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RX480 Reference Vs. Arctic Accelero X3 Cooler - CAN IT OC HIGHER? - Duration: 4:43. Tech YES City 71,804 views. Arctic Accelero 200RPM 92MM L2 Plus Graphics Card Cooler Fan - Black Grey White See more like this NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1 GB GDDR with ARCTIC Accelero Mono Plus Pre-Owned MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1GB.
Here is a guide to replacing the heatsink and fan on the EVGA GTX 670 SC 4Gb with an Arctic Cooling (AC) Accelero Mono Plus aftermarket cooler. I hope that my experiences will be useful to anyone else looking to replace the reference cooler.I found that the reference fan on this graphics card was very noisy above about 50% speed, and the temperatures under load were high. For example, playing Stalker Call of Pripyat at 1440p, with max settings, the GPU temperature was hitting 84 °C at 50% fan speed. Any faster than this is distractingly loud.The AC Accelero Mono Plus cooler was the only one I could find that is compatible with the 4Gb version of this GPU without modding. This cooler works with the backplate, and you can (just) get heatsinks on all of the RAM chips. Thanks to all of those who replied to my posts in various other threads in this forum. Disclaimer: I am reasonably competent at building PCs and handling components.
There is a chance that you could damage your graphics card if you are not careful, so you make any modifications at your own risk.The instructions that come with the cooler are pretty good. The latest version covers the GTX 670, and is available at amp.arctic.ac.
It will correctly tell you that you should use the 58.4 mm (outermost) screw holes on the mounting plate, and the 2 mm spacers. Here are some photos and extra tips.First a look at the back of the card. You will need to remove EIGHT small screws attaching the backplate to the fan housing, and FOUR larger screws attaching the whole thing to the main heatsink.You can now carefully remove the heatsink assembly and backplate, to leave something that looks like this, from the front and back:Unplug the fan controller and say goodbye to the reference cooler! The stock heatsink on the voltage controllers can stay put, it doesn't get in the way. You can also see that there was no additional cooling of the VRAM chips on the front of the card.Clean off the thermal paste thoroughly with IPA and attach the mounting plate, using the outermost (58.3mm x 58.3mm) screw holes. It is pretty tricky to align the mounting plate and 2 mm spacers, and the graphics card and backplate, and thread the screws.
Fortunately the spacers are sticky on one side, so at least you can stick these in place on the graphics card. Mounting the plate will allow you to see how much space you have for the ramsinks. It will look like this:Now prepare the thermal glue to affix the ramsinks. Mix the two provided compounds for no less than 5 minutes. You will see that the paste stiffens and gives off a little gas after that time.
Then attach the ramsinks and allow to cure for 5 hours.OR you can save yourself some hassle and a few hours by just using a thermal adhesive tape. It may or may not be as effective as AC's thermal glue, but it'll be a whole lot more convenient.If you use the thermal glue I would recommend being generous with the amount that you apply, and allowing it to cure with the ramsinks attached overnight. You might also rest something on top to apply gentle pressure to the ramsinks.Either way the card will now look like this:In fact, the 'bottom' two heatsinks won't quite fit as shown (see later photos). The cooling pipes on the main heatsink will get in the way slightly.Once you're ready to proceed, remove the mounting plate and reattach it to the heatsink/fan assembly, using the middle set of screw holes.Plug in the 4-pin fan controller now. The heatsink is precoated with thermal compound so no need to worry about that.Now for the tricky bit. You need to hold the new heatsink/fan in place, and line up the outermost set of mounting holes with the graphics card and the backplate.
If you can get two opposite corner screws in first it helps. If you have used the AC thermal glue, the chances are that some of the ramsinks will fall off about now. This is a fiddly procedure and they are bound to get knocked about. If you're using a thermal tape you might want to wait until last to attack the two 'bottom' ramsinks anyway.Once all four screws are in, tighten them.gradually., opposite corners then opposite corners, as the instructions show. You can tell when they are nearly tight enough by looking at the gap between the spacers and the heatsink and graphics card.
