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Arctic Accelero Hybrid - Liquid Along With Air Cooling System For Graphics Card (Part 1)

5/20/2013 5:07:17 PM

We will talk about an extremely interesting cooling system for the Hi-End graphic card accelerator that combines the concepts of liquid and air cooling in one.

Arctic Accelero Hybrid is a cooling solution that combines liquid and air cooling based on the famous Asetek platform. The engineers from the Swiss company Arctic have not applied anything to improve it. They only enhanced the cooling device with components they had at hand. The most interesting fact is that the Accelero Hybrid is designed for those superior graphic cards than CPUs. We will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the cooling system and test its performance in practical applications.

Packaging and accessories

Arctic Accelero Hybrid is packed in a large cardboard box with a picture of the product in the front of the box.

Product box

Product box

There is detailed information about the cooling device on the side of the box. You can even learn 4 ways to install it into a computer system.

Product information printed on the box

Product information printed on the box

Inside the box, a figured piece of cardboard with compartments for storing the cooler and accessories, topped with a plastic cap.

Accessories and associated equipment

Accessories and associated equipment

Here, we can see three aluminum heatsink, a syringe with high-quality Arctic MX-4 thermal grease and the GPU part of the cooler.

Product Images

Product Images

The associated accessories include everything needed to assemble and install the cooler on the graphics card and the computer case. Installation manual is also available here.

Associated accessories

Associated accessories

Thermal glue and thermal pads can also be found among the Accelero Hybrid's components.

Designed in Switzerland, this cooling system is manufactured in China and is priced at $179.9. It offers 2-year warranty.

Design and functionality

Just glancing briefly over the Accelero Hybrid to realize that this is the famous Asetek 570LC platform with low-profile heatsink which we have studied a year ago in the Kuhl Antec ER H20 620 review.

Product Image

Product Image

Its design is extremely simple, consisting of a pump with an aluminum water block, two flexible pipes (416 mm) and an aluminum heatsink:

Product Image

Product Image

There is nothing special in the heat exchanger. Its dimensions are 150x150x27 mm and it weighs 330 grams.

11 flat pipes with a ribbon of corrugated aluminum ensure the transfer of heat. The propylene glycol based coolant moves along the pipes from the pump water-block to the heatsink and back again.

The heat exchanger

The heat exchanger

The water pump has a water block which is only 28 mm in height. Its job is to pump the coolant from the GPU to the radiator. Its performance is nothing special, but we would hardly be impressed if we knew it The water block has a flat base with a rather mediocre finish The ceramic substrate of the pump can last for 50,000 hours of continuous operation.

Part of the Arctic Accelero Hybrid, the plastic casing with a 80 mm fan is installed directly on the front side of the graphics card to cool the electrical components inside of it and the memory chip.

Plastic Casing

Plastic casing

The plastic casing is designed very simple. Its 80 mm fan is controlled by PWM at the speed of 900-2,000 RPM.

A 120 mm fan is mounted on the heat exchanger. It has a black frame and a white 9-blades impeller.

120 mm fan on the radiator.

120 mm fan on the radiator

By the way, it is also used in the CPU cooler Arctic Freezer i30 we’ve tested recently. Its speed is from 400 to 1,350 RPM. The peak air flow is specified to be 74 CFM while the noise level is not higher than 0.3 sones. The fan’s electrical properties are shown on the sticker.

At normal levels it would be: 12 volts, 0.22 amperes and 2.64 watts

Compatibility and installation

Below is a long list of compatible graphics card with Arctic Accelero Hybrid. Besides, you can check out the dimensions of the GPU water-block and plastic casing. There are two Arctic's detailed drawings that indicate the location of the water-block’s mounting holes and other such parameters.

Detailed drawings

Detailed drawings

Hopefully, this information is sufficient to ensure that a particular graphics card is compatible with the Arctic Accelero Hybrid.

The process of installation is simple and intuitive. You can refer to the installation manual for step-by-step installation. We’ll give you a brief summary, using an ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP.

ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP

ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP

Firstly, you remove the graphics card’s default cooler and scrape the remains of the thermal grease off the GPU.

