A few weeks ago I reviewed the Arctic Cooling Accelero Passive VGA Cooler, and I found it to be an excellent choice to quiet those noisy stock VGA coolers, and I found that even being passive it works better than the stock cooler with a fan. Today I have an add-on for the Accelero in the form of two interesting looking fans called the Turbo Module which claim to boost the already great performance of the Accelero. Does it work? Let’s find out….
Arctic Cooling Turbo Module for Accelero Passive VGA Cooler
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Arctic Cooling
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Arctic Cooling Turbo Module for Accelero S1 and S2 Passive VGA Coolers
Boost up your passive cooling
Turbo Module is an ultimate cooling add-on for enthusiast gamers. The Turbo Module increases the potential power of Accelero S1 and S2 with enhanced cooling performance under extreme quiet operation. Turbo Module helps boost up the GPU and memory overclockability, squeezing more graphic performance than ever before.
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Main Features:
Dual High Performance Fans
Enhance Cooling Performance
Extremely Quiet
High Reliability
Easy Installation
Low Weight
Long Lifetime
6 Years Warranty
Designed for Overclocker
Featuring dual high performance low noise fans, Turbo Module was designed to work together with Accelero S1 and Accelero S2 the widely adopted and award winning passive cooler for numerous ATI and nVIDIA graphic cards. The optimized fan speed dramatically reduces the temperature of GPU, RAM and Voltage Regulator. Turbo Module especially reinforces the PC case overall ventilation, and its clip-on design allows for easy installation.
Technical data:
Fan: 80 x 80 x 15 mm (each)
Fan Speed: 1500 RPM
Air Flow: 42 CFM
Bearing: Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Plug: 3 pin plug (with power plug converter)
Weight: 35 g (each)
Warranty: 6 Years
A Better Look at Things
:
Arctic Cooling was kind enough to send me, along with the Turbo Module, a few extra ram heatsinks, the new AC catalog and a data sheet on the Turbo Module itself.
The Turbo module comes in an easy to open plastic clamshell with the fans being displayed right on the front. The back has the same features and specs I have listed above along with a couple graphs as well.
Opening the package we find an instruction sheet, Arctic Cooling case badge, the Turbo Module and a Molex to 3-pin adapter (which is optional).
Obviously there are no fan grills on these fans, watch those fingers! The backs of each fan have clips that specifically attach to the Accelero S1 or S2.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is pretty easy, you just have the watch so you don’t cut your fingers on the fins of the Accelero! The Turbo Module just slips between the fins and clips to the bottom of the fin. Of course I still had the Accelero S1 still installed on my Connected3d X1800GTO video card.
You have to use a flat bladed screwdriver or other blunt object though to push the wire for the Turbo Cool down between the fins of the Accelero or else it hits the fan blades, this is described in the instructions though.
While just using the Accelero you will lose a PCI/PCIE slot that is below your video card, now with the addition of the Turbo Module you’ll lose yet another slot, kind of a bummer there…
Other than that I can see no drawbacks to the installation, as long as you follow the instructions it’s easy.
On to the testing… Ambient room temperature was 26.8C during my testing of the Turbo Module. I did not use the Molex adapter as I had a three-pin fan header on my motherboard right near the Turbo Module. According to the instructions you can use either or to power the Turbo Module.
To get some heat in the GPU core for load tests I ran both 3dMark05 and 3dMark06 back to back and recorded the highest temperatures. To get my idle temperatures I let my system sit for 30 minutes doing nothing at all. I used ATI Tray Tools to monitor my temperatures.
In the following graph you’ll see temperatures for With the turbo Module and Without the turbo Module installed on the Accelero VGA cooler.
You can see from the graph that the Turbo Module does work, seeing a four degree drop at idle and a five degree drop at load, not bad at all. I do have to mention that the Turbo Module is virtually silent, I couldn’t hear it at all over the rest of the fans in my system.
Summary:
The Arctic Cooling Turbo Module for the Accelero VGA cooler works well as expected.
It might not be a super drastic drop in temperatures but five degrees cooler is pretty good overall. So to answer the question posed at the introduction to the review, yes it does work, and I think it works fairly well.
For a price of USD $11.90 I think it’s well worth it for the additional cooling, especially considering you’re not adding any more noise to your system.
DragonSteelMods gives the Turbo Module a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.
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Pros:
-Easy installation
-Silent
-Excellent performance
-Low Price
Cons:
-Lose another PCI slot
I would like to thank Arctic Cooling for the chance to review the Turbo Module and for their continued support of DSM.
review# 236