Once the screws are 'just tight enough' you're nearly finished.The backplate is only held on by the four screws, but it feels pretty secure to me. There is plenty of thread on those screws. For additional comfort I used three cable ties through the now unused screw holes, like this:The heatsink and fan are fairly tall, but fit fine inside my HAF932 case.The next picture's a bit shoddy, but you see the position of the bottom two ramsinks, the spacer being a nice fit between graphics card and heatsink, and the generous thread on the four mounting screws.Now for the moment of truth! Plug the card in and enjoy your new quieter cooler. Here is a quick comparison of before/after measurements on my rig. I think it's best if they don't quite touch, you can still squeeze them on. I had some faint vibration noise that could have been from them touching (or a number of other things!) It's not the end of the world if you just leave those two off altogether.The guy who did the guide to the Accelero Twin Turbo on the same card found those two ramsinks wouldn't fit with that cooler, and he had no problems just leaving them off.
After all with the reference cooler the VRAM has no heatsink on it at all.alfalfanaterQuick question, Do you think it matters if the bottom 2 heatsinks that interfere with the heatpipes touch the heat pipes? Or should it be ever so slightly spaced between the 2 just to make sure they don't touch? Hi Hazman, thanks for looking.The choice of aftermarket cooling is pretty limited for these cards, in fact this is the only air cooler I could find that fits without modding.The noise was the real problem, that was driving me mad. It's just gratifying to see the temperatures drop too. Big fan = lower speeds = less noise!Only problem with the size of the fan is that in a narrower case you might struggle to get the side on. The 6-pin power cables have to lie between the fan and the side of the case too. In my old Antec 900 I might have struggled.
I'll have to measure how far it stands off the MB, I can compare it to my CPU tower heatsink at least.HAZMANTHEGREATDUDE your cooler looks like a CPU cooler. Is that really necessary to put something that big on a card like that. I have the same card as you but wow lol. You really don't have to worry about temps bro. Why are people so worried about temps? Cards can go well over 90c. I wondered about vram temperatures too, but I haven't found a way to measure it.
Do you know if there's a tool that can do that? The reference cooler does at least blow air over the chips as you say.Having said that, I have overclocked the card to +800MHz on the memory speed and got a stable 3DMark11 benchmark (with core +100). So it can't be that bad.You could compare the ramsink cooling on the front of the card with the effect of the backplate, which cools the chips on the back of the card. Are small heatsinks with a large surface area better or worse than a huge hunk of metal?alfalfanaterThis is hat im worried about with this cooler:Now while thats the 680 that he's using, he says multiple times that the vrms arent getting cooled enough. The 680 doesn't have heatsinks by default either, so I can only assume the blower style fan provides enough airflow over the vrms to keep them cool and this doesnt? But have you noticed any change in overclock speeds with this?
Unfortunately it looks like the card doesn't allow for vrm monitioring, it doesn't have the sensors built in for it. The only thing I can think of, it isn't very scientific, is if they are scalding hot to the touch when in use, or if they are just warm. Although who knows if they are scalding hot on the default cooler.
And I cant paste urls because I'm to new, otherwise I'd send you the post about the 680 vrm. If you google 'Accelero Mono PLUS gtx 680' it should be the second link.
It's on overclock.net.And I was thinking the same thing, maybe the backplate really helps with the cooling of the vrms.TrailofUndeadI wondered about vram temperatures too, but I haven't found a way to measure it. Do you know if there's a tool that can do that?
The reference cooler does at least blow air over the chips as you say.Having said that, I have overclocked the card to +800MHz on the memory speed and got a stable 3DMark11 benchmark (with core +100). So it can't be that bad.You could compare the ramsink cooling on the front of the card with the effect of the backplate, which cools the chips on the back of the card.
Are small heatsinks with a large surface area better or worse than a huge hunk of metal?alfalfanaterThis is hat im worried about with this cooler:Now while thats the 680 that he's using, he says multiple times that the vrms arent getting cooled enough. The 680 doesn't have heatsinks by default either, so I can only assume the blower style fan provides enough airflow over the vrms to keep them cool and this doesnt? But have you noticed any change in overclock speeds with this? You're thinking exactly like I was!I like EVGA, despite what I think is a poor reference cooler on this card. I would have gone for another vendor if they had the same card with a better looking cooler, I like the Asus ones.Regarding SLi, I think it would just work, below is a pic that shows it the best I can get it. I reckon maybe a mm or two between them.It's a pain to add another £30 to the price of the card, but I'm happy with the new cooler and glad I changed it.LeetMiniWheatDo these take up more than 2 slots total?
