The Accelero X1

Accelero X1 is quite different from Arctic Cooling's past efforts. Since the VGA Silencer series, the basic concept of their coolers is very simple. They all had a fan on the right end blowing across the hot heatsink. The hot air is then expelled out the case via the cooler's vented back plate.

However, NVIDIA started using a different method of cooling their high-end card. They placed the fan on the left and had it blow the hot air towards right. This does away with the need for a vented backplate as well as the need to occupy the adjacent PCI slot. Unfortunately, this means that Arctic Cooling's trademark method is no longer feasible.

Front of the Accelero X1	Base of the Accelero X1

So, instead of venting out hot air out the back of the card, the new Accelero X1 vents it downwards! Naturally, this means the hot air gets recirculated within the case and that can't be good for its performance. We will have to see how much impact that has on its performance later in the review.

In addition, unlike the NV Silencer 5, the Accelero X1 only has a copper base. The rest of the heatsink is made from aluminium. Even the memory heatspreader is made from aluminium.

But the good news is the Accelero X1 will be the first cooler from Arctic Cooling to make use of heatpipes to more efficiently transfer heat away from the GPU to the large heatsink. This should improve its cooling performance.

We will be taking a closer look at each aspect of this cooler, but first, let's take a look at its specifications!

Specifications