7970/50 Arctic Accelero Users

sieze2 · 12 Apr 2013 at 00:25

OK I just got my Accelero fitted to my 7950. It was a real nightmare as between some of the vrm's were chips that were higher than the vrm,s, so the heatsink would not seat correctly. I Simply just cut thermal pads to size which raised them above the chips. While I was at it I fitted the Ram chips with the thermal pads as I did not want to wait till tomorrow to test it !

I have to say its amazingly quiet isn't it ! At 63 % fan speed the GPU ran at 53 degrees consistently. Only recently on the stock cooler it was running at 76 degrees (and even as high as 86 degrees when it was clogged with dust!).

Its not much fun fitting it though. Its pretty tedious. But I have to say, its a brilliant piece of kit....and have I said how quiet it is !!! Its the best £51 I have spent in a long time.

CEUOTC · 12 Apr 2013 at 03:18

Will have to strip and re-do VRM's as VRM2 topped out at 106 after 30mins of WOT eek

Gelly54 · 12 Apr 2013 at 07:04

sieze2 said:
OK I just got my Accelero fitted to my 7950. It was a real nightmare as between some of the vrm's were chips that were higher than the vrm,s, so the heatsink would not seat correctly. I Simply just cut thermal pads to size which raised them above the chips. While I was at it I fitted the Ram chips with the thermal pads as I did not want to wait till tomorrow to test it !

I have to say its amazingly quiet isn't it ! At 63 % fan speed the GPU ran at 53 degrees consistently. Only recently on the stock cooler it was running at 76 degrees (and even as high as 86 degrees when it was clogged with dust!).

Its not much fun fitting it though. Its pretty tedious. But I have to say, its a brilliant piece of kit....and have I said how quiet it is !!! Its the best £51 I have spent in a long time.

What VRM temps are you getting with the thermal pads?

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 07:50

If you want the best possible vrm temps you need to use the permanent adhesive which is like rubber sealant. It holds the heatsinks on very tightly. But with elbow grease and a lot of gentle wiggling they will come loose, and eventually come off. Just takes some patience. Put a coasting of the adhesive all the way along the bottom of the heatsink then place and hold firmly on the metal vrm chip for 20 seconds. Do that for all the vrms then leave for one hour to dry. After that you can use the card. Its not like g1 where you have to wait 6 weeks for it to dry. One other thing that really helps keep the vrm temps down, get a decent exhaust fan on the side of your case, ideally a 200mm bitfenix spectre pro fan. 150cfm exhaust, helps move a ton of heat away from the card when it gets warm and really helps keep temps lower once you start overclocking hard.

It might not look pretty, yes that is a cable tied fan to the side of my case but its effective.

I will add this picture below to the OP. This is the best possible heatsink placement for vrm cooling. The L shaped sinks are the key. You might have to wiggle/gently force the top left L shaped sink into position but it will fit.

Gelly54 · 12 Apr 2013 at 08:17

Excellent LtMatt. Thank you, just what i needed.

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 08:22

Gelly54 said:
Excellent LtMatt. Thank you, just what i needed.

No worries. That post above was exactly what i needed when i first did it. Sadly nothing like that existed back then.

tribz · 12 Apr 2013 at 10:32

Thats a lot of paste on the GPU. Have you tried using less? You should reduce your core temps even more. My layer of paste is so thin I can see through it!

skinnyq · 12 Apr 2013 at 11:49

tommybhoy said:
I had a 5870 Extreme thread, all but one pic is dead though:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18214923

You are sooo lucky, I still have the pics, this was using the original 5870 Extreme heatsinks:

***IMPORTANT***cover up the yellow boxes with a plastic CD sleeve or similar when mounting heatsinks or your card WILL die on contact with a heatsink.

Obviously fill up the vrams with heatsinks, the big vrm sink to the right you won't have, just fill up the vrms under the yellow lines with some from the extreme.

Could I cover them up with the provided insulation strips instead? If I place them vertically that should be fine right?

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 12:25

tribz said:
Thats a lot of paste on the GPU. Have you tried using less? You should reduce your core temps even more. My layer of paste is so thin I can see through it!

