Welcome to Alf's "One Post Reveiw"!
Todays item... Arctic Coolings Accelero S1

I decided the get myself a new GPU cooler as the one on my Asus 7900GT was loud and , frankly, not very cool. I read up on the S1 on mad shrimps and decided to grab one, although i was a little skeptical of a passive cooler seeing how my active one wasnt really doing it job.

Package- Very plain... heatsink was in front with the name up top, that was it. I kinda expected it to be flashy and exclaiming its cooling abilities as most products do now adays. What surprised me was how light it was, just as light as stock! Its big though.... real big, bigger than my card both length wise and heightwise. Checked to make sure everything was included and i went on to install it.

Install- It was a pain... got the package then found out that one of the pins that held the enourmous heatsink on had a crack. Worried me quite a bit. But some super glue and a rubber band later, i was back in action. It was a lesson in pateince, once i had loosely screwed on the card, i had to lift it from the heatsink and snap on some plastic L pins. That was the hard part since i had to make sure they were even, and the thermal paste didnt help since my card would slip'n'slid when i didnt want it to and it made lifting the card and harrowing exerience. Once it was one it was on, felt secure enough.

Performance- To tell you the truth, i didnt expect it to be much better. Seeing how cramped my case is i figured temps would rise higher. Lucky i was wrong. For testing i decided to run 3D mark 05 (dont have 06) and just run the GPU tests, for that to work, at the end of test 3 i press esc and restart.
With my stock cooler i consistently hit 67+ full load, and i noticed it. so i had to have a personal fan to cool the darn thing. With the S1 on the other had, my card has yet to pass the 51+ barrier! thats a 16 degree diffrence!!

Conclusion- Better than stock... and 0 noise what more could i want? oh and its cheap too, $25.
Actually i have a PCI slot cooler that blows air from outside the case into the GPU, so i have to give credit to it. but still Its a cheap passive cooler and its lightweight so you dont have to worry about it snapping your card from its connects!
sorta meaningless RATING - 9/10

compatible with-
ATI (X1950, X1900, X1800) series
Nvidia (7950 GT, 7900, 7800, 6800) series

Thanks for the review Alf! I'm quite surprised that passive cooling can do so much better, so that is a bit of a bargain for $25

Have you tried overclocking with it?

Nice review Alf . Heres another with a bit more info on new developments .

http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/arct...nd_turbo_module

http://www.xtremecomputing.co.uk/review.php?id=357

Good review mate, should have taken some pics.

I think you should get the turbo module for it, will be a damn good cooler then.

Nice review alf. Interests me as my 7900GT stock cooler is really letting hte side down on the noise front.

Its the loudest fan EVER, and my card reached like 60 degrees.

I was thinking about <a href='http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SY-008-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787'>This</a> but would it be worth the extra £10?

Thanks Guys
Ian, i havent tried OCing just yet. Perhaps tomorrow, as by then i will migrate my computers innards to the Lian-Li

checking both sites Abarb!

I coulnt find the turbo modules at the time when i ordered them, but i figured my PCI slot cooler would work more or less the same.

I highly recommend the S1, potguy. Normally by Midday i wouldnt be playing since my card would be far too hot. Now my card, on average, is around 48C and is silent (cept for cooler).