Just finished installing the Accelero, very nice! The directions was terrible and I didn't use the black little clips, but it seems to be on there good. In Windows XP, my idle seemed to be around 55 and 3Dmark06 it was up around 65. Not too bad at all. And no noise!!!! I can only hope to see similar results during the summer when the ambient temp isn't this low...
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is your 3870 fan always loud?
- Thread starter DualShock
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Unfortunately, I never recorded the stock temp of the 3870 with the fan on it. I'm not sure that would have been accurate anyway since the fan was always on full which isn't acceptable. My ATI 2600, however, that came stock with the computer used to run at about 70 - 75 degrees idle.
I got mine from the marketplace on Amazon. The accelero is very cheap for what you get but the trouble is finding them! The manufacturer is pushing their newer product which has three fans but it's not silent like this one and costs more. Look hard, it's worth getting the Accerlero S1 Rev2.
After researching my loud (and second) ATI HD3870 I opted for the Accelero S1 rev. 2 plus the Turbo Module and have to chime in on what a huge difference the aftermarket cooler makes. Silent - at last. I had to rig the power for the fans and kicked myself for not buying the Twin Turbo but so far so good.
Thank you guys for the advice.
<-----A newbie since 2003? Guess I need to stop lurking and start typing.
Thank you guys for the advice.
<-----A newbie since 2003? Guess I need to stop lurking and start typing.
apfhex
macrumors 68030
Can I ask how you managed to get the fans working? I'm the one with the Twin Turbo and I've tried everything I can think of to power the fans and have made zero progress. 🙁
Can anybody confirm if there is enough room to install another 3870 into the second 16x slot if you have a 3870 in the first slot with one of the accelero s1 heatsinks? From my research it looks like it would fit, but running the turbo fan add-on would partially cover the second 16x slot so you couldn't run crossfire in bootcamp (which I may do some day).
I can confirm you can install 2x HD3870 in the Mac Pro early 2008 with the passive Accelero Cooler. Even installation of one Crossfire bridge works without modification - just had to fiddle around a little bit to get the bridge through the cooler slits. I don't see the point in installing the fans ... again the card gets noisy and I suspect that this way you just blow the hot air in circles inside the machine rather than let it flow over the passiv heatsink and out of the rear of the Mac Pro?! 😉
Very nice. That's the same MP I have. I have my OWC 3870 on the way and may pick up a PC 3870 on Newegg to crossfire with any luck at some point. By any chance do you happen to have any pictures or be willing to take any? 😀
Help...
Well here's an interesting issue. I got my 3870 today and installed it just fine. For whatever reason the fan does not always spin. The fan spins on boot (at full speed) then once it gets into to OSX it's silent. I thought that was great until I realized it's because the fan wasn't even spinning. I have noticed that when not under any load at all it doesn't spin, but then the fan kicks itself into full speed once the card starts to heat up some. Is this normal, a bad card or did I do something wrong?
Well here's an interesting issue. I got my 3870 today and installed it just fine. For whatever reason the fan does not always spin. The fan spins on boot (at full speed) then once it gets into to OSX it's silent. I thought that was great until I realized it's because the fan wasn't even spinning. I have noticed that when not under any load at all it doesn't spin, but then the fan kicks itself into full speed once the card starts to heat up some. Is this normal, a bad card or did I do something wrong?
Your just one of the ones who got a card that works properly.
You should feel lucky.
Mine is the same and I love it, always quiet till I start playing games at high res.
Haha. Well, it stays silent for all of maybe 30 seconds or a minute until the fan kicks on for about the same. Rinse and repeat. So, I'm not sure how "lucky" that is. I'd almost rather the fan just be on all the time. I guess it doesn't really matter since I plan to run one of the Accelero heatsinks, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't screw something up or have any symptoms of a bad card.
Mine stays off unless I am playing spore and I go past something really detailed.
Other than that no noise.
I never hear it when using FCP, Photoshop, Motion, or After Effects.
Only playing games sets it off for me.
Other than that no noise.
I never hear it when using FCP, Photoshop, Motion, or After Effects.
Only playing games sets it off for me.
