KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
When we initially received the Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME Plus for review we were stunned at how big it was … ‘overkill‘ was the first word that came to mind. I am not easily sold on oversized heatsinks as they don't always produce the end result they should.
Fitting the cooler is easy enough and while it is huge, there are no concerns with the build quality on any level – the manufacturing standards are top drawer and we admire the mirrored heatpipe layout design.
On a performance level there is no air cooler we have tested to even get close to these levels. Observing an overclocked HD5870 rendering the Furmark benchmark and maintaining sub 50c temperature variables is staggering.
Equally as impressive are the noise levels, Arctic Cooling have cleverly used a tri fan design and are spinning them slowly to generate a high level of balanced airflow across the full length of the heatsink/pipes and fins. It works extremely well and also means that the ‘return to idle' temperature state is extremely quick … three times as fast as a reference solution.
To say we have been impressed would be an understatement, this is basically the Noctua NH D14 for graphics cards. We have unfortunately been unable to find stock in the UK and as this is the weekend we will need to get an updated report on availability from Arctic Cooling this coming week. The price on their home site is $65.95 /55 euros which puts it firmly into the upper cost bracket (The VR001-4 kits are also $6.95 each). Is it worth it? Well if you have a reference card then certainly …. temperatures can be reduced by over 30c and you end up with an almost silent solution.
KitGuru says: Arctic Cooling have certainly met the grade with this design, its expensive, but it is a quality product.
