I can't say that I'm intimately familiar with most of Evercool's history, but if it's anything like today's sample, I'm wondering if perhaps I should consider myself lucky.  I do have quite a bit to say about this one so instead of a forshadowing intro, I'll just jump right in and give you the gritty details.

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/heatsink1{/AG} 

Related Products:

Specifications and Features

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/heatsink2/{/AG}

• PWM fan to adjust the power of the fan efficiently,enable HPQ-12025 to obtain both cooling performance and quietness.
• Dual fan installed option provides increase the speed of heat conduction. (addition prices for dual fan purchase.)
• H.D.T. (Heat-pipe direct touch) technology,efficiently diminish thermal resistance,enhancing heat conductivity.
• 4 x 6mm copper heat pipes soldered tightly with fin,to ensure fastest Thermal conductivity.
• Up to 200W.
• HPQ-12025 designed with all metal clips provides a secure attachment on motherboard for Intel socket LGA775, 1366, 1156, 1155, 2011/ AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, FM1.

Initial Thoughts

Everything seems ok at first, the box is a sufficient size and doesn't go overboard on extra room, which is fine for most heatsinks out there.  There's not a whole lot of extra stuffing to protect the product beyond aplastic mold to fill the empty space.  Again, this isn't really a bad thing. 

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/box/{/AG}

The instructions are...quite frankly a bit skimped on compared to most others I've seen.  Surprisingly I'm not too bothered by that either.  It's pretty straightforward and just relies on the customer to follow along with the diagrams, and they are for the most part sufficient.

But that's only the surface of what I'm sad to say is a sub-par experience. 

Closer Look

If you didn't notice from the picture of the accessories, I'll make it absolutely clear: there are too many of them.  Maybe not way too many, but enough to make installation more frustrating than it needs to be.  So where to begin?  Ok well the backplate is a little gimmicky in design, but I guess it's nice that it has both types of arms for Intel and AMD sockets.  However there's a glaring problem: the hexagonal bolts that hold the backplate in place are so small you need a magnifying glass to see them which isn't exactly helpful when the instructions say they can only be fastened in a certain direction. 

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/fansetc/{/AG}

Now as far as the actual heatsink is concerned, it's not too terribly hard but again, there are four tiny screws you need to attach the proper socket brackets; followed by four springbolts that are needed to attach the heatsink to the nuts.  So, if you like a lot of extra work and parts to install, then I'm sure you'll enjoy the Venti.  This heatsink comes with grease instead of paste, so you should know that it doesn't take much pressure to squeeze a lot out, and it obviously won't get you the same amount of heat transferrance as a good ceramic compound or something similar, but I suppose it's alright.

My favorite part though is the fan.  It comes with metal clips instead of needing rubber pegs which I like because as I've mentioned in my previous review, pegs are a bit of a hassle and can bend the fins.  There's only one problem: normally when a fan comes with metal clips it will actually have its own special set of pegs that are specifically designed to hold the clips in place.  But apparently they didn't realize that because this fan does't have any, and I checked the box thoroughly and found none.  It doesn't matter anyway because the design of the fan doesn't even allow for that type of peg, and that's a major problem because, without some support, the clips can easily fall out while you're trying to attach the fan to the heatsink.  Not to mention, they're taller than both the fan and heatsink.  I honestly don't know why.

Testing and Results

Maybe all is not lost.  The Venti might redeem itself through performance numbers:

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/tests/{/AG}

The test system is again:

• Intel Core i7 3770k
• Asus Maximus V Gene
• 8gb Patriot Viper Extreme 1600mhz
• Silverstone 700w Modular Power Supply

The 3770K will be run at a mild overclock and a higher overclock:

• 4.1ghz with 1.15v Core
• 4.5GHz with 1.3v Core.

Results

Again we'll be using the standard metric of idle and load temperature(s) minus the ambient temperature.

4.1Ghz Testing

Yeah, it's not exactly looking that way.   But to be fair, I wasn't really expecting divine perfection.  The scores are really just about average, and it actually is a few degrees cooler than some of the others we've reviewed at the same speed and voltage.  I'd say it's about right for a low to mid-range heatsink.

But that's obviously just the stock setting, let's see how it performs with a higher load.

Overclocked

Here you can see things really start to heat up, no pun intended at all.  The Venti doesn't exactly leave the competition in the dust.  It comes close to borderline excessive temperatures, so if you're extremely picky about having fairly-high temps then it may not the best for heavy-duting gaming, let alone benching. 

Noise Level

The fan really kicks in during a full load, and it's a noticeable bump from the stock speed.  It's not terribly loud, but it is distinguishable from other sounds unless your hard drive is equally loud.  Overall, I can't say it's one of the worst features; in fact, it's really negligable for the most part.

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/fansetc/{/AG}

Verdict and Conclusion

Well, I'm sorry to say, but I'm a bit underwhelmed with this one.  For all the marketing hype that companies assign to their products, I can't help but feel this is a bit misplaced.  Amid the extra, tiny screws and terrible fan clip combinaton, it's really just not that impressive and I can't see myself recommending it to anyone who isn't in the market for really just anything that'll fit on their CPU.

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/heatsink1/{/AG}

However, for what you'll pay, I also can't say it's necessarily a horrible deal.  The Venti goes for around $30 USD retail, so at least Evercool was decent enough to price it appropriately. 

{AG}nick/evercool_venti/heatsink2{/AG}

Pros:

• Works with all Intel and AMD sockets.
• Reasonable price.

Cons:

• Gimmicky mounting system.
• Too small screws and bolts
• Needs better fan clips.
• Below-average to average cooling performance.

Final Words. On the whole, I would feel ok recommending this as a first try to anyone who's new to overclocking and/or aftermarket cooling.  Like I said, the price is good enough where you don't really get taken for a ride and you still get some enjoyment out of it.  So on that note if you're really interested, I guess give a go, but if you're looking for something of better quality, I'd say you'd be hardpressed not to find something better elsewhere or from a different section of Evercool's stock.  Not abysmal but not necessarily really good either.

SCORE
6.8/10

Related Product:

Phanteks has a bit of a reputation for making good quality cooling products, so I'm quite happy to present to you today: the PH-TC12DX air cooler.  This isn't the first time I've used aftermarket cooling, nor will it be the last.  And if future products are as good as this, I'll be satisfied. 

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/heatsink1{/AG}

But before we get down to brass tax, here's a statement from the company:

Now lets go take a look at the technical details of the SD1283, so we can get an idea of just what we're working with

Related Products:

Specifications and Features

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/heatsink2/{/AG}

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/box{/AG}

Initial Thoughts

The box is a little bit bigger than perhaps most, but it's the right size to hold the cooler, the fans, and the accessories without a great need for extra packaging, so I can give that a

At first glance you'll be able to see this isn't just any old heatsink.  The black metal has a nice sheen that goes well with the ivory-white fans.  It let's you know that you're dealing with serious hardware, and I think that's pretty neat.

All the parts are ordered niceley, and the tools and mounting brackets are safely tucked in their own individual sealed bags and marked according to socket type. 

Closer Look

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/fansetc{/AG}

First, let's get it out of the way: there are no LEDs on the 120mm fans.  I know that may seem like kind of a letdown, but the structure and installation of the fans more than makes up for it.  It's not uncommon to come across a pair of fans that have ridiculously-impractical installation. 

Some only give you rubber pegs to bend, cortort, and practically tear in order to fin between the fins, and if you're lucky you don't end up bending a pin or two.  Phanteks eliminates that problem completely.  All you need to do is put the rubber pegs in the appropriate slots, attach the metal clips through the peg holes, pull the clips forward, and let them cling on to the heatsink with very little effort. 

Mounting is also (for the most part) effortless.  The backplate is held in place by four bolts that are of course necessary to attach the mounting bars.  It can be a little annoying as they can easily fall out if you're not holding your motherboard upside-down, but it's not hard just to hold them in place while you screw the bolts on.  That's the next thing that I'm really happy about.  Again, some heatsinks do require more than a little assembly but no so much here.  You can easily tighten down the brackets and heatsink within a reasonable level with just your thumb and index finger.

One more thing I should mention, Phanteks has added a little something special for the fans: a Y-junction coupling so you can plug both fans in and have them share a single cable.  Not bad at all if you're big on reducing cable clutter.

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Testing and Results

Now for the real fun: the overclocking!

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/tests{/AG}

If you've read earlier reviews that we've posted, you should be familiar with the Delta (change in) metric that we use when pushing the CPUs to a workable level.  But just a refresher, we simply measure the ambient temperature of the testing area, the idle and load temperature of the CPU, and then we subtract the former from the latter. 

Also, since this is a dual-fan setup, there will be a much better airflow which can definitely give a noticeable boost in performance.

The test system is

• Intel Core i7 3770k
• Asus Maximus V Gene
• 8gb Patriot Viper Extreme 1600mhz
• Silverstone 700w Modular Power Supply

The 3770K will be run at a mild overclock and a higher overclock:

• 4.1ghz with 1.15v Core
• 4.5GHz with 1.3v Core.
  
  

Results

The results are expressed in idle/load temperature minus ambient temperature.

4.1Ghz Testing

Well...what more can I say really?  The PH-TC12DX practically stomps the Xigmatek Dark Knight at 4.1ghz, and seeing as how 4.1+ is a pretty common speed amongst overclockers, those are really quite impressive numbers.  So far so good.

But the stakes get higher when we bump up the temperature and voltages to 4.5ghz. 

Overclocked

At 4.5ghz, the difference starts to level out which is pretty understandable at that voltage, but it still is well within a respectable level and doesn't even come close to breaking safety limits.  It beats out the Dark Knight by about 2 points and the Prime by about 6.5 points.  Unfortunately, it couldn't match up to the Monster but still, with these results you take what you can get.  And you get quite a lot.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Noise Level

Noise is not a problem.  At all.  Even at 4.5ghz and both of them running, it's pretty surprising just how quiet these fans are.  I can barely hear them over the sound of my PSU fan or my harddrives spinning.  Phanteks really does not mess around when it comes to heatsinks.

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/fansetc{/AG}

Verdict and Conclusion

Now it comes to it.  I could probably go on for hours about how much I like this cooler, but I'll try not to.  Good look, good performance, easy installation, and low noise level.  All that makes a recipe for success.  The PH-TC12DX runs circles around other models at 4.1ghz.  Sadly, it doesn't quite hold up to some others are 4.5ghz, but it definitely holds its own, and I think that's really enough.

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/heatsink1/{/AG}

At $50 USD, you might be able to find something marginally better but either way, you're getting a fine deal.

{AG}nick/phanteks_tc/heatsink2{/AG}

Pros:

• Works with all Intel and AMD sockets
• Good cooling performance
• Nice look
• Great mounting mechanism

Cons:

• A little pricey.

Final Words. So that's the Phanteks PH-TC12DX.  Impressed?  I sure was.  I really am happy to see that there are companies out there that put as much effort into cooling units as Phanteks does.  Their effort definitely shows.  And, I would even go so far as to say it's a good standard model to compare other heatsinks to.  This is the first review that I'm going to give a 9 out of 10 score.  I was genuinely pleased with the results, and I think you will be too. 

SCORE

9/10

Related Product:

Introduction

Xigmatek first brought out the SD1283 heatsink design back in 2008. At the time it offered a level of performance not seen for the price that had previously not been seen before. Since then Xigmatek has rolled out quite a few solid heatsinks with a great bang for the buck.

Xigmatek has decided to send us their newest addition of the SD1283, the Night Hawk Edition. This is pretty much a black version of the SD1283 with new, easier to use mounting hardware.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos1{/AG}

In case you do not know too much about Xigmatek, here is a bit of information about the company

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos5{/AG}

Lets go take a look at the technical specs of the SD1283.

Related Products:

Specifications and Features

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos1{/AG}

H.D.T (Heat-pipe Direct Touch) technology.

Stealth Technology; Low Heat Signature Ceramic Coating, larger heat dissipating area.

Tower side flow design, efficient and optimal cooling performance.

Anti-vibration rubbers prevent vibration and absorb noise.

Dual fan capability.

Equipped with multiple clips to support Intel LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775 and AMD FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2

High Performance 3 x 8mm heat pipe design, way superior than 4 x 6mm heat pipe.

Initial Thoughts

The packaging is certainly much more flashy than the last Xigmatek heatsink we reviewed. It has much more marketing information all over the package but it is really is not a bad thing.

Opening the package we get the standard items that come with a heatsink. The heatsink itself, a 120mm fan with white LED's, various types of mounting materials and a small packet of thermal paste. I would have liked a case badge or something of the sort since I am a sucker for them.

I wish the packaging was done in the same way as the Xigmatek Prime. Packaging on the SD1283 is a bit thin so a drop or two might break loose a fin on the heatsink. Hopefully the place you purchase it from does a good job with bubble wrap or packing peanuts to make up for this.

Closer Look

From a few feet away the SD1283 looks fantastic, the black coating really matches the PCB's of modern motherboards. Coupled with the white LED's the heatsink is quite stunning in use.

The base of the SD1283 is actually quite good. It is not quite a mirror finish, but it is very smooth. Unfortunately there is space between the heatpipes so it is a good idea to apply thermal paste to the base of the heatsink before the initial install. This insures that there is not a build-up of paste between the heatpipes

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos2{/AG}

The included thermal paste is nothing to write home about. If you do not have any other thermal paste it is fine to use, but if you have anything else around I would suggest using that instead.

The mounting mechanism on the latest version of the SD1283 has come a long way since the days of those horrible push-pins.

Mounting is extremely easy to do and does not include a ton of little screws like many other companies like to use. It also insures a solid mount every time and little movement on the heatsink itself even when trying to move it side to side. I very much like this sort of mounting and would prefer it if all companies used the same sort of mounting.

After testing huge dual-tower and 140mm type heatsinks the SD1283 seems downright tiny in comparison. There were very few issues when mounting this heatsink on an MATX motherboard. Just keep in mind that if you have tall memory modules there is a good chance that they might run into the fan.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos1{/AG}

Testing and Results

Testing heatsinks accurately is a tricky business.

For a review the gain over ambient is the most important, it lets the readers figure out how cooling will run for them with a certain ambient temperature. For example it could be 30*C in a house, and the heatsink has a 20*C delta. So for someone with a 30*C ambient those core temperatures would be 50*C while someone with a 0*C ambient would have 20*C core temperatures.

For this review I will be expressing all temps in the number of degrees over ambient the cores are running (or Delta), if you the viewer add this number to your current ambient air temp the resulting number is how hot my system's cores would be running in your house during the tests.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos4{/AG}

For testing I will be using the Xigmatek Prime SD1484 with Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste(in order to give a level playing field for all heatsinks).

The test system is

• Intel Core i5 3770k
• Asus Maximus V Gene
• 8gb Patriot Viper Extreme 1866mhz
• Antec 1200w Power Supply
• Navig Benching Station
• Delta 120mm CFB1212VHW

The 3770K will be run at a mild overclock and a higher overclock:

• 4.1ghz with 1.15v Core
• 4.5GHz with 1.3v Core.

The small overclock is to give at least a small bump in frequencies over stock since it is even possible for a stock intel heatsink to take the heat load of a 3770k with a small overclock.

Results

The results are expressed in degrees above ambient temperature, or Delta.

4.1ghz Testing

Surprisingly the cheaper Night Hawk edition heatsink is beating the more expensive Prime heatsink. This could be due to the fact that the SD1283  uses larger heatpipes which make better contact with the small Die on the 3770k.

Overclocked

Using the stock fans the SD1283 slightly pulls ahead of the Prime heatsink. Keep in mind that the SD1283 is also MUCH more noisy at full load. While the Prime does make much noise the SD1283 is in a whole different category of loud.

But in order to see what this heatsink can really do the "monster" fan was added.  With the higher CFM fan the Night Hawk fan just completely blew away the stock fan and even the Prime heatsink with the same fan. This is likely due to the larger heatpipes that are used with the SD1283.

Using the stock PWM fan the SD1283 is not too bad except at the highest overclock levels. It can be quite loud since the fan spins up to full speed. With lower overclocks the fan rarely spins to full speed and does not make a large amount of noise. But once the voltage and frequencies are raised a large amount the fan has a tendency to get loud.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos3{/AG}

Verdict and Conclusion

The SD1283 is quite a mixed bag. The mounting and cooling performance are very good. I was actually very impressed that it was able to beat the much more expensive Xigmatek Prime heatsink.

Unfortunately things are not all perfect with this heatsink. The build quality is slightly suspect. Fins on the heatsink have a tendency to come loose if they are bumped into since they are not soldered to the heatpipes.

I had this issue years ago when I first purchased a SD1283 and the fact that Xigmatek has not addressed this issue is quite disappointing.

The paint job on this heatsink is not of the highest quality either. It is easy to scratch off and does not appear to be very durable at all.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos5{/AG}

Shopping around the internet the Night Hawk edition of the SD1283 can be found for right around $50USD. Unfortunately you can find the standard SD1283 without the cool paint job and LED fan for right around $20. Adding in the $15 LED fan that would put it right around $15 extra for the cool paint job. I have to say that a $5 price premium would be fine, but $15 is way too much.

{AG}reviews/xigmatek/xigmatek_sd1283_nighthawk/photos2{/AG}

• LED Fan
• Works with all Intel and AMD sockets
• Good cooling performance
• Black look is pretty good.
• Great mounting mechanism

Cons:

• Price
• Loud fan
• Average build quality

Compared to the Prime heatsink the price is great for the performance you get. Then I found out that the standard SD1283 can be found for less than half of the price of the Night Hawk Edition. Due to that I find it extremely hard to suggest buying the Night Hawk edition of the SD1283. It is a solid heatsink, but due to the extreme price bump for a bit of black paint I would suggest saving the money and getting the standard SD1283 unless you MUST have the black paint job.

SCORE
7.0/10

Related Product:

Introduction

This meant that heatsinks would have much better contact with the processor itself meaning lower temperatures. These heatsinks also came out at very affordable prices. It has beeen a few years since those first units came out and the designs have improved as well. Today we will be taking a look at the Xigmatek Prime heatsink.

{AG}reviews/coolers/xigmatek_prime_sd1484/photos1{/AG}

In case you do not know too much about Xigmatek, here is a bit of information about the company

Lets go take a look at the technical specs of this SD1484 heatsink before we start testing it out.

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Specifications and Features

H.D.T (Heat-pipe Direct Touch) technology.

Patent Blade-Fin technology increases 20% of ventilation and drops 10% noise.

