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We have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
Very impressive results, lowering the noise from ‘clearly audible' to ‘whisper quiet' when gaming. The enthusiast audience are going to love this cooling system, especially if they are sensitive to fan noise.
wow thats wicked!
Excellent, but boy thats expensive, about £70 when it hits in UK I reckon!
Its a great video card, but im not sure about that install, seems to take forever and im not that confident. was going to get a 7950, but I might just opt for a sapphire card which has a good cooler already. ill probably kill the card completely
Hi, I just installed all the heatsinks on mine card, except this one: http://i.imgur.com/Iyr2N.jpg
Do I need to install the last one to the blank slot aswell or not? Seems like you’ve put it in but I’m wondering if it may cause some kind of conflict.
Hey. Nice review, though I got a question. I got the cooler today aswell, I’ve put all the heatsinks except this one http://i.imgur.com/Iyr2N.jpg because seems like mine board does not have a component and neither does your. Do I still need to put it there?
The installed cooler pics seem to show the weight of the heatsink bending the plastic cooler, did you have another pic of it in the case? The design worries me as it puts all the weight to one side and when installed I imagine that could look pretty precarious.
I have the Artic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II. The smaller 250 watt two-fan version of this cooler for my Sapphire Flex 6950. I agree that the install seems very hard, but there are two thing s you can do to make things easier: 1) get an eElmer,s glue stick ( glue in a lipstick type container ) 2) get some Artic Silver or other brand thermal adhesive glue. Artic Silver’s glue dries in 3 minutes, not 5 hours.
The stupid little washers that go between the card the spacers are a monumental pain in the butt. If you have the glue stick, you will be able to use it to attach the washers you screw up because their glue sticks to your fingers before you get the washer to your card. You will see what I mean. I got two done right and used the Elmer’s on the other two. It made no difference. The Elmer’s only has to hold the spacer to the washer until the cooler is finally attached to the card. I tried gently moving the spacers and couldn’t tell which had the original glue and which had the Elmer’s, they were all stuck just fine. If you go with Artic Silver epoxy, realize it is permanent. This might scare you, but when you realize that you would have to be a complete moron to not be able to fit the perfect sized heat sink to the ram chip, your blood pressure will go down. I guarantee you can do it and you will still have 3 minutes to to make any minor adjustments to make your heat sinks line up with laser precision. I knocked 11C off my idle and 18C of my load ( Heaven DX11- GPU maxed ). The original sapphire cooler was quiet, but didn’t cool anywhere near the reviewed specs. My system is in a Silverstone Raven II case ( 3 180mm fans on the bottom firing up), so there were no excuses for the poor cooling performance of Sapphire’s original cooler. The Artic Cooling GPU coolers are excellent and well worth the effort.
just ordered one, looks great.
At last they included a set of heatsinks, the last coolers they launched didn’t and the VRMS got too hot.
@ Yopa – I just followed the instructions for the 7970, but I dont think you need that heatsink really in that position as you say.
@ Omegared – its actually pretty secure, but there will always be a little bit of movement as the cooler is basically only secured with 4 screws from the back.
Just bought one today, looking forward to getting it 🙂 will use the review for the install, thanks !
Bought one this morning after reading this, great looking product. never done this before, but looks easy enough, if time consuming.
Hello, I’ve order this cooler also but i got a simple question.
I really don’t understand from the PDF manual where to apply the Insulation Tape.
It must be applied on the VRMs only ?
The only area of importance would be close to the ram heatsinks, to the right. but I really dont think you need it at all on the 7970 if you are careful with the heatsink application.
Guys,
Has anyone purchased this Acelero 7070 in the UK yet? I cannot find anyone who is even advertising it, isually QuietPC does, but they arnt yet wither 🙁 Where have you purchased from?
Hi Guys.
Can you please tell me where you purchased from in the UK, I cannot find anyone who is stocking this yet..?
Thanks!
I think you can order direct from ARCTIC to the UK…. on their website.
Could any of the owner of the Arctic Accelero Extreme 7970 send me the pdf file for the installation? I could not find it on the Arctic website.
“The compound has to be mixed by hand for 5 minutes. It is important to time this fairly accurately, otherwise it won’t work as well as it should. After this is done, then you need to wait for a further 15 minutes before applying the thermal glue to the heatsinks.”
NO. You apply the glue within 15 minutes. That is a fatal mistake for those installing the cooler according to the instructions provided here.
No you don’t …. you need to let the mixed compound bond for 15 minutes. you dont apply the glue that quickly. This is epoxy glue not instant bond, it needs to bond the two elements before adhering to the parts supplied.
My temp on my hd 7970 where a lot lower than this test my card was running at 90c with the ref cooler. But now it runs at 44c max and vrm,s at 47c max. The adhesive now is it one tube and you can apply straight away and takes under 1 hour it took 20 mins for me. What a great bit of kit. Ps it is big so you will need a big case