Well now I'm wondering if I have something wrong with the card. The fan goes on and off in an alternating pattern regardless of what I'm doing with the machine. Often times tonight I was literally only running firefox, apple mail and entourage.
Sounds like the card is heating up faster than it should or something. My ambient room temperatures were in the upper 60's and my case/hardware temps were in the 27-30C so my system wasn't exactly running hot.
**UPDATE**
Well, I spoke with ATI this morning. The tech sure didn't seem very knowledgable... very basic and uninformative answers that I thought of myself or have already heard before. Regardless, the guy seems to think everything is normal, but to just keep an eye out for graphics corruption.
I just got off the phone with OWC as well and although the support tech didn't have any direct experience with the card he said that things sounded okay and was adamant that as long as the fan comes on to cool the card I'll be fine. He said to run the system for a couple of hours and feel the card to see if it felt relatively cool. He said if it feels extremely hot then there's probably an issue there. He also said to essentially beat the heck out of the card right now to "try to make it fail". I didn't take that literally, but I got his point.
I suppose I was just being a little paranoid. I wanted to see if anything sounded fishy with the card before I went sticking one of those Accelero coolers on the card.
apfhex
macrumors 68030
I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread but some of these cards seem to do that, fan spinning up somewhat randomly even just web browsing, etc. My first 3870 did that. ATI support doesn't know jack about this card. If you're going to put an Accelero on it anyway, as long as it stays cool I don't think there's anything to worry about. <rant>I seem to be the only one who installed an Accelero and getting really high temps under load. At any rate I've given up on ATI forever and I just placed an order for the 8800GT (yeah, even if a possible upgrade might be on it's way in the coming months, I'm sick of all this BS I've have to put up with 4 total ATI cards since 2006! I just want to play my games in peace 🙁).</rant>
apfhex
macrumors 68030
Got my Accelero installed a couple of days ago. For those curious how it looks in there I've attached a photo. It's hard to believe you can crossfire two of them each with an Accelero as the 2nd 16x PCI-e slot is sooo close to the top of the first Accelero. But I guess it would technically fit.
I noticed that in XP my 3870 with stock fan would get up to 43C and then the fan would come on to cool it down to 37C. During 3Dmark and gaming the temps would get to 55-60 degrees (just limited testing on my part) with the stock fan at full blast.
With the Accelero I was getting idle temps at about 35C and my highest temp so far under 3dmark was about 53C. I do not have any fans installed on the heatsink as shown in the photo. When I installed the new heatsink I completely removed all traces of the stock thermal compound and applied Arctic Silver 5 (reminds me of my old PC assembly days). I'm not thrilled with the sticky tape on the ramsinks. I just wanted to make sure that everything works for a while before I go using some sort of thermal epoxy that's going to be permanent. I don't plan to OC the card though so maybe the stock sticky tape will be sufficient.
I noticed that in XP my 3870 with stock fan would get up to 43C and then the fan would come on to cool it down to 37C. During 3Dmark and gaming the temps would get to 55-60 degrees (just limited testing on my part) with the stock fan at full blast.
With the Accelero I was getting idle temps at about 35C and my highest temp so far under 3dmark was about 53C. I do not have any fans installed on the heatsink as shown in the photo. When I installed the new heatsink I completely removed all traces of the stock thermal compound and applied Arctic Silver 5 (reminds me of my old PC assembly days). I'm not thrilled with the sticky tape on the ramsinks. I just wanted to make sure that everything works for a while before I go using some sort of thermal epoxy that's going to be permanent. I don't plan to OC the card though so maybe the stock sticky tape will be sufficient.
Platonist
macrumors member
I am planning on upgrading from from the stock 7300 to the 3870 soon and hope a few people could help clarify a few things. In the event that the card is loud (which is likely, as I like a silent machine) I plan to install the accelero1 Rev2 passive cooler.
1. Some people are removing all of the thermal compound from the GPU and the cooler -- is this the best way to go? Given that it is, what is the best compound to use instead (I hear mention of arctic silver) and is regular ol' Isopropyl alcohol sufficient for the cleaning?
