Finally

The most surprising thing about the Inno3D 8800 GT iChill is the fact that they didn't spam all over the package its being factory overclocked.  As we already mentioned, the 8800 GT's reference speeds are 600/1800Mhz for the core and memory.  The Inno3D iChill 8800 GT shares the same speed on the core clock and memory as the "Overclocked Edition" at 700/2000MHz.  Better cooling for such a screamer is long overdue.

Inno3D services this cooling need by offering up their OC card with an Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 cooler.  This is a rather large cooler that extends the width of the card by 1.5 inches.  Notice that the iChill card is no longer a single slot solution.  (You gotta love those gold plated outputs in the second pic below.) 

Air is pulled into an external shroud via a turbine type 60mm fan.  The shroud channels air through the internal convection fins and out along a vent that stretches just above the card's connection post.  A small area is open along the rear of the shroud to allow air to circulate over the voltage converters at the back end of the card.

When I looked closer, I was surprised to see three small heatpipes sandwiched under the convection fins.  Not being familiar with the Accelero X1 cooler, I felt it prime time to take it apart.

The bottom plate is aluminum with a copper inlay at the center for the GPU contact area.  The three heatpipes we saw earlier run across the GPU copper plate and along the aluminum convection fin structure.  Looking closer at the center pic below you can get a good idea of how much surface area the Accelero X1 really has.

The naked shroud completes the cooler break down.  Cooling is not all about fan muscle.  It's about velocity.  By channeling the air, the velocity of the air flow increases which maximizes the heat exchange.

The only bad thing we found with the Accelero X1 cooler was the extended width of the far shroud.  The shroud as you can see below obscures part of the SLI post.  Now if you have a flexible SLI bridge cable like most ASUS boards have, this is no big deal but there are a number of boards with the hard and inflexible PCB type bridges.  If you have this type of connector and want SLI, you had best get your Dremel out.

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