Installing thermaltake big typhoon vx. Testing four Thermaltake processor coolers. Heat dissipation test results

IntroductionAfter both leading processor manufacturers announced the end of the gigahertz race, users who were hoping that their new PC would finally be truly fast and quiet were briefly relieved. The most optimistic of them hoped that Intel would finally make the Dothan family of processors available to the masses, but this, unfortunately, did not happen. Instead of one “heat generator under the hood,” both Intel and AMD offered two! The issue of increasing productivity was solved by a banal method that is known to everyone from the first grade - addition. If it is impossible to further increase the frequency and thereby achieve a noticeable increase in performance, then one of the most simple ways– is to increase performance by parallelizing computational threads. The fact that this is of little use today for an ordinary home machine, to put it mildly, worries absolutely no one. Both trendsetters in the CPU market need sales, and the new “dual-core” concept is quite capable of providing them. However, the biggest thanks for such titanic efforts to promote to the masses few people really need at home multi-core processors the manufacturers of cooling systems will say. It's no joke - the appearance and total area of ​​the processor itself remained without any changes, and all that increased was performance and heating. Moreover, if you can argue about the first for a long time - regular user If you practically won’t notice any increase in a number of typical multimedia and gaming applications, then with heat dissipation everything is very transparent - it has increased quite significantly. By and large, we still need to say thank you for the fact that by doubling the number of cores, the developers failed to double the final heat dissipation of the entire structure. However, even what happened as a result was enough to bring such air-cooling giants as Zalman 7000Cu and Zalman 7700CU to their knees. This is expressed in the fact that if the latter is still capable of maintaining the temperature of a dual-core Intel Pentium Extreme Edition with clock frequency only 2.8 GHz, but based on the SmithField core in the region of 75-80 degrees at an ambient temperature of 20-22 degrees, then for the 7000CU this task is no longer possible - the temperature exceeded 85 ° C, after which we stopped further experiments with it. The situation with new processors is practically no different from that with the latest revisions of the Intel Pentium 4 on the Prescott core - the speed of heat removal from the processor core plays a very important role. There are two options left - either use a cooler with heat pipes, with a separate base and radiator, or a water cooling system. The price of such a choice, today, differs by approximately two times - the average price level for ready-made coolers is approximately twice as high as that for top models of coolers with heat pipes. We are in no way going to ignore the topic of water cooling systems and plan to devote one of our next reviews to it, but today our focus is on air coolers - 4 different, but nevertheless very worthy models that very well illustrate the state of affairs on the market for similar devices. Moreover - apparently, even Intel is not going to abandon classic cooling systems in the near future - the BTX standard provides for air coolers, albeit of a somewhat unusual design. Among the main trends that prevail today in this sector of the market, in addition to the quality of cooling and minimizing noise levels, we can note such as a significant increase in the dimensions of the radiator and a noticeable emphasis on the aesthetic component. Manufacturers of even inexpensive COs seem to have realized that a consumer who buys such a utilitarian item as a cooling system for a processor for quite a significant amount of money has the right, at least, to count on at least a pleasant appearance of his purchase. However, in those matters that relate to appearance, few can argue with Thermaltake products - its solutions have always pleased the buyer with their original design. The tradition is also observed in the company's latest line of coolers - our guests today are no exception, and any of them will look good in the now popular cases with a side window. As for the overall characteristics, the user will not have any special problems here either - he will not have to specially select a case for the cooler he likes. All models fit quite well in a standard ATX case.
Towards efficiency assessment CPU coolers You can approach it in different ways, but the most optimal method will be one that is close to “combat” conditions.

Testing methodology

Maternal Intel board i955X;
Processor Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 2.8 GHz (SmithField Core);
RAM 2x512 MB DDR2 Kingston KHX5400D2/512;
Video card ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition 256 MB;
HDD: Western Digital WD1600JB;
NEC ND-3540A (Black);
Power supply Zippy HP2-6460P;
Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS case.

