Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120VX
Next in line is a popular model from Thermaltake, which has already gone through several changes. latest model with the VX index has a simplified mounting system for LGA 775 and a fan with an increased speed.
The box is made in traditional red colors for the company. The cooler itself is perfectly visible through the transparent plastic casing.
In a separate cardboard box inside the package are additional accessories: clips for installation on motherboards under AMD processors K8/10 and Intel with Socket LGA775, as well as a small bag of thermal paste.
Declared characteristics:
Aluminum heatsink fins are strung on curved heatpipes emerging from a copper base. The radiator itself is located parallel to the board and consists of two sections with three tubes for each. Thanks to this design, a 120 mm fan, blowing through the radiator fins, additionally blows around the socket space and elements.
Of all the tested coolers, the Big Typhoon turned out to have the worst base processing quality. As you can see, despite some evolution of this cooler, it doesn't get to polishing the base. The roughness and unevenness of the surface is perfectly felt to the touch.
Unlike all other coolers, the Big Typhoon 120VX has a speed control located directly on it, and is not taken out of the case. The regulator is screwed to one of the corners. So, if you decide to reduce the fan speed, you will have to climb inside the system unit.
Inside the case, the Big Typhoon looks huge. The red color of the impeller and the curved lines of the grill grate make the appearance aesthetically pleasing.
Given the weight of the cooler, the reliability of fastening with plastic latches is questionable. But, unfortunately, the manufacturer decided that no additional funds were needed to strengthen the motherboard.
I have a double impression of Thermaltake and its products. On the one hand, this is an unconditional respect for the manufacturer, who brought the production of coolers (and later other cooling devices) into a separate branch of computer technology. At one time, the buyer had a simple choice: either a standard piece of aluminum with a fan, or a ThermalTake-made cooler that provided significantly better cooling performance. Let me remind you that this was the time when the first systems on the market appeared on the market. AMD platform SocketA, which were very favorably received by overclockers and computer enthusiasts. Since such processors were easily overclocked, the need for powerful cooling systems increased many times over. And Thermaltake has successfully released a series of coolers from the Orb series.
Subsequently, other companies began to enter the market for cooling devices, which tried to snatch their piece of the sweet pie (or get a share of the fast-growing market :). But ThermalTake tried not to lose its leadership, and constantly offered more and more new products. Currently, the company's product range is very large, ranging from cases to water cooling systems.
However, since a certain moment, I stopped liking Tt products, and some products looked like outright hack work (high price, high noise level and low efficiency). In particular, not one of Thermaltake's products has received a positive rating in our reviews lately.
Therefore, I was somewhat suspicious of the Thermaltake Big Typhoon cooler, which was included in today's test by pure chance (there were no other coolers with heat pipes in the nearest computer stores). Surprised at the price (more than 1200 rubles) and impressed by the mass and dimensions of the cooler, I agreed on a mandatory moneyback and proceeded to the inspection.
Like most other coolers, Big Typhoon is packaged in a transparent plastic box:
In addition to the cooler itself, in the box we found a mounting kit for all popular platforms (LGA775, S478, S939754) and colorful installation instructions on two glossy sheets.
As we have already noted, the cooler impresses with its size:
To better illustrate its dimensions, here is a photo of the Big Typhoon installed on the motherboard Asus motherboard P5WD2-Premium (based on the i955X chipset).
The design of the cooler is fundamentally no different from similar products. So we have a copper base, from which six heat pipes come out:
The tubes rise up and enter the aluminum radiator:
A metal frame is installed on the radiator
On which a giant 120mm fan is mounted:
To prevent body parts from getting into the fan, or, God forbid, computer cables and loops, a protective grill is installed on the fan.
Let's list specifications fan speed: 1300RPM, generated airflow 54.4CFM, and noise level 16dBa! To be honest, I didn't watch those. performance before the first launch of the system with the Big Typhoon cooler, and was very surprised by the quiet operation of the fan (if you listen very carefully, you can only hear the rustle of the air). The last silent fan produced by Thermaltake I met only in the Aquarius II water cooling system (the copy was from the first batches).