Patent Blade-Fin technology is good at the prevention of keeping dust away the fins edge.

Special fins (T: 0.5mm) style combination provides efficient air flow.

Unique & Patent Anti-vibration rubber fastens prevent vibration and absorb noise.

Dual fans installed option, 140mm or 120mm.

Equipped with multiple clips to support Intel LGA1366/1156/1155/775 and AMD FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2.

With H.D.T. technology and 4pcs Φ8mm heat-pipe, Prime SD1484 creates most efficient heat conduction and outstanding cooling performance.

Prime SD1484  combines 140mm PWM fan and anti-vibration rubber.

Initial Thoughts

At first glance, the Xigmatek packaging is done very nicely. It has a few pictures of the heatsink from various angles to let you know what you're getting. No race cars or girls shooting guns here, I approve of this very much so. Aside from the pictures there are some technical specifications but nothing too fancy.

Opening up the package you are greeted to a 140mm fan.packaged very securely in foam around three sides. Taking the heatsink out you are greeted by the heatsink itself. It feels like Xigmatek did not skimp on build quality with the Prime. It is quite heavy and everything feels very solid.

Other bits in the box are various mounting pieces for both Intel and AMD, a little tube of Xigmatek thermal paste, and a user manual.Everything is secured very well as to make sure nothing is damaged through shipping. Xigmatek has done a very good job in that regard.

Closer Look

Closer up the Prime is easily has the best build quality of any other Xigmatek heatsink I have used before. It sure has come a long way since the days of the Original HDT heatsinks that had issues with fins coming loose.

Looking at the base of this heatsink, the finish is very good. On this sample the base was extremely flat. It was neither Concave or Convex which is always a good sign. I would however liked it had Xigmatek chose to go for a design where the heatpipes are pressed together instead of having a small piece of metal between each pipe on the base. At times the metal pieces can create areas where there is ineffective cooling which would not be very good if a cpu core happened to be under that gap.

{AG}reviews/coolers/xigmatek_prime_sd1484/photos3{/AG}

The thermal paste included with the Prime is not bad at all. While not quite as good as some of the top of the line pastes, it does do a good job. If you don't have any other paste when buying the Prime you sure can use the included paste.

Mounting on the Prime is very good from my experience. The days of companies using crazy mounting mechanisms is finally over. Instead the actual  mounting mechanism is installed before the actual heatsink is latched down to the processor.. This means that once the heatsink and paste are applied only a couple of screws need to be tightened in order to have a great mount. No more push pins, or other weird designs that were a pain in the butt to mount.

When it comes to the size of this heatsink I would suggest you check to see which space your particular motherboard uses for a PCIE slot. With my board, the upper most PCIE slot was blocked by this heatsink due to the extra width of it being a 140mm heatsink.

I was forced to mout it to blow upwards instead of side to side. Memory slots can also be blocked both ways depending on how you mount the heatsink. Those with low profile memory there is no need to worry, but taller memory modules will be blocked . Just keep that in mind when building your system.

Testing and Results

Testing heatsinks accurately is a tricky business. 

For a review the gain over ambient is the most important, it lets the readers figure out how cooling will run for them with a certain ambient temperature. For example it could be 30*C in a house, and the heatsink has a 20*C delta. So for someone with a 30*C ambient those core temperatures would be 50*C while someone with a 0*C ambient would have 20*C core temperatures.

For this review I will be expressing all temps in the number of degrees over ambient the cores are running (or Delta), if you the viewer add this number to your current ambient air temp the resulting number is how hot my system's cores would be running in your house during the tests.

For testing I will be using the Xigmatek Prime SD1484 with Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste(in order to give a level playing field for all heatsinks).

The test system is

• Intel Core i5 3770k
• Asus Maximus V Gene
• 8gb Patriot Viper3 1600mhz
• Antec 1200w Power Supply
• Navig Benching Station
• Delta 120mm CFB1212VHW

The 3770K will be run at a mild overclock and a higher overclock:

• 4.1ghz with 1.15v Core
• 4.5GHz with 1.3v Core.

The small overclock is to give at least a small bump in frequencies over stock since it is even possible for a stock intel heatsink to take the heat load of a 3770k with a small overclock.

Results

The results are expressed in degrees above ambient temperature, or Delta.

4.1ghz Testing

With a small overclock these temperatures are a bit warm,. but the fan did not really spin very hard throughout testing. I would consider the slightly warmer temps for near silent fan speed a fine trade off.

Overclocked

With the stock fan, temperatures did not warm up a very large amount. Just three degrees at idle and four degrees at load. This is not a bad showing at all, at times other heatsinks fall flat and temps skyrocket. But for the most part these stayed close.

In order to test what the heatsink could really do, the monsterous Delta fan was attached to the Prime heatsink. Temperature drops were quite impressive. At full load with an added 400mhz frequency the temperatures were actually lower than the 4.1ghz testing showed. This simply shows that with a more powerful fan, the Prime is in fact up to the task of lowering temperatures and it can be limited by the quiet fan at times.

The stock PWM fan was very quiet throughout testing. The only time it actually spun up to be noticable is with the 4.5ghz testing. Every other test found the Prime to be extremely quiet. Mind you, this is with an open air test bench so inside of a case there is a solid chance that you will not heat anything.

Verdict and Conclusion

The Xigmatek Prime sure is a nice heatsink. Build quality is very good to say the least. Since it is a 140mm heatsink it is larger than your standard heatsink and as such allows the use of larger fans that spin at lower RPMs

Performance on the Prime is decent, although it could certainly be better. Due to the fact that it uses the direct-touch heatpipe technology it is very hard to get a very good mount on the cpu. Heat is unfortunately not spread out evenly and in too many cases two fof the heatpipes have most of the cores on them.

For lower heat-loads this type of heatsink is fine but once the heat load really starts to rise these sort of heatsinks fall flat on their faces.

{AG}reviews/coolers/xigmatek_prime_sd1484/photos2{/AG}

Shopping around the net, the Prime is right around the $65 mark. For the price it is a decent purchase. It would be much more attractive at $60 due to the competition in the same price range.

• 140mm Fan + Heatsink
• Works with all Intel and AMD sockets
• Quiet fan
• Solid build quality
• Great mounting mechanism

Cons:

• Price
• Size
• lackluster performance

Overall it is a solid heatsink that can deliver good temperatures at both low fan speeds and extreme fan speeds. Just do not try and overclock to the moon or you might hit a wall due to the limits of the HDT design on this heatsink.

SCORE
7.6/10

Related Product:

Introduction

Initially this heatsink was launched to tame the heat producing mosters on the Socket 2011 platform. Unfortunately a hickup prevented that platform being used for this review.

Lucky enough, Intel decided to make a new heat producing monster. The Ivy Bridge platform. These chips are known to run very hot even at stock settings. So will the Arctic i30 be up to the task? Lets go and find out.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_i30/photos1{/AG}

ARCTIC as a company has been around for quite a few years, in case you have not heard of them here is some information about the company:

We'll be testing this heatsink on the Ivy Bridge platform. In particular a 3570k processor. For overclocked tests the processor was overclocked to 4.5ghz at 1.3v.

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Specifications and Features

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_i30/photos1{/AG}

The Freezer i30 is an enthusiast-grade CPU cooler for the latest Intel socket 2011, as well as socket 1155 and 1156. Patented technologies, direct touch heatpipes, precision machining, a fan vibration absorption and a brand new mounting system offers you plenty of overclocking headroom at a minimal noise level.

Direct Touch Heatpipe Heatsink

The Freezer i30 heatsink consists of 4 double-sided direct touch heatpipes, 8mm in diameter. A patented process (20 2011 000 71.8) allows us to pack the heatpipes without gaps and thus increase the contact surface and achieve better flatness by precision machining – both leading to an improved heat transfer.

Efficient Heat Dissipation

As a combined result of the 4 direct touch heatpipes, 48 Aluminum fins, an interchangeable 120 mm PWM Fan (ARCTIC F12 PWM), and the famous ARCTIC MX-4 thermal compound (included), the Freezer i30 offers superior cooling performance with a maximum cooling capacity of 320 Watts and lots of headroom for overclocking.

Virtually Silent

Due to the low-noise impeller of the ARCTIC F12 PWM fan and the rubber vibration absorbers, the Freezer i30 generates a negligible noise level of only 0.3 Sone even at full speed (1,350 RPM). Furthermore, as controlled by PWM signal, this fan runs only at the optimized speed based on actual needs, which in turns minimizes the noise level further.

4 Mounting Directions

The Freezer i30 can be mounted in all 4 directions in order to satisfy different air flow preferences due to various PC case and hard ware configurations

Sturdy Mounting Mechanism

There is no need to worry about the weight of this muscular, yet gentle cooler. The Freezer i30 applies a durable steel mounting clip and a back-plate*. As a result it has an excellent mounting stability and is fully transport-proof.

Interchangeable Fan

Not that you have to replace the fan, but that flexibility is offered!

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Initial Thoughts

The package is a decently sized. Nothing to write home about, but certainly not bland. I like Arctic's packaging, it features the product and a few features. No need for swords and wizzards all over the place.

Opening the box up, everything is packaged properly. There is not much space for items to move around during shipping. This ensures no broken fins on the heatsink, or broken fan blades.Overall I would say ARCTIC has done a nice job packaging the heatsink.

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Closer Look

Getting closer, this heatsink is well built but not perfect. The fins are pressed onto the heatpipes rather than soldered. This means it is more likely that they can be broken off and do not give a perfect heat transfer. But it also means that you do not have to pay for them to be soldered on so it is a fair trade.

The base is very smooth and is quite reflective. While it does not have a mirror finish, that is not needed with a direct-touch type heatsink.

Speaking of this heatsink being a direct touch, the heatpipes directly come in contact with the processor. So be very careful when mounting since the heatpipes are relatively easy to puncture.

Looking over the fan it has some of the best looking blades I've come across in a fan. But with that being said, they are also the most sharp I've seen on a fan. I can't even count the amount of times I cut myself on the fan even when it was not in use.

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One of the most impressive things was the fact that ARCTIC sent a decent sized tube of their MX-4 thermal paste. Too often these days companies merely send a pack you tear and get a single install worth of thermal paste. The i30 included enough paste for roughly 3 installs using a generous amount of paste.

Testing and Results

Testing heatsinks accurately is a tricky business.  There are two important numbers, one is the core temperature over ambient, and the other is the absolute core temp.

For a review the gain over ambient is the most important, it lets the readers figure out how cooling will run for them with a certain ambient temperature. For example it could be 30*C in a house, and the heatsink has a 20*C delta. So for someone with a 30*C ambient those core temperatures would be 50*C while someone with a 0*C ambient would have 20*C core temperatures.

For personal use the absolute core temp is more important, as your ambient is unlikely to change a huge amount.

For this review I will be expressing all temps in the number of degrees over ambient the cores are running, if you the viewer add this number to your current ambient air temp the resulting number is how hot my system's cores would be running in your house during the tests.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_i30/photos3{/AG}

For testing I will be using the ARCTIC i30 with Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste.

The test system is thusly:

• Intel Core i5 3570k
• Gigabyte Z77-UD3H (Reviewed Here)
• 8gb G.Skill Sniper 1866mhz memory
• Corsair 750w Power Supply
• Antec P280 Case (review coming soon!)

The 3570K will be run at a stock and overclocked level:

1. 100% stock speed and voltages.
2. 4.5GHz with 1.3vCore.

This will give a baseline of temperatures, as well as a nice and heavy load to get the core nice and toasty.

Results

The first results are with the processor at Stock clocks with various fan settings. Keep in mind the processor is running at 3.8ghz due to Turbo kicking in.

Stock clocks

At stock clocks this heatsink does a good job of keeping everything cool. These temperatures are deltas so please don't think something is wrong when your heatsink is running 20-30*C warmer.

Overclocked

Anyone that said Ivy Bridge chips run hot sure hit things spot on. Temperatures can get extremely hot very fast with this platform, but thankfully the i30 is able to keep up and keep temperatures at safe levels under full load.

Due to using a PWM fan profile it was easy to hear all different ranges of fan speed. Low fan speed is almost inaudible throughout testing. Mid fan speed is still very quiet, but the fan pushes a decent amount of air. And High fan speed does not produce as much noise as I thought it would. Noise at full speed is more of a woosh of air noise than fan motor or blade noise.

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Verdict and Conclusion

The ARCTIC i30 is certainly a nice heatsink. Performance is not as good as one of those heatsinks that cover half a motherboard, but then again it does not cover half of a motherboard either.

Memory clearance can be a problem if you are planning on using all four memory slots. 

The last three fit memory on a Z77 board with no issues, but if you are planning on running four sticks of ram you will be out of luck due to the size that the shroud adds.

Shopping around, the i30 can be found for around $40 shipped to your door. I've got to say that price is pretty solid. Performance for the buck is solid.

Top performance is not achieved, but you also don't pay the price premium for a top performer.

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This heatsink should be good enough on any Intel chips out there, including those big heat producing Hex-core socket 2011 chips. 

• Good bang for the buck
• Works with all Intel sockets
• quiet fan
• Good built quality
• Solid temperatures, even overclocked

Cons:

• Fan blades are super sharp
• Mounting could be a little easier

With companies jumping on the bandwagon of making heatsinks the size of a small motherboard, it is nice to see Arctic make a reasonable sized heatsink that still performs well. The thermal paste included is top notch, yet this heatsink does not break the bank. Overall, it is a solid choice for someone looking to do some overclocking without spending too much money on cooling.

SCORE
8/10

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Introduction

Today we have something interesting, it's Thermaltakes absolute top level cooler, the Water 2.0 Extreme. As the name implies they have thrown caution out the window and gone extreme on this one!

Ok actually caution is still the order of the day, that's one of the nice things about the sealed loop maintenance free water cooling systems like this. Thermaltake did add a lot to this cooler to make it Extreme though! For starters there is an awful lot of radiator, and they have added some telemetry and fan control software as well.

I think it might actually manage to knock the current Cooling Kings off their podium here at Funkykit. So far the top cooler is (just barely) the Phanteks PH-TC14PE, with the Frio Extreme coming in a tiny bit behind. Will the Water 2.0 Extreme take both down a notch? We'll see!

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First however, a word from Thermaltake about Thermaltake:

More than one word really, but now we'll move on to words more focused on the cooler at hand.

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Features and Specifications

Direct from Thermaltakeusa.com's product page for the Water 2.0 Extreme.

First up, the features:

Much of this is the same as the Water 2.0 Pro and Water 2.0 Performer that I've already reviewed. The key differences are the size of the radiator (240x120 instead of 120x120) and the fan control software, which neither of the other units has.

If you're curious which one would be best for you, Thermaltake also has a nice comparison page:

The Performer and the Pro were both solid, but lost to large tower heatsinks. I'll pit the Extreme against my Phanteks tower heatsink and see how it fares.

Before that though we have the last bit of this page, the specifications:

Note that the waterblock is copper and the radiator is aluminum. Thermaltake has used a glycol of some sort (probably ethylene as it transfers heat better, though it's more toxic also) to prevent corrosion issues. If you replace the fluid in the loop for some reason, be sure to do the same. Don't drink it.

How about some pictures?

Photos Part One: The Box and Accessories

We'll kick things off by looking at the not at all small box. It has the same basic layout as the previous Water 2.0 boxes, but it's significantly larger.

We have a hint (more than a hint, I suppose) of what is to come here. Large radiator is large, for an all-in-one anyway. The mounting looks to be the same as the others in the series, not surprising as the specs show the pump to be the same unit too. When it says "Supports Intel LGA2011" it means "Is really, really, really easy to mount and uses the Intel stock mounting system". The liquid inside, in case you're wondering, is not actually blue.

On the rear we have an ideal radiator installation shot along withe the usual radiator/pump/fan bits and a shot of the software that comes with this unit.

On one side is a very brief spec list in a wide variety of languages. I'll spare you that. On the other side is a specifications list and a dubiously honest graph. Were the last bar on the left there labeled 65c it would be totally honest and only slightly misleading. As it is, it's not overly honest. Also, it had better stomp the stock cooler, the stock cooler is awful.

I'll open the box, let's see what is inside!

Stuff! I love stuff! I'll drag the stuff out so we can look at it more clearly.

We get a manual, a sack of mounting hardware, two fans, and a CD with the telemetry / pump control software on it (I assume). Here's a fan closeup:

These are the same fans as the Pro and the Performer. I'm hoping that the pump's built in PWM controller runs them at high speed so they don't whine, it'd be a pretty big oversight if it didn't and I would be surprised.

I'll spread the mounts out a bit, if you want to know exactly how it all works check out one of the older Water 2.0 reviews (Pro, Performer), there are only so many times I'm willing to re-type the same instructions. Two appears to be the limit.

I expect by this point you'd like to see the cooler itself. We can do that.

Photos Part Two: The Cooler

Same basic deal as the previous Water 2.0 bits, but a larger radiator and a lot more wires coming out of the pump! Let's look at those first.

One female fan plug to go on the motherboard and power this operation, two male PWM fan connectors and a USB plug to go straight on your motherboard. Be aware that if you have an old motherboard that can only cough up an amp on the fan connector, you may want to use a Molex-Fan Connector adapter to power this operation, as it'll use more than an amp at full burn. You won't lose control of the fans as they're controlled via the USB plug. I recommend against trying to control the pump and fans via the three pin connector on your motherboard.

Same old pump externally:

Internally it's different, but that's for the next page. 

Here's the base with the (excellent) thermal paste that comes on it stock, as well as bare.

It's not flat, but it's not built to be flat either. It's machined with a slight dome in the middle to make absolutely sure that the area right over the CPU die is making good contact. This is important in general and absolutely crucial in the case of modern Ivy Bridge CPUs. They have a tiny, but hot, die right in the middle of the heatspreader. As I mentioned, the thermal paste that comes preinstalled is excellent. I've tested it twice before on the other Water 2.0 parts and am not going to repeat that testing as I already know that it will stomp the Arctic Alumina Ceramique 2 that I use for my comparisons.

The pump with the mounts on it looks like this:

Nothing new here. If you're using LGA2011 it will screw directly to the CPU socket. All other sockets you'll need to use the backplate.

The radiator continues to not be small:

See? Told you it's not small. On my 22" 1680x1050 monitor this is almost exactly life sized, for whatever that is worth.

