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Accelero XTREME GTX 280 Log

Calneon

Calneon

Calneon

Associate
Joined
17 Nov 2008
Posts
1,680
My Accelero XTREME GTX 280 cooler arrived today, so i'm going to do some tests and take pictures to see waht sort of a difference it makes. My card runs quite hot which means the fans are quite loud, which is why I bought the cooler.

Here are some temperatures with the stock cooler, which I had reseated the heatsink with AS5. Obviously in the games, the temperature depends on how complex the scene is, for example in TF2, in the respawn room the temperatures are about 75°C while in battle they can get to 85°C.

FurMark
1280x1024, 2xAA, Xtreme burning mode
Max Temp: 92°C [link]

Company Of Heroes
DX9, Ultra settings, 16xQ CSAA
Max Temp: 84°C [link]

Team Fortress 2
Max settings on everything
Max Temp: 84°C [link]

Idle
Temp: 49°C [link]

Not very thorough testing but it should give me something to compare against when I install the Accelero. Before I shut down to install it, here are some quick photos of the cooler itself.

DSC04132.jpg


DSC04133.jpg


DSC04134.jpg


More coming later once i've installed it!
 
Good stuff! What are the fan setting for the stock cooler temps? How did you get Furmark to show power consumption as well?
 
Hopefully not :D This is the last hurdle for me building PCs, still haven't managed the confidence of changing/refitting a GPU heatsink.
 
Look forward to seeing results from this, my current gtx 280 is fine temp wise, but im not to keen on the noise the standard cooler makes when it ramps up.
 
Ok i'm back, nothing bad has happened as such. Installation was an absolute b*tch, and I still haven't finished. Taking the stock cooler off was easy because i'd done it before, however the instruction manual didn't give any help with that so it would be hard for any first-timer.

The thermal sticky pads are absolutely awful, and the cause of most of my frustrations. The instructions state to use a rubber to clean the memory and voltage regulator chips, which I did, however there still wasn't enough adhesion between the chip and the heatsink and it keeps falling off. This happens on the backplate, the voltage regulator heatsink, and one of the RAM heatsinks. In retrospect I should have used a TIM cleaner (which I have) to make sure they were totally clean, which may have helped them to stay on. However, at the moment the backplate is on my desk and the other heatsinks are lodged between the card and the core heatsink, but not stuck on (mavity is enough to pull them off) so i'm thinking i'll have to get some sort of thermal glue to stick them on.

The actual core heatsink was also a pain to put on, but I managed it in the end. I'm reluctant to stress it much because of the lack of heatsinks on the RAM and voltage regulators, but it's currently idling at 37°C which is an improvement but not as much as I was expecting.
 
AC and Thermalright GPU coolers have had this mentioned lots about the complete pain to put/make stick the thermal pads etc.
 
After about 20 seconds of FurMark the core gets to about 55 but the voltage regulators got to 110, which is when I stopped. Obviously this is because they have no heatsink.

I think i'll purchase some AS Thermal Adhesive to stick em on, that should do the trick. Adds another £15 to the total though, can anyone suggest cheaper alternatives?
 
Be careful with the as adhesive, if wrongly applied it can create a permanent bond between surfaces, not good if you ever had to replace the stock cooler in the event of an rma application if the card fails.
 
setter said:
Be careful with the as adhesive, if wrongly applied it can create a permanent bond between surfaces, not good if you ever had to replace the stock cooler in the event of an rma application if the card fails.
Click to expand...
Yeah I did think of that. Maybe it would be better and cheaper buying some tape.
 
Yep, the akasa tape is good stuff, ive used it to good effect on motherboard chipset heatsinks, no problems getting it to stay stuck.
 
There are some pictures of the culprits.

The heatsink on the far right is the voltage regulator heatsink, it's meant to be held on by 7 very small thermal pads, but mavity pulls it off.

DSC04149.jpg


This is the backplate, it's being held on by mavity but I doubt there's good thermal contact.

DSC04153.jpg


DSC04154.jpg
 
Make sure to wipe the surfaces with lighter fluid next time. I have always done this when applying thermal tape and it's never given me any problems at all. Seems to do a perfect job.
 
Diggsy said:
Make sure to wipe the surfaces with lighter fluid next time. I have always done this when applying thermal tape and it's never given me any problems at all. Seems to do a perfect job.
Click to expand...
Yes I should have done this. However, it didn't state anything about that apart from clean with an eraser, which is a bit lame of them. Would TIM cleaner do a similar job?
 
My only issue with TIM cleaner, and I have used the Akasa one, is that it appears a little 'oily' to me and doesn't dry quickly.

What I like about lighter fluid is it's easily got, cheap, dries instantly and leaves literally no residue, which is perfect for good adhesion.
 
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