Thermaltake Big Typhoon (CL-P0114)

Thermaltake Sonic Tower (CL-P0071)

Thermaltake Silent Tower (CL-P0025)

Thermaltake PIPE101 Rev.2 (CL-P0006)

Apparently, the manufacturer does not consider half a kilogram of the pure weight of the radiator alone to be a sufficient reason to include in the delivery set also fasteners that use holes near the socket. However, if we take into account the fact that not all motherboards for the Socket A platform have such holes, then this approach looks quite reasonable.
The radiator itself is entirely copper with four heat pipes.

Summarizing

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120VX

Next up is a popular model from Thermaltake, which has already gone through several changes. latest model with the VX index has a simplified mounting system for LGA 775 and a fan with an increased speed.

The box is made in the company's traditional red colors. The cooler itself is clearly visible through the transparent plastic casing.

In a separate cardboard box inside the package there are additional accessories: clips for installation on motherboards for AMD K8/10 and Intel processors with Socket LGA775, as well as a small bag of thermal paste.

Stated characteristics:

Aluminum radiator fins are threaded onto curved heat pipes emerging from a copper base. The radiator itself is located parallel to the board and consists of two sections with three tubes each. Thanks to this design, a 120 mm fan, blowing through the radiator fins, additionally blows air around the socket space and elements.

Of all the coolers tested, the Big Typhoon had the poorest base processing quality. As you can see, despite some evolution of this cooler, it doesn’t even get to the point of polishing the base. The roughness and unevenness of the surface is perfectly felt to the touch.

Unlike all other coolers, the Big Typhoon 120VX has a speed controller located directly on it, and not removed from the case. The regulator is screwed to one of the corners. So, if you decide to reduce the fan speed, you will have to climb inside the system unit.

Inside the case, Big Typhoon looks simply huge. The red color of the impeller and the curved lines of the grill grate make the appearance aesthetically pleasing.

Considering the weight of the cooler, the reliability of fastening with plastic latches is questionable. But, unfortunately, the manufacturer decided that no additional means were needed to strengthen the motherboard.

Testing powerful coolers. Part one.
Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX vs Noctua NH-U12P. Price niche $50-55
Preface

Today there are many different coolers on the Ukrainian market. Among them there are both expensive and affordable models, aimed at different categories of users. Most are purely budget class, but there are also Hi-End class coolers that are expensive. It is also worth noting that very expensive models do not always demonstrate the desired performance, and cheap ones do not always perform poorly. There are many well-known companies on the market, but sometimes there are also small ones that are trying to gain fame and popularity with high-quality and more affordable models.
I would probably include Thermaltake in the first category, which produces a lot of accessories for modding, power supplies, cases and, of course, coolers. Perhaps the most famous cooler of this company is the legendary Typhoon, which helped overclock older processors for 939 and 775 sockets for Pentiums. A lot of time has passed, but many users do not change, and some even buy it. In this review, I picked up a competitor to Typhoon from the Noctua camp, the NH-U12P cooler. The company has been selling its products in the territory for a long time Western Europe, but is practically not common here in Ukraine.
Perhaps today there is a situation where you can buy good processor for the appropriate money... and then significantly, let’s say, speed it up. For this we have to thank modern technologies, and in particular Intel, which released a very successful architecture. For more or less reasonable prices, we must thank AMD, which is trying to survive in this market segment. Well, these companies, in turn, should thank us for buying their processors.

Test platform and testing conditions.

So, let's finish the introduction, let's move on to practice. For testing I used next system:
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Quad Q6600(G0)
Motherboard ASUS P5K Premium/WiFi-AP
CoolersThermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX,
Noctua NH-U12P
RAM GOODRAM 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz x2(4GB)
Video cardgigabyte X800gto 256mb+ Zalman VF700-Cu
Hard driveSeagate ST3750330AS 750gb
Power supply Thermaltake ToughPower 750W
Drive ASUS DRW-1814
Case Cooler Master Elite 331 (1x12 cm blow-in)
UPSAPC Back-UPS CS 500
Operating systemWindows Vista 64bit sp1

The day before I made pre-setting systems and stability test. I must admit, I was unable to overclock the processor to frequency 3.6. More precisely, it was possible, but the system worked in OSST for about an hour, and then I observed the “screen of death.” And this happened several times. Perhaps the reason was due to overheating of the northbridge, although this is not known for sure. But I set myself the task of pushing the maximum while maintaining FULL stability, and when the system worked stably for 6 hours, I considered the overclocking successful.

