KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
We cant say that we are particularly impressed with the Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 liquid GPU cooler, especially when we compare it to the excellent NZXT Kraken G10.
The G10 offers much more flexibility in terms of radiator choice as you can pair it with almost any Asetek unit, giving you a choice between 120mm, 140mm, 240mm and 280mm radiators. The Accelero Hybrid II-120, however, is restricted to the included 120mm unit.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Accelero Hybrid II-120 is the installation process. It is far more complicated and fiddly than it should be, and could potentially cause users to place thermal pads in the wrong locations. This could seriously damage the graphics card if essential components are not effectively cooled.
We have been unable 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. While we didn't experience any issues during our tests, we would be very cautious when overclocking with this cooler as power circuitry may not be effectively cooled. Although the NZXT Kraken G10 doesn't use heatsinks to cool these areas of the card, it does at least directly blow cool air over these areas.
Having the heatsink on the rear of the graphics card also restricts compatibility. With an air cooler installed on our CPU, we were unable to mount the graphics card in the first slot. This would make a dual graphics card setup almost impossible, unless you also use liquid cooling for the CPU.
In terms of cooling performance, the Accelero Hybrid II-120 is quite impressive. With the fan set to 100%, it comes within 2 degrees C of matching the Kraken G10 and X40 combination, which is impressive considering the smaller radiator size. Leaving the fan profile on the graphics card as standard, the temperatures are less impressive, however the cooler is very quiet.
At a price of £67 from Overclockers UK, the Arctic Accelero Hybrid-II-120 offers decent value for money. We couldn't recommend it over the NZXT Kraken G10, though, due to the over-complicated installation process and lack of direct cooling for key components on the graphics card.
Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.
Pros
- Decent cooling performance for the GPU core.
- Fairly quiet.
- Decent value for money.
Cons
- Potentially insufficient cooling for other components on the graphics card.
- Over-complicated installation process.
- Large heatsink restricts compatibility.
Kitguru says: An interesting product from Arctic, which is let down by a complicated installation process.
Am a bit unclear about the configuration in picture 9. It looks like the white fan is next to the heatsink rather than on top of/under it, does that mean the bracket is 240mm x 120mm?
I only have a mid sized case with one 120mm intake at the front, one side panel, one top and one rear.
The rear is being used for CPU water cooling and the top is the exit (front being the intake) so I would like to attach the heatsink to the 120mm side panel.
Is this not possible? thx
Why is there no support for R9 280(x)?
@ Mr_Katanga, the white fan you are referring to is an additional intake fan which comes with the Corsair 780T case. The Hybrid II was configured with the fan on the outside of the case blowing through the radiator into the case. You should be able to install the radiator in the front (with fan as intake) or to the side panel, assuming there is at least 50mm of room for the fan and radiator to be installed, and further room for the radiator hoses and end tanks of the radiator.
Ah, that makes sense, thank you. I did consider that I might not have enough clearance to make the side panel set-up work, but I didn’t think about doubling up the front intake, so thanks again, I think that might be the way forward (this whole process is about stretching out my 1090t and card for a month or three, while saving up for X99 and 980).
I think it is because the 280x (and 7970, 7950, and most of the Tahiti GPUs) require the use of a copper shim plate due to the way the GPU core is designed. Unlike the other AMD GPU cores, the Tahiti has a metal frame around it for some reason which prevents the water block from making contact with the GPU core. The 290/290x and other GPUs also have metal frames but they are level with or slightly lower than the core so a water block will work on them. The Tahiti cores are lower than this metal frame. You probably can use this cooler because the bolt pattern is the same as the other AMD GPUs but you would have to modify it with a shim. This is probably why it isn’t listed as being officially supported. I found this out the hard way with a 7950 that I tried to cool with an NZXT G10.
Thanks for the review but I find it strange that you compare it with Kraken x40 since x40 have a larger radiator and fan than artic have. I can only use 12cm fans so the comparing results is not very useful sadly. Why not test with X30 (x31)?
I want to use it on my R9 290 but protective film and termopads are cut out for 780. Can i use some other ones and is protective film really needed?
I would suggest that the reason the temps aren’t great on auto is because the GPU probably aims to keep itself below 95C. This means that the fan won’t be spinning up very fast until quite late. If you set a custom curve, I’m sure you could reach a pretty good compromise between temps and noise.
Hi! Nice review im just asking what settings did you use on that furmark test because i want to do same test and watch it againts yours 🙂 I got hybrid 2 recently for R9 280
@henry_butt:disqus