The Verdict
Right then. There's no doubt about the fact that the Accelero XTREME 4780X2 cooler is top notch in it's basis. Cooling performance is awesome, it in fact becomes extraordinary once you pop that fan RPM to 100%, which still is quite silent. The dreaded temperatures of the 4870 X2 will be a thing of the past. Performance wise it really is one of the best products you can mount on that X2 as once it is working it really is good. In that context it is a unique cooler.
The drawback is of course you need to completely disassemble the X2 to the naked PCB. Doing that will void your warranty, it's as simple as that. And as such there's always risk of damage. In our case Murphy's law kicking in horribly. We mounted the cooler onto a reference based Radeon HD 4870 X2 and after installation we found out the hard way that it had completely died. That's 400 EUR completely written off.
Now when stuff like that happens I tend to get really stubborn. So after contacting AC informing them about a potential issue with the GPU mounts I figured let's grab another X2 and see if it happens again. The second time it worked though, however I followed exactly the same installation as shown in the photo-shoot installation wise and when I powered on the PC ... bingo, we got signal. But that doesn't leave the fact that one card got damaged. Now I do have an idea where the problem originates from. Once you place the cooler onto the GPUs and PCB, on the back you need to secure the X shaped GPU mounts. That's where a problem seems to be. The X shaped mounts are incredible hard to screw secure as there is too much clearance in-between the cooler and the PCB. The result is that you need to apply a lot of pressure to the mounts and thus PCB.
Now this might have been a case of really bad luck, but fact remains that on the second 4870 X2 I again found the X shaped mounting brackets incredibly hard to screw secure. This is something AC seriously needs to look into.
But enough said on that, I'll leave it to rest. Last but not least, being a great cooler also means losing space. If you install this cooler, you'll need a grand total of three slots with the cooler mounted, it's that thick.
And this is where this product review needs to end. Once mounted and working properly the Accelero XTREME 4780X2 cooler is a little gem, it is seriously the best cooling solution for the 4870 X2 I have ever seen. The cooling performance is extraordinary. But the fact remains that one of our cards died during the installation process, and I do not consider myself to be the amateur guy with two left hands.
If you install this cooler, you do take a significant risk. And with a 400 EUR product, you need to ask yourself if that's worth it.
Update - Artic Cooling is going to change the mounting system design with longer screws to prevent the issue mentioned in this article: We discussed with our Engineer and confirmed that we will put a longer screw to solve this problem.
Update 2 - After our publication we have received multiple reports of people ending up with a dead card just like we did. This problem seems extensive. At this time Guru3D can NOT recommend you to purchase this product until the product is 100% resolved. Once AC will release an updated and safe SKU we'll remove this text again.
Update 3 - AC is now offering a special set of screws (a little longer) if you purchased this kit and did not get eight screws in the package, you have the old SKU. If they are included, you have the proper version. At this page you can request the screws to be send to you for free.
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