant. CPU temperature is relevant and much easier to measure in a comparable fashion.

Scientific noise measurement is very difficult (and expensive), but the lack of an audiometer doesn't prevent you from doing some subjective validation.

Originally Posted by Gabriel Torres

In fact I am still looking for a person to review coolers for us.

I'd love to, but it requires access to one or two test rigs that are newer than my current computer, or at least on par with it.
I have a spare CPU (Athlon64 3800+, socket 939) and PSU, but that's about it.

Cheers
Olle

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi

Funny, you are criticizing my review but at the same time you couldn't do better...

Yes, I have to review all products manufacturers send, otherwise I wouldn't ask the products in the first place.

Best Regards,
Gabriel Torres.