How to properly cool VRMs using an acellero xtreme IV, without the use of thermal adhesive

Ottetal · March 27, 2015

If needed I can download all the pictuers and post them in the thread. For now, here is the walkthrough

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. The noise of the Tri-X cooler was really bothering me, and I wanted to do something about it. A friend of mine needed more storage in his PC, and I offered him my 10k velociraptor drive, if he bought me the cooler. Great trade. I have plenty of storage for my needs, so getting rid of the 10k HDD and getting a new cooler was only a major victory on the noise front.

All in all, I love the solution. Its silent, while keeping temps very cold. The biggest weakspot in my system currently is the CM 280L CLC pump, that whines horribly. Changing the GPU cooler to make it more silent only made it a more noticeable issue.

During a firestrike run on stock clocks (1000mhz core, 1300mhz mem) my temps were as follows

max core temp 69c

max fan RPM 647

max fan % 39

max VRM1 temp 65c

max VRM2 temp 53c

I chose the Acellero over the mk26, because it seemed like the more rigid of the two solutions. I find the backplate very pleasing, and was sold by the total lack of thermal adhesive in the Acellero, which both the Mk26 and the Morpheus uses.

Top down comparison.

Top is acellero xtreme IV, bottom is Sapphire Tri-X. Both sport three 92mm fans

Height comparisons

The Acellero is quite taller. The fans are roughly double as thick, and the cooler sits higher as well

Top down fin section comparison.

Left is the Acellero with 10x 6mm heatpipes, right is Tri-X with 2x 6mm, 2x 8mm and 1x 10mm heatpipes.

Bottom comparison.

The Tri-x still has the midplate mounted. Notice how restrictive it makes the cooler

The Tri-X cooler is soldered on to the mid plate for stability, and a great way to get around this is simply by putting the card

I am going to use the midplate for cooling VRMs, Mosfets and RAM chips. I do this because I hate the idea of having to use the small adhesive heat sinks

Preheat oven to 210C, put in card and wait for the cooler to seperate from the midplate

Tri-X weighs in at 438 grams

Acellero weighs in at a slightly heavier 473 grams

Pilotting holes on a drillpress for acellero mounting

These grooves that used to hold the heatpipes in place needed to be partially removed to accommodate the acellero.

Finished filing.

Midplate mounted on card.

If you were going to use something like a CLC CPU cooler, or possibly other large aircoolers such as the Prolimatech MK26, or the Raijintek Morpheus. This would work. The Acelleros mouning mechanism required direct contact with the PCB, and could not get it in this configuration

Cooler coutout enlarged.

Sadly, my hard work with the file was of no use. I ended up simply dremeling out where I had previously filed. The larger cutout lets the Acellero Comfortably mount to to the core.

Finished solution, with midplate.

I am not going to bore you with how to mount the acellero - there's a thousand other guides on that!