Now let's look at the quality of the base processing, for which you can put a "strong four":
The last thing we will focus on is a description of the installation procedure. To be brief, a metal reinforcing plate is installed on the back of the motherboard. 4 threaded studs are installed through it, which are fixed with special nuts. Next, a cooler is installed on the processor, on the base of which the same metal frame is put on. The studs pass through the holes in this plate and the second set of nuts is installed on them.
In general, the procedure is a little tricky, but when you hold a set of fasteners in your hands, everything becomes intuitive. However, we note two points that we have. Firstly, on the Asus P5WD2 Premium board, there were hefty tin blocks on the back of the board, which interfered with the installation of the amplifying plate. I remember, for some Gigabyte board we faced a similar problem, and finalized the board with a file. But P5WD2 became a pity, and we just put an additional gasket:
By the way, if an additional plate were installed on the P5WD2 board. cooling Stack Cool, then this problem did not arise. However, in order to save money (or for other reasons), Asus stopped installing such plates, and limited itself to only the inscription on the board (which, of course, will not make it colder).
Another point concerns the tightening of the second set of nuts. This operation can be performed in a matter of seconds if, having previously screwed on the nuts, press down on each side of the plate, and turn the nut a few turns in a couple of movements.
Testing powerful coolers. Part one.
Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX vs Noctua NH-U12P.Price niche $50-55
Foreword
Today, there are many different coolers on the Ukrainian market. Among them there are both expensive and affordable models, aimed at different categories of users. Most are purely budget class, but there are also Hi-End class coolers that are expensive. It is also worth noting that very expensive models do not always demonstrate the desired performance, and cheap ones are not always bad. There are many well-known companies on the market, but sometimes there are also small ones that are trying to gain celebrity and popularity for themselves with high-quality and more affordable models.
The first one is Thermaltake, which produces a lot of accessories for modding, power supplies, cases and, of course, coolers. Perhaps the most famous cooler of this company is the legendary Typhoon, which helped to overclock even old processors for 939 and 775 sockets for Pentiums. A lot of time has passed, but many users do not change, and some even buy it. In this review, I have selected an opponent for Typhoon from the Noctua camp, the NH-U12P cooler. The company has been selling its products in Western Europe for a long time, but it is practically not common in Ukraine.
Perhaps today there is such a situation when you can buy a good processor for the corresponding money ... and then significantly, let's say, speed it up. For this we have to thank modern technologies, and in particular Intel, which released a very successful architecture. For more or less adequate prices, we must thank AMD, which is trying to survive in this market segment. Well, these companies, in turn, should thank us for buying their processors.
Test platform and test conditions.
So, the introduction is over, let's move on to practice. For testing, I used the following system:
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Quad Q6600(G0)
MotherboardASUS P5K Premium/WiFi-AP
CoolersThermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX,
Noctua NH-U12P
RAM GOODRAM 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz x2(4GB)
Video cardgigabyte X800gto 256mb+ Zalman VF700-Cu
Hard drive Seagate ST3750330AS 750gb
PSUThermaltake ToughPower 750W
Drive ASUS DRW-1814
Housing Cooler Master Elite 331 (1x12 cm blowing)
UPSAPC Back-UPS CS 500
Operating systemWindows Vista 64bit sp1
The day before I made presetting systems and stability test. I must admit, I failed to overclock the processor to a frequency of 3.6. More precisely, it was possible, but the system worked in the OSST for about an hour, and then I watched the “death screen”. And so it was repeated several times. Perhaps the reason was the overheating of the north bridge, although this is not known for sure. But I set myself the task of squeezing the maximum while maintaining FULL stability, and when the system worked steadily for 6 hours, I considered the overclocking successful.
