Arctic Accelero S1 Plus Passive Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and contents3. Installation4. Performance Testing5. Closing thoughts6. View All Pages

Today we are looking at a GPU cooler from Arctic. We recently looked at their Accelero Xtreme 7970 which is an extremely impressive solution. The cooler we are focusing our attention on today is the Accelero S1 Plus.  The S1 Plus is a passive cooling solution that is compatible with a large number of mid range graphics cards available today. We will be testing the Accelero S1 Plus on a low profile Sapphire 6670 graphics card.

The Accelero S1 Plus is the latest revision in the Accelero Passive category.  Arctic have had great success with this style and continue to tweak the design over time, bringing us to where we are today. The Accelero S1 plus consists of 4 x 6mm heatpipes and 32 aluminum fins to dissipate heat.  This time around Arctic has opted to not use thermal tape on their heatsinks. They supply two separate compounds that require mixing, which make a thermal adhesive.

Specifications:

Heatpipe	Ø 6 mm x 4
Heatsink Material	Aluminum fins x 32, thickness 0.4 mm
Dimensions (Product)	230 (L) x 135 (W) x 42 (H) mm
Dimensions (Packaging)	278 (L) x 194 (W) x 46 (H) mm
Net Weight	410 g
Limited Warranty	6 years
Accessories
Heatsink	12 pcs
Screw (M2)	4 pcs
Washer	4 pcs
Spacer (3.5 mm)	4 pcs
Spacer (4.0 mm)	4 pcs
G-1 Thermal Glue (1.5 g Grey Compound)	1 bag
G-1 Thermal Glue (1.5 g White Compound)	1 bag
Mixing Wand	1 pc
VGA Bracket	1 pc
itemnumber	DCACO-V470001-BL
UPC	0872767004658
Gross Weight	0.92 kg

AMD Radeon Compatibility:

Series	Chip
7000	7870, 7850, 7770, 7750
6000	6870, 6850, 6790, 6770, 6750, 6670 LP, 6570
5000	5850, 5830, 5770, 5550 (OEM)
4000	4870, 4850, 4830, 4770, 4730, 4670, 4650, 4550, 4350 (LP)
3000	3870, 3850, 3690, 3650, 3470, 3450
2000	2600 XT, 2600 Pro, 2400 XT, 2400 Pro
1000	1950 XTX, 1950 XT, 1950 Pro, 1950 GT, 1900 XTX, 1900 XT, 1900 GT, 1800 XT, 1800 XL, 1800 GTO, 1650 XT, 1650 Pro, 1600 XT, 1600 Pro, 1550, 1300 XT, 1300 Pro, 1300

The S1 Plus is packed in a molded plastic shell which protects the cooler and allows potential buyers to get a great look at the product before a purchase.

Turning the package around we are able to see the base of the Accelero S1 Plus.  Arctic have applied a layer of MX4 thermal compound at the factory for those that may not have a supply of thermal paste on hand.  Also included are 8 heatsinks for memory chips and 4 additional heatsinks for any other components that may require additional cooling.

Here we have removed the Accelero S1 Plus from the packaging and have it turned over to fully expose the base of the heatsink.  The base of the S1 Plus is a copper block that the heatpipes pass through. The 4 heatpipes draw the heat away from the GPU and distribute it across 32 rows of aluminum fins.

There is no denying that the S1 Plus is a rather large cooler but it has proven successful back as far as the original Accelero S1 versions.  To compliment the S1 Plus, Arctic have included 8 small memory heatsinks and 4 additional heatsinks in case more coverage is required.

As we mentioned earlier Arctic have switched from thermal tape to thermal adhesive that requires mixing. We have no doubt that the adhesive works far better then tape, but at the same time, preparing the compound takes time and patience which is not for everyone.

Arctic have improved the retention bracket on the S1 Plus, making it out of  a much stronger metal that wont bend as easily as some of the earlier models did.  Let's move on and look at installing the Accelero S1 Plus

The first thing we need to do is make sure that the retention bracket is correctly orientated for the card we are using.

