X1900 Cooler

[Indybird]

Hey, I'm looking for a VGA cooler for my X1900XTX. The stock fan is ok, but it is in fact loud and doesn't cool enough to overclock. Anyone have any suggestions?

Right now I'm going for an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2, but the reviews it got were just ok.

[DaveW]

It's a hard one. The Accelero and the Zalman are both, from what i've heard, neck and neck at the top of the market.

I have the Zalman fan though, and i can say that it's quiet and allowed me to squeese a lot more juice out of my graphics card. Although for some reason, the fan doesn't sit dead-center, and when i got it, the fan couldn't turn because it hit one of the fins. Now, i managed to fix the problem, but that's besides the point.

Appart from that issue, the Zalman is nice and quiet and pretty to look at. Personally, i'd recommend it over the Accellero. Btw, i'm running an x1900xt, so it's almost the same as your card.

-Dave

[Slug Toy]

ive got the zalman too. got it strapped on my 6800 ultra. it keeps everything down in the low 50's under load. i cant really overclock to anything super impressive though. an extra 50MHz on the core, and 150MHz on the ram.

i cant say any more than that though because i got the card from someone who already installed the cooler. thats an interesting story right there... turns out my card is a reference card originally sent to gainward. i dont know how the guy got a hold of it, but he told me he has contacts in hong kong.

its been a while since ive seen the accelero. doesnt it dump exhaust air out the back of the case? that would be the only advantage. the zalman just spins air back into the case.

[Indybird]

The accelero sends the air back into the case too. I've read around and I've noticed the Zalman with the heatsinks had lower RAM temps, but the Accelero had lower Core temps; whats more important to you guys?

By the way I plan to overclock the card a little: maybe 700/1650 to start...

Edit: The Accelero also raised the system temp by 2 degrees whereas the Zalman raised it by 6 (Which isn't much of a difference)