Now when I went to install the unit the first part, mounting the pump, was a snap. Thermaltake did a good job on the mounts. The second part however is awkward. I'm using a Thermaltake Armor Revo case and the case is built for a 200mm fan in the top. It has screw holes for 2x140mm and 2x120mm fans, but the 2x120mm mounting holes are further apart than they are on the radiator. To make matters worse the radiator+fan combo is about 0.25" too thick to clear the (excessively large) MOSFET heatsinks on my Z77X-UD5H motherboard. The result is that I wasn't able to use all the stock fan mounting holes, but I was able to securely mount the radiator. It just looks a bit funny.

This part worked great. The hoses are at the top of the pump when the case is upright, I've found them to be happiest there.

Note the locations of the screws, there was absolutely no way to mount this the "correct" way in this case. This method clears the MOSFET heatsinks and is quite secure however, so it's good enough for me.

From the inside it looks normal:

Wire management is a bit tricky though.

One more page of photos, this time with the top pulled off the pump housing!

Photos Part Three: Dissection and Inspection

If you've read previous reviews you're probably begun to suspect that I like taking things apart. It's true, I do. Because of that, I took the Water 2.0 Extreme apart too. I left the actual pump in one piece because it's the same as the others, but the PCB is different so the lid had to come off!

Here we have the guts of the thing. A brushless, conless, motor, a couple active ICs, some filter caps and a few other passive parts.

This is a fairly standard pump/fan controller for running this sort of motor. Nothing special here.

This however has some brainpower, it's a microcontroller from SiLabs. Unfortunately because it's a microcontroller with custom code on it looking at a datasheet doesn't tell us much about it. The code is the important stuff and even if I pulled it off with my Bus Pirate it would be, at best, assembly. In any case, this character talks to the software via USB and spits out a PWM signal to the fans. We'll look at that PWM signal momentarily. Scattered around and about is some mildly dubious soldering, but nothing that'll cause issues.

Here we have the PWM signal on the scope, the scope is set to 20 microseconds / 2 volts.

First we have at full low speed:

If you don't know how PWM works, here's the short version: The more time the line is up top, the faster the fans go. In this case the signal is switching on and off at about 24.6kHz and the signal is high (up top, looks like 3.3v) for ~6 microseconds, this gives us a PWM duty cycle of about 14%. Next up, roughly 50%:

Equal time high and low, roughly 50% fan speed.

 At very nearly full speed the line is, of course, mostly high. At full speed it simply stays high the whole time.

In all cases this is a very clean signal, it looks quite good.

Testing and Results

I tested the Water 2.0 Extreme on my 24/7 use computer, it contains the following key bits:

It's a solid system. The Ivy Bridge CPUs use very little power and run very cool at stock, so I first overclocked the CPU to 4.1GHz using 1.120vcore. This is an easy OC that the vast majority of 3770k CPUs should be able to duplicate. It's even (barely) doable on the stock cooler as previous reviews have shown. The real test comes when I crank the CPU speed up to 4.5GHz and pour on the volts, raising it to 1.296vcore. This is significantly more vcore than is actually needed, with the specific intention to make it run hot. This makes it a better test for the cooler.

These are the same settings as I have used in previous reviews, but I have switched to a different thermometer setup so the reviews cannot be compared 1:1. The results are still in degrees centigrade over ambient, but the thermometer measuring the ambient temperature doesn't agree with the previous thermometer used. Both are very accurate to themselves, but the calibration of the first unit has been shown to be suspect between the last review and this one, so it has been replaced.

I tested the Water 2.0 Extreme against the excellent Phanteks PH-TC14PE that has, so far, dominated my reviews.

The results? I'll let them speak for themselves (for the moment, anyway), here we have 4.1GHz:

Well well well, the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme has won this round, handily. Due to how the Phanteks can control fan speed all the way down to a dead stop, I chose a speed level that made roughly the same amount of noise as the Water 2.0. This is not much noise at all, in case you were wondering.

How about with a more abusive heatload?

There you have it folks. We have a new Best Cooler Ever Tested!

At full speed it is definitely not silent, at low speed however you don't give up much at all temperature wise and you have to strain to hear the fans if you aren't right next to them. They do not whine at all at 24.6kHz PWM, and the make very little noise at low speed. There is no pump noise that I can hear outside the case, I can just barely hear it with my head inside the case.

All told, this is very impressive.

The software is pretty cool too It shows you the fan speed and water temperature, and lets you chose between Silent (the low speed scope shot above), Extreme (fans at 100%) and Custom fan speeds. There is a second tab to set the custom fan profile, you tell it the water temperature to start ramping the fan speed up at and the water temperature that the fan should be running 100% at. The selector for Silent/Extreme/Custom is a bit balky, but it works. The program itself seems to be well designed, I didn't have any issues with it crashing even when I unplugged the pump with it running. It also does not appear to use much in the way of resources, and can be set to start at bootup or not as you see fit. No adware/etc. came with it, either. Tt did a good job. Here we have a screenshot of the controller software set to Extreme:

The sound level meter is entirely fan speed based as far as I can tell, it never went any higher as the fans never went any faster, 2000rpm being their maximum speed. The RPM readings bounce around a lot, but that isn't especially surprising. There is also a graph page that shows you the water temperature and fan speeds. It's a fun piece of software.

Verdict and Conclusion

Here we have the final page, the page that takes the hopes and dreams of multiple engineers at a minimum of two companies and distills them down to a single numerical rating. It's always seemed rather brutal to me, but since that is exactly how I like my hardware tested brutal is fine!

On the subject of the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme itself, I'll lead off by saying that the cooling power is excellent. The ability to get heat out of the dubiously designed 3770k CPU is also excellent. This is, quite literally, the best performing cooler I've ever tested. Liquid nitrogen and dry ice don't count.

This performance comes at a price however, the MSRP for this cooler if $130! It's widely available online for $114, which is an improvement but still not inexpensive. For comparison the competitor in this review, the Phanteks PH-TC14PE, will set uou back $80-$105 depending on what store and what color you want. Is the extra few degrees worth the difference in price? That's up to you.

Another big plus this cooler has over the tower coolers it beats is that it does not require obscene amounts of space above the CPU socket, and does not interfere with RAM. On the down side, you need somewhere to put the not insubstantial radiator.

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The mounting system has a fair number of parts, but once you read the instructions it is quite easy to put together and install. I like it.

The fan control software is nice, I like it. It doesn't have any real issues and offers some features that are quite rare. Watching the water temperature graph while loading and unloading the CPU core was quite interesting. The USB control works well, I didn't have any issues with it at all.

Looks wise it's pretty cool looking, but if your case is like mine the top will look funky. The smoothly arcing hoses look great. Cable management for the fan power and control cables and the USB cable is difficult however.

The controller does a good job controlling the fans, you can adjust them from being very quiet up to moving a significant amount of air, or have them do it automatically themselves. There are no motor or bearing noises and no whine either.

All told there are plenty of pros:

• Excellent cooling power, best I've tested.
• Excellent fan control software.
• Still excellent cooling power with the fans turned down to near-silent levels.
• Mounting system is fairly easy to use and works great.

There are a few cons too:

• Not cheap.
• Cable management may be tricky.
• Radiator is be difficult to mount cleanly in some cases.

All told I am impressed by this cooler, if Thermaltake can get the price down to $100 or less it will be a spectacular deal. Even where it is right now at $114 it is well worth considering if you need a serious cooler. I give it a 8.9/10 rating and a recommended badge, as I recommend it if you need hardcore cooling for your cpu!

SCORE

8.9/10

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Introduction

I must confess that up until quite recently I had never heard of Phanteks. Now, obviously, I have. Not only have I heard of them I've talked to someone at the company and convinced them to send me the huge blue thing you see above for testing.

Will it beat the Frio Extreme and take over as the #1 cooler for my Ivy Bridge Core i7 3770k? We shall see. It certainly looks glorious.

Before we go to far we'll give the customary space for Phanteks to tell us about them selves, courtesy of their About Us webpage.

{AG}reviews/coolers/phanteks_phtc14pe/photos1{/AG}

In case you haven't noticed in past reviews, I tend to harass companies about absolute declarations. Phanteks says that their expertise means no job is possible. Given that, I'd like them to build an orbital tether.

This review isn't about orbital tethers (it's hard to review something that does not exist, though some sites seem to manage it somehow) though, so I'll stick to the massive gloriously blue heatsink sitting in front of me. By in front of me I mean in my case, acting as my new 24/7 CPU cooler. I'm getting ahead of myself here, let's check out some features and specifications.

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Features and Specifications

Each color of the PH-TC14CS gets its own product page, very lavish. Here we have the information on the blue cooler's product page.

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First up is the introduction by Phantek:

Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BL ( Premium Edition ) twin tower thermal radiator design uses the latest aerospace technology. By using P.A.T.S to increase cooling performance and C.P.S.C Technology to enhance thermal conductivity, heat will easily dissipate, creating an opportunity for greater overclocking. Combined with Dual Phanteks PH-F140 Premium 140mm Fans, easy-to-install SoliSku mounting kit and PH-NDC thermal compound, Phanteks PH-TC14PE is setting the new standard of today’s CPU cooling.

The specs are very detailed!

Fits everything, weighs a fair bit, is not small, has an epic amount of surface area.

The fan airflow and pressure specifications look refreshingly honest, the fan noise spec I have a hard time believing. 19.6dB(a) is very quiet for a fan going over 1000rpm.  The PWM adaptor intrigues me, it'll have to go on the oscilloscope for some electrical sniffing and then be torn apart for a visual inspection.

I think it's about time for a page or three full of pictures, don't you?

Photos Part One: The Packaging

The front and rear have pretty pictures and marketing respectively. No surprise on that front. The languages of choice are an interesting combination and make the Designed in Europe line quite believable. I quite like the front of the box.

More specs, marketing and pretty pictures on the sides. Nothing we didn't see in the specifications page, other than the last line right above here. "High-purity nano diamond like particles". Diamond-like? To the best of my knowledge nothing is like diamond from the standpoint of thermal conductivity, at least nothing you want to be around. I however am not a geologist nor a thermodynamicist. I'll compare the stuff against the Arctic Aluminum Ceramic-2 that I generally use though. We'll see how diamond-like particles compare with aluminum oxide.

The top of the box is nice and simple and also shows you what color heatsink is in the box. In theory at least, I'll open it and see if it is correct.

Well hey, that looks mighty blue! I'll keep digging.

Still looks blue, very blue, without the foam. I like the packaging, everything looks well protected. How I'm supposed to get it out of the box I don't know. I eventually settled on dumping it out, inelegant perhaps but quite effective.

After some unwrapping this is what we have, two (cool looking!) fans, a very blue heatsink, a still closed box and some instructions.

Photos Part Two: The Accessories and PWM Adapter

Inside the center box we find a variety of things:

Inside the accessories sack we find...

The PWM adaptor, fan splitter, six fan mounts, a sack of screws and loopholes for the fan mounts, the hold down plate for mounting the heatsink, a thumbscrew to hold it to the heatsink, some diamond-like paste and six silicone strips.

You get a bunch of rubber standoffs in the smaller sack too, I'm not sure what to use them for.

The silicone strips go on the heatsink like so:

Next up is the PWM adapter, the first thing on my list was to see if it works. It does work, quite nicely in fact. The second thing was to put it on the oscilloscope and see how it works. Here are the results, first with a 25kHz PWM speed, second with a 3kHz PWM speed. Top graph is the PWM signal, bottom is the output to the fans. Both graphs are set to two volts per divider, the fan output graph's "zero" voltage level is well off the bottom of the screen.

Interesting business. The multiple traces on the bottom show different voltage curves depending on where in the power cycle the fan's motor was when the trace was laid down. Across the top you can see a couple where neither fan's motor fired during a full cycle and the voltage stays up. On the bottom you can see one PWM cycle where both motors fired, and even a dip right when the second motor fired.

The PWM adapter does a good job converting the PWM signal to something that the non-PWM fans can deal with, there aren't any big spikes or large dropouts to cause issues, and there were no unpleasant noises. The maximum fan speed does drop, just like the specs show. This implies a BJT type transistor is involved rather than a MOSFET. One kind of fun thing is that at a zero duty cycle the fans stop, this is rare even among PWM fans. They start up at around 3% duty cycle.

Now that I have tested the PWM adapter I'll tear it apart...

Nothing special here, just two PNP BJ-Transistors, four things calling themselves resistors and a small capacitor. That matches what we saw on the scope. The traces are fairly large so you could probably get away with using it for beefier fans, though I wouldn't recommend it without contacting Phanteks to ask about it first. Here are the ICs:

Now that I've torn that poor thing to shreds, let's look at the cooler.

Photos Part Three: The Cooler and Fans

The heatsink plates are more of a matte finish, while the top is quite shiny. This is good really as shiny surfaces do not radiate heat well at all and rough surfaces also encourage air turbulence over them. Note the two piece plates as well, it's an interesting touch.

All told it really looks quite nice!

The base has a bit of a dome in it to ensure good contact with the center of the CPU heatspreader, where the CPU die itself lives.

On the top of the base are some alignment ridges and a screw hole for aligning and attaching the crossbar.

The fans I like a lot, they're quite cool looking. No built in PWM control though, that will hurt the final ranking.

I really like the motor support spars.

The label could be more informative.

Photos Part Four: The Cooler and Fans (continued)

The fan mounts took some figuring out, but once set up I like them quite a bit. Mostly because the wire bits stay on the fan when you remove it. No more dropping wires, having wires pop out or any other such issues. If it means it takes longer for initial setup that's fine with me, usually wire clips annoy me at best, but these I like.

First you take four of the black loophole things and put them through the fan's screw holes on the intake side:

Once you've done that, the wire clips go through so that the clip can attach to the fan like this:

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What is very impressive is that this cooler actually fits the tiny Zotac Z77-ITX-A-E board (review soon!) and does so even with ram that has very tall heatspreaders!

It is just set in place in the photo, but everything lines up without interference.

Photos Part Five: Installation

Installation has a fair number of steps, but isn't especially difficult. You start off with this stuff for Intel systems:

The backplate has a chart on it for which holes to use with which sockets:

You can also see step one, putting the posts through the appropriate holes. There is some dense foam rubber that cushions the backplate where it touches the motherboard, it also holds the posts in place.

You then slide the posts through the motherboard and put the black plastic bits on them.

After that, the plate goes on (facing the correct direction!) and is secured with the thumbscrew type nuts. If you have a LGA2011 system you screw the double-threaded bits into the OEM bracket, then attach the plate in the picture beow.

The crossplate screws to the heatsink and then screws to the two threaded posts that stick up from the bits attached to the motherboard. When you're done, it looks like this:

Plenty of ram clearance.

Not exactly a small heatsink, but I didn't run into any clearance issues. If you have a small case you may need Phanteks low profile cooler rather than this one.

I think it's time for some performance testing, don't you?

Performance Testing

In addition to testing with the TIM (Thermal Interface Material) that comes with the Phanteks unit I used Arctic Alumina Ceramic 2, so as to allow direct comparisons between this cooler and others that I have tested with that paste.

I also tested this cooler with the fans it comes with, as well as with the fans off the Frio Extreme to allow an exact comparison of cooling powers.

In case that wasn't excessive enough I also taped my Delta PFB1212UHE 120x38mm fan to the cooler and tested it with the Delta's >250CFM of airflow. To cover the other extreme, I ran the cooler with no fans also.

First up, stock clock speeds. This is a bit silly really as the only reason to replace the Intel cooler if you're running at stock is to reduce noise, and this cooler is woefully overkill for that purpose.

Like I said, it's woefully overpowered for running at stock. The Phanteks "Diamond like" TIM appears to be decent stuff. It is worth noting that the Phantek fans make significantly less noise than the Frio fans.

At 4.1GHz the PC-TC14PE falls behind the Frio Extreme by a bit less than three degrees. That's solid. Time for more clock speed and a lot more voltage!

At this higher heat level the Phantek cooler is equal to the Frio Extreme when used with identical fans. The Phantek TIM is still definitely better than AA. The Delta screamer fan doesn't improve matters nearly as much as I expected, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Ivy Bridge is a dubious heatsink testing platform as it just doesn't produce a whole lot of heat.

The really interesting part to my eye is the fanless operation. 52.2 degrees over ambient sounds pretty bad, but consider that if you have an "average" room temperature that means that if you have roughly the same case airflow my case has (decent, but very quiet) your core temps will be in the high 70s range, just fine for an Ivy Bridge CPU!  I'm quite impressed from that standpoint.

Verdict and Conclusion

Phanteks has a pretty cool heatsink here in the PH-TC14PE. It could use a part name/number that rolls off the tongue more easily, but we can ignore that.

The thing looks absolutely wonderful, the top is violently blue and the rest of the heatsink fins are quite blue as well, while the copper bits are all nickel plated and very shiny.

The base has a slight and almost certainly intentional dome to it. It has the best TIM contact pattern of any cooler I have mounted to this CPU.

The mounting system has a fair number of steps but does a good job, no issues there.

Performance wise it is solid, it can't quite beat the Frio Extreme with this heatload, though I suspect that with a higher heatload it might.

Price wise it is decent, coming in at about $80. Not a low price nor a high price.

{AG}reviews/coolers/phanteks_phtc14pe/photos3{/AG}

The fans are nice, even at full blast they don't make much noise and they move a good bit of air. The lack of PWM control on the fans is disappointing however.

The PWM adaptor is a cool bit of hardware, I'd like to see Phanteks sell it separately as well. It does not excuse the lack of PWM control on the fans however. You lose 200rpm on the high speed end when you connect it, and PWM fans can be controlled by voltage just like non-PWM fans.

The fan mounting clips are a bit tricky to install on the fan, but once installed they do not fall off, ever! This is fantastic, every other setup I've run into either pops off the heatsink if you try to position the fans creatively or falls off the heatsink/fan when you remove the fan. Very annoying. The Phantek clips do not fall off the fan. Very cool.

To summarize a bit, there are pros:

• Can be operated fanless in some situations.
• Looks great.
• Fans are very nice, for non-PWM fans.
• Fan mounting clips don't fall off the fans, ever.
• Comes in lots of colors.

There are some cons, too:

• Non-PWM fans. PWM adaptor helps, but costs some top end speed.
• Not likely to fit small cases, may have issues fitting in mid range cases.

All told this cooler is an attractive choice if you have room for it and don't mind the PWM situation. I give it 8.9/10. Were the fans PWM it would be well into the 9s.

SCORE

8.9/10

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Introduction

It's Thermaltake CPU cooler review time again! Today we're going to check out the next level up in Thermaltake's sealed water cooling system lineup, the Water 2.0 Pro. The pro is very closely related to the performer we saw recently.

