8800GT 3rd party cooler - Accelero S1, any comments? Experience? Alternatives?

Hello; well its Sunday and I'm getting ready to order later today n improved cooling system for the 8800GT which is in my PC. It's a great card but that whiny single-slot cooler drives me and the rest of the family bonkers, so it's gotta go. The plan is to replace it with the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 + turbo fans or a 120mm fan cable-tied to it. Here's my basket contents:

120mm Akasa AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail Package £3.41

LN19182
Arctic Cooling Accelero AC-S1 Radically new high performance passive cooler, 4 heatpipes (7950/1950) £15.26

LN19189
Arctic Cooling AC-STM Turbo Fan Module for Accelero S1, Accelero S2 accessory For Overclockers! £5.86

Does anyone have experience with this setup? Any pitfalls? Should I be getting something else like the Thermaltake:

Thermalright HR-03-GT 6 H-pipe Heat sink for nVidia 8800GT, ATI 3850/70 VGA Cards (fan not Inc) 92mm Scan code LN20773

..with a 92mm fan and some ram heatsinks from Zalman?? Is it worth the extra cost, performance wise?

OR

should I chop in my 8800GT for a 8800GTS 512 with the 2-slot cooler??
Decisions... decisions... Advice please!! I am looking for quieter and cooler; the thing is housed in a Coolermaster 534 case with fans front & rear so there's plently of through air.

Thanks in advance,
Bob.

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...coolers-4.html

it's a fairly popular topic ;)

I'm about to order the Turbo unit. My 8800 is running at 40 degrees c idle now, on average, and about 50 when playing games, up to about 63 under stress tests. that's without a fan.

I think the zalman VF-1000 is what your after, its the best purchase ive made in a while.

If you get the S1 then use the Turbo unit, a 120mm fan will take up another expansion slot

Thanks chaps; I'm trawling through the forum link now in another tab; that'll teach me to search harder before creating another thread... :embarrassed:

There's a new Zalman GV1000 which is (almost) available; its almost identical to the VF1000 except with a faster fan and nickel-plating. Not supposed to be as good as the S1 though.

I think I'm set - the S1+turbo it is! Thanks all! Now, where's my wallet??

Also if it's not too late, I want to mention that the newest 8800gt stock coolers are coming out with a larger far less whiney fan.
(the cooling on auto is pritty bad but at 100% it's suposed to be about as loud as the old fan at 38%

Well, got the cooler today (day off work while the cars in for a service) thanks to Scan for delivering on time; stripped the 8800GT of its stock cooler and cleaned the string heat transfer pads using some nail varnish remover pads that wifey had handy. Popped on the first ram heatsink, which promptly fell off. The 3M adhesive tape is just too thin; it needs to be more squidgy like the Akasa thermal tape I got at the same time (its mentioned in the other thread linked to above) used that and the ram sinks are now stuck down proper. Mounting the cooler was simple enough; wedging the turbo fans in place was a bit fiddly; but soon enough the job was done. Bunged it into the machine and its idle temp is now 40 degrees; the most I seen during gaming and stress tests is 52 degrees. It's now cool as you like and it's quiet too; the turbo unit is quieter that the other fans in the PC (which are smart-fan controlled and pretty damn quiet too). Best £30 (including thermal tape and delivery) ever; the only question is: why is the stock cooler such a complete pile of poo!?

Well done Arctic Cooling and thanks to the Hexus community too!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kbobiller

I think I'm set - the S1+turbo it is! Thanks all! Now, where's my wallet??

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Checked in the missus pocket?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Disturbedguy

Checked in the missus pocket?

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lol :mrgreen:

Disturbedguy, I hope you didnt pay too much for your 52mb GTS? (check your 'My System') lol :)

I had an S1 and an 88CFM 120mm fan mounted to my 8800GT. It's some of the best, and least expensive, 3rd party air cooling you can get for the card.

With that kind of air flow it cools better than any other GPU cooler that comes with a fan, and better than the much more expensive Thermalright coolers at similar noise levels.

Just installed mine, well impressed! The CPU cooler is still very noisy though so that'll be the next thing to go.

I didn't order any extra adhesive so installing the cooler was a nightmare! The RAM sinks kept falling off, the worst time coming when one popped off just as i was putting the card back inside the machine!

It's all running fine now though and temperatures are great! Best of all it's silent, i didn't need the Turbo Module! It's broken anyway so just as well, need to RMA it and hope i can get a refund...

You should clean the memory real well before trying to put any kind of heatsink on them. Even the crappiest tape should hold fine if applyed to a clean surface.

I had to run my card through the dishwasher, scrub it real well with soap and a toothbrush, then soak it in isopropyl to get all of the residue from that stock mesh-reinforced paste off.

That said, there is little benifit in even sinking the memory at all.