Accelero hd4870x2

I just wanted to put an update before I went to bed.

I'm not normally one to admit defeat when it comes to building PC's and such, but I give up, and I think I lost an X2 in the process. (Too damn tired to troubleshoot anymore).

After hearing about the X bracket possibly needing to rotate I took the 1 X bracket I got mounted, off (so I could put the springs back in), and started to fiddle with remounting. I had no such luck...only 1 corner would go in at a time. (the screws are starting to strip at this point). After F'ing with it for what seemed an eternity...I got 3 of the 4 mounts on each GPU to attach. Unfortunately, the 3rd connection on each GPU bracket required the use of the similarly threaded, but microscopically longer screws I found in my screw bucket yesterday. Since I only have the 2...I could only get 3 of the 4 sides to hold back in...again JUST enough space to prevent the screw from catching in the cooler....hole.

so...F it...its on...its solid..its not moving...mount it in the motherboard. I have the Intel BX 38 Extreme (she and I both). Low and behold...screwed again. Since I had to replace the stock flat screws with the 2 provided M2 screws to hold on the new cooler, they arent flush with the video card..so they stick up. Well the design of this motherboard's RAM slots makes it so the white clips HIT THE DAMN SCREW, preventing it from sliding into the PCIE slot all the way.....Sum Bitch...

So...pulled the card out, pulled the HDD's out, as I also found out that since this is now a 3 slot card, it now covers 4 of the 6 SATA ports...great...now I have to reroute SATA cables. Well...with everything outta the way I reseated the card, and was able to get past the RAM clips BARELY since now the vid card has a little flex to it. (Not that I'm happy with that idea after reading the Bake your Video card back to life thread. Ya know...micro fractures and such....Sum Bitch...)

SO...Lock in the vid card, remount the HDDs to thier new homes, re route the sata cables. Power on the PC...and shuts off....WTF?

Power it on again...boots. Check the BIOS to see that its happy with the new SATA slots the HDD's are in...all looks well, reboot. PC turns off...WTF?! Hit the power again...boots. Gets to Starting Windows...hangs....Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...you gotta be shittin me.

Boot to safe mode - says its done installing hardware...guess that was the HDD's - WTF ever...reboot. Starting Windows...hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...I hate computers...

Uninstall the driver in safe mode. Boots to normal mode, proceeds to auto install the ATI driver..requests reboot...Starting WIndows....hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS.

Uninstall the drivers again...this time I tell it to delete the driver as well. Boots to normal mode...CCC bitches about no ATI driver installed (so this whole time I have no idea if the card is melting cause I cant get a damn TEMP reader up!!! Launch HWMonitor -71c ...shit. I look at my PC, stock cooler...70% fan....44c. This isnt good.

So...I run the install for the 9.5s...installs fine...reboots...Starting Windows...locks...power off/power on...starting windows...locks...F it...i give up.

SO...the only thing I can think of that is pissing the card off, is the 8 to 6 pin adapter that came with the cooler, which to my understanding shouldnt make a damn difference according to the ATI manual, since I'm not running CrossfireX - 2 PCIE 6pins (my means of an adapter) should suffice. Apparently not?!

So...as stated before the OP was able CRAM THE SHIT out of the 8pin PSU connector into the Vid card...so...i guess that's next. This is only of interest to me so I can see if I can get a solid ATI driver install boot done, so I can open up CCC, so I can crank up the damn fans! Given what I know however, I'm guessing that since I cant get the screws installed, I have a bad seating of the sink...which means the thermal paste that came with the cooler is probably smeared to shit by now...and I can only imagine WTF the condition of the thermal pads are.

So...if I do put the work into reseating the cooler...without stripping the remains of these POS screws...I have to hope to the Computer Gods that the thermal pads are in tact. Putting the stock cooler on isnt an option as most of the thermal pads/paste was destroyed/removed when I took the damn thing off to begin with.

My ultimate conclusion is that I royally jacked this up...somehow I didnt get a good original seating or maybe the GPU pads took a good hit in shipping and bent...bending them away from the GPU's on the card, thus giving me this GD gap so the stock screws will not reach anymore. Add to that the 8 to 6 pin adapter which I think is bogus as well.

SO...now I have an X2 I cant use cause the stock cooler's thermal pads are shot, and the new cooler wont install. I do have a 2nd Cooler in the box...but WTF do they expect me to do with it. I mean...I couldnt install 1...I can only expect that I'll F up my card as well. I'm already screwed that I have to give the GF my X2 so she can game, and I have go back to my 2600XT just so I have a display...BAH!

