ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid Extreme VGA Cooler-nVidia/AMD, Liquid/Air Combo Ultimate Cooling

Pros: My top GTX 670 ran 7 to 10 degrees warmer than my lower one in a SLI setup. After installing this cooler the top card runs 5 to 7 degrees cooler than the bottom one! I ran a Furmark test and the liquid-cooled card ran 12 degrees cooler than the lower one under stress. The lower card has two 140mm fans from the bottom of the case and a 230mm fan from the side panel blowing into it.

Cons: Difficult assembly. I needed three hands and my teeth.

Other Thoughts: i7 3770K on a Asus P8Z77 WS board w/Corsair H100i
16Gb Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz
Two Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD & 1TB WD HDD
Corsair HX1000 PSU
Azza Genesis 9000 case

Pros: 1. Keeps 550 Ti very cool - 49 degrees C at 99% load on brutal stress test over a period of 3 continuous hours.
2. Comes with heat sinks for Voltage Regulators, VRAM - A very complete solution
3. Very quiet regardless of load.

Cons: 1. Takes up 3 expansion slot spaces (4 total, including the card itself) and here is why: The EGA 550 Ti model that I have has VRAM on both sides, so if I want to heat sink all the VRAM (which I do), I have to put the heat sinks on both sides of the card - This takes up an additional slot above the video card. The plastic housing for this solution fills the space that the original heat sink and fan had taken, and then it's height prevents me from installing a card under it.

2. Infuriating to install! This is no joke, people. I read the reviews before purchasing this item and was aware of the complaints about the installation. I figured there were a number of wetware reasons that they had difficulty. I had NO IDEA it would end up being this bad. I can't count how many times I exclaimed about how poorly designed this product installation was.
a. The instructions required constant attention - often re-reading instructions and the oversimplified pictures. It required a lot of educated guesswork, and each time, I needed to put down what I was holding together to re-read and reinterpret.
b. The little stickers to keep the spacers in place were not at all obvious in the instructions that they were double sided. So I had no idea why they were needed at first. By the time I figured that out, I had already accidentally damaged a few and there were no extras. To top it off with these stickers, the paper just stuck to them and I just pulled off a layer of paper. A real pain in the behind. Finally, once I got them separated from the paper, some of them stuck to themselves and were then useless. Trying to line holes up and get screws in without these stickers was near impossible, and I ended up ditching two of the spacers for the sake of my own sanity.
c. The combination of things they want you to do in order to install the water cooler and housing on the GPU board was surely intended to be done with robotics. You have to line up holes on several layers when you have no idea where they are - because you can't see them. The black casing makes this even more difficult. Even worse: I had finally - FINALLY - gotten two screws in and it took well over an hour to try to get the other two in - come to find out, the first two screws had gone in incorrect holes. I had to unscrew them and try again.

Don't lose any parts! It comes with ZERO extra! (not counting heat sinks)

Overall, the instructions were cryptic to say the least, and the expectations the designer has of a single pair of hands and eyes are unrealistic.

Other Thoughts: Once installed, everything is great. But expect to spend a long period of time and complete frustration getting to that point. Make sure you are around company that will tolerate your frustration, anger, and colorful language during and after the installation. Maybe do something to calm yourself once you have finished. Please, don't harm anyone over the installation of this product.

Since I had extra heat sinks and glue, I put the heat sinks on every chip on my GPU board. I did have to get a little creative to cool the voltage regulators, since they were not all lined up. Ended up putting a larger heat sink on a few at an angle.

Possibly due to adjusting the position too much, or possibly due to bumping a heat sink before the glue was dry, one of the heat sinks for the voltage regulators came loose after about a week and it was easy to pull off (clearly, I don't want a heat sink falling loose inside my computer so I pulled it). All others are still firm, so I'm sure this was my own doing.

It is possible to get lucky with aligning the holes while holding the parts in place, and I assume that is what happened for some (if not all) of the people who say this product is easy to install. It just didn't happen for me. I recommend a well lit workstation with lighting that you can re-position, a magnifying arm, and one or two clamps.

I'm not sure if the housing fan is really accomplishing anything, but it's quiet (the whole solution is very quiet) and it's certainly not doing any harm.

If you are buying this item, remember: The stickers are double sided - you should be left with a clear looking ring that is super sticky. Don't let it stick to itself or it's ruined and there are no extras.

Is it worth full price? Not in my opinion. Is it worth sale price? Maybe. Like I keep telling myself, I only had to install it once.

Pros: Extremely effective GPU cooling system, dropped temps to 70C from over 90C with full blast 100% bitcoin mining. Fans run silently, even at 100% you can barely hear the system working.

Definitely saw a huge performance in gaming due to the temperatures being lowered.

Cons: Installation is difficult, take your time and reference lots of different Youtube videos.