So, with FSB 400, the multiplier was 8, the final frequency was 3.2. Memory divider 1:1, effective frequency - 800 MHz. BIOS settings:
CPU voltage 1.4
CPU PLL voltage 1.6
FSB termination voltage 1.3
DRAM voltage 1.8
NB voltage 1.4
SB voltage 1.05
Load Line Calibration(VDroop) Enabled
CPU GTL Voltage Reference 0.63x
All other settings are set to AUTO. Fan control is disabled except for a few tests.
core voltage
Well, now let's move on to the test subjects:
P.S. I will not dwell on cardboard and plastic boxes, however, I note that outwardly the Taufun packaging looks more solid, about the configuration - read below:
Introduction After both leading processor manufacturers announced the end of the gigahertz race, users who hoped that their new PC would finally be truly fast and quiet, briefly breathed a sigh of relief. The most optimistic of them hoped that Intel would finally make the processors of the Dothan family available to the masses, but this, unfortunately, did not happen. Instead of one "heat generator under the lid", both Intel and AMD offered two! The issue of increasing productivity was solved by a banal method, which is known to everyone from the first grade - addition. If it is impossible to further increase the frequency and achieve a noticeable performance increase, then one of the simplest ways is to increase performance by parallelizing computational threads. The fact that there is little sense from this for an ordinary home machine today, to put it mildly, is of absolutely no concern to anyone. Both trendsetters in the CPU market need sales, and the new concept of "dual-core" is quite capable of providing them. However, most of all thanks for such a titanic effort to promote to the masses few people who really need at home multi-core processors Cooling system manufacturers will tell you. It's no joke - the appearance and the total area of the processor itself remained unchanged, and all that has grown is performance and heating. Moreover, if you can argue about the first one for a long time - ordinary user practically does not notice any increase in a number of typical multimedia and gaming applications, but with heat dissipation everything is very transparent - it has grown quite significantly. By and large, we still need to say thank you for the fact that by doubling the number of cores, the developers failed to double the final heat dissipation of the entire structure. However, even what happened as a result was enough to bring such giants of air cooling as Zalman 7000Cu and Zalman 7700CU to their knees. This is expressed in the fact that if the latter is still able to keep the temperature of a dual-core Intel Pentium Extreme Edition with a clock frequency of only 2.8 GHz, but based on the SmithField core in the region of 75-80 degrees at an ambient temperature of 20-22 degrees, then for 7000CU this task already beyond our strength - the temperature exceeded 85 ° C, after which we stopped further experiments with it. The situation with the new processors is practically no different from that with the latest revisions of the Intel Pentium 4 on the Prescott core - the speed of heat removal from the processor core plays a very important role. There are two options left - either use coolers with heat pipes, with a separate base and radiator, or water cooling systems. The price of such a choice, today, differs by about half - the average price level for ready-made CBOs is about two times higher than that for top models of coolers with heat pipes. We are in no way going to bypass the topic of water cooling systems and plan to dedicate one of our next reviews to it, but today it is air coolers that are in the focus of our attention - 4 different, but, nevertheless, very worthy models that illustrate the state of affairs very well on the market for such devices. Moreover - apparently, even Intel is not going to abandon classic cooling systems in the near future - the BTX standard provides for air coolers, albeit of a somewhat unusual design. Among the main trends that prevail today in this sector of the market, in addition to the quality of cooling and minimizing the noise level, one can note such as a significant increase in the dimensions of the radiator and a noticeable emphasis on the aesthetic component. Manufacturers of even inexpensive COs seem to have realized that a consumer who buys such a utilitarian thing as a processor cooling system for quite a tangible amount of money has the right to at least count on a pleasant appearance of his purchase. However, in those matters that relate to appearance, few can argue with Thermaltake products - its solutions have always pleased the buyer with their original design. The tradition has been followed in the company's fresh line of coolers - our today's guests are no exception, and any of them will look good in cases with a side window that are now popular. As for overall characteristics, the user will not have any special problems here either - he will not have to specially select a case for the cooler he likes. All models are quite normally placed in a standard ATX case.
There are different approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of processor coolers, but the most optimal method will be one that is close to "combat" conditions.