When you get right down to it I can see only two differences. The radiator is (much) thicker. The price is higher. Hopefully the thicker radiator is worth the extra cost, if it is this could be a seriously solid cooler!

We'll find out in a bit, first a word from Thermaltake about Thermaltake:

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_water_2pro/photos1{/AG}

Onward to the (suspiciously familiar looking) features and specifications!

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Features and Specifications

Direct from ThermaltakeUSA.com's product page for the Water 2.0 Pro.

If this is starting to look and sound a bit familiar, it's probably because the pump/radiator/hoses part of this operation is made by Asetek. Asetek sells them to Thermaltake, Antec, Corsair, etc. Thermaltake/antec/etc. then bundle some fans with the unit and send it on it's way. The fans are a rather crucial part of any cooler, so there is still a fair amount of variation between brands, despite the core parts being made by the same company. We'll see how the Thermaltake edition works later on in the testing section, right now it's time for some pictures!  Then again it may be familiar because it is nearly identical to its smaller sibling, the Water 2.0 Performer.

Photos Part One: The Packaging

The Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro comes in a box. This is what that box looks like.

The liquid inside is actually clear, not blue. I'm glad the radiator benefits from it's thickness, too.

The rear of the box is a it more informative and has a few more pictures. The important part here is that this cooler supports all sockets from AM2/LGA775 onward.

Here we have some specs. According to the (vaguely misleading) chart above this cooler is only 2 degrees better than the Performer. I really hope the chart is wrong.

The other bits of the box are either staggeringly boring or completely irrelevant, so they're being skipped. Next up I'll open the box and we'll see what is inside.

The packaging looks quite familiar, I think it is probably the same tray.

The radiator is definitely a lot thicker, no doubt there at all.

Other than that, we get all the same bits, right down to the scuffing on the cardboard protecting the second fan. I imagine that is exactly what the cardboard is for.

Photos Part Two: The Cooler

I still rather like the basic idea here, I think it's a good one. The pump is built into the waterblock, the radiator and fans mount to an exhaust fan opening so that all the heated air leaves the case immediately.

Compared to the Performer, the Pro's radiator is twice as thick, possibly a bit more. This looks more like a meaningful radiator and less like a toy. Admittedly I'm used to car/truck radiators so it still looks a bit silly. Then again this isn't trying to cool dozens of kilowatts, so it's all good.

Fairly tight fins, but not extremely so. Most of the dinged fins you see are my fault. You can see that the paint job doesn't extend all the way through, this is a good thing as paint doesn't conduct heat nearly as well as aluminum does. We'd be best off with an unpainted radiator, but the time doesn't seem to be right for that in the water cooling world.

The waterblock comes with some sort of TIM pre-installed, I know from past experience that it is good stuff. Contrary to how it may look, it is not spread too thick. Don't touch it while installing the cooler, it's soft stuff. The plate itself is nice and smooth and flat. If you're curious what the guts look like don't worry, you'll see what is inside the entire Water 2.0 series in a couple pages.

The fans are the same that came with the Performer. If we're lucky they wont whine at low PWM frequencies.

Next up, mounting!

Photos Part Three: Installation

We'll start off with the mounting kit:

Confused yet? There are a good number of parts, but the actual process is pretty straight forward. The bit in the lower right corner is a fan header splitter so your motherboard can power and PWM both fans off a single header. Very nice.

First you take the little metal nubs and put them in the bracket, the holes are clearly marked for which socket they're for.

The white bits are the backing for double sided tape that will hold the bracket to the motherboard if you want it to. Personally I don't, as I expect to be testing other coolers on this motherboard and could do without having to remove the tape.

Not using the stickytape makes installing the cooler trickier as you need to hold the backplate on, the pump in position and start a screw at the same time. Speaking of the screws, they're next.

The black plastic screw holders snap onto the upper bracket in one of two positions, depending on whether you're using the Performer on a 775/1155/1156 setup or a 1366/2011 setup. Again, they're marked. Then you push the thumbscrews through, there is one set of screws for LGA2011 that screw directly into the mounts built into the CPU socket (nice!), and another set of screws for all other sockets. They aren't marked, but it's obvious and the instructions explain it. You can see the instructions for assembling the parts I just described in the picture above.

Once you have all that, the bracket clips to the pump and you're ready to install!

The intake fan screws to the radiator with one set of long screws (and no washers), the other set of long screws (with the washers) is used to screw the radiator to the exhaust opening of the case, with the exhaust fan sandwiched in between.

Performance Testing and Results

I used the following machine to test the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro CPU cooler:

The 3770k is an interesting CPU, it doesn't put out a tremendous amount of heat but it runs very hot. I tested the Water 2.0 Pro against the Thermaltake Frio Extreme and the 3770k's stock cooler, testing was done at stock clock speeds (1.04vcore), 4.1GHz (1.11vcore) and 4.5GHz(1.29vcore). To further complicate matters all Frio Extreme and Water 2.0 Performer tests were run with the fans at maximum as well as minimum speeds.  If that isn't complicated enough, the Pro was tested both with its stock pre-applied paste and the same AA Ceramic 2.0 paste I used for the Frio Extreme and Intel Stock cooler. The Frio Extreme is used for comparison because at the testing speeds/voltages used it beat the TRUE I usually use.

The results are the average core temperature measured in degrees Celsius over the ambient air temperature. This makes the results easy to compare as it takes away a huge variable. The ambient temperature was measured using a Fluke 51 thermocouple thermometer with the probe about one inch in front of the fan hub.

Here we are with default BIOS settings loaded and XMP enabled for the ram:

This probably isn't news to anybody, but the stock Intel cooler is terrible.  The pre-applied paste on the Tt Water 2.0 Pro is clearly good stuff. The Water 2.0 pro is very nearly matching the Frio Extreme with the fans on high. With the fans on low the Water 2.0 looses more than the Frio Extreme does, likely because it has a lot more restriction to airflow.

I'll add some voltage and some clock speed, here we are at 4.1GHz:

The Water 2.0 pro is falling behind, not by a huge amount, but enough to be noticed. The Intel cooler is barely hanging on.

Let's crank the OC up a bit more, to 4.5GHz and plenty of vcore. These are the heatloads and overclocks that serious cooling like the Water 2.0 series and the Frio Extreme are really built for.

At this point the Intel cooler won't even boot, so it has been dropped from the chart. The Water 2.0 has actually caught back up with the Frio Extreme. It still has slightly higher temperatures, but they're less than a degree apart. This is very good!

The Fans

The fans are very nice by and large, the PWM control works beautifully and they are very quiet in the mid range, nearly silent at the low end, and not at all obnoxious at full speed. However if your PWM fan controller uses a low frequency signal they squeal nastily. The spec calls for a 25kHz, if your controller or motherboard uses that frequency everything is great. My motherboard does not, it uses a ~4kHz frequency. At that frequency the fans squeal quite a bit, very obnoxious. My custom fan controller can run at 3kHz or 25kHz (some Nidec server fans want 500Hz to 3kHz), at 25kHz the fans are wonderful, at 3kHz they're quite annoying. This is the case with all four fans on both Water 2.0 coolers I have tested.

Dissection!

Please note: This section contains a teardown of the Water 2.0 Performer. Given that it is the same pump assembly I expect the Pro to be functionally identical.

Don't do this if you value your warranty, nor if you value the functionality of the cooler, nor if you value the future of your computer. Plus, yours will look the same as mine anyway.

Without further ado, the heat transfer plate comes off!

You can see the pump intake at the top there, water flows into the block through the bottom.

The liquid itself is water and some flavor of glycol plus a bittering agent. It tastes terrible. Don't drink it (if it's worth bittering, it's probably toxic). The plate itself looks like this:

Removing the top cover shows us the motor and electronics package:

Next out are the next two plates down:

Below them we're starting to run out of pump:

Then there's the impeller itself:

The hoses go into hosebarbs that are allowed to rotate in the housing, they're each sealed with two o-rings:

Here's the opening the hosebarb goes into:

Overall things look quite well designed, the o-rings are all properly sized, attention has been paid to how the water will flow through the block, it's all good!

Verdict and Conclusion

Having seen the results in the previous pages I have to say that I am fairly impressed. This cooler is definitely worthy of consideration.

In raw performance it very nearly matches the excellent Frio Extreme, this is good.

Cost wise it is a decent value, currently going for ~$85 online. The Frio Extreme costs a dollar more, while some other similarly sized and performing coolers can be found for a bit less. The MSRP is $110, which is overpriced in my opinion. Considering that the only difference between this cooler and the Performer is the radiator, I would like to see the prices closer together. Twice the radiator thickness shouldn't cost an extra $25-$30. (Especially not when you can get a radiator for your Honda Civic for $37 shipped...)

The biggest thing about the Water 2.0 performer in my opinion is its flexibility, it will fit in nearly any case that has a 120mm intake or exhaust fan anywhere near the CPU socket. Including small form factor cases, though you may need to run a single fan in some instances. This allows you to bring high end cooling into a much smaller package than with large air coolers.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_water_2pro/photos2{/AG}

I found the pump to make a (very) small amount of noise in random circumstances, I was unable to nail down exactly what caused it. I was only able to notice the noise when my head was quite literally inside the case.

The fans are great IF your motherboard or controller uses a high PWM frequency. If they are controlled with a low frequency they are very annoying, unusable even. With a high PWM frequency they are quite good.

The mounting system is complicated but not difficult and it is very solid. Overall I like it.

I'll summarize a bit, as usual.  There are pros:

• Very solid cooling performance.
• Nice fans if you run them with a voltage controller or high frequency PWM.
• Snazzy water cooling looks.
• Fits into far smaller cases than an air cooler of equal performance.
• Fairly easy to mount, mounts very solidly.

There are also cons:

• More expensive than I'd like for its performance.
• Fans very whiny at low PWM frequencies.
• Still looses to the Frio Extreme.

All told at $85 this is a solid cooler, and an excellent cooler for use in a case where large air coolers will not fit. Were Thermaltake to fix the fan noise issue and drop the price $5-$10 this would be a fantastic cooler, as it is it is still definitely worth of consideration, and I recommend it for cases that will not allow a large air cooler. I give it an 8.2/10.

SCORE

8.2/10

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Introduction

Since video cards these days throw off so much heat and get so noisy while doing so it only makes sense that there would be alternatives out there to replace those noisy stock heatsinks. Recently we reviewed the Accelero Twin Turbo II which was a perfect fit for the Radeon 7870 that overheated while being overclocked. Afterwards it clocked higher, ran cooler and was more quiet than it had ever been.

Well, Arctic has sent another cooler to tame a big hungry video card. This time we will be taking a look at the Accelero Xtreme 7970 made specifically for the Radeon 7970 video card. This cooler has another fan added on, as well as much more surface area to cool down a big video card.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_7970_accelero/photos1{/AG}

Lets take a look at what Arctic says about their philosophy as a company:

Lets move on to see what Arctic has to say about the 7970 Accelero Xtreme.

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Features and Specifications

Direct from Arctic.ac again:

Superior Cooling Performance

Featuring three 92mm PWM fans with a maximum cooling capacity up to 300 Watts, the Accelero Xtreme 7970 manages to transfer heat efficiently away from the GPU. Besides the 84-fin heatsink with 5 copper heatpipes, the pre-applied MX-4 thermal compound accelerates the heat dissipation process to ensure the VGA board is running under optimal temperature.

Enhanced RAM and VR Cooling

The Accelero Xtreme 7970 comes with the non-conductive G-1 thermal glue which is used to affix RAM and VR heatsinks on the VGA board. It is especially formulated to offer excellent thermal conductivity with long-lasting adhesiveness of over 10 years. Moreover, removing the G-1 is as easy as removing a thermal tape.

Virtually Silent

With three PWM-controlled 92 mm fans, the Accelero Xtreme 7970 cools efficiently and silently. Thanks to the PWM control, the fan spins according to the temperature of the GPU. This means that the fans just spin up if necessary and will rest at minimum speed otherwise. PWM settings can be modified to fix the priorities between performance and noise. Click here to see how the PWM settings work.

CrossFire-Compatible

Accelero Xtreme 7970 is compatible with the AMD CrossFire technology. It allows you to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple AMD graphic cards on a single CrossFire-Certified motherboard.

A more detailed spec list:

Lastly, the full compatibility list:

For AMD Radeon

The Cooler, a Photo Tour

The first thing I noticed about this heatsink is just the huge size. It is longer than a 7970 by a decent amount.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_7970_accelero/photos1{/AG}

Inside the package you get the thermal glue, the heatsink, various screws, and a bunch of different heatsinks. One thing that really was disapointing was the lack of a manual for installation. The package says there is one on the website but when I first installed the heatsink there was no manual anywhere to be found on the website. Since then however it has been added. Honestly though, if you are spending a large chunk of money on a heatsink you would expect for them to include a set of instructions for you.

Looking at the cooler, it is well made. There are a boatload of heatpipes and 84 aluminum fins. The fans are some low-profile 92mm fans. They are thinner than usual fans but also very quiet at the same time.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_7970_accelero/photos3{/AG}

The thermal paste is attached to the heatsink itself. It would have been nice if Arctic included a little tube of MX-4 in case you mess up the pad on the first installation. The same goes for the included G1 thermal glue.

Installation

Installing the Accelero Xtreme 7970 is not a 10-minute process. If you are in a rush I would suggest waiting to do this until you are about to go to bed.

Staring out you must clean all of the components with a pencil eraser. This ensures that proper contact is made with all of the components.

Then you mix the grey and white packes of the G1 paste. Make sure to mix it properly for about 5-minutes before you attach any heatsinks.

Give the paste a nice thin layer on each component and press on the heatsinks.

Just make sure not to bump the heatsinks or they will come off very easily.

Then it comes the drying stage. I really suggest leaving it overnight to make sure everything dries properly even though it says the paste should be cured in about 5-hours. It never hurts to be safe.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_7970_accelero/photos2{/AG}

After everything is dried make sure to not use any force on the heatsinks or they will come off. This is both a positive and a negative. It means you will not kill your card removing a heatsink, but it also means that they are very easy to knock off on accident if you are not careful.

Testing and Results

Testing was done at a stock clocked state only in this review. More information will be provided as to why this was the case.

Ready for the results? Me too:

100% fan speed was used for this testing. The Accelero is not exactly dead silent at that speed, but it is definately something I could live with. On the other hand the 7970 gets extremely loud and sounds like a jet fighter taking off at full speed. 

I must note that for some reason temperatures with the Accelero were quite high for a couple of days. Temperatures lowered by a large amount on the 3rd or 4th day of testing so I would assume that it was due to the paste burning-in.

Normally we would next take overclocked temperatures but sadly we could not get to this far in testing. In order to allow the paste to properly burn-in and set we usually run the card in a normal environment for around a week. Due to a busy schedule this burn-in period was extended to two weeks. Sadly during this time something went wrong with the Accelero Xtreme and 7970 combination.

The 7970 would crash with a heavy load applied to the card (heaven benchmark or even a demanding game), even with stock clocks. Upon removing the Accelero Xtreme and re-applying the stock cooler the card worked perfectly fine.

Throughout testing the core temperatures have been great. However the VRM's (the power delivery sections) got a bit warm to the touch. I think that in all honesty the Accelero Xtreme does not provide enough airflow to the components below. Many people with this cooler have not had issues so I think it is the combination of the heatsink not providing enough airflow, and the fact that I use a test bench instead of a standard case. People with a case should assure that there is plenty of airflow, or have a fan blowing at the card to make sure there is enough air on the small components.

If Arctic could come out with a more beefy VRM and memory cooling solution I think they would have a real winner with the cooling capacity on the Accelero Xtreme 7970. But as-is you either need to have a fan blowing on the VRM area, or have a case with tons of airflow otherwise you run the risk of killing your expensive card.

Lower end cards should not really worry about this. They will most likely be fine, only the 7970 and 7950 owners should double check things.

Verdict and Conclusion

After testing the 7970 Accelero Xtreme I must say that I am both impressed and disappointed.

Core temps were great while my system also became much more quiet. On the other hand, the lack of airflow almost killed my $550 video card and a lack of a proper manual for a long time was a huge disappointment.

If I could change a few things I would add in a tube of thermal paste instead of pre-applying a single use of paste to the heatsink. And adding a larger amount of G1 paste that has a couple of applications worth would be great.

Adding in an instruction manual in the package would also be a priority, as well as including a few more beefy heatsinks for the VRM area.

When it comes to the price Arctic has it listed for a whopping $99.90, plus shipping. Would I ever spend that much on a heatsink? No I would not. Shopping around it can be found for $83 to your door. While this is better than $100-ish I would find it extremely hard to spend that much on an aftermarket heatsink that mostly lowers the amount of noise.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_7970_accelero/photos3{/AG}

Shall we summarize? There are pros:

• Good GPU-core cooling performance
• G1 thermal glue comes off easily.
• Very quiet compared to stock
• Tons of ram and MOSFET sinks

There are cons too:

• Takes up three slots
• G1 comes off easily
• G1 can only be used once, and hard to find more of it
• Much longer than actual video card
• No manual in-package
• Cannot properly cool secondary components on high-end cards
• Expensive

While GPU cooling is very good, the ability to properly cool secondary components is very much lacking. If you are looking to quiet down your system this is a good choice, but make sure that you have tons of airflow in your case or you will end up with a dead card sooner or later. 

SCORE
6.0/10

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Introduction

Another Thermaltake cooler! This one is significantly different than the last two however, it's a sealed all-in-one water cooling unit.

While unlikely to match the cooling power of water cooling loops you buy in parts and assemble yourself, this cooler should be easy to use and will fit in very small cases.

Unlike most heatsinks, the Water 2.0 Performer gives me a chance to take things apart. Not only will I be testing the performance and noise levels of the cooler, I'll also rip it to shreds and see what is inside!  First it'll have to keep my 3770k cool at clock various clock speeds, up to 4.5GHz, though.

We'll find out in a bit, first a word from Thermaltake about Thermaltake:

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_water_v2/photos1{/AG}

Let's dive right into the features and specifications!

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Features and Specifications

Direct from ThermaltakeUSA.com's product page for the Water 2.0 Performer.

If this is starting to look and sound a bit familiar, it's probably because the pump/radiator/hoses part of this operation is made by Asetek. Asetek sells them to Thermaltake, Antec, Corsair, etc. Thermaltake/antec/etc. then bundle some fans with the unit and send it on it's way. The fans are a rather crucial part of any cooler, so there is still a fair amount of variation between brands, despite the core parts being made by the same company. We'll see how the Thermaltake edition works later on in the testing section, right now it's time for some pictures!

