Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 Liquid GPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 GPU Cooler4. Installing the Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-1205. Testing Methodology6. Thermal Performance7. Acoustic Performance8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

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.

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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.

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