So...lucky me...I get to disassemble the whole Fing thing and start over...as if my fingers havent bled enough already.

TL;DR version: First attempt at modding a vid card = EPIC FAIL. Would not recommend this product to others...

OH...to confirm CrossfireX - not happening. 2nd PCI Express slot is FULLY covered by the fans.

/pissed off rant
 
You can ship the card to me if you want and I'll get the xclamp in and test on my pc. I have 116+ 100% feedback on ebay.
 
Put my X2 (stock) into the GF's PC (from where I am making this post). Installed, booted, CCC launched - fan fired up to 80% per her profile settings (Thank you EA for making SIMS 3 the new video card killer). Gaming like a champ.

I cant wait to see how EVE looks on my 2600XT tomorrow....

TL;DR version - F you Arctic Cooling...
 
For those that have the accelero: which way are the fans blowing? Push down or pull out? I can't really seem to figure it out.
 
From what little bit I've gathered from scattered postings about the cooler, it appears to push air across the heatsink. Now, I'm not 100% positive, but that's what I've read (or misread) thus far.

I think it maybe still possible to CrossfireX these on the P6t, it would be a tight fit mind you, but I have 2 pci slots between PCIE 1 and 2. Granted, I would be concerned with starving the primary card for air being so close to the secondary card.

Though after reading Hammer's frustration/inability to get the cooler properly seated thru many attempts, I think I'm going to pass on this. My luck would cause the GPU to explode upon removing the original heatsink....

Thanks for all the info, Hammer, and I hope you manage to get your card working again. You might do some searches online for replacement pads for the original cooler and try to put it back on.
 
Glad I got the p6t6 to do crossfire with ease with this cooler on my 4870x2. Though, I might wait a little to get it since it sounds like a possible initial problem with the install design.
 
Any Canadians been able to find it?? I can't seem to find it anywhere. I tried ordering from the US but with shipping it's going to cost well over 100$ and that's more than 1/3rd of what I paid for the card.
 
I think my X2 has had enough.

I spent all weekend working on it. I took the screws that came with the X2, and the 2 longer shank screws I found in my screw bucket over to Fry's Electronics. I was able to find a box of 25 screws that seemed to match the diameter and thread of what I had in my hand.

Testing them out they seemed to screw in quite nicely. So, thinking of the heat issue I had with my first attempt, I pulled the aftermarket cooler off. In addition, I wanted to get the 8 pin cable in, not the 8 to 6 adapter crap. I cleaned off the GPU's and placed some Arctic 5. Just a little dab. Took care to center everything the first time. Made sure all the thermal pads were in place. Flipped the card over and prepared for the X Brace install. I got the first screw in, easy. The second screw...well...apparently these screws arent meant for this kind of tension. My intention was to screw them in just enough to hold, then go back over them all for one last tightening. Ya know...like a lugnut on a car.

Welp..to my luck, when I went for that final turn...I felt the screw give...the shank broke off. SO, I have this screw shank broke off inside the cooler screw slot. I've got nothing to get that out with. I tighten down the other 3, and they hold. F it...keep going.

I get the 2nd X brace, and begin my same process. Tighten to hold, then come back for the final tighten. I was golden up until the last screw...and yes...it broke off as well. SO...I'm back to where I started. But instead of not getting the 4th screw in each X brace, now I have 2 broke off shanks. Whatever...lets see if this thing fires up.

Nope.

Zero display on either DVI port...seriously?! Off and on with the board, popping the battery, resetting the BIOS switching PCIE slots...all with the same results.

Pull the X2 out...finesse the 8 pin adapter off (barely) without removing the cooler, and plop in my 2600XT...boots up first time...son of a...

Put the X2 back in, power cables and all...zero...

I figure either I put too much Arctic Silver on..and it oozed out onto the GPU and causing it to short (my whimsical thinking), or I've flexed the card too much over the past week and its physically shot.

At this point, it'll be less anguish to call the Accellero's a loss with an X2 casualty, and get a 4980 to get back to gaming.

As for the 2nd cooler for her X2...yeah...I got a sledge hammer to install it to.
 
Does anyone currently have this in stock? FrozenPC has been out of stock for the last week.
 