Photos Part One: The Packaging

Easy and safe installation! I like that. It may sound a bit silly, but some coolers are downright hazardous to install (I'm looking at you, Thermalright!), sharp edges everywhere.

"High" seems to be the buzzword of the day here. High performance, High reliability, High efficiency. I can't really argue with any of that.

I don't believe the fan specs, they look like typical fan specs. They might be honest if the noise is at low speed and the airflow is at high speed, but 83CFM at 27.34db is unlikely at best.

The graph is rather creative as well. As much as I like Thermaltake's art department, the marketing division that did this box has annoyed me. To be fair to Thermaltake, I have yet to see what I would consider an honest graph, or fan specs, on any box.

This end is less interesting, especially if you can't read any of the lanuages. Time to open the box!

That didn't help much. I'll drag the tray out.

There we go, now we can see something!

Lots of things, really. We'll check it all out on the next page.

Photos Part Two: The Cooler

The heart of the matter is the radiator and the pump+waterblock combo. The hoses are nice and soft and resist kinking.

The baseplate has a nice smooth finish and comes with a thin layer of thermal glop pre-installed, I'll test that glop against my daily use ArcticAlumina Ceramic2 paste.

The radiator is about the same thickness as a standard 120mm fan, an inch or so.

Not surprisingly the finned area is also about the same size as a standard 120mm fan. Almost like it's built for a 120mm fan...

Speaking of fans, here're what you get with this cooler:

Rounded edges on the blades, nice thick blades, PWM control, these look promising!

Next up, mounting!

Photos Part Three: Installation I

We'll start off with the mounting kit:

Confused yet? There are a good number of parts, but the actual process is pretty straight forward.

First you take the little metal nubs and put them in the bracket, the holes are clearly marked for which socket they're for.

The white bits are the backing for double sided tape that will hold the bracket to the motherboard if you want it to. Personally I don't, as I expect to be testing other coolers on this motherboard and could do without having to remove the tape.

Not using the stickytape makes installing the cooler trickier as you need to hold the backplate on, the pump in position and start a screw at the same time. Speaking of the screws, they're next.

The black plastic screw holders snap onto the upper bracket in one of two positions, depending on whether you're using the Performer on a 775/1155/1156 setup or a 1366/2011 setup. Again, they're marked. Then you push the thumbscrews through, there is one set of screws for LGA2011 that screw directly into the mounts built into the CPU socket (nice!), and another set of screws for all other sockets. They aren't marked, but it's obvious and the instructions explain it. You can see the instructions for assembling the parts I just described in the picture above.

Once you have all that, the bracket clips to the pump and you're ready to install!

The intake fan screws to the radiator with one set of long screws (and no washers), the other set of long screws (with the washers) is used to screw the radiator to the exhaust opening of the case, with the exhaust fan sandwiched in between.

Photos Part Four: Installation II

When you're done you should have something that looks like this:

If your case has LEDs in it like my Thermaltake Armor Revo does, the white fans look awesome in dark conditions:

You can also see my thermocouple probe taped to one of the hoses, I use that for the ambient temperature while testing.

Performance Testing and Results

I used the following machine to test the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer CPU cooler:

The 3770k is an interesting CPU, it doesn't put out a tremendous amount of heat but it runs very hot. I tested the Water 2.0 Performer against the Thermaltake Frio Extreme and the 3770k's stock cooler, testing was done at stock clock speeds (1.04vcore), 4.1GHz (1.11vcore) and 4.5GHz(1.29vcore). To further complicate matters all Frio Extreme and Water 2.0 Performer tests were run with the fans at maximum as well as minimum speeds.  If that isn't complicated enough, the Performer was tested both with its stock pre-applied paste and the same AA Ceramic 2.0 paste I used for the Frio Extreme and Intel Stock cooler. The Frio Extreme is used for comparison because at the testing speeds/voltages used it beat the TRUE I usually use.

The results are the average core temperature measured in degrees Celsius over the ambient air temperature. This makes the results easy to compare as it takes away a huge variable. The ambient temperature was measured using a Fluke 51 thermocouple thermometer with the probe about one inch in front of the fan hub.

Here we are with default BIOS settings loaded and XMP enabled for the ram:

This probably isn't news to anybody, but the stock Intel cooler is terrible. The Water 2.0 Performer does pretty well, it can't quite match the Frio Extreme when they're both using the same paste, but it's close. The pre-applied paste is clearly good stuff.

I'll add some voltage and some clock speed, here we are at 4.1GHz:

Pretty much the same deal here. The Intel cooler is still hanging in there, but things are getting hot. The Water 2.0 Performer does well, but can't match it's larger cousin, the Frio Extreme. Let's crank the OC up a bit more, to 4.5GHz and plenty of vcore.

At this point the Intel cooler won't even boot. The Water 2.0 Performer is doing well, it continues to hold its own against the much larger and more expensive Frio Extreme.

The Fans

The fans are very nice by and large, the PWM control works beautifully and they are very quiet in the mid range, nearly silent at the low end, and not at all obnoxious at full speed. However if your PWM fan controller uses a low frequency signal they squeal nastily. The spec calls for a 25kHz, if your controller or motherboard uses that frequency everything is great. My motherboard does not, it uses a ~4kHz frequency. At that frequency the fans squeal quite a bit, very obnoxious. My custom fan controller can run at 3kHz or 25kHz (some Nidec server fans want 500Hz to 3kHz), at 25kHz the fans are wonderful, at 3kHz they're quite annoying.

Dissection!

Naturally I can't leave this thing in one piece, if I touch it it must be shreaded!

Don't do this if you value your warranty, nor if you value the functionality of the cooler, nor if you value the future of your computer. Plus, yours will look the same as mine anyway.

Without further ado, the heat transfer plate comes off!

You can see the pump intake at the top there, water flows into the block through the bottom.

The liquid itself is water and some flavor of glycol plus a bittering agent. It tastes terrible. Don't drink it. The plate itself looks like this:

Removing the top cover shows us the motor and electronics package:

Next out are the next two plates down:

Below them we're starting to run out of pump:

Then there's the impeller itself:

The hoses go into hosebarbs that are allowed to rotate in the housing, they're each sealed with two o-rings:

Here's the opening the hosebarb goes into:

Overall things look quite well designed, the o-rings are all properly sized, attention has been paid to how the water will flow through the block, it's all good!

Verdict and Conclusion

This isn't the first self contained water cooling system I've tested based on this platform, it probably won't be the last either. Compared to the Antec Kuhler 620 the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer fixes some issues, raises other issues, has a better mounting system and has more fans.

The mounting system is complicated, but fits all current sockets on both AMD and Intel platforms and works quite well.

The pump makes some noise on startup sometimes, but is very quiet after that, I have no complaints.

Cooling performance wise the Water 2.0 Performer is good, it looses to the more expensive and much larger Frio Extreme, but not by a large amount.

The Water 2.0 Performer will fit into some very cramped cases, unlike tower coolers. This is probably its number one plus. You can have Big Tower type performance in an ITX type case!

The MSRP is a painful $80, but it is widely available for a palatable $60 or so. There are other coolers in the $60 range that match or beat it, but they're big. At $80 I feel it should have better performance.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_water_v2/photos2{/AG}

The fans are a mixed bag. They look great, and if you have a PWM fan controller or motherboard that uses a high frequency (25kHz) signal they're great across the board. If your fan controller or motherboard uses a lower frequency, be prepared for squeeling noises.

The hoses are nice and soft and don't kink easily, no issues there at all.

To summarize, there are pros:

• Good performance that fits very small spaces.
• Very secure mounting.
• Comes with two fans for push/pull operation.
• Looks cool.
• Fans very nice at high PWM frequencies.

There are cons to think about too:

• Fans very noisy at low PWM frequencies.
• MSRP is high for its performance.
• Doesn't cool as well as Big Tower Heatsinks.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_water_v2/photos3{/AG}

All told, I feel that the Water 2.0 Performer is a good choice for small form factor cases where a tower heatsink won't fit, as well as for people who want the bragging rights of water cooling without actually having to set up a loop. I give it a 8.3/10.

SCORE

8.3/10

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Introduction

See that big snazzy looking thing with the red fans?  That's today's subject, the very cool looking Thermaltake Frio Advanced.

Thermaltake has been in the heatsink business for quite a while now, they were one of the first companies to see that people not only needed quiet heatsinks, but also quiet high performance heatsinks.  In the Pentium 4 era they came out with the Big Typhoon, still one of my all time favorite heatsinks as well as being one of the best engineered heatsinks to this day.

Beyond heatsinks Thermaltake makes quite a few parts these days, they're branched out a lot! Among those are the Overseer RX-I and Armor Revo cases that I reviewed in the past and like quite a bit.

We'll find out in a bit, first a word from Thermaltake about Thermaltake:

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_frio_advance/photos1{/AG}

Similar Product:

Features and Specifications

All direct from ThermaltakeUSA.com's Frio Advanced product page.

	Heat-pipe Direct Touch Technology, Supports 230W Cooling Performance • 5 x Ø6 mm heat-pipes direct touch CPU surface increasing heat conductivity. • High density Aluminum fins allow larger surface area to quick dissipate heat. • Premium thermal grease maximizes heat transfer from the CPU into the cooler base for rapid dissipation.
	Dual 13cm Over-clocking Fan, PWM function with 800~2,100 RPM Speed • A pair of high performance red bladed fans generate excellent cooling power. • Tool-less fan installation provides great convenience for users. • Vibration-absorbent gaskets decrease noise during operation. • Fan speed at the lowest RPM provides good performance and very low noise.
	Universal Socket Compatibility & Accessory Package • All-in-one back-plate design, offers support for all Intel and AMD platforms • Universal socket support : Intel: LGA 2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775 AMD: FM1, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2

Specifications

Looks pretty good so far, the fans and the base are the bits worth talking about here. The base uses heatpipes that touch the CPU directly, in theory this improves heat transfer. We'll see how it works out in reality. The other bit worth talking about is the fan selection. I love PWM fans. Thermaltake also lists a "Started Voltage", I'm not sure whether that is the minimum voltage the fan will run at or the minimum voltage it will start running at and I'm not set up to test it. I am quite happy to see any voltage ratings given other than the normal operating voltage of 12 V. The only downside to the PWM fans is that there're two of them and most motherboards only have one PWM CPU fan header. It'd be nice if thermaltake included a fan controller like with the Frio Extreme, or even just a PWM fan header splitter. Either one would work fine. For testing purposes I'll be using a genuine BobnovaBuilt PWM fan controller. Also of note is that the fans are 1cm larger than normal case/tower CPU cooler fans. It's not much, but every little bit helps.

Onwards to pictures!

Photos Part One: The Box

As the page title suggests I'm still sticking with the standard layout of looking at the box first.

Thermaltake's art department does a wonderful job on boxes these days. Here we have a red theme rather than the standard blue.

The rear side gives some features and has a few pictures as well.

One of the side panels, it has features in a variety of languages.

The other side, with specs for the cooler and fans.

Let's open that there box...

Two identical instruction sheets seems excessive. Inside the white box is a standard Thermaltake mounting kit, there's also a warranty sheet. The cooler itself is very well protected inside a shell of foam. I'll drag it out for the world to see on the next page.

Photos Part Two: The Cooler

It looks like.... A CPU cooler! Actually it looks really good. The fan power wires are nicely sleeved, the whole thing is rather nicely done really.

Rear side, it looks a lot like the front side except the fan blades are facing the other way.

Side shot! There's a lot of fan here, really.

The top has a nice red transparent bit, I like it.

The base is flat, it could be smoother. The heatpipes have no gaps between them and the aluminum part of the base though, that's nice. I'm concerned that the tiny core size and small heatspreader of my 3770k won't work well with the rather wide heatpipe spacing. I suspect this cooler is aimed at CPUs with larger dies and/or beefier heatspreaders (AMD chips, for instance).

I'll strip the fans off so we can see what this thing looks like by itself:

We'll check the fans out, too. They have frames that mount to the cooler and then the fans click into the mounts. It's a good setup.

The exhaust fan is a rather rare beast, so here's the label:

Let's check out the mounts and get this thing installed!

Photos Part Three: Mounts and Installation

The mounting setup is identical to the Frio OCK I reviewed some time ago, this means three things:

1. It's easy to install.
2. It gives great mounting pressure.
3. It may damage certain motherboards.

I'll elaborate on #3 as we get further into this section.

First, here's the mounting hardware:

There's a plastic backplate, too. The long thin screws go through the backplate and then through the motherboard and are secured with the black thumbscrews. The plates are then put on the screws and attached with the silver thumbscrews. The two spring loaded screws get screwed to the cooler itself, and then attach it to the plates. It sounds more complicated than it is, really. If you're on LGA2011 the thumbscrews with threads out both ends screw directly to the CPU retention bracket and the plates are attached to them instead. Below we see two angles of the spring loaded screws attached to the heatsink.

The difficulty arises when motherboard manufacturers place capacitors near the memory slots in the Zone of Exclusion around the CPU socket, if they place them right under the bracket's screw hole and they use tall capacitors the spring loaded screw will run into them as it goes through the bracket. This cause damage to a capacitor on my Z68X-UD3, and would have done so on my Z77 Professional as well, had I not checked before installation.

There is a solution however, mount the cooler in a different direction! If you look at the pictures below you'll see what I mean.

It's a pretty close fit between the fans and the memory modules, but they made it. They fit under the cooler just fine.

How about some performance testing?

Performance Testing and Results

I used the following machine to test the Thermaltake Frio Advanced CPU cooler:

The 3770k is an interesting CPU, it doesn't put out a tremendous amount of heat but it runs very hot. I tested the Frio Advanced against the Frio Extreme and the 3770k's stock cooler, testing was done at stock clock speeds (1.04vcore), 4.1GHz (1.11vcore) and 4.5GHz(1.29vcore). To further complicate matters all TRUE and Frio Advanced tests were run with the fans at maximum as well as minimum speeds. The Frio Extreme is used for comparison because at the testing speeds/voltages used it beat the TRUE I usually use. The 3770k and Frio Advanced did not appreciate the extreme high speed/voltage testing, so there are no results at 4.7GHz.

The results are the average core temperature measured in degrees Celsius over the ambient air temperature. This mean you can estimate the performance in your computer with the same heatload by measuring your ambient case temperature and adding the average listed in these results. The ambient temperature was measured using a Fluke 51 thermocouple thermometer with the probe about one inch in front of the fan hub.

First up, stock clock speeds:

To put things into perspective a bit, the Frio Advanced costs around $50 while the Frio Extreme goes for $87 or so. The Intel cooler is free. This is good, because the Intel cooler is also terrible.  The Frio Advance does it's job here, the results are solid if not spectacular.

How about an overclock? We'll all 70mv to vcore and crank things up to 4.1GHz.

The Frio Advanced is still hanging in there, though the Extreme's lead is getting wider.

Up another 180mv and 400MHz to 4.5GHz. Things are getting serious now.

Things are getting toasty now, with the fans at low speed core temps are warmer than I'd really like, high speed drops them almost 5c.

All told the results are decent, I think that if I were able to mount the cooler in the normal orientation they would be quite good, here's why:

The actual silicon core on a 3770k is long and thin, with the cooler in the normal orientation it spans at least three heatpipes, possibly five. Like this, roughly speaking:

The heat has a nice short path from core to processor lid (which spreads it a bit, but is pretty thin and not that great at spreading heat out) to multiple heatpipes.

Unfortunately I cannot mount the cooler that way on this motherboard, or the mounting system will damage a capacitor. I have to rotate it 90*, resulting in the core lining up like this:

One poor unfortunate heatpipe now has to deal with almost all of the heat generated. This will not help temperatures at all!

If your motherboard doesn't have a tall capacitor under the spring loaded screw and you can mount the cooler in the normal orientation I expect your temperatures will be better. That said even as it was the performance is decent.

Verdict and Conclusion

Thermaltake continues to expand their Frio line, so far all the Frio coolers I've tested have worked well for their price range.

Unfortunately the normal Frio mounting system causes issues on some motherboards, the Frio Advanced uses the same old Frio mounts and has this issue. One of the things I really liked about the Frio Extreme was that it didn't.

The actual performance is hampered on my setup by the combination of direct-touch heatpipes and having to install the cooler rotated 90 degrees. The result is reasonable performance, but not fantastic.

The mounting system works quite well, I like the backplate+braket system quite a bit. It's just the alignment of one screw and capacitors on certain motherboards that is an issue. Other than that it's great.

The cooler looks fantastic, I like the looks a lot.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_frio_advance/photos2{/AG}

Fan wise the Frio Advanced is pretty good, with the fans at low speed they are extremely quiet, I can't hear them if my head is more than a few inches away. Starting at about 50% the exhaust fan makes some noise, and around 75% the intake fan starts making noise. The exhaust fan's noise is a vacuum pop type noise, while the intake fan's noise is a fairly quiet ticking. Neither noise is especially offensive, but if you're looking for quiet computing you're going to want to stay at medium to low fan speeds.

All told there are some solid pros:

• Great looks.
• Dual PWM fans.
• Mounting system is excellent on most motherboards.

There are some cons too though:

• Motherboards with a tall capacitor in the wrong spot cause issues with mounting and performance.
• Fans noisy at full speed.
• If you have to mount it rotated on a modern CPU, performance could be better.

At the bottom line this is a good cooler hampered by the length and location of the mounting screws, if Thermaltake took 0.1" off the length of the spring loaded screws all the problems would vanish. As it is, I give it a 7.7/10.

SCORE

7.7/10

Simialr Product:

Introduction

Modern video cards are usually big, hot and noisy. Arctic is looking to take care of the latter two problems with video cards through the use of their Accelero line of heatsinks. They were kind enough to send a couple of those heatsinks to review. Today we will be taking a look at the Accelero Twin Turbo II.

It aims to give better than stock temperatures while being nearly dead silent. We shall put the Twin Turbo II through its paces to see if this heatsink is the real deal or if it is just blowing hot air.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos1{/AG}

Lets take a look at what Arctic says about their philosophy as a company:

Since the Accelero Twin Turbo II is now cleared to work on the Radeon 7870 we will be using the recently reviewed HIS Radeon 7870 2GB card.

