X1900 3rd party cooler

This is a great question. For one thing, I just took a quick look for an Accelero X2 & it was out of stock everywhere I looked (newegg, etc). I looked at a couple of reviews of this new passive cooler & it looks really good but maybe not so easy to install. I downloaded the clearances diagram but I'm not very handy with these things & I can't tell if it fits, though I'll try it with a ruler tomorrow when I open my MacPro up to install the x1900 card expected then.

With passive cooling, all the heat goes into the PCI compartment. That is a lot more heat than Apple planned for, and may get things too hot.

I installed the Accelero X2 on my x1900 card and it works great. Completely silent and as it stands now the temperature in my expansion slot area is 37°C with 4 hard disks installed. So the heat really isn't all that bad at all.

Is the heat distribution significantly different with the passive system as compare to the stock fan (or a quieter upgrade) since the fan on the X1900 is just pushing air into the case? Also, the new Accelero passive has an option to attach a fan for extra cooling if that is an issue. So the question is whether anyone is able to figure out if the main heatsink will fit in our Mac Pro, as the Accelero X2 is back ordered or maybe now obsolete.

The difference is that the normal fan coolers blow the hot air directly out of the case, before it has a chance to heat anything else. If, thought, someone has measured the temperature rise in the case with a passive cooler, and found it to be acceptable, then it's OK, if it will fit.

I just ordered the S1 - I'll keep an eye on sensor temps to see what happens once it is installed. I'm hoping that lack of X1900XT fan noise isn't going to be offset by higher speeds from the other fans trying to get rid of heat - we'll see.

John F

The Accelero S1 is a bit of a pain to install, but so far so good. First the install (X1900 XT):
Remove stock fan assembly (8 screws.)

Stick on RAM heat sinks - this looks easy, but they didn't want to stay stuck long enough to complete installation. After they heat up, the adhesive / heat conductive material should harden, but it is getting them to stick enough to complet the installation that is the problem. Finally discovered that smearing a fraction of a drop of denatured alcohol on the heat sink surface softens it enough to really make them stick.

Install the huge passive cooler - easy.

I've checked all temps (Hardware Monitor ver. 4.2) before and after the install (BTW, this X1900XT is replacing the 7300).

The Northbridge Heat Sink is the one I expected to see the biggest increase in (proximity) as well as the hard drive (located directly above). The Northbridge is running (on average) 1 degree C. warmer, and hard drives are also 1 degree C. warmer. No other temps (memory, cpu, power supply, etc.) show any difference than before.

Pretty darn happy with the S1, and exactly as quiet as my old, weak 7300.

I'm not a gamer, but the card has been working out with Aperture and FCP, and definately shows smoother video than the 7300 did (which wasn't really bad.)

I got the non-Mac X1900 XT PCIe used from eBay, bought the 4500 power cable ($30) and flashed the ROM for the Mac, and it seems to work perfectly - for half the price of a new Apple ATI product.

John F