Test Methodology
To evaluate the effectiveness of coolers, we assembled a top modern PC in the following configuration -
Motherboard Intel i955X;
Processor Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 2.8 GHz (SmithField Core);
RAM 2х512 MB DDR2 Kingston KHX5400D2/512;
Video card ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition 256 MB;
HDD: western digital WD1600JB;
NEC ND-3540A (Black);
Power Supply Zippy HP2-6460P;
Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS case.
The case was not chosen by chance - it is one of the most convenient cases for assembling the system, featuring a productive and quiet ventilation system.
Testing was carried out in two modes - Idle(simple system) and Burn(running 2 copies of CPU Burn).
To take readings of processor temperatures, a program was used Motherboard Monitor version 5.3.7.0.
The room temperature during testing was 21°C and did not change during testing.
To test all the coolers, we used the KTP-8 thermal paste, which was not included in the kit.
The noise level was assessed subjectively, with the remaining fans completely stopped, and was separately specified in the conclusions for each participant. We did not carry out instrumental measurements, because, as practice has shown, dry numbers practically do not allow us to adequately compare two different coolers.
Perhaps enough theory - let's get to know the test participants better -
Thermaltake Big Typhoon (CL-P0114)
Opens our testing one of the biggest coolers in model range company - Big Typhoon is quite a typical modern solution in the field of cooler building for the "best" processors. To a person who hasn't followed this sector of the market for a couple of years, such dimensions may simply seem huge - one box alone can easily pack three or four ordinary two-year-old coolers.
If you meet by clothes, then there are no complaints - the packaging is in the best traditions of the genre. In addition to the cooler itself, there is a small black box in the box -
A neat box with the name of the cooler contains a set of universal fasteners, two leaflets with instructions and a bag of thermal paste.
The set of fasteners is implemented very well - it allows you to install Big Typhoon on almost all modern boards, and you practically do not need a screwdriver for assembly. In order to ensure the safety of the motherboard, the kit includes two rubber gaskets that completely repeat the shape of the metal mounting plates.
Gaskets, unfortunately, are not reusable - once installed, they crumple and become very thin.
Also, separately in the package there is a special compact fastener designed for installing the cooler on motherboards with Socket LGA 775 and dense placement of components.
It is a set of three elements -
And after assembly, it turns into a compact design, which in size only slightly exceeds the size of the cooler itself -
Despite the visually large dimensions and somewhat unusual layout, technically, Big Typhoon is a completely traditional design for cooling systems of this type.
Nothing new - a copper base, a set of heat pipes and a large plate heatsink.
All this is blown by Thermaltake's proprietary 120mm fan with a rather low rotational speed of 1300 rpm.
At first glance, the rotation speed is low, but given the total area of the radiator and the size of the fan, it is more than sufficient - the air flow that it creates when passing through the radiator blows almost the entire upper part of the motherboard - the chipset heatsink, memory modules, power system mosfets processor and even the back side of the video card.
There are no innovations in the design of the radiator -
Massive copper base with clamped heat pipes and a heatsink with aluminum fins. Classic design with an optimal combination of weight and size characteristics and efficiency. The use of copper fins in this case is simply impractical - the radiator will turn out to be very heavy, and not every motherboard will be able to withstand its installation.
The design of the radiator is separate -
It is divided into two parts, each of which serves 3 heat pipes. Both parts are additionally fixed with a frame on which the fan is attached.
The quality of base processing is average -
The base is matte, and traces of the cutter are clearly visible. However, for modern processors with their own heat-distributing covers, such processing is quite enough - if you don’t aim to win back every fraction of a degree with blood, then you won’t have to polish the base.
The cooler is quite easy to mount on the motherboard -
Thanks to the radiator placed up on the heat pipes and convenient fasteners, its installation is quite simple and does not require much time. Big Typhoon is perfect for those motherboards that either don't have a lot of space near the processor socket or are equipped with overall northbridge heatsinks - the shape of the base and mounting kit allows you to easily install it on a board with almost any layout of elements. The only thing that can become a limiting factor is the case - nothing less than a full-fledged ATX will do.
In Thermaltake Armor, the system fit without problems, which is not surprising - the case is clearly capable of accommodating any existing CO without any problems.