Installation process

Installation process

Prior to installing the water-block, you have to put the aluminum heatsink onto the electrical components of the graphics card and memory, fasten them with thermal paste. In our particular case, the graphics card was quite compatible with the radiator when we put them into the electrical components. As for the chip memory, we just left them as where they were. Thus, we proceeded straight to placing the water-block in the plastic casing with fan:

Installaton process

Installation process

The water block could be installed in one position only when the shape of the plastic casing was defined. The pipes are fixed with two large-head screws. The pump is now surrounded by the plastic casing, which should reduce its noise.

Next, install the casing with water-block on the graphics card and secure them safely with screws using a back-plate with insulating pads. This step is fairly simple, but it still requires some skills.

Installation process

Installation process

The cooler holds tight. You must take care not to fasten them too tight or you will make the GPU cracking. In our case, the thermal grease imprint was perfect:

Base of the heatsink

Base of the heatsink

Finally, you put the graphics card on the motherboard and place the radiator in one of the four possible positions suggested by Arctic:

4 possible locations

4 possible locations

In fact, there are two positions that only differ in the direction of air flows. Only one position was possible with our Antec Twelve Hundred system case with the radiator and fan on the back panel of the chassis, exhausting the hot air. Unfortunately, the fluid pipes of the cooling system turned out to be too short, about 2.5 to 3.0 cm, to let us do that. That's why we had to remove the side cover off the computer case and put the radiator with fan next to it on a piece of foam rubber.

Installation process

Installation process

That’s not optimal in terms of testing and using the Accelero Hybrid, but it's the best we can do with this machine configuration. Hopefully, people at Arctic will notice the problem and equip its next version with longer tubes.

That's the complete installation process. We just have to connect the power and control cables and conduct our tests.

Technical specs and price

The main heat exchanger (radiator with a fan)

·         Heatsink dimensions (LxWxH), mm: 150x120x52.8

·         Material: Alluminium

·         Weight, g: 503

·         Fan type: ARCTIC F12 PWM

·         Fan dimensions, mm: 120x120x25

·         Fan bearings: 1 fluid dynamic bearing

·         Fan’s rotational speed, RPM: 400-1,350

·         Airflow, CFM: 74 (max)

·         Noise, Sone: 0.3

·         Nominated Voltage, V: 12

·         General Currents, A: 0.22 (max)

·         Energy consumption, W: 2.64 (max)

·         length of the connected turbine, mm: 416

·         external diameter of the connected turbine, mm: 11

The above graphics card (pump with the water block and a fan)

·         Materials of the water block and its structure: copper, internal structure, including tiny microscopic channels

·         Pump type : Asetek 570LC

·         Pump dimension, mm: 72x72x28

·         Pump bearing: CFF1

·         Pump bearing MTBF, hours: 50,000

·         Nominated voltage, V: 12

·         Current, A: 0.26

·         Energy consumption, W: 3.12

·         Weight, g: 363

·         Fan type: ARCTIC F8 PWM

·         Fan dimension, mm: ø80x15

·         Fan bearings: 1 fluid dynamic bearing

·         Fan’s rotational spped, RPM: 900-2,000

·         Fan's noise level, Sone: 0.3

·         Fan's nominated voltage, V: 12

·         Fan's current, A: 0.13

·         Fan's energy consumption, W: 1.56

Other factors

·         Maximum heat dissipation capability, W: 11/15/1900

·         Heat dissipation surface: ARCTIC MX-4

·         Thermal material: non-toxic, anti-corrosive (propylene glycol)

·         Warranty period, years: 2

Compatible graphic cards

·         AMD Radeon: HD 7870, HD 7850, HD 6970, HD 6950, HD 6870, HD 6850, HD 6790, HD 6770, 5870, 5850, 5830, 4890, 4870, 4850

·         Nvidia GeForce: GTX 680, GTX 670, GTX 660 Ti, GTX 580, GTX 570, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 560 SE, GTX 560, GTX 480, GTX 470, GTX 465, GTX 460 SE, GTX 460, GT 520

Price

·         $179.90

 

 

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