Arctic Accelero Hybrid 7970 Cooler

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The crew at Overclockers Club seemed to like just about everything there is about the Arctic Accelero Hybrid 7970 cooler, except the whopping price tag that comes with it. Here's a quote from the review:

The Hybrid ran at full speed the whole time, as any noise it made was not discernible from the rest of the system. Confident with the cooling headroom of the Hybrid, I pushed the overclock to the edge of stability at a blistering 1250 MHz core, 1950 MHz memory!
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Ouch, that's one hefty pricetag. I might consider it if it was half that.
 
I did the exact same thing with a Kuhler 620 for $35, $11 bracket, and $12 memory/vrm cooling kit. $58 total.
 
Yeah, you can buy two full cover blocks for the price of one of these. Its way too close in price to a full blown custom loop.

I think that arctic cooling is getting outrageous with their prices. What is the AXP going for now? Almost $100? I remember when the 9800ghx version launched at a $55 msrp. Its pretty much the same cooler.
 
Would two of these work to replace my reference 7970's in crossfire? I'm new to water cooling and I like the idea of two separate maintenance free closed loop systems.
 
You could build a custom loop that these coolers couldn't begin to compete with for the price of two of these.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
You could build a custom loop that these coolers couldn't begin to compete with for the price of two of these.
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Ok well I suppose I should do a bit more research first as you say. Looking to water cool dual 7970's, not necessarily the CPU, target price range 500 or less. Instead of asking you exactly what I should buy, any pointers to a good beginners guide to water cooling?
 
Yeah, I found a thread on cluck. There are a few good guides out there but thats mostly what I used. One thing that I didn't see mentioned in the cluck guide is flushing your rads and blocks before use. There are a few ways of doing that but its probably a good idea. Martin's liquid lab has a ton of great info. I also use the method mentioned there on flushing my rads and blocks.

I don't want to sound like I'm pumping my own for sale thread but I have an mpc355 with an xspc reservoir top with a heatsink listed in the for sale section. If you have the room it might be a good option for a loop on a budget.

A couple of other things to look out for. A lot of types of tubing has been having issues with clouding up. A lot of people have been using Durelene tubing from sidewinder computers and that has been working out well for me, its also very cheap. I would be weary about nickel plated blocks from EK.

As for 7970 water blocks. Avoid the XSPC block no matter how tempting the price may be. The vrms run hot. Do you have reference cards with the bracket on the back?
 
Dan UCF said:
I did the exact same thing with a Kuhler 620 for $35, $11 bracket, and $12 memory/vrm cooling kit. $58 total.
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This. For $180 you can build a very nice brand new custom setup that will crush whatever Arctic Cooling has prepared. Hell, if you go used you can watercool your whole rig for $180.
 
Mr. K6 said:
This. For $180 you can build a very nice brand new custom setup that will crush whatever Arctic Cooling has prepared. [B H]ell, if you go used you can watercool your whole rig for $180.[/B]
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Yeah, I don't know about that. A pump, reservoir, rads, tubing, blocks, and fittings add up fast.
 
A pump, reservior, radiators, fittings, and tubing. The 7970 heatkiller block seems very nice so that should do the trick.

Just do a good amount of research before pulling the trigger on the rest of your components.
 
Research, that is what I am bad at, that said I have an open sided case for display so i don't mind radiators fans etc hanging outside the case. It's the correct fittings and tubing I am most concerned with
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Yeah, I don't know about that. A pump, reservoir, rads, tubing, blocks, and fittings add up fast.
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You don't need a reservoir or fittings (use barbs). If you want a functional loop with great performance it isn't difficult to put one together for cheap. Reservoirs, compression fittings, full-cover blocks, and all kinds of other "bling" add-ons are what drives up cost.
 
NukeDukem said:
Research, that is what I am bad at, that said I have an open sided case for display so i don't mind radiators fans etc hanging outside the case. It's the correct fittings and tubing I am most concerned with
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7/16" Masterkleer ($0.50 a foot) over 1/2" barbs. I throw hose clamps on the barbs as well for safety's sake, but they aren't even needed.
 
Mr. K6 said:
You don't need a reservoir or fittings (use barbs). If you want a functional loop with great performance it isn't difficult to put one together for cheap. Reservoirs, compression fittings, full-cover blocks, and all kinds of other "bling" add-ons are what drives up cost.
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Barbs aren't cheap either and odds are you'll need a rotary or two, he also needs an sli fitting. A reservoir is the least of your concerns when building a loop. Its well worth the money to make filling and bleeding the loop indefinitely easier. Even if you do use a gpu only block you still need to cool the vrms and memory somehow so you have to factor that in too. Water cooling isn't cheap.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Barbs aren't cheap either and odds are you'll need a rotary or two, he also needs an sli fitting. A reservoir is the least of your concerns when building a loop. Its well worth the money to make filling and bleeding the loop indefinitely easier. Even if you do use a gpu only block you still need to cool the vrms and memory somehow so you have to factor that in too. Water cooling isn't cheap.
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For SLI/CF I agree, the extra fittings to adapt bridges (and generally expanding the loop for heat output) do add cost. When we started this conversation it was concerning a generic single GPU system though.
 
NukeDukem said:
Research, that is what I am bad at, that said I have an open sided case for display so i don't mind radiators fans etc hanging outside the case. It's the correct fittings and tubing I am most concerned with
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Just make sure to get tubing that works on your fittings. If you get 1/2 barbs buy 1/2 id tubing. If you buy 3/8" barbs buy 3/8" id tubing. There isn't really a difference in performance between the two. I would go with metal worm driver hose clamps. Those make for a very solid connection.

Just read through a good guide. There are pros and cons to just about every component that you can buy. It all depends on what you are looking for, if you plan on expanding, etc.
 
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BababooeyHTJ said:
Yeah, you can buy two full cover blocks for the price of one of these. Its way too close in price to a full blown custom loop.

I think that arctic cooling is getting outrageous with their prices. What is the AXP going for now? Almost $100? I remember when the 9800ghx version launched at a $55 msrp. Its pretty much the same cooler.
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good thing with that cooler however is that its able to cover several card generations.
so instead of buying one block and then a new one for next card you buy this solution can be used later on for the new card.

For me, this be cheaper than 2 blocks down the road.
 
Flopper said:
good thing with that cooler however is that its able to cover several card generations.
so instead of buying one block and then a new one for next card you buy this solution can be used later on for the new card.

For me, this be cheaper than 2 blocks down the road.
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Not necessarily, coolers from last gen don't fit AMD cards of this gen. Not at least without some modding. This is also the first generation in recent years where Nvidia used the same hole spacing as the generation beforehand.

You can also buy gpu only blocks. Swiftech does a good job of keeping up with compatibility with the mcw-82 as well as releasing good heatsinks for the memory and vrms. Of course you could always use crappy aluminum heatsinks like the accelero comes with when using a gpu only block as well.

The downside to that is that your memory and vrms aren't anywhere near as cool as a full cover block.
 
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