My main obstacle with going for 670's is noise, but all the quiet coolers take up 3 slots and thus won't work in Tri-SLi. The only other option I saw was going with other venders double/tripple fan cards (asus, galaxy, gigabyte, etc), but none of them offer 4GB like EVGA (plus EVGA's service/support is the best). I wish EVGA offered different coolers, or at least put the 680 coolers on the 670 4GB's like the 670FTW. You're right, if I did this again I would certainly use thermal tape. I should have taken heed of the review on the Overclockers website! It would save five hours of finding something else to do and it would be so much more convenient.With any less glue I don't know if the ramsinks would have stayed on at all, 4 fell off while I was attaching the main heatsink as it was (after 5 hours curing etc.)So if anyone is looking at using this cooler, get the tape that he said!USFORCESNice except you got a little carried away the the thermal goop on the vram.
Why didn't you use thermal adhesive tape?EDIT: Best thermal adhesive tape Sekisui #5760 double-sided, can be found on ebay. Further to this, I wondered what the effect on the GPU temperature would be, having a second card so close to this cooler. The reference cooler exhausts out the back of the case, but the Mono doesn't.So I did a very rough and slightly dodgy experiment with a piece of cardboard.I fired up Skyrim and let it get up to temperature, about 57C. I then placed the cardboard where the SLi second card's backplate would be, and ran the game for a few more minutes.
The GPU temperature settled at 64C, still well below even the temp with the reference cooler.LeetMiniWheatDo these take up more than 2 slots total? My main obstacle with going for 670's is noise, but all the quiet coolers take up 3 slots and thus won't work in Tri-SLi. The only other option I saw was going with other venders double/tripple fan cards (asus, galaxy, gigabyte, etc), but none of them offer 4GB like EVGA (plus EVGA's service/support is the best). I wish EVGA offered different coolers, or at least put the 680 coolers on the 670 4GB's like the 670FTW. It's SO much quieter, in fact I can't hear it even at 60% speed, and it's doesn't need more than that.It goes at about 950rpm, I don't know how fast the stock goes, but more than that I assume!
Obviously a bigger fan can run slower for the same effect. The heatsink is probably a bit bigger too, certainly greater surface area I reckon.HAZMANTHEGREATIs that fan actually quieter than the stock 670 fan? Cause that is a bigger fan. Does it have lower RPM are something?
Usually the lower the RPM the fan is the quieter and less CFM it produces. Of course your getting better cooling with that fan cause you have that heatsink attached to it as well. You get my point.(I hope lol).
Hi,Hard to measure with it installed, but the card is about 19cm long. The backplate is about another 7-8 cm longer.I can't decide whether you're better with the backplate off so there is less weight on the card, or better with it on to support the heavyish mono plus cooler. I'll let you decide.If there's room in your case shouldn't be any problems with ramsinks on the back, you get plenty with the cooler.One thing I would add: I recently put one of these coolers on a second card, and found it much easier using thermal tape than the thermal glue that AC provide.
It's so much quicker, cleaner, and the ramsinks stay put!I used Sekisui 5760 tape, as recommended by another forum member. It's cheap on Ebay.Good luckSynomenonI like how short the card actually is. I'm going to install one of these Accelero Mono Plus coolers on mine, but I'll leave the backplate off. I'll install some RAMsinks on the chips on the back.
I used to have the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV - Arctic's latest version of their highest end GPU air cooler. I liked it a lot, and it has a non-invasive sound, even when at maximum fan speed.There are two things to keep in mind, though.1) It doesn't come with any extra hardware for VRM or RAM cooling. The Accelero Xtreme III did, but that also had a different set-up that was harder to install.2) Make sure that your CPU fan connector is a 4-pin, not a 3-pin connector.If you're will to throw down the extra $70 bucks for much cooler temperatures and a better noise profile, I say go for it. I don't think I would go too overboard with trying to cool the card, though. You'll reach that point of 'Why didn't I just spend the money on a better video card?'