Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV GPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV GPU Cooler4. Installing the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV5. Testing Methodology6. Thermal Performance7. Acoustic Performance8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

We are impressed with the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV GPU cooler. We feel much more comfortable recommending it than Arctic's Hybrid II cooler which we reviewed recently here.  This is predominantly down to the fact that the Xtreme IV offers some cooling to components on the core side of the PCB, whereas the Hybrid II does not.

Although the Accelero Xtreme IV takes up a lot more space than the Hybrid II and therefore cannot easily be configured with two graphics cards, the Hybrid II wouldn't be the most elegant solution either as there would be even more of a mess of hoses and cables created.  The sheer size of this cooler, when installed, is perhaps the most significant drawback of this unit.  We cannot think of any other graphics card cooler out there which demand five expansion slots!

Unfortunately, the Accelero Xtreme IV uses an almost identical mounting mechanism to the Hybrid II which makes for a pretty arduous installation process.  This is further complicated by the sheer size of the cooler which makes it more difficult to maneuver into place.

We were not able to analyse the cooling performance of the passive heatsink/backplate on the rear of the card due to the lack of accessible sensors on our AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card, however we feel confident that the design of the air cooler will provide sufficient cooling to the other components on the card without this.

Drawbacks aside, the most important aspect of the Xtreme IV is the cooling performance. We are happy to report that this is excellent, beating the Hybrid II by some margin. With the fans set to 7V, the cooler is almost inaudible which makes it ideal for those looking to build a powerful but quiet system.

At a price of £65 from Overclockers UK, the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV offers good value for money.  It is particularly well suited to those looking to build a powerful overclocked system with a single graphics card configuration.  We could not recommend the cooler to those looking to build a system with more than one graphics card however, due to the sheer amount of space it takes up.

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Pros

• Decent cooling performance for the GPU core.
• Quiet, especially on lower fan setting.
• Reasonable value for money.

Cons

• Over-complicated installation process.
• Large heatsink restricts compatibility.

Kitguru says: Another quality product from Arctic which offers excellent cooling performance without making too much noise!

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