The subjective impressions of the Big Typhoon are very pleasant - despite its impressive dimensions, it has a rather convenient fastening system, low weight and practically no problems when installed on the motherboard. Given the overall set of characteristics, you can safely count on the successful completion of the test program -
The results are very impressive - the temperature of such a hot processor in full load mode is only 63°C, which is more than an excellent indicator. The temperature in idle mode and there is nothing special to comment on - the processor is almost cold. Taking into account the fact that ordinary user applications simply cannot warm up the processor in the way that CPU Burn does, we can say with confidence that in the hot summer time in a normal unconditioned room, the cooler will not allow even one of the most powerful processors to overheat today's day. Moreover, even if the system is assembled in a case of a classical design, the Big Typhoon has enough performance margin to provide normal functioning systems.
As for the noise level, in the usual classical system it is almost invisible. A rotational speed of 1300 rpm is clearly not enough to create any noticeable noise, and long heat pipes perfectly play the role of dampers and easily dampen all vibrations. When the case fans are completely stopped, you can hear a quiet rumble, which is created by the cooler's rolling bearings. You can easily get rid of this drawback if you slow down the fan speed to 1000-1100 rpm. In this case, the efficiency drops slightly, but the noise practically disappears.
In summary, we can say that the purchase of Thermaltake Big Typhoon, in addition to the fact that the user receives a cooling system with an excellent set of characteristics, will also be an excellent long-term investment - the cooler is quite capable of surviving one or even two platform changes, even if the heat dissipation of processors will continue to grow at the same rate.
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
+ Excellent cooling quality, convenient mounting design, almost silent operation.
- Not found.
= An excellent choice if you need a good air cooler that can be easily installed on any modern platform.
Estimated price - $42.
Thermaltake Sonic Tower (CL-P0071)
Our acquaintance with the Thermaltake cooler range continues with a very original design with a slightly strange name - Sonic Tower. It is a large passive type radiator. A very bold decision, given the level of heat dissipation of modern processors - as a rule, manufacturers prefer not to take risks and still equip their products with at least low-speed fans. The meaning of the name is somewhat incomprehensible - why "Sound Tower"? After all, the passive design is completely silent, and this name is somewhat inconsistent with the design of the radiator. Apparently, the manufacturer simply had no choice - the more appropriate name "Silent Tower" is already taken by one of the company's early products.The box is not inferior in size to that of the Big Typhoon -
The scope of delivery is also very similar -
The only difference is two additional brackets for mounting a 120mm fan, which did not fit in a cardboard box with fasteners. There is nothing unusual in the box itself -
Instructions and a set of fasteners. The mount is arranged in such a way that the clamping bar at the radiator is universal and can be used for all platforms. There is even a set of fasteners for the K7 platform, though only for the holes near the socket, which is quite understandable - the mass of the radiator is more than tangible, and it is simply impossible to fasten it directly to the socket itself. Moreover, the fastening screws are special, with a hexagon head, which is also included in the kit.
The radiator has a completely familiar design -
Roughly speaking, it resembles a Big Typhoon radiator turned upwards with a slightly increased fin area. Aluminum fins start almost from the base of the cooler, which is somewhat inconvenient and can create a number of problems when installing it on the motherboard.
The processing of the base is rather mediocre, like that of the previous participant.
To make a completely passive cooling system without even leaving the possibility of installing a fan, Thermaltake did not begin -
Neat holes in the radiator fins are designed specifically for installing aluminum corners, to which any 120mm fan you like is attached. The corners are fastened with screws, and during this process it is almost impossible to avoid a slight deformation of the upper ribs -
This practically does not affect the efficiency, because this part of the radiator, when the fan is installed, still ends up in a dead zone and is not blown. Appearance with the installed corner practically does not change -
After both corners are installed, you can mount the fan. However, when looking at the rather large lower part radiator, we had a number of doubts about the possibility of mounting it on a test board, which were fully confirmed -
The bottom corner rested on the chipset heatsink, which made it impossible to install the heatsink. After a little thought, we decided to limit ourselves to only the upper corner, deciding that it would be enough.