No as core temps are fine, its the vrms which are the problem.

whyscotty · 12 Apr 2013 at 12:34

LtMatt said:
No as core temps are fine, its the vrms which are the problem.

Oh no, not more fiddling

sieze2 · 12 Apr 2013 at 12:46

Gelly54 said:
What VRM temps are you getting with the thermal pads?

I have not checked them yet, and am away in Alicante for the weekend

I'll check Sunday night.

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 13:10

whyscotty said:
Oh no, not more fiddling

You know me.

I've said this before, several times but i have no further plans to fiddle any more, retiring young. Its all drugs, booze and hookers from here on in for me.

CEUOTC · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:16

Well GPU stripped, fitted L shaped heat sinks to the RHS of the card and a longer thinner one to the top left VRM as unable to change the laws of physics and fit an L shaped one lol.

Curing now.

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:19

CEUOTC said:
Well GPU stripped, fitted L shaped heat sinks to the RHS of the card and a longer thinner one to the top left VRM as unable to change the laws of physics and fit an L shaped one lol.

Curing now.

What card do you have? Maybe the layout is slightly different so a L shaped one won't fit on that left vrm.

MOOGLEYS · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:19

Just fired up my 7970 and the VRM's are hitting 106.c. I'm going to order the swiftech and make it fit. Just need to work out how to remove the heatsinks attached with permanent adhesive now.

Sure I have some Meths around somewhere..

CEUOTC · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:35

LtMatt said:
What card do you have? Maybe the layout is slightly different so a L shaped one won't fit on that left vrm.

It's the same reference card you posted at the start of the thread, however the distance between the capacitor and R12 is just that little bit too small, no amount of wiggling will make it fit lol.

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:44

MOOGLEYS said:
Just fired up my 7970 and the VRM's are hitting 106.c. I'm going to order the swiftech and make it fit. Just need to work out how to remove the heatsinks attached with permanent adhesive now.

Sure I have some Meths around somewhere..

Use Swann Lighter Fluid. That's what i did to remove the permanent adhesive from the vrm's/dram chips. I know it sounds risky, but it works. Card booted up fine afterwards. Coat the the card with lighter fluid and eventually the adhesive will loosen then you can wiggle and eventually pull off. Just make sure you leave it an hour or two to allow the lighter fluid to evaporate. Or you can be creative and impatient like me and get a hair drier on there and start using it again within 40 minutes.

MOOGLEYS · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:57

They just pulled off with little effort. Tbh the contact looked pretty crap with the permanent adhesive. I have cleaned the card up and now I'm pondering what to do. The swiftech is out of stock at most places. I might just try some thermal tape or Tbh the temps were ok without any sinks on the ram and vrm's I might just run the fans %100 and leave it bare and see how it does.

LtMatt · 12 Apr 2013 at 15:01

MOOGLEYS said:
They just pulled off with little effort. Tbh the contact looked pretty crap with the permanent adhesive. I have cleaned the card up and now I'm pondering what to do. The swiftech is out of stock at most places. I might just try some thermal tape or Tbh the temps were ok without any sinks on the ram and vrm's I might just run the fans %100 and leave it bare and see how it does.

Moogleys i do wonder about you. The permanent adhesive does not just pull off, its bloody hard work. Are you sure you weren't using G1? Cos it sure sounds like it. I don't know how you manage to use it and get bad contact.

I won't even comment on your 7970 smoothness issue you mentioned in another thread, but seeing your vrm's at 106c its no wonder.

MOOGLEYS · 12 Apr 2013 at 15:05

LtMatt said:
Moogleys i do wonder about you. The permanent adhesive does not just pull off, its bloody hard work. Are you usre you weren't using G1? Cos it sure sounds like it.

I won't even comment on your 7970 smoothness issue you mentioned in another thread, but seeing your vrm's at 106c its no wonder.

It never used to be that hot it's been sat on my desk for a few weeks. It was meant to be permanent It did require some force to pull them off a lot more than if using G1. It may have been a bad tube or a bad mix but it was not as permanent as I thought it would be.

I love this 7970 it has been through hell and back and still goes on. It whines like mad but never gives up. Tbh I might just refit the reference cooler as it drowns out the whine.