Well I got my cooler in, after about 3hrs of attempting to install it I FINALLY got it in. I somewhat feel HammerAZ's pain, that X-bracket is a total BITCH. Near impossible to get it on. To put on the thermal pads, the heatsinks etc that only took about an hour or carefully placing everything on. I than replaced the thermal paste on the GPU cores and removed the stuff on the HSF unit. The Xbrackets didn't want to go in, like the threading of the screw didn't match up with the holes or something. I went out and bought a specialized screwdriver and somehow forced it in. I cut myself a couple of times on the brackets for some reason mine were unusually sharp. It was also very hard to get it into my case (Coolermaster CM690

The card is idling at 36C in 25C room temp, on load it reaches 43C and I left it running for a really long time. Both cards are running at 810/970 on both cores after doing the automatic ATI Overdrive Clock Config.

Here's some pics of the HSF finally installed:

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2617.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2616.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2620.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2617.jpg
 
EGM92 said:
Well I got my cooler in, after about 3hrs of attempting to install it I FINALLY got it in. I somewhat feel HammerAZ's pain, that X-bracket is a total BITCH. Near impossible to get it on. To put on the thermal pads, the heatsinks etc that only took about an hour or carefully placing everything on. I than replaced the thermal paste on the GPU cores and removed the stuff on the HSF unit. The Xbrackets didn't want to go in, like the threading of the screw didn't match up with the holes or something. I went out and bought a specialized screwdriver and somehow forced it in. I cut myself a couple of times on the brackets for some reason mine were unusually sharp. It was also very hard to get it into my case (Coolermaster CM690

The card is idling at 36C in 25C room temp, on load it reaches 43C and I left it running for a really long time. Both cards are running at 810/970 on both cores after doing the automatic ATI Overdrive Clock Config.

Here's some pics of the HSF finally installed:

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2617.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2616.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2620.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/download-albums/i102/Alucard92/100_2617.jpg
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the info and pics. What are the temps like in Furmark when you run it at 810/970?

Thanks
 
I have never heard of Furmark before, but doing some research on it and it seems there's a flaw in the 48xx series of cards that'll make the GPU go to 100C while running furmark?

If that's not true what are some proper benching configs for furmark?
 
thats a bummer. i really should have jumped on the ewiz deal. yeah i kinda figured it would be a pain to install. it was a real pain on my 4850 with its after market cooler but it was silent and perfect and i can't complain :D
 
EGM92 said:
I have never heard of Furmark before, but doing some research on it and it seems there's a flaw in the 48xx series of cards that'll make the GPU go to 100C while running furmark?

If that's not true what are some proper benching configs for furmark?
Click to expand...

Highest res and no AA. As for 100C temp load ATI capped Furmark in a way so that should never happen.
 
It's not the gpu core that goes to 100c but the VDCC current chips (the ones you put the pads on and two metal heatsinks). Either way there is no reason to run furmark at all.
 
Yeah, Furmark is really tough on the video cards, it'll reach much higher temps than when gaming( not just with ATI cards ). Still, if you have 43'ish C at load currently, Furmark probably won't take it much higher than 60-70C or so.

That's very nice temps by the way, congrats.
 
Well I ran furmark at 1680x1050 with MSAA x8 and got an average of 31FPS. I'll try it without the MSAA and see what happens.

Edit: Avg 59fps but it looked like it stayed at a constant 60fps. No artifacts at all, Went all the way up to 48C.

I got my friend to flash my BIOS to to allow the higher clocks than CCC would allow, I see that there's an Asus TOP BIOS floating around. Anyone able to guide me on how to flash these cards? My card is actually an Asus as well.
 
Anyone think they might be able to passive cool these things? Just interested since the temp improvement is so great.
 
It's very unlikely that you can passively cool it, maybe 1 4870 core but not 2 running at their stock temps, just too much heat coming off it.
 
How are the fans / black mount base attached to the main heatsink? Is it easy to take of all the fans?
I'm thinking about removing the stock fans/ mounting structure and using a couple 92-100mm high cfm fans.
 
I'm not too sure, I didn't have a good look at it, I'd take it out of my case but it's a PAIN to get it out and put it back in. It looks to be like the twin turbo though, where the fans/black mount base are tightly clipped on. I'm not going to risk taking it off don't want to break my investment.
 
Good to see that others get this to work. I for one failed pretty effectively.

The X2 I tried to mount the cooler on is dead. Attempted the reflow per the reflow thread - no help. I tossed it. Both coolers I tossed as well - even the unboxed one.

I'm back to my 2400 XT's until a deal on 4980's comes out, or whatever ATI's new flagship product is.