After removing the lower corner, the heatsink normally stood on the board and was fixed without any problems. The fan we borrowed temporarily from the Big Typhoon is just the right size and has a very low noise level. As we expected, one corner for attaching the cooler is enough -
Problems arose when we tried to install the entire design on the board -
The radiator with the fan installed completely blocked the first memory slot on the motherboard. In our case, this is still not very critical - the bar with a little effort, but still got up, into the next slot. But on other boards with a denser placement of components, there may be problems with installing a heatsink. In addition, you should pay special attention to the placement and height of the chipset cooling system - the Sonic Tower has very low radiator fins, which creates a number of problems that sometimes cannot be solved without instrumental intervention when installed on motherboards smaller than Full ATX.
In Armor, the system becomes just perfect -
The placement is really optimal - the radiator is just opposite exhaust fan, which, in fact, creates an ideal picture of the placement of a passive cooling system. The air flow created by two 120mm coolers is more than enough for the radiator to function in passive mode. Those for whom this is not enough can use a system with a fan installed -
This configuration provides perhaps the most efficient scheme - the air coming from the intake fan is blown through the heatsink and immediately thrown out of the case. Most likely it will not be possible to seriously compete with Big Typhoon, but, apparently, the developers did not set such a goal.
We present the results in two modes - in completely passive and with a fan installed -
The final picture is impressive - in passive mode, the temperature was only 72 degrees! The result, as for a simple radiator, albeit a large one, is more than outstanding.
With the installed fan, the results almost completely repeat those of the Big Typhoon, which is not surprising - these two cooling systems are very similar in design and only slightly differ in the heat transfer area, which in this case turned out to be unprincipled.
Without a doubt, the main trump card of this radiator is the ability to work in passive mode, and taking into account the price, it has practically no competitors in this. But for the full functioning of the Sonic Tower, you need a high-quality case with good ventilation around the processor area, otherwise its advantages will simply be leveled.
It won't be possible to call it a real alternative to the Big Typhoon - both in the passive mode and with the fan installed without airflow, the chipset heatsink, power system mosfets and memory modules remain. In our case, thanks to the well-organized ventilation of the case, overheating of these components was not observed, but, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee this in a different configuration.
As for noise issues, the situation here is simple - there is simply no noise in the passive mode, and with the fan installed, the situation is similar to that of the Big Typhoon, from which the fan was borrowed. To operate the Sonic Tower with a cooler installed, in our opinion, is simply pointless - it's easier to immediately purchase a Big Typhoon, which is noticeably more functional.
As a conclusion, we can say that Thermaltake has been very successful in proving the possibility of using passive systems cooling on modern processors. The only but - even in the presence of a normal case, the presence of an air conditioner is highly desirable. However, if you do not have a top dual-core processor, then the last recommendation can be omitted.
Thermaltake Sonic Tower
+ Passive radiator, a good set of fasteners, rather low cost, the ability to install a fan.
- A number of installation problems caused by large dimensions radiator.
= One of the best passive cooling systems available on the market.
Estimated price - $30.
Thermaltake Silent Tower (CL-P0025)
The next on the list is a model that has been on the market for quite a significant period of time - Thermaltake Silent Tower is a classic implementation of the usual heat pipe cooler. The box, in comparison with its predecessors, looks quite small -
The delivery set is already familiar - the cooler itself and the box with fasteners -
The scope of delivery and fasteners is almost exactly the same as that of the Big Typhoon -
Only the instructions and the complete thermal paste differ.
The design, as we mentioned, is classic - a rectangular radiator with three heat pipes.
The base is quite compact, so there will be no problems with mounting the Silent Tower on the motherboard -
It is processed in the same way as in the previous two coolers -
As we expected, the cooler is quite easily placed on the motherboard.
There are more than enough distances to the heatsink and memory modules -
In the case, the cooler looks rather modest -
If we compare it with previous test participants, then there is even too much space around it. However, as it turned out, this has little effect on efficiency.