Due to the placement of the white fan on the cooling module, this system works a lot better for reference cards compared to non-reference (Radeon 6950). On my reference 6950, the VRM temps are around 61C full load overclocked. However, on my non-reference 6950 the VRM temps are between 85-90C. Again, this is due to the small white fan blowing directly onto the VRMs on reference card designed, while on non-reference the VRM is located on the opposite side of the PCB.

Other Thoughts: Great system for hardcore overclockers, but remember if you have a non-reference card the VRMs may not get direct airflow from the fan.

For non-reference, I might have checked out their 3 fan accelero extreme VGA and saved some money.

Pros: Good GPU temp
Cheaper than custom water setup
Fits many cards

Cons: Barely enough heatsinks to get the job done, Not enough VRAM heatsinks for a GTX 580, have to make do with other purpose sinks. The VRM sinks are too big and impossible to attach. I had to buy a set of copper mosfet heatsinks to get them to stay attached, they are smaller so they sat on there better. The heatsinks is where this thing goes wrong big time, and with no way to monitor VRM temps who knows if this thing is helping or hurting. Also the pump makes an annoying ticking sound, that I cant get to go away, no matter the orientation of the radiator.

Other Thoughts: Combined with good copper heatsinks this thing makes an excellent product, but it took 3 packs of heatsinks from Enzotech to get the job done ($45). So...I dunno, it will get your GPU temp super low but is such a hassel and doesn't come with all the parts for the job, plus the pump makes strange ticking sound so its performance barely allows it to break even with its drawbacks.

Pros: Works as advertised. It keeps my computer mostly 20 degrees cooler. Brought it from 70 degrees full load to around 45 to 50.

Cons: Installing it came be very complicated. I ended up hurting my had trying to put in screws that don't exactly fit into their designated holes. The palm of my had blistered up. Because the holes aren't made for the threads of the screws, you have to make them fit by screwing them in and screwing them out, and repeating that over and over until they go in all the way down. For something that costs 160 bucks, they'd make the holes for the screws to make installation easier.

Aligning holes with screws and with spacers at the same time can be very frustrating as well. The "CORSAIR Hydro series H50" for the CPU was easier to install than this.

Other Thoughts: Is this worth the full $169.99? I don't believe so. If we're lucky, they'll release a model that's easier to install than this. I bought this for $109.99 on sale, but even then, I'm not sure if that's work the pain in my right hand. Once you get it on, it works well. It's just the process to getting it on that's the pain. Buyer beware.

Pros: Comes with everything you need to complete the installation. The product seems to be of high quality and sturdy construction. I was excited to try it out.

Cons: Despite the claim to fit a Radeon 6770 card, I found that neither the plastic shroud nor the water block would fit on my card. I have an XFX Radeon 6770 HD. The GPU is mounted too far back on my card for the shroud to fit properly over the waterblock without extending past the outside face of the card (It would extend outside of the computer case if it could be installed this way). Also, the mounting holes for the waterblock dont match any of the mounting holes on the card. I found that the holes on my card were much closer to the center than any of the holes on the water block mounting area.

Other Thoughts: I would suggest searching for videos and/or pictures of someone who has installed this cooler on your card before you order it. If it can be successfully installed on your card then it would be a great addition to your machine. I'll be sending mine back in exchange for another cooling option.

Pros: +Generic Liquid Cooling setup; Compatible with a wide array of GPUs.
+Quiet; I was amazed with just exactly how quiet this thing was despite moving alot of air.
+ Aesthetics; The cowl looks neat, and any liquid cooled card is a +1 in my opinion for looks.
+Performance; Temp drops can be anywhere from 20-30*, even higher in some applications.

Cons: -Price....; You can easily mount a cheaper waterblock (H50, kuhler 620, etc) to your GPU or even find a bracked for said blocks.
-Installation; I have been assembling pcs for a while and usually when people say "this is hard to install", they did something wrong. This is sadly not one of those cases, as I will highlight in "Other Notes"
-Size; As pointed out, the cowl is wider and taller than the original heatsink, so make sure your case has enough room. generally, I'd say keep the slot under your card open if possible and have a inch on the side, or just ditch the cowl. Radiator needs a half inch or so on top and bottom where ever youre mounting it.
-PERMANENT installation; The heatsinks to your RAM and VRM must be used with Thermal Adhesive. as such, these installations are permanent. Keep this in mind before purchasing/installing.

Other Thoughts: So going through [another store], I saw they had these in stock and figured I'd try it out on my PNY GeForce 560Ti.

It took me about 2-3 hours to install the sucker on the card. The instructions are short, somewhat clear, and simple, but the application of the instructions tend to be more frustrating.