So, with FSB 400, the multiplier was 8, the final frequency was 3.2. Memory divider 1:1, effective frequency – 800 MHz. BIOS settings:
CPU voltage 1.4
CPU PLL voltage 1.6
FSB termination voltage 1.3
DRAM voltage 1.8
NB voltage 1.4
SB voltage 1.05
Load Line Calibration(VDroop) Enabled
CPU GTL Voltage Reference 0.63x
All other settings are set to AUTO. Fan control is disabled except for a few tests.

core voltage

Well, now let's move on to the experimental ones:
P.S. I won’t dwell on cardboard and plastic boxes, but I will note that the Taufun’s packaging looks more solid in appearance; read about the packaging below:

The heat dissipation of modern processors increases with the release of each new model, the requirements for the efficiency of CPU cooling systems also increase almost linearly, so the presence of heat pipes in air coolers is gradually becoming a de facto standard. Today, almost all well-known manufacturers of cooling systems for central processing units The lineup includes coolers built on heat pipes. Thus, systems from Gigabyte, ASUS, Scythe, CoolerMaster, etc. have already been reviewed on the site, and even the recognized aluminum guru, GlacialTech, has released Igloo 5600PWM (though so far only for LGA 775), the design of which is also based on heat pipes. In turn, the conference has created and is quite actively growing the most productive air coolers, including those based on heat pipes, where calls are constantly heard to compare all the monsters in one article, and, finally, determine the best of them. Let me make a reservation right away that such large-scale testing is not planned, but today we will introduce you to three representatives of this type cooling systems and evaluate their effectiveness in comparison with Zalman CNPS9500 LED and standard boxed cooler AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket 939).

So, today’s article will look at two representatives of the Titan company – Vanessa S-type and Vanessa L-type and one, but very large cooler from Thermaltake – Big Typhoon. In the process of describing coolers, the features of their design will be indicated, specifications and components of the delivery set, the efficiency of CPU cooling was checked and subjective assessment noise produced by cooler fans. In my opinion, the introduction is enough; it’s time to move on to the description of the first participant in today’s tests – Titan Vanessa S-type.

1. Titan Vanessa S-type (NK15TB/SC (RB))

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Today we are going to get acquainted with two new solutions in the field of cooling systems from Thermaltake and Xigmatek. The first company does not need any special introduction; our readers probably know about it. Xigmatek is a newcomer to the cooler market. Founded in 2005. Since then, this manufacturer has released a lot of interesting products aimed at cooling processors, video cards, hard drives. The range of power supplies is expanding every day. In short, the company is growing and gradually gaining a place in the market. Perhaps we will soon see their products on the shelves of Russian stores. For now, let's look at the new products.

The first is Thermaltake Big Typhoon VP, which is the reincarnation of a product that has become incredibly popular in our country. The secret of success was versatility, excellent efficiency and low price. Add to this good accessibility and you get the best choice for an overclocker. Of course, then acquiring this solution became more difficult. The excitement was felt, and Thermaltake itself began to promote new products.

As time passed, the cooler could well have been discontinued. Only now the company decided not only not to curtail the release of such a successful product, but also to begin producing its updated version. In today's material we will find out how effective the new product will be both in comparison with its competitors and with the standard version.