2. What is this 'sticky tape' that people refer to?
Sorry if these are newbie questions, but I am a newbie to these things (never installed a new graphics card, let alone replaced a cooling system on one)! I also cannot afford to be without a machine for more than an afternoon so I need to make sure I have some understanding of what is involved here and what resources I will need.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
1. Some people are removing all of the thermal compound from the GPU and the cooler -- is this the best way to go? Given that it is, what is the best compound to use instead (I hear mention of arctic silver) and is regular ol' Isopropyl alcohol sufficient for the cleaning?
2. What is this 'sticky tape' that people refer to?
Sorry if these are newbie questions, but I am a newbie to these things (never installed a new graphics card, let alone replaced a cooling system on one)! I also cannot afford to be without a machine for more than an afternoon so I need to make sure I have some understanding of what is involved here and what resources I will need.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
1. I removed all stock goop from the stock GPU AND the Accelero heatsink with paper towels and good ol' rubbing alcohol. I also used some rubbing alcohol on the memory chips as well for good measure (even though there was no thermal grease). I used Arctic Silver 5 and have used their stuff for ages when I used to build PCs all the time in the past years. It just takes a very small dab of AS5 on the GPU and you can use a razor blade to thin it out as evenly as possible on the GPU. Don't put too much otherwise it won't transfer heat as efficiently. I also put a dab of AS5 on the heatsink (after it's been cleaned and rub it in very well with one of my fingers (put your hand in a plastic sandwich bag or something). Once it's rubbed into all of the small crevices just wipe off the remainder with a paper towel. Is this excessive? Maybe, but it's how I did mine and all my PC stuff back in the day with good results.
2. The sticky tape is what holds the ramsinks in place. It's pretty terrible. It barely holds at all, but I didn't use anything more permanent for now because I wanted to wait to see if everything would work. Maybe I'll switch to an Arctic Silver thermal adhesive later on.
It took me about 30 minutes to do it all, but I was going very slowly and carefully.
2. The sticky tape is what holds the ramsinks in place. It's pretty terrible. It barely holds at all, but I didn't use anything more permanent for now because I wanted to wait to see if everything would work. Maybe I'll switch to an Arctic Silver thermal adhesive later on.
It took me about 30 minutes to do it all, but I was going very slowly and carefully.
Platonist
macrumors member
Thanks so much for reply! On some of the videos and such around the web there are those saying that one should just remove the stock and cooler and replace it with the Accelero -- leaving the ram as-is. It sounds as though people here are modifying the ram heatsinks as well. Is this a precautionary thing, a matter of preference, or are the people leaving the ram in its stock condition asking for trouble?
Thanks again for the help!!!
Thanks again for the help!!!
I guess it depends. If RAM gets too hot it's most likely that you'd start to notice artifacting. This is especially true in games. You may notice texture popping or strange colors on the screen. I'm not sure I'd go without heatsinks, but you could probably get away with it if you're not pushing the card very hard. Heatsinks are also good for people who overclock the memory on video cards although I'm not sure if you can OC these cards in bootcamp or not.
Platonist
macrumors member
Great info, thanks! I was under the impression that the card already had heatsinks on the RAM and that others were removing those heatsinks and replacing it the ones from the Accelero kit. I thought this as some instructions on the net said (I thought) to keep the stock heatsinks on the RAM, but I could have misunderstood. I doubt that I would go without heatsinks at all, and if there aren't any there when the cooler is taken off then I guess I will have to use the ones from Accelero kit.
The stuff should be here in a few days, so we'll what happens...
The stuff should be here in a few days, so we'll what happens...
JPamplin
macrumors 6502
PICS: Installing the Accellero S1 Rev 2 on a 3870 (online album)
Folks,
I just received my HD 3870 and the Accelero cooler today. The stock cooler on the 3870 was constantly running and noticeably loud. I've taken some shots of the cooler install and posted it with Picasa. Everything's running great so far.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pamplin/ATI3870Cooler#slideshow
I've posted comments as captions - just click the slide show and you'll see.
JP
Folks,
I just received my HD 3870 and the Accelero cooler today. The stock cooler on the 3870 was constantly running and noticeably loud. I've taken some shots of the cooler install and posted it with Picasa. Everything's running great so far.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pamplin/ATI3870Cooler#slideshow
I've posted comments as captions - just click the slide show and you'll see.
JP