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Features and Specifications

Direct from Arctic.ac again:

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos2{/AG}

Excellent Cooling Performance

Featuring two 92mm PWM fans with a maximum cooling capacity up to 250 Watts, the Accelero Twin Turbo II manages to transfer heat efficiently away from the GPU. Besides the 35-fin heatsink with 5 copper heatpipes, the pre-applied MX-4 thermal compound accelerates the heat dissipation process to ensure the VGA board is running under optimal temperature.

Enhanced RAM and VR Cooling

In order to boost the cooling efficiency of RAM and VR, the Accelero Twin Turbo II comes with the G-1, an electrically non-conductive thermal glue used to affix RAM and VR heatsinks on the VGA board. Unlike generic thermal tapes, the G-1 offers high thermal conductivity with excellent adhesiveness. Moreover, removing the G-1 is extremely easy without leaving any residues.

Virtually Silent

Thanks to the low noise impeller and patented fan holder, the Accelero Twin Turbo II runs at the minimum noise level of 0.3 sone, even at full load. Equipped with a PWM controller, the fan always runs at the optimal speed according to the load generated by the GPU.

Multi-Compatible

The Accelero Twin Turbo II comes with a versatile mounting mechanism and an extensive RAM and VR cooling set to accommodate a broad range of models. Featuring the CrossFire and SLI compatibility the users benefit from the optimized performance of a multi-VGA setup.

A more detailed spec list:

Lastly, the full(ish) compatibility list:

For AMD Radeon

For NVIDIA

The Cooler, a Photo Tour

The package is a nice clear plastic. You get to see the item itself as well as a few key features of the cooler.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos1{/AG}

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos2{/AG}

The cooler itself feels well made. It has some heft to it. There are 5 heatpipes which remove heat from the GPU. Taking the shroud of with the fans you get a couple of 92mm low profile fans. These are thinner than normal fans so that means they take up fewer of your precious expansion slots.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos3{/AG}

You might be wondering where the thermal paste is. Well, it is attached right onto the heatsink. That is Arctic MX-4 paste so you are getting the best of the best right off the bat. Although I really wish they included a small tube for the possibility that you may need to do another installation later on. The same goes with the included G1 thermal glue.

Installation

Installing the Accelero Twin Turbo II is not a big deal, but it is a good idea to take your time and not rush things so that you do not create a short between a heatsink and a cap or VRM.

Staring out you must clean all of the components with a pencil eraser. This ensures that proper contact is made.

Then you mix the grey and white packes of the G1 paste. Make sure to mix it properly for about 5-minutes before you attach any heatsinks.

Give the paste a nice thin layer on each component and press on the heatsinks.

Just make sure not to bump the heatsinks or they will come off very easily.

Then it comes the drying stage. I really suggest leaving it overnight to make sure everything dries properly even though it says the paste should be cured in about 5-hours. It never hurts to be safe.

After everything is dried make sure to not use any force on the heatsinks or they will come off. This is both a positive and a negative. It means you will not kill your card removing a heatsink, but it also means that they are very easy to knock off on accident if you are not careful.

Installing the actual Accelero Twin Turbo II is not too hard, just make sure to use the right spacers and take your time to install the heatsink.
It should look like this after everything is finished.

Keep in mind that the card will take up three slots after it is installed and it might even be a good idea to leave the 4th slot open or use a shorter length card so that it does not obstruct airflow into the fans.

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Testing and Results

Testing was done at a stock clocked state and an overclocked state. Maximum fan speeds were used due the the quiet nature of the Accelero Twin Turbo II.

The HIS Radeon 7870 from this review was used.

Ready for the results? Me too:

Keep in mind that 100% fan speed was used for all testing. While this was not exactly loud on the Accelero, it was not quiet either. But compared to the stock cooler temp drops are massive. The stock cooler just completely gets destroyed at load.

Next we bumped the voltage to the maximum level on the card and started overclocking.Using the stock cooler we were able to get to about 1210mhz on the core. But using the accelero we were able to get to 1268mhz-core. 50mhz bump in frequency is not bad at all!

Verdict and Conclusion

When Arctic cooling said they were sending this heatsink my way I was very excited to test it out on the HIS 7870 that had been overheating when overclocked. I can easily say that this heatsink easily fixed all of those overheating problems.

Installation is pretty easy but you need time to install it. The G1 paste is pretty awesome. It is strong, yet if you need to remove the heatsinks it comes off easily. I really like that.

Although, I do wish they included more than one packet of the paste or at least had the paste listed on their website to purchase (I couldn't find it for sale anywhere).

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/ac_accelero_twinturbo2/photos3{/AG}

The price is not too bad at all, shopping around it can be found for around $44 to your door. That is not bad at all and if your card has a poor stock cooler it could be a great investment if it lets you get another 10% or so of performance out of your card through overclocking.

Shall we summarize? There are pros:

• Good cooling performance.
• Fits most GPUs.
• G1 thermal glue comes off easily.
• Fans are pretty quiet
• Price/performance is good
• Tons of ram and MOSFET sinks

There are cons too:

• Takes up three slots
• G1 comes off easily
• G1 can only be used once, and hard to find more of it

If you are looking for a solid GPU heatsink that does not break the bank, yet still gives great performance the Arctic Acclero Twin Turbo II is a great product. It easily beats out inferrior stock heatsinks and installing it is easy enough, although time consuming.

SCORE
8.8/10

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Introduction

Direct to me from Thermaltake came this rather large box with a label that says Frio Extreme. Direct from me to you comes this review of Thermaltake's new Frio Extreme CPU cooler!

For the Frio Extreme it looks like Thermaltake has thrown the Frio based concept out the window and gone with something new. Something, in fact, that looks like it might just dethrown my current go-to air CPU cooler.

We'll find out in a bit, first a word from Thermaltake about Thermaltake:

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_frio_extreme/photos1{/AG}

Moving right along we'll check out the Features and Specifications, next!

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Features and Specifications

Direct from Thermaltakeusa.com we have the features and specifications:

	Ultimate Over-clocking Design Structure, supports up to 250W - Dual tower heat-sink with 0.4mm aluminum fins provide large surface for heat dissipation. - 6 x Ø6 mm-U-shape copper heat pipes accelerate heat conductivity. - Mirror-finished copper base, provide perfect contact with CPU. - Premium thermal grease maximizes heat transfer from the CPU onto the copper base for faster dissipation.
	The Combination of VR and PWM Fan Control - Dual 14cm high performance blue blade designed fans, spins from 1,200 to 1,800RPM. - Combination of VR and PWM functions, switchable upon user’s preferences. - Tool-less and Easy installation design for quicker disassemble and assemble the fan module.
	Universal Socket Compatibility & Accessory Package - All-in-one back-plate design, support all Intel and AMD platform - Universal socket support : Intel: LGA 2011, 1366, 1155, 1156, 775 AMD: FM1, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2

I've yet to see a CPU with a TDP higher than 150W, even that is pretty rare. Most modern stuff is 130W or lower, so we should get some pretty good temperatures out of this thing. It's listed to support pretty much everything and weighs close to three pounds!

Maybe we should take a look at it...

Photos: The Box and Packaging

I'm not even going to mention that we're doing the box first. Someday maybe I'll surprise everybody and do the box last, just for fun. Anyway, here's the box:

I like Thermaltake boxes. I don't know who is in charge of their art department, but whoever it is does a good job.

The fan controller intrigues me, I'll inspect it closely in the testing section.

With the box open we see.... not a whole lot. There's the fan controller, some instructions, and some fan clips. Also a peak at the ends of the heatpipes. I'll drag some of that stuff out of the way and string you along a bit before I take the cooler out.

Definitely a heatsink in there. Not a small heatsink, either.

Photos: The Heatsink and Fan

Not small, not subtle. Six 6mm heatpipes soldered to a copper base, all plated in nickel. Tons of juicy aluminum plates (with rounded edges, THANK YOU THERMALTAKE!) to get rid of the heat. Let's look at some more pics.

Two towers, each could be a decent heatsink in their own right.

Top view, take note of the heatpipe spacing, the heat is well spread out into the aluminum plates. You gain some efficiency that way.

 Seriously. Don't forget to remove the sticker. Bad things will result.

The base is flat and smooth. Very nice polish job.

Lastly, with fans it looks like this:

Fans and the Fan Controller

We're actually going to start with the fan controller, it has a switch and a knob and two LEDs:

 "PWM" means the PWM signal from your motherboard is passed through the unit to the fans (you can use this to split a single motherboard PWM header to run both fans), "VR" means the knob is in control of the situation. Now naturally I can't leave this thing in one piece, it'll have to come apart.

 Side one, not much to see here. Just the VR and the switch and the headers. The fan power goes through a worryingly small trace, but it didn't have any issues in testing. I wouldn't try to use this to power really high power fans though. The back side is more interesting:

 There's a voltage regulator to drop the 12V to 5V (what fans want their PWM signal to be), a NE555 bipolar timer, and some resistors and caps and diodes to make the 555 flipflop. It looks vaguely related to the Overclockers.com DIY PWM fan controller. I'll go into more detail on the functionality in the testing section.

Then there are the fans:

Installation

The mounting hardware is Thermaltake's standard issue stuff for the most part:

The black plastic bit is a backplate, four bolts go through it and secure it to the motherboard via four black thumbscrews. Two plates go between the bolts on top of the thumbscrews and are secured by four stainless steer thumbscrews. Lastly the bar goes over the base of the cooler and bolts to those plates. It sounds more complicated than it actually is, though there are simpler setups out there. The extra complexity gives you some serious mounting pressure though, I'm very happy with the mounting setup. The double-ended thumbscrews you can see above are for LGA2011.

With the cooler mounted you're greeted to a sight like the following:

The fan controller makes wire management rather awkward, but so it goes. The cooler itself and the fans look wonderful. I think it's time to test this thing!

Testing and Results

I used the following machine to test the Thermaltake Frio Extreme CPU cooler:

The 3770k is an interesting CPU, it doesn't put out a tremendous amount of heat but it runs very hot. I tested the Frio Extreme against a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (also known as a "TRUE" and the 3770k's stock cooler, testing was done at stock clock speeds (1.04vcore), 4.1GHz (1.11vcore), 4.5GHz(1.29vcore) and 4.7GHz(1.39vcore). The TRUE does not come with a fan, one of the Frio Extreme's fans was used. To further complicate matters all TRUE and Frio Extreme tests were run with the fans at maximum as well as minimum speeds.

The results are the average core temperature measured in degrees Celsius over the ambient air temperature. This mean you can estimate the performance in your computer with the same heatload by measuring your ambient case temperature and adding the average listed in these results. The ambient temperature was measured using a Fluke 51 thermocouple thermometer with the probe about one inch in front of the fan hub.

How about some testing results? We'll start with stock:

The Frio Extreme edges out the TRUE by a hair. This is the first heatsink I have tested that has managed that feat. The Intel stock cooler is not good. Onward to a mild overclock!

Here the Frio Extreme extends its lead. The stock cooler's ambient air temp was such that it was running core temps in the high 80s, a bit warm! Onward to 4.5GHz.

The Intel cooler was quickly overpowered and crashed, no surprise there. The TRUE narrowly edges out the Frio Extreme at this level.

Now for some extreme heat, neither of the heatsinks could deal with this without running high fan speed:

Here the TRUE wins by a bit.

I initially tested with a 2600k at various levels, the 2600k puts out more watts of heat but its core is soldered to the heatspreader so it is easier to get that heat into the heatsink. On that CPU the Frio Extreme won across the board. I find this interesting. I believe it to be due to the thicker base on the TRUE, the 2600K has a larger die so the heat is coming out of a larger area, in that situation the Frio Extreme's greater cooling performance takes the day. The 3770k at extreme OCing levels puts a lot of heat out in a very small area, the thicker base on the TRUE can spread that heat out to more of the heatpipes. This is guesswork on my part though.

I am impressed by the Frio Extreme's results, Thermaltake has been taking shots at beating it with the entire Frio series and up till now tended to fall heartbreakingly short. The Frio Extreme has managed to trade blows with the TRUE. Impressive!

Verdict and Conclusion

When I first saw the Thermaltake Frio Extreme's box I thought "Hey, this could be good!". I have not been disappointed.

The heatsink itself is quite large, if you have a small case or a motherboard like the Biostar TZ77XE4 that uses the slot nearest the CPU for a full PCIe slot you may be in trouble. On a more standard motherboard layout and with a decently sized case you'll be fine.

I found that I get close to as good performance with just the middle fan, leaving tons of ram clearance room. The fans do not work in "pull" however, which is annoying. They dig into the heatsink and make horrible noises. These are push only! They do look nice though, and even at full blast the noise isn't bad at all. At low speed temps are still great and the fans are very quiet.

The fan controller is a nifty little thing, it's keyed to only work with the Frio Extreme's fan, probably to protect it from people putting Serious Fans on it and burning it up.

The mounting hardware has a lot of parts, but none of it is hard to put together, the instructions are good as well.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_frio_extreme/photos2{/AG}

The fan clips generally work well, but can be annoying at times. Most fan clips suffer from this, really.

Price wise this thing is not cheap, it's going for around $87 right now! Given its cooling performance, fans and fan controller this seems like a reasonable price. It's not a price that makes me drool, but it isn't a cringe inducing price either.

The cooling performance is excellent, it trades blows with the TRUE cooling a 3770k and beats the TRUE across the board on a 2600k.

Due to the large size you may have issues with tall ram on some motherboards, same as with any Big heatsink.

All told there are lots of pros:

• Great cooling performance.
• Comes with a fan controller.
• Fans give excellent airflow for their noise level.
• Mounting hardware is nice and secure.
• Looks great.

There are some cons, too:

• Not cheap.
• Tall ram and small motherboards or cases can be an issue.
• Cable management is difficult with the fan controller, a "Y" connector would be nice.
• Fans will not work in a "pull" configuration.

As I mentioned before I am quite impressed, this is definitely a good cooler. There aren't many issues with it and there are lots of good things about it. I give it a 9.1/10 and definitely recommend it if it'll fit your case!

SCORE

9.1/10

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Introduction

The last Noctua heatsink I reviewed was the biggest air heatsink I have ever seen. Noctua has sent a heatsink that is not the smallest I have seen, but is meant to be used in an HTPC enviornment. 

That heatsink is the Noctua NH-L12, which is roughly half the size of a NH-D14 (even smaller if you want to get down to it).

Today we will be slapping it onto the same brutal testing rig that has been used in all of the other socket 2011 heatsink reviews. Lets see if this little thing can pack a huge punch for its size.

{AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/photos1{/AG}

If you have not heard of Noctua before, here is a little information about them:

Just like all of the other heatsinks we have tested on the 2011 socket this heatsink is going to try and cool a big warm 3930k hex-core processor. Dumping out 130w of heat at stock speeds, this little HTPC heatsink is going to have its work cut out for it.

For overclocked tests the processor was overclocked to 4.5ghz at 1.41v.

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Specifications and Features

120/92mm dual fan design
Thanks to its exquisite dual fan setup consisting of Noctua’s highly optimised NF-F12 (120mm) and NF-B9 (92mm) premium fans, the NH-L12 pushes the bar in terms of low-profile quiet cooling performance.

Extra-low profile in 92mm single-fan mode
The NH-L12 can be used with the NF-B9 92mm fan only in order to reduce the overall height to 66mm. This way, the cooler is suitable for many typical µATX or Mini-ITX enclosures and ideal for whisper-quiet HTPC systems.

PWM support and Low-Noise Adaptors
The NH-L12’s NF-F12 and NF-B9 fans support PWM for convenient automatic speed control. In addition, the maximum fan speed can be reduced to 1200/1300rpm using the supplied Low-Noise Adaptors for even quieter operation.

SecuFirm2™ mounting system
Noctua’s enthusiast grade SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting provides broad socket compatibility (LGA 2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1) and meets the highest demands in safety, performance and ease-of-use.

Mini-ITX mounting without backplate
Some Intel based Mini-ITX mainboards don’t allow for the installation of backplates. The NH-L12 thus comes with an extra set of Intel mounting bolts which make it possible to install the cooler without using the SecuFirm2™ backplate.

NT-H1 thermal compound
Noctua's much-acclaimed NT-H1 is a well proven pro-grade TIM solution that provides minimum thermal resistance, excellent ease-of-use and outstanding reliability.

Initial Thoughts

Much like other Noctua heatsinks, the packaging of the NH-L12 looks exactly the same as other Noctua boxing. I like this since it creates brand awareness for consumers when shopping in a brick and mortar store. Most other companies color products from the same line various different colors, this is a nice change. Aside from that, the box comes with different specifications all over the package. Opening the package up, you get a secured heatsink and fans, as well as a smaller box that includes all of the accessories.

 {AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/photos1{/AG}

Closer Look

The first thing that stood out to me is how small this heatsink is. While it is not super tiny, it is much smaller than other heatsinks we've had around here these days. The fins are made of aluminum, while the heatpipes are made out of copper. Looking at the base it is machined well and pretty flat.

One of the things I really like about this heatsink is the fact that Noctua has decided that people who use HTPC's like to overclock as well, or use processors that put out tons of heat and need a way to cool it off. While this heatsink will not take up a bunch of space in a case, it does pack a bunch of cooling power in its compact size.

 {AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/photos3{/AG}

Dual fans on an HTPC heatsink is quite impressive. Although one of those fans is a 92mm, they are both very quiet throughout operation. The fact that Noctua has included PWM fans is a nice bonus as well. These fans are not cheap in the least, and it is nice to see that Noctua includes all of these nice little features.

Noctua has gone the extra step by including mounting for pretty much every platform out there. AM2/3, 775,1156,1155,1366 and 2011 are all covered with the included mounting. For testing we will be using a 3930k socket 2011 processor to see how this little heatsink can fare with huge amounts of heat applied to it.

{AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/photos2{/AG}

Testing and Results

Testing heatsinks accurately is a tricky business.  There are two important numbers, one is the core temperature over ambient, and the other is the absolute core temp.

For a review the gain over ambient is the most important, it lets the readers figure out how cooling will run for them with a certain ambient temperature. For example it could be 30*C in a house, and the heatsink has a 20*C delta. So for someone with a 30*C ambient those core temperatures would be 50*C while someone with a 0*C ambient would have 20*C core temperatures.

For personal use the absolute core temp is more important, as your ambient is unlikely to change a huge amount.

For this review I will be expressing all temps in the number of degrees over ambient the cores are running, if you the viewer add this number to your current ambient air temp the resulting number is how hot my system's cores would be running in your house during the tests.