Live and learn :) - Dont fix what's not broken :p
 
HammerAZ said:
Good to see that others get this to work. I for one failed pretty effectively.

The X2 I tried to mount the cooler on is dead. Attempted the reflow per the reflow thread - no help. I tossed it. Both coolers I tossed as well - even the unboxed one.

I'm back to my 2400 XT's until a deal on 4980's comes out, or whatever ATI's new flagship product is.

Live and learn :) - Dont fix what's not broken :p
Click to expand...

My heart palpitated when I read that you tossed them! :(
 
Hammer are you positive that your card was dead? Hell if you do still have the card in your possession I can mount one of those accelero fans for you. I did it once, I'm sure I can do it again.
 
Well...I'm no hardware master, but the advantage of building 2 similar gaming rigs, is that I have a lot of room to swap and compare.

I'm pretty sure all the wrenching on the card trying to get the screws back into the X brackets caused enough flex to break the connections.

Prior to removing the stock sink, the card was running just fine with fan speeds of 70% to keep it within my comfort cooling levels. I let the card cool, and proceeded to remove the screws as instructed by the AC instructions. As I pulled the heatsink/cooler off, as I mentioned before the thermal pads tore off as well. Like...ripped in 2. So...I was pretty much at the point of no return right there.

No worries I had read the instructions prior to starting and everything seemed to be in order. The only time I thought I may be in trouble is when I got to the first screw on the X bracket and it lauched at me from being "spring loaded" (high tension)

From there...well...yeah...I've already ranted that. So I left the card alone for a couple of days just to get my frustration to bleed out. I decided to see if the card even worked. So, since I had the cooler on "good enough" I powered up my rig...nothing. I have 2 monitors, so I ensured both DVI ports were covered in determining if I was getting POST. I moved the card to all 3 PCIE slots - still nothing.

I convinced the GF to let me borrow what is now her X2 (since I took hers to mod first due to SIMS3). Dropped it in my rig - POST. Dropped my 2400's in - POST. Put my FUBAR X2 in...zip. So...I put the card in her rig...zip. To me...that's a dead card.

So...I baked it. I took the front off and the black backplate per the post's instructions. Flipped it upside down on a foiled cookie sheet, foil balls and all, set the temp, cooked, ding...cool for an hour...still no post. Her machine or mine. Course...it was bare card. there is no way the stock cooler will go back on, and the AC is not worth the time with the jacked power connections. I only left the machine on long enough to see if I POST'ed.

I did notice of the little LED lights on the back of the card...the 3rd or middle light turns red...which should be about the time I should see display.

So...lesson learned. No point in jacking with it anymore. I broke it. I take responsibility. Not happy by anymeans, but its just stuff. Things break - that's how I justify buying newer/bigger/better :)
 
CruisD64 said:
My heart palpitated when I read that you tossed them! :(
Click to expand...

The cooler I installed is no good, as the thermal pads are used. The unboxed one - I certainly wont risk her vid card, even though I bought it with the intention of helping quiet her machine since SIMS3 causes the X2 to fire to 100% fan within minutes of playing. Leaving it at 75% all day long is kind of annoying, and I dont see her changing profiles off and on to adjust it.

So, since I'll never install it, I wont return it as its not worth the time and headache, and if I wont return it for a full refund, why would I sell it for less to get rid of it...was my conclusion/justification.

So...out of sight, out of mind - no more stress :)

Now I can shop for something new! :)
 
@Hammer

I feel your pain...fully and completely. I too had a hard time installing the Accelero on my 4870x2, but managed to get the tension brackets all squared away..save for one screw--but everything seemed to be stuck down enough and so I installed the card and it worked great! Both of the card's processors never got above 50C, even under a pretty heavy load. HOWEVER, that one missing screw was really bothering me and so I went down to the hardware store and found a slightly longer one (M2x3/8"s? something like that) and installed it. It continued to work great!

For a week.

I was playing The Witcher EE, settings all maxed @1920x1200 and got to some intense battle scene and..everything froze. I restarted and it never came back..no post, nothing. Took the card out, tried it in my wife's computer, nothing. Took the cooler off, tried the old one, still didn't work. I haven't tried baking it yet, will probably do that this weekend--I suspect it won't work though. I did find a good deal on a 4890 though! Sigh..
 
The retention brackets are a pain to put back into place because the original screws are to short for the new cooler. Accelero engineers have acknowledged this and are planning to put in longer screws to fix this problem.