They start you off with preparing the cowl, which isnt too hard, then they have you setup the RAM/VRM heatsinks. Since they say the adhesive takes 60 minutes to cure (and they say use all of it... which I didnt and dont think anyone should unless necessary), I dont understand why that wouldnt be step 1, so that you can work on prepping the cowl and the rest of the components while the glue cures.

The selection of heatsinks they include are aluminum and work well. I kind of regret not buying copper, but the card's performance was not adversely affected. Make sure you insulate every part of the connectors, as a good precaution just incase the adhesive is conductive.

560ti has a large heatspreader, so I ended up using all of the MX-4 supplied.

Now the fun part of putting on the backplate was next. I didnt have the rings (I couldnt get them to stick double sided), but I just worked the first screw in with the spacers and tighted it just a turn or 2. I worked my way around the card until all 4 screws were in, and got it done on my first try with surprisingly little hassle. I agree though, a extra set of hands would make life easier. After torquing the screws down liek a tire (diagonally), and snugging them down (no excessive force needed), I eagerly installed the radiator to the bottom of my case (yea yea, I moved it earlier today but I know its bad to put the pump above the radiator/reservoir), I powered the pc on.

Idling temps were anywhere form 28-33*C on the card. Sound levels were non-existant. Load temps hit 52*C peak on Crysis 2, 50*C on RE6, 48*C on World of Tanks, 52*C on Warframe, and 45*C on Performance Test (3D runs only). All at factory clocks.

Overall, I'm very happy with the product, and for 110$, I think its accpetable, but I would have a hard time spending 160$+ on this kit. It'd be much cheaper to purchase a H50 (60$?), Copper heatsinks for RAM/VRM (30$?) and misc supplied, such as thermal paste, mounting supplies, which lets say is another 30$. Even at 120$ to DIY it, its still cheaper than MSRP on this kit. But at 110$? I think its a good price.

Bear in mind, if you have a AMD card (79XX, 78XX, etc) You may want to look at the Accelero Hybrid 7970 edition, as it would most likely work better for your GPU Model.

Pros: -Awesome Performance
Was able to get 250MHz extra core clock and 125MHz memory clock and hold it at a consistent temperature of 41C. Idles on 28C (Ambient about 29C)

Cons: Putting the whole thing together was a really bad experience. I was missing a spacer and ended up using spacers from the stock cooler.

Other Thoughts: This is the first water cooler I've ever put in. I did it to OC further and keep my Radeon 7870 at a cooler temp.

Intel Core i7-2600K@4.8GHz (Hyper 212 EVO)
G.Skill 16GB@1600MHz DDR3
ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe Pro/Gen3
Radeon HD 7870@ 1300MHz Core& 1360MHz Mem
Antec 800W Power Supply
Corsair 600T Special Edition

Pros: Excellent cooling. On my Radeon 6950s I went from 95-100C at max load to 63C max load. The fans are almost totally silent at 100% fan speed.

Cons: Installation can be tricky, just read the directions and refer to videos online. Be patient.

One cooler made a strange sound, but once in the case and closed up I couldn't hear it. Some other people have reported this issue, but I don't think its that important.

Other Thoughts: Be careful with the install, I am an average computer builder and could do the install no problem. But I did refer to a lot of Googling and videos just to make sure I was correct. Once you get it done, it makes a world of difference.

I am doing 3 more in the future, should have no problem doing them.

Pros: - I installed this onto a EVGA GTX 570 SC. And bought it on sale on the Egg for $110.

- Idle temps dropped from mid-high 40s to low-mid 30s. Under heavy load, temps dropped from high 70s-mid 80s to low-mid 60s. With number fiddling it comes to about a 20% decrease in overall temperatures, which considering the enclosure I'm using, that's very substantial.

- Looks a little cheesy but everyone else likes it.

- Included fan is very quiet even at higher RPMs, and adding a second fan (had my own hardware) only sweetens the deal. Questionably silent compared to stock cooling.

Cons: - As everyone else has said, this thing can be a nightmare to install for the uninitiated or weak of heart. Particularly the double sided tape used for some of the spacers; by FAR the most frustrating part of it all but thankfully Artic Cooling supplies extras.

- The shroud actually makes the graphics card SLIGHTLY WIDER (!) and a little taller than the stock two slot cooler. I had to give my side panel some tender love and care with a rubber mallet to make it fit. Fitting more than one in tandem will be difficult if you don't have the spacing on the motherboard.

Other Thoughts: I installed this and my graphics card into BitFenix's Prodigy case. Almost Micro ATX in physical size but still very small on the inside. Between the dual push-pull radiators (I have the H80i for my CPU), all the drives including an optical drive, and not initially having enough space between the Shroud and the Side panel, there is not much space in this case and by association not much room for heat to dissipate internally. The fact I have any decrease in temperatures is a miracle, and for an all in one kit, the Accelero Hybrid does not disappoint my expectations.