Overclocker Cafe - Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus VGA Cooler Review

Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus VGA Cooler

Manufacturer: Arctic Cooling
Supplied by: Arctic Cooling
Street Price: $50

by Dean Barker (1/23/2011)

Introduction

Arctic Cooling has been in the business of PC cooling solutions since 2001. They originally started out as quiet and performance oriented CPU cooler makers. Over the years, Arctic Cooling has expanded into a number of realms to include, mice, keyboards, headsets, power supplies, batteries and USB accessories to name but a few. At their core however as is in their name, Arctic Cooling is about 'cooling.'

The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus is one such product that shows that the only direction that Arctic has moved away from their roots is up. With a street price of $50, this high end GPU cooler promises significant cooling and sound gains for some of the most robust video cards currently on the market. Promises are one thing, delivering is another. To that end we have a sample of the Accelero Xtreme Plus on our bench today for an up close and personal look at what it is and more importantly, what it does. Let's get started!

Features

Application: VGA Cooler
Compatibility: ATI - 6870, 5870, 5850, 5830, 4890, 4870, 4850, 4830, 3870 and 3850.
NVIDIA - 580, 570, 480, 470, 465, 460, 285, 280, 275, 260+, 260, 250 and 9800 GTX
Dimensions: 290 L x 104 W x 56 H mm
Fan (s): 92mm (x3)
Fan Speed: 900 - 2000 RPM
Max Air Flow: 81 CFM
Weight: .74 kgms
Warranty: Six year limited warranty

What you get

The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus comes in a clear plastic package along with a extra slot guard cover, power adapter, case badge and instruction booklet. Also available (and recommended) is the Arctic Cooling accessory kit that is comprised of tailor made RAMsinks depending on what video card you have. The accessory kits are available for all cards that are compatible with the Accelero Xtreme Plus. This accessory kit runs about six clams and for a custom cut set of aluminum RAMsinks and a tube of thermal adhesive, that is a darn good price in anybody's book.

The Unit

Arctic Cooling Accelero Plus unit itself is pretty impressive. On first looking at the unit, it is hard to miss the three gigantic 92mm fans. Each fan moves approximately 81 cubic air of air per minute at maximum speed. I say maximum speed as these fans are variable speed numbers running from 900 to 2000 RPMs. The power cable powering these allows for PWM control adjusting their speed based on the GPU load and temperature diode reading. We all know what quiet is which is well... quiet. Full honk is another story and one we'll be listening to in a bit.

What does not grab you immediately but does as soon as you realize you have three 92mm fans side by side is that the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus is one long unit. From heatpipe tip to opposing heatpipe we have 11.5 inches of VGA cooler.

Flipping the unit over we see that the copper base radiates its thermal energy outwards via five 6mm heatpipes. Attached to the copper heatpipes are 84 thin aluminum convection fins to quickly dissipate heat.

Looking again at the base we see a solid copper billet as our GPU contact point with a pre-spread layer of silver thermal paste. I'm assuming this is the venerable Arctic Cooling MX-4 Paste but I was unable to confirm that.

Here are a couple of shots fore and aft of the Arctic Cooling behemoth. You have to admit, this is one impressive looking cooler.