 {AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/install{/AG}

For testing I will be using Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste in order to give a level playing field since previous heatsinks have been tested with that thermal paste. The NH-L12 will be compared to all of the other previous socket 2011 heatsinks we have reviewed thus far.

The test system is thusly:

• Intel Core i7 3930K
• Asus Rampage 4 Extreme
• 4x2gb Corsair Dominator GT memory
• Antec Quattro 1200w
• Navig Benching station

The 3930K will be run at a stock and overclocked level:

1. 100% stock speed and voltages.
2. 4.5GHz with 1.41VCore.

This will be to give a baseline as far as temps since there is no stock cooler for the 2011 socket of processors. Then the overclocked level will show how this heatsink will handle a large heat load in relation to its ambient temperature.

Results

The first results are with the processor at Stock clocks with various fan settings. Keep in mind the processor is running at 3.5ghz due to Turbo kicking in.

Stock clocks, Low fan speed

Jeeze, at stock with a low fan it is able to beat out the impressive NH-D14! Maybe this thing will do better than I anticipated.

Stock clocks, Medium Fan speed

This time the NH-L12 falls behind the D14, but beats the Bigwater. Quite impressive for a heatsink this little.

Stock clocks, High fan speed

Again the NH-L12 barely falls behind the other heatsinks. If it had two 120mm fans there is a good chance that it would have performed the same as the NH-D14 in stock testing

Overclocking

Normally we would do overclocked testing from here on out. But sadly the NH-L12 was unable to keep this monster of a processor cooled throughout testing.

It was able to keep the processor cool to around 4ghz but once that frequency was exceeded temperatures would skyrocket and the processor was forced to throttle.

So to not be unfair to the previously reviewed heatsinks the NH-L12 will not be included in our results.

For those people who run a quad core processor the NH-L12 will be more than enough for HTPC use. I tried disabling two of the 3930K cores and run the same frequency/ voltages and the chip ran just fine. But it just cannot keep up with the huge heat load that six cores puts out.

Noise Level

Even at the highest fan speeds the two fans on the NH-L12 were not loud at all. While they are not dead silent at the highest fan speed it is easily overshadowed by a video card or case fans. 

Once the fans are undervolted they become dead silent. Medium fan speed (7v) is a good compromise between full blast and low.

Verdict and Conclusion

The mounting on the NH-L12 is not too bad if you install it before mounting it in a case. Once it is mounted though it can become a pain in the butt. You must also watch out for your memory being too tall.

It does have a decent amount of height for taller memory, but some sticks are just too tall for the NH-L12 to work properly.

The price on the NH-L12 is around the $70-USD mark depending where you find it. Honestly, that price is a bit high and it would be much better around the $50 mark. It does include a couple of fans that are normally $20 each so that is a large chunk of the price there.

{AG}reviews/noctua/noctua_nh-l12/photos3{/AG}

I really think that if you run a quad-core chip the NH-L12 might be fine for you, but a hex-core processor is just way too much heat for this poor little heatsink to dissipate.

• Very compact size
• Great fans
• Comes with two fans
• Well packaged
• Universal mounting

Cons:

• Price a bit high
• Failed at overclocked speeds
• Taller memory does not fit

If you need a good performing heatsink for an HTPC the NH-L12 is a great choice. However, if you plan on trying to cool a big hot hex core processor anything over stock clocks will lead to skyrocketing temperatures. But for its size, it is quite an impressive heatsink.

SCORE
7.5/10

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Introduction

Arctic was kind enough to send me their new Accelero S1 PLUS to review.  I've previously used the S1 V2 and was quite impressed, so I was excited to get the newest version of the S1 to play with.

The big thing with the S1 is that it is passive, no fans required for many GPUs!  No fans means no noise and no noise means a happy me.  For higher end cards Arctic says you'll need a fan on it, they sell a fan module specifically for that purpose as well.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_accelero_s1_plus{/AG}

Before we go too far, lets see what Arctic has to say about their philosophy.

OK, we'll installing the ARCTIC Accelero S1 Plus on my somewhat dated but quite loud and hot Geforce 8800GT 512MB. We'll see if the S1 PLUS with no fan can beat the screaming fan in the stock cooler.  Let's head onward to features and specs.

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Features and Specifications

Direct from Arctic.ac again:

The Accelero S1 PLUS may be the best performing passive VGA cooler on the planet. It is a must-have cooler for all silence enthusiasts. The versatile RAM and VR cooling set and optional S1 PLUS Turbo Module further extends its compatibilities all the way to high-end VGA cards.
	Absolute Silence As a passive cooler, the Accelero S1 PLUS is noise-free while keeping the graphic card working at normal temperature! It helps to cool your graphic card without any disturbance to your work or entertainment.
Wide Compatibility Due to its RAM and VR heatsink set and flexible mounting plate design, the Accelero S1 PLUS is compatible with over 80 different models of midrange to high-end graphic cards. * The compatibility list is based on AMD Radeon and NVIDIA's reference board layout only. ARCTIC holds no responsibility for incompatibility on non standard cards. Please check the height restriction drawing before purchase.
	Efficient Passive Cooling Thanks to the passive cooling technology with patent DE 20200600, the Accelero S1 PLUS allows more air to pass through the fins than any other passive coolers. The heat from the VGA card can be efficiently dispersed. With the add-on fan S1 PLUS Turbo Module equipped, the cooling capacity of the Accelero S1 PLUS can be boosted up to 120 Watts, which is adequate to cool some high-end VGA cards including AMD Radeon HD 6870 and NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250. Cooling Performance at AMD RadeonTM HD 6770: Accelero S1 PLUS + S1 PLUS Turbo Module (at 1,000 RPM) 55oC Accelero S1 PLUS 69oC 3 slot Generic Cooler (at 2,500 RPM) 72oC Better Ambient temperature: 24oC * S1 PLUS Turbo Module is required for sufficient cooling capacity on the following VGA cards. NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250, 240(OEM), 150(OEM), GT 9800GTX+, 9800GTX, 9800GT, 9600GT, 8800GTS 512(G92), 7950GT AMD Radeon HD 7870, 7850, 6870, 6850, 6790, 5850, 5830, 4870, 4850, 4830, 1900XTX, 1950Pro, 1950GT, 1900XTX, 1900XT, 1800XT
Enhanced VR Heat Dissipation Compared to thermal tapes, the thermal glue G-1 included with this cooler significantly improves the efficiency of heat conduction from the RAM and VR to the heatsinks. It secures the heatsinks while enabling subsequent removal residue-free.

A more detailed spec list:

Lastly, the full(ish) compatibility list:

For AMD Radeon

For NVIDIA

S1 PLUS Turbo Module is required for sufficient cooling capacity on the following VGA cards.

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250, 240(OEM), 150(OEM), GT 9800GTX+, 9800GTX, 9800GT, 9600GT, 8800GTS 512(G92), 7950GT

Now it's worth noting that some of the 8800GTS GPUs have ten ram chips, eight ram heatsinks isn't going to cover all of the ram chips.

The highest power consumption card I have that doesn't require the turbo module (or any other fan) is the Nvidia 8800GT, so that is what I'll be using.  They run quite hot normally, so this will be a good test.

The Cooler, a Photo Tour

We'll start with the packaging as usual.  In this case we're able to see the cooler as the packaging is clear plastic.

The packaging is pretty minimal really, not much to the front side.  You do get an excellent view of the cooler.  It looks quite similar to previous S1 coolers.

The rear of the box has a lot more data.  You can also see the MOSFET and RAM heatsinks.  On the far right is a compatibility list, which we'll take a closer look at:

Pretty much everything under a 200w TDP that uses eight or fewer RAM chips is listed.  Be aware that the 8800 GTS 320MB and 640MB use ten RAM chips, you'll need to buy two more ram heatsinks to mount this cooler to them.  Absent are the 7700 and 7800 series AMD GPUs, as AMD had not released them when the packaging was printed. The 7700 series is supported in fanless mode, while the 7800 series requires a fan or very good case airflow.

With the cooler out of the box we see pretty much the same thing as we saw with it in the box.

From the rear we finally get to see something new, the heatpipes!  Four 6mm pipes are used, they're soldered to the copper base and aluminum upper bracket, that bracket then screws to the two steel side brackets, those have two mounting orientations to fit different cards better.

You get a fair amount of stuff in the box, there is a rear IO plate with lots of vents, four MOSFET heatsinks, eight RAM heatsinks, a bag with crews, washers, and two thicknesses of spacers.  Also included is a mixing spatula and some Arctic G1 heatsink mounting glop.  The glop is a two part operation much like epoxy, though a lot easier to remove in theory.  More on that in the mounting section, which happens to be next.

Installation

The first step of installation is to figure out what you need to put heatsinks on.  The RAM chips are easy to identify, the MOSFETs aren't terribly hard either, given that they're about the only other thing beyond RAM and the GPU core that the stock heatsink will be touching.  Some cards have a separate MOSFET heatsink, if that is the case you can probably just leave it in place.

In the case of my card there are eight RAM chips and nine MOSFETs arranged in a rather inconvenient pattern.  Be sure to do some test fitting of heatsinks before you mix up the G1!  Once it is mixed you have 15 minutes to apply it before it starts thickening.

Once you've figured out where everything needs to go, clean the RAM chips and MOSFETs very well, Acetone works great for this purpose and is widely available.  Don't breath it if possible and be aware that it is highly flammable!

Once you have the chip clean, you can mix the G1.  Empty both tubes into a suitable container (I used the top of a bottle of juice, well rinsed and dried):

Mix it for five minutes like the packaging said.  It will look mixed quite quickly, KEEP GOING!  It is crucial to mix it for the proper amount of time, otherwise it will not work correctly.

Once it is mixed, spread a layer on the first RAM chip or MOSFET, put the heatsink on it, press hard and hold for 15 seconds or so.  Then you can move on to the next.  In the following photo I have mounted on RAM chip and painted the next.

Eventually it will look something like this:

Now comes the brutal part!  It takes hours for the G1 to cure completely.  I recommend leaving the card in a warm spot overnight, that way you won't be tempted to hurry things along.

After that you can look up which spacers you need to use (it's on the instructions in a chart), stick 'em to the brackets and mount the main heatsink on the card.

Still not a small heatsink!

Installed in the computer it'll look something like this:

Note:  No fan!  The Accelero S1 PLUS is rated for no-fan operation on this GPU, I decided to be brutal about this and test it without a fan.

Testing and Results

I used HWMonitor to log the maximum temperatures seen on each cooler.  I tested them both for idle temperatures as well as the maximum temperature seen during a run of Heaven DX9, a very brutal GPU benchmark, and the STALKER Call of Pripyat benchmark.  STALKER is very nearly as brutal as Heaven DX9 but lasts far longer, it gives a good example of prolonged game performance.  Below are the stock clock speeds and such of the card I used for testing:

Ready for the results?  Me too:

Yes, that's right.  Without a fan the Arctic Accelero S1 PLUS has a lower full load temperature than the stock cooler's idle temperature.  Best of all, it is 100% silent.  Not just quiet, mind you, but silent.

For fun I did some overclocking with the Accelero S1 PLUS and a low speed very quiet fan on it.  At stock voltages the 8800GT managed a very impressive 780MHz core speed and 1200MHz ram speed.  With the stock cooler it overheated and failed at 730MHz core and 1120MHz ram speed.  That's quite the difference!  With a tiny bit of extra core voltage the core did 800MHz quite happily and still ran far cooler than the stock cooler at stock clock speeds!

Click the GPUz photo below to be taken to the full screenshot.

Impressive stuff, I am very pleased with the cooling power of this cooler!

After benching I disassembled the cooler and found that the RAM and MOSFET heatsinks come off easily as promised.  More easily than I'd like, really.

The G1 peels off the RAM chips and heatsinks easily, but does leave a bit of a greasy residue that will need to be cleaned off with acetone before you use sticky type thermal tape on the ram or heatsinks.  You'll need to do that if you take the heatsinks off and want to mount them on another card, as the G1 is a one time use sort of thing.  Alternatively you can buy more Arctic G1 of course, while the mixing and painting is time consuming it takes even more time to trim sticky thermal tape to the proper size.

Verdict and Conclusion

This has been a fun review, I was excited to be given a chance to test this cooler as I've had an old and (very) beat up Accelero S1 V2 for a few years now.

The Arctic Accelero S1 PLUS is even better, which is a fairly good trick.

It has mounts for almost every GPU out there.

It's rated for cooling the vast majority of GPUs under 200 watts, I suspect it could do hotter GPUs as well with proper airflow.  More MOSFET heatsinks would be required however.

For many cards it is rated for zero fan use, of course its no fan cooling performance depends greatly on airflow.  My case has dubious airflow through that area and the S1 PLUS absolutely stomped the stock 8800GT 512MB cooler.

The G1 thermal glue really does let go easily, and while it takes some stirring and waiting it is less effort than cutting thermal tape to the proper size.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_accelero_s1_plus{/AG}

On the downside the G1 is only good for one application, after that you'll need more.  Also it comes off more easily than I'd like. The MX4 thermal compound that comes pre-applied on the primary heatsink is fantastic, there are very few compounds better.

The Accelero S1 has excellent cooling performance for running stock or overclocking. The downside to its performance is that it is not small, if your case is a narrow sort you may have issues making the cooler fit in the case.

Did I mention price?  The Accelero S1 PLUS runs $30-$35 from many online retailers, making it an excellent value as well.

Shall we summarize?  There are pros:

• Good cooling performance.
• Fits most GPUs.
• G1 thermal glue comes off easily.
• No-fan operation on many GPUs for total silence.
• Great price/performance.

There are cons too:

• Not small, narrow cases may be an issue.
• G1 compound comes off more easily than I'd like.
• G1 compound leaves a slight grease residue that must be cleaned before using tape.
• Four MOSFET heatsinks imposes some limits on GPU compatibility.

All told I'm quite happy with the Arctic Accelero S1 PLUS and rate it at 8.7/10!

SCORE
8.7/10

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That's right folks I'm back, this time I have a CPU cooler in my hands rather than a power supply however!

Todays suspect is Arctic's (formerly known as Arctic Cooling) new Alpine 11 PLUS CPU cooler, it is aimed at the low end of the heatsink scale, and promises to stomp the stock Intel cooler into the ground despite having a whopping MSRP of $14.95!

It fits both LGA775 as well as LGA1155/1156 and having looked at the coolers that come with the LGA1155 (SandyBridge) chips I don't doubt Arctic claims!  I will, of course, test them.  That happens later though, next up is what Arctic''s website has to say about the cooler.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_alpine_11_plus/photos2{/AG}

OK, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the ARCTIC Alpine 11 PLUS CPU Cooler. Next up, specs!

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Specifications and CPU Support List

First the specifications direct from Arctic.ac, then the CPU support list.

Quite the list!  Admittedly, every chip with a TDP of less than 95w that fits LGA775 or LGA1155/1156 is listed, so it's not exactly an exclusive list.

Onward to pictures and installation!

Pictures and a Closer Look

As usual we'll check the box out first.  During it's travels this box got a bit beat up, hopefully the cooler is still intact!

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_alpine_11_plus/photos1{/AG}

Enough with the box, lets open it!

Looks good, now to remove it from the box...Here we see the top of the cooler, as well as the small bag with the pushpins and screws in it.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_alpine_11_plus/photos2{/AG}

Not the flattest base in the world, but not too bad.  The proof is in the pudding as they say, we'll install the Alpine 11 next and see how it does!

This is a remarkably large cooler when you get down to it, it fills Intel's zone of exclusion around the CPU right up to it's edges.  What is nice to see is that it is not very tall at all, this may be an excellent HTPC cooler for slim cases

Installation

The Alpine 11 is installed in two stages, first you attach the two plastic brackets using two part pushpins (which are obvious about whether they are installed correctly or not!), and then you use four included screws to attach the Alpine 11 to the bracket.  The Alpine 11 comes with Arctic Cooling's excellent MX-4 thermal transfer compound pre-applied, so that isn't an issue.

Everybody loves pictures, so here we are with the plastic brackets in place as well as the first half of the pushpins.  (Not to mention some thermal compound I hadn't fully removed yet, whoops)

Next we put the black plastic second pushpin parts in place, like so:

Last, we screw the heatsink to the brackets.  Removing the fan can make this easier if you're using a magnetic screwdriver with a thick shaft.

I removed the fan, so I'll put it back and give you a couple more pictures, as well as one of the stock cooler for reference.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_alpine_11_plus/photos3{/AG}

In the stock cooler picture you can see the thermocouple probe I used for measuring the ambient temps during testing, we'll talk about that in the testing section, which happens to be next.

Testing and Results

I used the following rig to test the Alpine 11:

I ran CPU at 100% stock settings (3.5GHz with Turbo enabled, which it is at stock) and 4GHz with a fair bit more vcore than needed to make it a nastier load, below are CPUz screenshots of both test speeds:

The Alpine 11 was tested with the MX4 paste as well as with ArcticAlumina Cermique 2 (different Arctic, Arctic Alumina is made by the Arctic Silver company), the Intel stock cooler was tested with ArcticAlumina Cermique 2.

First, stock clocks results:

The Intel cooler is terrible, fairly obviously.  A rise of 44.4c over ambient means that if your room temp is 28c your core temps are somewhere in the region of 78c.  That's at 100% stock clocks!

The Alpine 11 PLUS however keeps the temps over ten degrees lower, and is quieter to boot.  That MX4 beats AA-Ceramique2 is unsurprising, MX4 is one of the best thermal compounds out there.

Next, the results for 4GHz with more voltage than such an overclock generally takes.

Ouch.  Core temps for the stock cooler were in the mid 90s, not good!  The Alpine 11 PLUS did surprisingly well for a low profile cooler with no heatpipes, I'm impressed!

Equally impressive is that even with the fan at 100% I couldn't hear the cooler unless I took the side of the case off and stuck my head inside.  For the MSRP of $14.95, this is an impressive cooler indeed.

Verdict and Conclusion

I have to be honest and say that I went into this review not expecting much.  I come out of it downright impressed!

The Alpine 11 PLUS is definitely a good replacement for the stock Intel cooler, it not only does a good job at stock settings but has enough cooling power for a decent amount of overclocking as well!

The fan is nice and quiet, ARCTIC (formerly known as Arctic Cooling) makes very good fans.

The heatsink itself is fairly easy to mount and doesn't require the motherboard to be removed to install the cooler.  On my P67a-UD4 it was a bit of a tight fit, but nothing serious.

The Alpine 11 PLUS is fairly low profile, it will fit into any tower/desktop case, and likely almost any small form factor case as well, making this an excellent cooler for the money in those situations.