What I found when I did mine was the black plastic pieces in the middle of the retention brackets was causing it to not install again properly. I removed them and have had no trouble with my cards.

Love the quietness!!
 
I installed this cooler for a couple of days ago on my 4870x2, and I cant really say that I had problems with the x-brackets at all. the card is from Powercolor, but I guess all the stock 4870x2 coolers come from AMD/ATI so they should be the same (some vendors excluded, tricool etcetc). I easily installed the one side and went diagonally to the other side and so forth. imo it was more of a hassle to take the stock cooler off than put the new one in.

only bummer is that, VRM temps arent on bar with the core temps :(
 
It had crossed my mind to pull the black plastic pieces out. I cant recall exactly now, but I know I didnt want to do it due to the little pins that stick out from the PCB. I was nervous that once the x-bracket was cranked down that it may touch one of the pins causing a short, so I left them on during my assault.

In the end, I agree, with them off, they work. It was an experienced to say the least.

I was able to find a smoking deal on a replacement X2 on the For Sale thread, so i'm back in business. Stock cooler will be here to stay :)
 
In response to the "can you put two 4870x2's in CrossFireX with these coolers?" question... yes. Yes you can.

IMG_0363.jpg


IMG_0364.jpg


Also, yes, the x-brackets are near impossible to re-install. I ended up going down to the hardware store and buying longer screws. That did the trick.
 
Ahh..well yes. I could use the bottom 3rd slot to put 2 in, but that's a 4x slot (or maybe a 1x) compared to the 2 16x slots at the top of the board. I guess that's what I get for running an X38 :)

Anywho, I just read the review at guru3d.com. It seems they broke thier first card as well. The consensus seems to be that the provided mount screws just arent long enough, and apparently AC is going to issue a new SKU with longer M2 screws.

Funny part, some guy took apart his stock cooler..and found all the M2 screws he needed that were long enough to mount the X brackets.

The only other concerns I see is that while the GPU's are cool as cucumbers, the VRMs? are overheating and locking up like nobody's business.

Lastly, it appears the 8 to 6 pin power adapter converter they give you hampers performance. I dont overclock much, as you can see I can destroy enough hardware at stock :) , but it appears that once you put the AC on to cool your rig...OC'ing is out of the question with the 8 to 6 pin converter.

I'm not a fan of FUD and I can't prove/disprove since my card was dead before I could try any of that, but with those who have successfully installed the AC to thier X2's...care to clear up the fog?

While I understand I chose to break my warranty (and effectively my card) by putting a 3rd party cooler on my card...it strikes me as concerning if AC acknowledges thier product is ineffective and decides to recognize that by issuing a new mounting kit...

Its just a punch in the mouth to think that I'm using an $800 X2. (Original plus replacement).

Thoughts?
 
I'm getting my AC XTREME 4870x2 next week and I'm planning on jamming a psu 8pin PCIE connector into the card somehow. I did not spend money on this cooler in order to reach higher clocks just to be held back by some damn 6 pin adaptor.
 
DeadSkull said:
I'm getting my AC XTREME 4870x2 next week and I'm planning on jamming a psu 8pin PCIE connector into the card somehow. I did not spend money on this cooler in order to reach higher clocks just to be held back by some damn 6 pin adaptor.
Click to expand...

Depends if you have a true 8 pin or a 6+2

In general a PCIe 8 pins power cable cord is actually a (6 + 2 pins) arrangement. (photos: IMG_0382 ~ 0384).

The extension cable cord, that we provided, is actually doing the same job as the typical 6+2 pins plug. (photos: IMG_0385, 0386)

Our extension cord will provide the “+2” pins, basically identical to the “+2” pins that a (6+2) PCIe cable is providing. (photos: IMG_0389)



Some other users who are using relatively out-dated power supply. They may not have (6+2) pins PCIe cable cord. However, by have our extension cable (6 to 8 pins, but not 8 to 8 pins), they are now able to enjoy the 4870X2 experience. Of course, for users that already have 6+2 pins PCIe cable, they can make the same arrangement as shown in photo IMG_0389. There is no different in the power output.

This is the reason that we develop such an extension cable.



The customer mentions that his PC lock up when the intended to overclock his machine. This may due to various reasons. For example, overall power output vs the overall power consumption during overclock, or any other hardware issues. Based on the situation, we believe our extension cable seems not to be the reason for machine lockup because it actually functions the same way as a (6+2 pins) PCIe plug.
Click to expand...

dqg9as.jpg
 
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