Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler Review: Not For the Faint of Heart
by Dustin Sklavos on December 28, 2012 8:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Arctic Cooling
- graphics
- cooling
Conclusion: Expensive, Difficult, Potentially Worth It
My experiences with the Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid have revealed a product that's not unlike a powerful weapon. The end result of having the Hybrid installed on a GeForce GTX 680 is almost something that must be seen to be believed, and I imagine the AMD Radeon HD 7970 version is just as impressive (if not possibly even more vital given the GHz Edition's notorious noise level). At the same time, the Accelero Hybrid is really, really not for amateurs.
Creating something like the Accelero Hybrid is an uphill battle from the word "go." There isn't a whole lot that can really be done about that; they could produce a broad variety of individual packages for each card type, but that's not cost effective for them, and the Accelero Hybrid is expensive enough as it is. Assembling this kind of product was just going to be fiddly.
The problem is that I still feel like it could've been made at least a little simpler. The shroud itself feels chintzy, and the awkward shape and size isn't particularly attractive and oftentimes feels like it's even in the way a bit when doing assembly. Parts of this process could have been handled before the product shipped: all of the spacers could've been on adhesive sheets, the rubber pads could've been preinstalled in the shroud (and the shroud itself could've had spots that properly fit the spacers), and I have to wonder if they couldn't have even just built the shroud and waterblock as one single large piece. The instructions are for the most part detailed, but they aren't perfect, and more detail and care would've helped.
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And then there's that price I keep mentioning. The Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid sells for a not inconsiderable $169 ($149 for the 7970 version), so they abuse your wallet, your time, and your fingers. With so much stacked against it, it's hard to fathom why you'd actually go through all the hassle. That is, until you actually see it in action.
What Arctic Cooling is asking for the Accelero Hybrid is an awful lot, but you actually do get quite a bit in the process. For the GTX 680 at least, the Accelero Hybrid is a substantial improvement. Thermals drop close to the 30C that Arctic Cooling advertises, which is tremendous, and the Hybrid is slightly audible at its worst. The card runs much quieter, much cooler, and because of this, the GTX 680 at least can actually gain a little bit of performance headroom. So you're looking at $169 and a couple of hours of work in exchange for a substantial amount of upside.
The price and difficulty of assembly rule out an Editor's Choice award, and this product is most definitely not for everyone regardless, but if you have the experience, time, patience, and funds required, there's a strong case to be made for making this upgrade.
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boyang1724 - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
This is quite pathetic actually. Just get an Antec 620/ Corsair H60 cooler and a bracket from dwood for any high end gpu. Also comes with a fan mount, and only costs around $70-80 total. Brought my GTX 670 down from 80C+ max to 55C, and idle from 38C to 25C. It's a much better deal than this thing.SodaAnt - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
I'll second this. You get just as much performance for only around $60 (in my case). Plus it actually seems easier to install than this thing.BrightCandle - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
A custom water loop specified at 10C delta can produce temperatures around +20C delta at peak load. So these figures are certainly pretty decent comparatively. This goes a long way towards custom loop performance for less cost. Its about the same amount of pain in terms of modifying the GPU for watercooling however, just without the pain of cutting the tubing, fitting larger radiators and other water cooling pain.Your methodology doesn't mention your soak time for the water loop. Due to the heat capacity of water you do need to run at peak load for 30 minutes. So it might not be quite as impressive as it first appears.
mayankleoboy1 - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
"Your methodology doesn't mention your soak time for the water loop. Due to the heat capacity of water you do need to run at peak load for 30 minutes. So it might not be quite as impressive as it first appears. "+1
Unless you allow the water temperature to stabilise for some time (1 hour ?) , these results are erroneous.
Death666Angel - Sunday, December 30, 2012 - link
I get ~20K delta between ambient and GPU with my WC rig (4x120mm radiator mounted to the side of the case). It cost me 382.52€, 117.74€ for monitoring and control equipment and 51.56€ for the 4 fans, the rest for the WC stuff (pump, connectors, radiator, tubes...). But I also cool my CPU (which achieved 500MHz higher OC compared to my air cooler (Noctua NH-C12P)) and the system is not audible for me. The GPU was bought used with the WC mounted already and cost as much a new retail, so I got the cooler for free. I can use this equipment for the next CPU, mainboard, GPU upgrade. I can reinstall the stock air cooler on the GPU easily. I can add other components to the loop.I just don't see how these CLCs are seen as competing with custom WC rigs. Yes, they are a bit more expensive, but they also deliver many more options. CLC for CPUs does at least offer a few extra things (better clearance around the socket, extra fan controls...) but I doubt this offers that much more compared to after market GPU air coolers.
ziv_ew - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
how dose it compare to the eVGA 680 Hydro Cooper?IanCutress - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
Makes me think of the total cost of a pair of MSI Lightnings or ASUS CUII TOPs with these coolers. In simulations the GPU gets hammered extensively over days, and the cooler the whole system the better.dannoddd - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
I'd really like to see this put up against one of the DWOOD systems, where you take your choice of ALC mixed with his $8 bracket and put it on any card. I've been concerned about doing it due to the lack of VRM/RAM heatsinks. I think it'd be great if you could grab one of those and bench it against this setup and compare the difficulty of installation.Great article Dustin, love your work.
DanNeely - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
As fiddly as this is I suspect that if you've got a supported card a custom loop and a full cover heatsink would be less work to assemble than gluing all the individual ram/vrm sinks in place. Unfortunately they still don't have nVidia 6xx parts available yet.http://www.swiftech.com/graphics.aspx
Shiitaki - Saturday, December 29, 2012 - link
Rather ironic, I had commented in the last water cooling article that the gpu is the one that needs water cooling, not so much the cpu. Why is the radiator mounted to the video card? That's the only reason it's so expensive, and it's silly given how many fan mounts come in cases these days.