{AG}reviews/arctic_cooling/arctic_alpine_11_plus/photos2{/AG}

Price wise with an MSRP of $14.95, this is a good deal.  More expensive coolers beat it, but they're more expensive!  If you're willing to pay a bit over twice as much you can get a significant amount more cooling, but that's over twice as much money and the more expensive cooler probably won't fit in a small case.

To summarize, there are pros:

• Compact size.
• Quiet fan.
• Good cooling for the buck.
• Very solid mounting, despite using pushpins.

Nothing being perfect there are cons too:

• Tight fit on my P67a-UD4 motherboard.
• Multi-piece pushpins take a bit of figuring out.
• Base could use a flatter finish

All told this is a good budget upgrade over the stock Intel cooler, it gets a score of 8.5/10 and a Recommended badge.

SCORE
8.5/10

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Introduction

Watercooling is something that I got into a couple of years ago, so when I heard a Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus was coming my way I was pretty excited. This unit allows you to get your feet wet into the world of watercooling.

With the big craze of self-contained watercooling units these days, Thermaltake offers a kit for the more adventerous type. You get the full watercooling experience of connecting tubing and filling the water yourself to fit whatever case you may use. What is great is that this loop allows you to get your feet wet and see how you like watercooling. You can then upgrade the radiator, pump,block,etc if you feel that performance is not up to par for your latest upgrade.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_bigwater_760_plus/photos1{/AG}

Thermaltake as a company has been around for quite a few years, in case you have not heard of them here is some information about the company:

We'll be testing the Bigwater 760 Plus using an Intel Core i7 3930K, a Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard, both are LGA 2011 of course as well as 16gb of Crucial Ballistix Memory, and an Antec Quattro 1200w PSU.

For overclocked tests the processor was overclocked to 4.5ghz at 1.41v.

The Bigwater 760 Plus will be compared to the previously reviewed Noctua NH-D14 SE2011, as well as my custom watercooling loop. This loop consists of a XSPC Raystorm waterblock, Swiftech 355 pump, XSPC restop, Thermochill PA120.3 Radiator, and three San Ace fans.

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Specifications and Features

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Initial Thoughts

The package is HUGE. A bit too big for my tastes, especially when you open it up you realize that tons of the space is wasted from excess foam. Thermaltake could save on packaging materials, as well as helping the environment by cutting down on the overall size by a big chunk. Aside from that the package comes with everything you need in a watercooling loop. You get your pump/radiator/reservior/fan all in one combo. Aside from that, tubing, clamps, mounting, liquid, and a waterblock is all included. Pretty good if I do say so.

{AG}reviews/thermaltake/tt_bigwater_760_plus/photos3{/AG}

Closer Look

Getting a closer look the radiator could really use some work. Since it is aluminum you will run into problems should you run out of the included water and try to use distilled in the future. If you did not know, Copper and Aluminum together in a loop is generally a really bad idea since it causes the Aluminum to decay. But if you never plan on upgrading your loop that will never be a problem. Aside from that, the block is magnetic which is not good. After doing a test I found that the base is indeed copper, but there must be impurities in the nickel plating which is not a huge deal. 

The block itself is rather small and it would have been nice to see the plastic on the block made of delrin or acrylic instead of that type of plastic. When looking at the base it is almost a mirror finish and extremely flat which is always a big plus in my book. The mounting for the block is pretty easy to use and universal for all modern socket types. You also get a nice amount of 3/8" diameter tubing which is great since Thermaltake has realized that most modern watercooling systems do not use tiny 1/4" tubing.

Looking at the pump,radiator,reservoir all in one unit I have to say that the idea is actually really cool. Things are nice and compact, yet you are not confined to having an 8" radius for mounting your radiator. This kit allows you to mount the main unit in your 5" bays, yet gives you freedom toward using however much tubing you need (this is great for people with huge cases, or those who want to add in a gpu or another radiator). I would however like it if the 120mm radiator was upgraded to a 2x120mm radiator and made of copper instead of aluminum.

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The tubing is not too bad, it has some bend to it but is still somewhat stiff. I would however like it if the tubing was a bit more flexible, when mounting the tubing it became a pain in the butt to work with it in tight areas and it had a tendency to coil.

I also must note that the included clamps were the wrong size. They did not work at all so I was forced to use twisty ties to secure the tubing. Please do not do this if you are using the loop yourself, buy yourself some worm-drive clamps or at least use zip-ties.

The Waterblock, Fan and Tubing

The fan on the Bigwater 760 Plus pushes a nice amount of air. When selecting full fan speed it is quite noisy and can push a ton of air. It was easily more loud than my other high-speed fans that I have.

Mounting on the 760 Plus is pretty straight forward except for an error I found in the guide. The guide lists to use screw M on the mounting bracket. However, on the packaging of the mounting accessories these screws were labeled as "I". Needless to say I spent around an hour looking to see if I lost them.

One thing I am extremely disapointed in was the included thermal paste. My first round of testing used the stock thermal paste and on average it was around 8*C worse than the Arctic Cooling MX-4 paste I used in final testing. I was pretty shocked by that and checked my mounting a few times, but every time the paste was doing very bad. I had a feeling I would have to use a different paste in final testing, but an 8*C difference is huge and those with this unit should really look to replacing the thermal paste they include.

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One of the great things about having a water loop is that you can use any sized memory you want. If your memory has giant heatspreaders there is nothing to worry about! You must however make sure that the Mosfet area on your motherboard has sufficient cooling since there will be no airflow around that area of the board.

If you already own a Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus, Thermaltake will send you the 2011 mounting materials free of charge.

Testing and Results

Testing heatsinks accurately is a tricky business.  There are two important numbers, one is the core temperature over ambient, and the other is the absolute core temp.

For a review the gain over ambient is the most important, it lets the readers figure out how cooling will run for them with a certain ambient temperature. For example it could be 30*C in a house, and the heatsink has a 20*C delta. So for someone with a 30*C ambient those core temperatures would be 50*C while someone with a 0*C ambient would have 20*C core temperatures.

For personal use the absolute core temp is more important, as your ambient is unlikely to change a huge amount.

For this review I will be expressing all temps in the number of degrees over ambient the cores are running, if you the viewer add this number to your current ambient air temp the resulting number is how hot my system's cores would be running in your house during the tests.

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For testing I will be using the Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus with Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste. The stock thermal paste was on-average around 8*C worse than the MX-4. For comparisons sake we will be comparing the Bigwater 760 Plus to the recently reviewed Noctua NH-D14, as well as my custom water loop.

The test system is thusly:

• Intel Core i7 3930K
• Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard
• 16gb Crucial Ballistix Elite (1866mhz, 9-9-9 timings)
• Antec Quattro 1200w
• Navig Benching station

The 3930K will be run at a stock and overclocked level:

1. 100% stock speed and voltages.
2. 4.5GHz with 1.41VCore.

This will be to give a baseline as far as temps since there is no stock cooler for the 2011 socket of processors. Then the overclocked level will show how this heatsink will handle a large heat load in relation to its ambient temperature.

Results

The first results are with the processor at Stock clocks with various fan settings. Keep in mind the processor is running at 3.5ghz due to Turbo kicking in.

Stock clocks, Low fan speed

At stock clocks with the everyone using low fan speed the Bigwater is able to beat the NH-D14. I was pretty impressed with this, even if it is by only a degree or two. The custom loop on the other hand just stomps the competition.

Stock clocks, Medium Fan speed

Once the fan speed gets raised the NH-D14 leaves the bigwater in its dust. The Custom loop continues to dominate the field as well.

Stock clocks, High fan speed

 Once the fan speed is at full blast the Bigwater really catches up a bunch on the NH-D14, but it still loses by a degree.

Now we kick things up another notch and set the processor at 4.5ghz with 1.41v.

Overclocked, Low fan speed

Overclocked, the system is releasing tons of heat into the cooling setup. It is great to see the Bigwater beat the NH-D14 by a degree! But it is pretty impressive to see the custom loop win by an impressive 21*C! I imagine if the Bigwater had a similar radiator temperatures would be much closer to that.

Overclocked, Medium fan speed

I have to say that I am extremely disapointed in the Bigwater, it lost to the NH-D14 by 10*C with medium fan speed. That aluminum radiator just does not have enough cooling capacity for a hex core with added voltage running through it with medium fan speed.

Overclocked, High fan speed

Once again the Bigwater cannot keep up. It was much louder than any other solution at the maximum fan speed yet only used a single fan. 

As we can see it is no wonder Intel chose to not include one of those tiny stock heatsinks with the new hex core chips. If you are running stock clocks, or even a mild overclock the Bigwater does better than I expected. However, once the heat load starts up it simply cannot keep up with a single 120mm rad that is made out of aluminum.

Testing past 4.5ghz was not included because I felt that the Bigwater 760 plus and NH-D14 could not keep the processor cool enough through testing. At 4.5ghz I was getting warnings for the processor getting too hot and tripping thermal precautions.

When running at low and medium fan speeds the Bigwater was nice and quiet. However, once you turn the fan up all the way be prepared for a jet taking off. The 760 plus was louder than multiple other high-speed fans in my system turned up all of the way. If you are going to only turn the fan up all the way for gaming you should not have issues, but if you want to run it like that constantly I could see it being bothersome.

Verdict and Conclusion

If you run at stock clocks and want to take a plunge in watercooling the Bigwater 760 plus is a decent choice. The platform itself allows you to add in more radiators, or a better waterblock once you are more comfortable. There is no need to read a huge guide on which watercooling items to buy from which stores, and no problems with buying the wrong size barbs or tubing. 

That is not to say that everything is perfect, because its not. There is a big problem with the block being magnetic. Either the copper core is coated with stainless steel, or the nickel plating has tons of impurities. I am also very disapointed in the fact that it lost to an air cooler at half the price. Thermaltake really needs to make the radiator a 120x2 if it wants to compete with top of the line coolers when it has a top of the line sort of price.

While it only costs about half as much as my custom loop, its price is still a real problem. Retail is $150 (the lowest I can find it for is $130). The big problem with this is the fact that there is a popular watercooling kit out there at the same price that includes a 120x2 radiator and uses aftermarket quality components. Thermaltake really needs to lower the price by $60 if they want to compete.

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I really think that if you run a quad-core chip the Bigwater 760 Plus might be fine for you, but a hex-core processor is just way too much heat for this poor little heatsink to disapate. 

• Everything included for a water loop
• Compact 2U design
• Decent tubing
• Packaged to survive a tornado
• Universal mounting
• Green tubing looks cool

Cons:

• Packaging is excessive
• Loses to an air cooler at half the price
• Waterblock has Steel impurities
• Aluminum Radiator
• Included thermal paste is poor performing
• Fan is extremely loud at high speed
• Tubing is too stiff

If you are looking for a top of the line water loop this is not it. However, if you want to get started with watercooling but do not know how to get started this is a fine place to do so. But keep in mind that there are alternatives with better components for the same price. Just keep to mild overclocking or stock speeds and this watercooling kit will keep things at reasonable temperatures.

SCORE
6/10

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Introduction

Arctic Cooling was kind enough to send one of their coolest items, the F12 Pro. While it is indeed a fan, it is not your ordinary fan. There is no standard fan enclosure here, this fan is suspended on its chasis by rubber. That means you get a quiet fan that is extremely efficient.

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Arctic Cooling is best known for their quiet designs that still pack a punch, lets take a look at the specs of the fan to see if that still holds true.

We'll testing the Arctic Cooling F12 Pro fan using my older system, which consists of the following components ... Core2 e2160 Processor, Asus P5Q-LE motherboard, Thermaltake Big Typhoon Heatsink, MSI X1300 Pro video card and a Generic Case. Let's how low my temperatures can get using this fan.

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Specifications and Features

First, the features straight from Arctic.ac

ARCTIC F Pro is a professional case fan that outperforms other generic case fans in the market. Its noise-performance ratio is superior as it offers high airflow while maintaining quiet operation at the same time.

Cost-Efficient with Exceptional Performance

ARCTIC F Pro is an affordable option that guarantees optimal airflow inside a chassis. It is ideal for any PC cases, including HTPC systems. This case fan utilizes fluid dynamic bearing to extend its service life since it reduces friction rotation and seals the lubricant securely in the bearing. Complement this case fan with ARCTIC’s prominent CPU and VGA coolers to enhance superior airflow for your hardware cores.

Extremely Quiet

The patented vibration absorption fan holder is the key in keeping the ARCTIC F Pro to run inaudibly. This frame absorbs vibration caused by spinning and in turn offers whisper-quiet operation.

Quick Installation

Setting up the ARCTIC F Pro is easy. It can be installed by mounting it with four screws that are included or simply install with screwless mounting mechanism that is provided in the chassis.

Initial Thoughts

I have to say, I really like the box. The plain white along with the white and black fan on the front look really sharp. There are no distracting graphics or pictures here, something that I really appreciate.

On the back you get a list of various features that the fan offers. Most of these features are attributed to decreasing noise.

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Opening up the package, you get a fan and 4-screws. Not exactly a huge package of information and guides, but then again it is a basic fan.

A closer Look

The fan itself is built to be very quiet. The main frame merely suspends the fan above it in order to limit vibrations. This means you must be careful when installing the F12 Pro so that you do not break one of the rubber vibration dampeners.

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Taking the fan blades off, the motor is a nice size. There is no 80mm fan motor slapped on a 120mm fan frame here! You get your standard .15-amp motor which will push a decent amount of air, but do not expect it to be a hurricane of wind.

Enough of the fan, what matters most is the testing!

Testing and Results

Testing was done by mounting the F12 Pro as a rear case fan blowing air out of the back of the case while being connected to the motherboard at full speed. This was done in order to test on a platform most people would use, rather than simply testing on my open-air test bench.

Hardware used:

• Core2 e2160 Processor
• Asus P5Q-LE motherboard
• Thermaltake Big Typhoon Heatsink
• MSI X1300 Pro video card
• Generic Case

Load Temperatures were taken after the processor was fully loaded using Prime95. Temperatures were logged after they leveled off and stopped rising (over an hour).

The F12 Pro will be compared to a 120mm Foxconn .20-amp fan for temperatures in relation to the ambient temperature. This will give us our delta temperture.

Stock Clocks and voltages

At stock clocks temperatures are very close. You lose one degree in cooling capacity, but noise is very quiet in comparison. This tradeoff is completely worth it at stock clocks in my eyes.

Overclocked 3060mhz @ 1.37v

Since the processor is over 1.2ghz past stock speeds it is generating much more heat. While temperatures are not bad the F12 Pro at .15a cannot keep up with a .20a fan. If you are concerned about noise, that 5*C at full load is not a big deal. But if you are after pure performance you will be missing out on added stability, and lower temperatures with a more powerful fan.

I must note that the noise on the F12 Pro is a kind of noise that is much easier on the ears. The Foxconn fan produced some mechanical noise where you can hear the motor and vibrations from the actual fan spinning along with air noise the Foxconn can be bothersome when there is no noise around you.

On the other hand, the F12 Pro simply produces air noise from air moving. All of the anti-vibration technologies at work on the F12 are not bogus mumbo-jumbo.You get a small amount of air noise at that which is something that people wanting fans for an HTPC or quiet PC will greatly appreciate

Now that we have performance numbers, lets see what kind of score the F12 Pro deserves.

Verdict and Conclusion

As soon as I saw this fan  I knew it was going to be different from other fans. While many people might think all of these vibration prevention methods are a gimmick, you have to figure if you are after top of the line performance or if you simply want a quiet yet cool running machine.

When it comes to performance, this fan is great if you are running stock clocks. However, even on a heavily overclocked dual core processor temperatures start to rise quickly.

With a highly clocked Quad or Hex I don't think that a single F12 Pro would be enough. Two or three would be needed for sufficient cooling.

Noise on this fan is pretty much non-existant from over three-feet. There is a moderate sound of air moving when you get closer to that. Inside of a case the only thing that you can hear is the slight moving of air which is great if you are looking for new quiet case fans.

Sadly, these fans can only be mounted to blow in one direction. So if you are looking for fans to blow inward you will need some more conventional fans due to the bracket on the F12 Pro.

Pricing on the F12 Pro is very good at $5/each. You will be hard pressed to find fans that are this quiet, yet still perform well. While you are not getting top of the line performance you are not paying $20/fan either. Bang for the buck is excellent.

Pros:

• Price
• Design looks awesome
• 3-pin connector
• Simple Box and packaging
• Decent airflow
• Low noise

Cons: 

• Odd mounting
• No PWM

Final Words. You do not get the best performance in the world, but you do get an extremely quiet fan that will keep your components cool at a great price. Overall, you will be hard-pressed to find a fan with the same noise reducing features, air output, and price.

SCORE
8.3/10

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Introduction

For the past couple years I have been out of touch when it came to air coolers since I had gone the water route. Over this time a bunch of air coolers have come out that reach every segment out there, from guys who want tiny coolers for their HTPC to coolers that will cover half your motherboard and uses multiple fans for maximum performance.

Enter the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011. This thing is easily the largest heatsink I have ever seen. I thought the last air heatsink I owned (Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme) was big, but this thing is pretty much like taking two TRUE's and slapping them together.

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If you have not heard of Noctua, you have been missing out. They are well known for making very quiet fans and great performing heatsinks that have great performance. Here is a bit about Noctua:

We'll be testing the new Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 using an Intel Core i7 3930K, a Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard, both are LGA 2011 of course ... there's also G.Skill 2x2gb Trident, 2x2gb Perfect storm (2133mhz, 9-9-9), and an Antec Quattro 1200w PSU.

Let's see what temperatures the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 can produce for us ... especially on our overclocked Core i7 3930K @ 4.5Ghz, 1.41v

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Specifications and Features

Overview

Having received more than 250 awards and recommendations from the international press, Noctua's NH-D14 has become a benchmark in premium quality quiet cooling. The SE2011 version is a special edition for Intel's Core i7-39xx/38xx (Sandy Bridge-E) high-end platform and comes equipped with the new SecuFirm2™ mounting system for LGA2011. Combined with the exquisite NF-P12/NF-P14 dual PWM fan configuration and topped off with Noctua's renowned NT-H1 thermal compound, the NH-D14 SE2011 is an elite choice for an elite platform.

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Features:

• Award-winning NH-D14 cooler
  Tens of thousands of enthusiast users all over the world swear by the NH-D14’s quality and performance. Recommended by more than 250 international hardware websites and magazines, it is renowned to be one of the best high end coolers on the market.