The Arctic Accelero R9 290X-Xtreme III

[Z15CAM]

Yeah, I think backplate is needed preventing the back of the PCB from bending due to weight. Very noticeable bend in PCB when trying to put back the stock cooler back on after installing the Accelero.

No Kidding - But it's interesting - When playing with the latest & fastest Single GPU Card on the market.

OK - Don't bend the card - but I still got to run through the break end period with the reference and learn how to tweak it ;o)

This combo has cost me approx $726 CDN + another $40 in Enzoteck Copper HS and I have NO GAMES to Test it with and I don't think bottlenecks is a concern considering the platform I'm running.

I'm an addictive PC System Builder and Programer where gaming bores me, but I'm totally en-trolled with interactive GUI.

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i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO (running @ .996v/1600Mhz to 1.376v/4600Mhz 24/7 between 36 to 67C), 4 x's 4GB sticks of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 running at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 64 Bit Sluff and negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, 2nd Intel NIC for Dual Networking, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition modular PSU, AMD Ref Gigabyte 1000Mhz R9 290X/Accelero Xtreme III, eVGA GTX 280 in reserve for Physic's-X support, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 case, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 res display at 120Hz.

TOTAL Investment on this Platform including 13% HST Tax Plus Shipping is approx $2,534.00 spent over a period of a year.

Aside from Mfgr's 10 to 15% price markup selling to the CDN Market the killer is the 13% HST Tax and cost of shipping in Canada. I pd $3000 for a 386-40 DX in 1994 - LOL.

 

[Bateluer]

My purchase came in today - HOLY MAN - Between the weight of the R9 290X and Accelero III we're looking at about a 5 LB installation.

In regards to the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III kit - For a $75 product, including its Alu-Heat-Sinks, it reeks with QUALITY. Makes me wonder if the Copper Enzotech HS alternative is worth it.

Wait and see?

As I understand it, the Arctic kit comes up short for the ram sinks, so you need a few extra. Are you able to tell if the Enzotech bcc9s will fit under the Extreme III cooler? I'm itching to order my parts.

 

[Z15CAM]

I don't have the Enzotech Copper HS yet - When they arrive I will post the measurements - Be Patient - Gotta love this crap.

We are a SICK Lot and hope my English is sufficient.

In the mean time I will install the Reference AMD Gigabyte R9 290x in my system with latest Dvrs.

HOW Do you want me to Bench the Ref Vs Accelero ?

You know my platform - It's nothing special but there's nothing much faster.

 

[Bateluer]

I don't have the Enzotech Copper HS yet - When they arrive I will post the measurements - Be Patient - Gotta love this crap.

Man, set the Extreme III on a flat surface and use a ruler. If its at least 9.1mm or more, we're good.

 

[KingstonU]

Looking forward to seeing the result and possible improvements over the stock cooler!

 

[Bateluer]

I couldn't hold off, ordered an Extreme III, some BCC9s, and a Corsair H60 cooler for my CPU. Using the stock Intel cooler on my Haswell i5, could use an improvement.

 

[Gikaseixas]

I'm about to buy the 290X and the Extreme III but i have to control myself lol. Can't wait to see what more people achieve with this setup.

 

[kiriki]

I have one of these coolers on my video card. The fans died to I strapped some 92mm fans to it. It's heavy enough that I rigged a support using zip ties and a cable hole. Unfortunately I don't see a better way of holding the weight unless I end up with a case where the mobo is horizontal instead.

 

[blak24]

Guys last question: will the Accelero work also if the 4 VRAM chips will remain uncovered by heatsinks? (The accelero has 12, the GPU has 16). Or i MUST cover the chips with something to cool down the heat? (but maybe something different from heatsinks)

 

[Eymar]

Guys last question: will the Accelero work also if the 4 VRAM chips will remain uncovered by heatsinks? (The accelero has 12, the GPU has 16). Or i MUST cover the chips with something to cool down the heat? (but maybe something different from heatsinks)

I used 4 of the half width, 2x length (the ones to right in this pic: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=47559). Use 2 of them to cover 2 ram chips. They're slightly taller so put them on the 4 ram chips closest to vrm's. I would recommend using thermal tape instead of the included thermal adhesive if you plan to remove later. The length and having 2 side by side made it hard to twist them off.