The results are pretty good. The time-tested design is by no means going to lose ground - given the noticeable loss in the heat transfer area, the Silent Tower is only slightly behind the test leaders. A powerful fan with a speed of 2500 rpm helped him noticeably in this. In addition to being the fastest cooler in testing, it is also equipped with an original design fan with side slots, which, according to the manufacturer, increase efficiency. As a matter of fact, there are no complaints about this - just its efficiency is quite decent. However, this is not the only characteristic that we evaluated - there is also noise. Here everything is a little worse than expected. Undoubtedly, as part of a regular system with classic 80mm coolers that have a similar speed, its noise will simply be invisible. But in our case, against the background of almost inaudible case fans, it was heard very well. In general, we can say that the cooler is perfect for a typical configuration, but if it is used as part of a system focused on maximum quiet operation, it will require some refinement.
The conclusions about the cooler are simple - a classic design, optimally suited for mid-range systems. It is problematic to recommend it for cooling the fastest processors - the noise level is too high and there are more efficient competitors. However, if you are not bothered by noise, then with a little "finishing with a file" the cooler can noticeably improve its characteristics, which cannot be said about the two previous participants, the only question is the expediency of such improvements - for the money that is asked for Silent Tower, you can buy Sonic Tower, the possibilities of which are much greater.
Thermaltake Silent Tower
+ Small size, good efficiency, ease of installation.
- Pretty noisy (relatively) fan.
= A classic implementation of a cooler with heat pipe technology, which is by no means going to give up its positions without a fight.
Estimated price - $29.
Thermaltake PIPE101 Rev.2 (CL-P0006)
Our four participants are closed by a rather unusual solution with a somewhat nomenclature name PIPE101 Rev.2. Selling a radiator that was originally designed to install a fan without one is a somewhat unusual move for the mass user market. Unlike the Sonic Tower, the PIPE101 is simply not designed to operate without a fan. However, many will find such a decision quite justified - the ability to choose a fan according to their needs is a rather convenient option, and since Thermaltake products were originally designed for enthusiasts, such an approach can only be welcomed. The radiator itself is quite compact, so the box with the cooler is quite small.
The delivery set is similar to the rest of the test participants - the radiator itself and a small box with the name of the cooler -
The box contains a set of fasteners, instructions and thermal paste.
The set of fasteners was chosen quite well, since the overall dimensions and weight of the heatsink are relatively small, there are no special frills in the form of reinforcing plates on the back side of the board - they simply are not needed. Everything is more than traditional, the usual clips for Socket 478 -
To all appearances, the manufacturer doesn't consider half a kilo of the net weight of the heatsink alone to be a sufficient reason to include fasteners using the holes near the socket in the package. However, given the fact that not all motherboards for Socket platforms A have such holes, then this approach looks quite reasonable.
The radiator itself is completely copper with four heat pipes.
The design is quite classic, but the benefits of heat pipes here are not entirely obvious - the radiator is already a single whole, so their role is reduced to additional heat transfer to the upper part of the fins. In this case, heat pipes are nothing more than an auxiliary element necessary for the most uniform heat removal from the base of the radiator. The base, in turn, does not differ in ideal processing, like the rest of the test participants.
As we have already mentioned, for modern processors with heat distributing covers, such a parameter as a perfectly flat base surface is not critical. However, taking into account the weight and size characteristics of the heatsink and its cost, it has a chance of becoming quite popular among users of the Socket A platform, and in this case the quality of the base processing means quite a lot. However, those users of this platform, who are not satisfied with the standard cooler, are quite difficult to scare with such a procedure as polishing the base.
For testing, we installed a 92mm Thermaltake fan with a rotation speed of 1800 rpm.
In theory, installing a faster fan should improve performance, but even at 1800 rpm. The hum from the cooler is already quite noticeable, and creating another noise generator was not part of our plans at all.
When assembled, the system is quite compact, and the user will not have any problems with placing the board in any modern case.