Once we are sure about orientation we need to secure the two brackets to the base of the Accelero S1 Plus. It is rather simple, requiring only 1 screw to secure each bracket.  To ensure we have orientation correct we temporarily attach the S1 Plus to the Sapphire 6670 and then remove it again. This allows us to see the imprint in the factory applied MX4 and ascertain that our entire GPU surface is making good contact with the base of the cooler.

Next we clean the surface of the heatsink and our GPU core with isopropanol making sure to get rid of as much of the original paste as possible.

After cleaning the GPU core we apply a small drop of MX4 thermal compound near the center of the core. Next we take the 4 white plastic spacers that already have adhesive applied to them and carefully place them over the 4 mounting holes. Press down firmly on the spacers to ensure they adhere because we have to turn the card over to attach it to the S1 Plus.

Due to the placement of the memory chips in relation to the GPU core we are not able to use the provided heatsinks.  This eliminated the need to mix any adhesive for this installation.  If you want detailed instructions on the procedure just click on this link to page 4 of Zardon's review of the Accelero Xtreme 7970. The bottom 2 paragraphs are the ones to focus on.

To secure the Accelero S1 Plus to our HD 6670 we use the 4 screws and washers provided as part of the hardware package.

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And here we have the completed installation. The Accelero S1 Plus dwarfs the Sapphire 6670 we are using today. It is more then double the size of the graphics card. Due to the size of the Accelero S1 Plus it will require an additional expansion slot when we get to the system build.

The size of the Accelero S1 Plus is the aspect of the product that that could be an issue depending on the motherboard in the system.  With the motherboard above the S1 Plus blocks access to 3 SATA ports unless there are 90 angles on the cables.

Today we are testing the Arctic Accelero S1 Plus with the Sapphire 6670 in an AMD FX-5000 system, which is using the reference AMD heatpipe cooler. Room temperatures were maintained at 21c throughout.

Test System:

Processor: AMD Phenom X4 FX-5000
Cooler: AMD reference heatpipe cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte AM2+
Memory: 4GB DDRII 533
Chassis: Thermaltake Overseer RX-1
Power Supply: SilverStone Strider Plus 850w
Hard Drives: 150GB Samsung SATA.
Graphics: Sapphire HD6670 low profile and ARCTIC Accelero S1 Plus Passive Cooler.

To test the Arctic Accelero we first establish idle temperatures by leaving the system idle for 15 minutes.  We are also going to record temperatures after a 20 minute gaming session and then run Furmark for 10 minutes to stress the card beyond any normal load.  Furmark pushes temperatures much higher, but is worthwhile to see a worst case, synthetic scenario.

With the fan that shipped with the 6670 running full speed temperatures were actually not too bad. The small factory cooler kept the 6670 below 70c during our Furmark testing.  After switching over to the massive Accelero S1 Plus the results were outstanding.

We were impressed with all 3 sets of results, especially Furmark. The Arctic Accelero S1 Plus managed to maintain the 6670 a full 10c cooler when idle, and even during game testing.  Things get better when we run Furmark; the Accelero S1 Plus takes a full 15c off the temperature produced using the reference cooler.  The S1 Plus drops the Furmark temperature from 68c all the way down to 53c, which is an outstanding achievement.

ARCTIC have once again delivered a fantastic cooling solution with the Accelero S1 Plus. The S1 Plus has a copper base combined with 4 x 6mm heatpipes and 32 rows of aluminum fins to deal with the heat produced by the GPU.

The hardware package contains all the necessary screws, washers and spacers along with 8 memory heatsinks and 4 additional heatsinks.  Arctic have provided two individually packaged compounds that have to be mixed, forming a thermal adhesive to securely affix the heatsinks.

If you plan to use the S1 Plus on a more powerful high end graphics card, Arctic offers the S1 Plus Turbo Module which will greatly enhance the performance of the passive solution. The cooler will no longer be silent obviously, using this fan.

The Accelero S1 Plus Passive Cooler is available directly from ARCTIC for $49.95. At this price it is hard not to be impressed, especially to modify a mid range graphics card for complete silence.

ARIA stock a variety of ARCTIC products.

Pros:

• excellent cooling performance.
• availability.
• reasonable price point.
• ability to add a turbo module for increased cooling performance.

Cons:

• size may be an issue for some.
• no thermal tape included.
• thermal adhesive mixing process is somewhat time consuming.

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