 

[thilanliyan]

the 13% HST Tax

5% Alberta tax FTW!!

 

[Ferzerp]

I wait, I got confused on the names.

I have the liquid system:

http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/products/cooling/vga/accelero-hybrid.html

I don't have the same one you guys are talking about.

 

[Z15CAM]

Yes the $169.99 ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid Extreme is very nice compared to $77.99 Arctic Accelero Xtreme III - That is if can afford it and would be a good solution if your CPU is Air Cooled.

In my circumstance an i7 2700K is cooled with a Corsair H110 AIO so I can afford to dump some heat into the Fractal ARC Midi 2 case.

 

[blak24]

I used 4 of the half width, 2x length (the ones to right in this pic: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=47559). Use 2 of them to cover 2 ram chips. They're slightly taller so put them on the 4 ram chips closest to vrm's. I would recommend using thermal tape instead of the included thermal adhesive if you plan to remove later. The length and having 2 side by side made it hard to twist them off.

So should I use 4 of them to cover 4 RAM chips (the ones closest to VRMs)? Should I cut them on half? They're quite long...

 

[Eymar]

So should I use 4 of them to cover 4 RAM chips (the ones closest to VRMs)? Should I cut them on half? They're quite long...

No need to cut, they're long enough to cover both ram chips length wise. Found pic here:
http://i.imgur.com/sIKXvaf.jpg. The top left shows how the end result will look. I put the long ones on 4 ram chips close to the vrm side (top left of pic).

Edit:
Better pic: http://i.imgur.com/Qb73sGv.jpg
Link to froum post: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1788658

 

[blak24]

No need to cut, they're long enough to cover both ram chips length wise. Found pic here:
http://i.imgur.com/sIKXvaf.jpg. The top left shows how the end result will look. I put the long ones on 4 ram chips close to the vrm side (top left of pic).

Edit:
Better pic: http://i.imgur.com/Qb73sGv.jpg
Link to froum post: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1788658

These are all included in the Xtreme package right?
You're the best :biggrin:
Thank you so much

 

[Ferzerp]

Yes the $169.99 ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid Extreme is very nice compared to $77.99 Arctic Accelero Xtreme III.

$110 from amazon by the way. I actually use this style for CPU (corsair) and for one of my GPUs.

 

[Eymar]

These are all included in the Xtreme package right?
You're the best :biggrin:
Thank you so much

Yup, and np. Really good cooling kit, just pricey and wish could plug the fan into card for PWM. That's more issue with AMDs new fan control algorithm.

 

[3DVagabond]

Yup, and np. Really good cooling kit, just pricey and wish could plug the fan into card for PWM. That's more issue with AMDs new fan control algorithm.

Wouldn't you be able to set up a custom fan profile instead of relying on AMD's stock cooler fan profile?

 

[Eymar]

Wouldn't you be able to set up a custom fan profile instead of relying on AMD's stock cooler fan profile?

Maybe, I just used the 12V connection and wasn't bothered by the noise at idle so didn't look any further. The main problem I saw when X3's fan plugged into card was the fan RPM reading fluctuated from 0 to correct RPM (assuming), don't remember the fan percentage did so as well. I didn't want to take any chances so went direct voltage after reading the reviews that did the same.

 

[3DVagabond]

Maybe, I just used the 12V connection and wasn't bothered by the noise at idle so didn't look any further. The main problem I saw when X3's fan plugged into card was the fan RPM reading fluctuated from 0 to correct RPM (assuming), don't remember the fan percentage did so as well. I didn't want to take any chances so went direct voltage after reading the reviews that did the same.

I've heard they are still really quiet even at 100% (12v).

 

[Bateluer]

Wanted to say my BCC9 heat sinks showed up today, shipped from Newegg's CA warehouse so I got them in a day. Unfortunately, the Extreme III itself shipped from TN. Still hoping to have it by the weekend though.

 

[Bryf50]

Arctic Cooling must be really happy about the shitty stock cooling on the 290/290x. The Extreme III is sold out in most places.

 

[Z15CAM]

Got the GA-AMD Ref R9-290X, without the Accelero Xtreme III Cooler, installed with latest AMD_Catalyst_13.11_BetaV9.2 Dvr and MS.NetFramework 4.5 UpDated in a Win7 [64] Bit SP1 Ultimate OS.