Compared to the rest of the participants, PIPE101 looks very small - against the background of 120mm case fans, it simply got lost. As for efficiency issues, the results are quite good -
74 degrees for such a compact cooler with not the most efficient fan is a result that deserves at least respect. Undoubtedly, it is rather problematic to recommend it as a good option for top processors - the result of 74 degrees was achieved at a fairly low ambient temperature, and to repeat this, at least the user needs an air conditioner, which does not always correspond to reality. Thermaltake PIPE101 Rev.2 would be a pretty good choice for a mid-range system with not the most powerful CPU, and judging by the price, it is positioned in this sector.
As for the noise level, there is nothing special to say here - it depends on the type of installed fan. In our case, there was practically no noise in a closed case - it did not exceed the noise level of regular case fans. If you stop them, then there is still a slight noise from the cooler. It is not worth focusing on this too much - in a typical system, the noise of a processor cooler in an assembly similar to ours will most likely simply be invisible. In all other cases, the type of installed fan will decide everything.
Fans of the Socket A platform will surely like PIPE101 the most - its potential is more than enough to cool any processor for this platform in absolute silence.
Thermaltake PIPE101 Rev.2
+ Small overall dimensions, a classic set of fasteners, the ability to choose a fan.
- Not the best design for cooling modern top processors.
= Good cooler for midrange systems.
Estimated price - $30.
Summarizing
As a summary, we can say that in general, all participants, in one way or another, successfully passed the test. For a more visual assessment, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the summary chart of test results -
The division of coolers into two groups is quite clearly visible - leaders and laggards. The leaders confidently keep the temperature under load at around 65 degrees and below, while the rest do not manage to drop below 72. However, by and large, the lagging one is Thermaltake PIPE101 Rev.2. Its design does not allow it to compete on equal terms with modern solutions featuring massive heatsinks, and even a completely copper construction with heat pipes is not able to save the situation - the final heat transfer area is too small. As for 72 degrees for Sonic Tower in passive mode, these results are incomparable with those of PIPE101 for obvious reasons.
Strictly speaking, it is Sonic Tower that deserves the title of test leader - a completely passive heatsink that can cope with such a hot processor is a rarity on the market. And if you look at its cost, then all questions disappear completely - given its capabilities, it is simply unrealistic to find an alternative to it in this parameter. The only thing that can stop a potential buyer is the size of the cooler. If you do not want to worry about the size of the radiator and possible problems with installation, but there is a need to purchase a good air cooler, check out the Big Typhoon. At a cost of $10 more than the Sonic Tower, it has a classic design, almost does not concede to it in terms of heat transfer area and has very good functionality. As for the difference in price, it is quite justified - one 120m fan of this class will cost no less than the same $10.
Silent Tower, as well as PIPE101, recommend both universal systems cooling, we cannot - to cool top-end processors, it is better not to purchase them.
The heat dissipation of modern processors is growing with the release of each new model, the requirements for system efficiency CPU cooling also increase almost linearly, so the presence of heat pipes in air coolers is gradually becoming the de facto standard. Today, almost all well-known manufacturers of cooling systems for CPUs in the lineup there are coolers built on heat pipes. Thus, systems from Gigabyte, ASUS, Scythe, CoolerMaster, etc. have already been reviewed on the site, and even the recognized aluminum guru, GlacialTech, has released the Igloo 5600PWM (albeit only for LGA 775 so far), whose design is also based on heat pipes. In turn, the conference has created and is actively growing the most productive air coolers, including those based on heat pipes, where calls are constantly heard to compare all the monsters in one article, and, finally, to determine the best of them. I must say right away that such a large-scale testing is not planned, but today we will introduce you to three representatives of this type of cooling systems and evaluate their effectiveness in comparison with the Zalman CNPS9500 LED and the standard boxed cooler AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket 939).
So, in today's article we will consider two representatives of Titan - Vanessa S-type and Vanessa L-type and one, but very large cooler from Thermaltake - Big Typhoon. In the process of describing the coolers, we will indicate their design features, list the technical characteristics and components of the package, check the efficiency of CPU cooling, and conduct a subjective assessment of the noise emitted by cooler fans. In my opinion, the introduction is enough, it's time to move on to the description of the first participant in today's tests - Titan Vanessa S-type.