TEMPs at idle in my Fractal ARC Midi 2 case are presently 34/67C for the i7 2700K/Corsair H110 cooled operating between 1600/4700Mhz.

The Ref GA-R9 290X is idling at 44C - VERY QUIET and expels a fair amount of heat out the Back end of the Case - Haven't pushed it Yet.

According to CPUID Hardware Monitor PRO.

One thing that takes me awhile when changing out Hardware components is that I run 2 Registry's: One that encompasses SSD/HDD/HDD Raid-0 Drives and the other Faster Registry that encompasses SSD/HDD/HDD Raid-0 plus a RAMDisk that sluffs Win7`s Garbage. I do this because my BackUps are not RAMDisk Enabled - Stands to Reason ;o)

I intend to run the system as is for awhile to assess comparison between the Reference Cooler and the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III solution.

I'm awaiting mail delivery of the EnzoTeck Copper Heat Sinks.

Just for your interest the Windows Experience for the Video UpGrading from a GTX 280 to the Ref R9 290X went up from 7.3 to 7.9 - Everything else sits at 7.9 on my system but for my processor which reads 7.8 - Guess I could up the clocking to 5 Ghz to round it out but I would have to bust 1.34v's and not fussy about running over that 24/7 but will consider 1.5v's @ 5Ghz's.

Minor Benching with AID64 Extreme Edition

FPU VP8 7176
FPU Julia 26899
FPU Mandel 12863
FPU SinJulia 6150

And here's one I doubt many can match: Memory Read 22136, Memory Write 23176, Memory Copy 24174, Memory Latency 39.2 with 16GB's of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 running at 1866Mhz 9-9-9-24-1T pushing 1.35v. Can you imagine what this RAM will do at 1.5v. Greatest $96 investment I ever made.

About the only competition I have is with the 6x's i7-3960X Extreme HT with this Bench.

So far my platform is cool and very quiet - Not saying it won't be when I push the Reference AMD R9 290X.

Gotta find out ;o)

PS: Love this $300 Korean QNIX QX2710 2560 x 1440 Samsung PLS Display. Makes me itch with the possibility of 2 more of them and another 290X in CF for a 4320 x 2560p 120Hz 4k 3 panel display. I gotta stop this insanity - LOL

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i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO (running @ .996v/1600Mhz to 1.376v/4600Mhz 24/7 between 36 to 67C), 4 x's 4GB sticks of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 running at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 64 Bit Sluff and negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, 2nd Intel NIC for Dual Networking, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition modular PSU, AMD Ref Gigabyte 1000Mhz R9 290X/Accelero Xtreme III, eVGA GTX 280 in reserve for Physic's-X support, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 case, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 res display at 120Hz.

TOTAL Investment on this Platform including 13% HST Tax Plus Shipping is approx $2,534.00 spent over a period of a year.

Aside from Mfgr's 10 to 15% price markup selling to the CDN Market the killer is the 13% HST Tax and cost of shipping in Canada. I pd $3000 for a Cyrix 386-40 DX in 1994 - I'm a Sick Puppy.

 

[RagnarKon]

Alright I've been stalking this thread long enough, time to join it.

Similar situation as most of you, except I have a 290 rather than a 290X. Doesn't matter much though as I believe the PCB layout is almost identical.

Temps are crazy hot (95C), as most of you know or have read. But the real problem for me is the cooler screams like a banshee when the card is at load.

So I was thinking about the Accelero. Read the Tom's recent article about it, and all seems fine and dandy except that the Accelero only has 12 of the 16 heatsinks... and the heatsink installation on the bottom-most memory chip seems like it could present a problem. Didn't seem to be a problem for Igor at Tom's, but it also seems like he just has random GPU cooler accessory kits sitting around the office. I don't have that luxury, nor can I figure out where to buy these accessory kits.

Also interested in how these cooper heatsinks will turn out. And I'm glad to see that the general consensus seems to be that you don't have to use the thermal adhesive on the heatsinks. I would much rather use a less-permanent method.

EDIT: Yeah know what. I get the feeling that the heat of these reference coolers leaves an open opportunity for Arctic and perhaps some other companies to release an R9-specific series of GPU coolers. Maybe I should just wait and see what happens.