The second new product is Xigmatek Achilles. On this moment This is the top model in the Xigmatek product hierarchy. For quite a long time, the S1283 series coolers and solutions based on them held the supremacy in efficiency. Of which, by the way, there were several. After all, it’s no secret that there are many people who pay Special attention appearance of the product. It was for them that the manufacturer released a modification S1283 with an updated appearance: coated the heat pipes with nickel, installed more quiet fan with backlight and called it "red scorpion". New model with the name Achilles not only inherited the same modding appearance, which will certainly please aesthetes, but also received a number of changes in functionality that should significantly affect efficiency.

As a result, we essentially have two updated versions familiar coolers. Which manufacturer's new products turned out to be more successful? We will try to figure this out. For now, let's move on to our first guest - Thermaltake Big Typhoon VP.

Thermaltake Big Typhoon VP

The cooler's packaging surprises with its dimensions. Thermaltake never skimps on this aspect. Thanks to the large area of ​​the box, the manufacturer was able to apply a mass of different materials to the surface. useful information- characteristics, photographs, etc. In our opinion, the presence of such data is never superfluous.

The cooler itself is placed in a plastic cocoon - a point that makes the transportation process safer for the product.

The white box contains the cooler kit - fasteners for various platforms, installation instructions, thermal paste and a branded sticker. Overall, a standard set.

The design of Big Typhoon has not changed. We have the standard VX model. It seems to us that the company could well make adjustments, especially since there is clearly something to work on.

The radiator is cooled by a 120 mm fan, an important feature of which is the presence of a speed controller. The maximum impeller rotation speed is limited to 2000 rpm - this is a rather serious indicator. Not everyone will be comfortable using such a noisy cooler. So reducing the speed is the first thing we would advise you to do.

The only pity is that you can only use the speed controller by removing the housing cover. Otherwise, it is impossible to access it. However, it's not so scary. After all, you are not going to constantly change the fan speed. It will be enough to fix the speed once, for example, at 1300 rpm - this is a quiet mode, but does not greatly affect efficiency.

And now - about what could be changed in the "typhoon", but what remains in a form similar to the VX version.

The plates are too close to each other. This leads to poor ventilation. In a poorly ventilated case, Big Typhoon can simply “suffocate”.

Secondly, a radiator should be installed in the base, which will partially relieve the load on the heat pipes. Scythe has been using this approach for quite some time. As you know, their products do not suffer from low efficiency. In addition, the quality of the base processing was disappointing. It seems that the company alternates models with good processing and with bad ones. For quite a long time, the soles of Thermaltake coolers could scare the faint of heart; a little later, the Thermaltake V1 and MaxOrb cooling systems appeared. They no longer had such a problem. Why do we again see rough and untreated soles?

The third change could be the shortening of the heat pipes, which, in theory, could speed up the process of transferring heat from the base to the heatsink. In a word, there are enough options for improvement. Only now the company decided to leave everything as it is.

The only innovation is the inclusion of an additional fan in the design, which also operates in the range from 1300 to 2000 rpm.

It differs from the classic 120 mm Thermaltake fan in the modified shape of the blades, which should provide a lower noise level.

Attaching an additional fan is easy. True, you first need to unscrew the screws from the standard fan and remove the grille. After this, it is already possible to secure the metal platform, which, by the way, can change the angle of inclination. However, the capabilities of this function should not be overestimated. The tilt can be changed in a fairly small range - from 0 to 45 degrees. On this platform you can install fans of different sizes - from 40 mm to 120 mm, depending on your needs.

To install the fan, the kit includes two self-tapping screws. But we weren’t able to use them without the accompanying problems. Unfortunately, one of them turned out to be defective, due to its uneven thickness. As a result, it was possible to twist it only 2/3 of the length. However, we got out of this situation quite easily, deciding to screw in the self-tapping screw from below.

After that, we started installing the cooler into the case. Let us immediately note that this process is as simple as possible and fully corresponds to what we could see in the VX model. In the case of mounting on the LGA775 platform, it will be enough for us to use a metal bracket with VTMS.

By the way, you can find quite a lot of dissatisfied exclamations on the Internet about this method of fastening. All of them relate mainly to the pressing force of the cooler against the processor heat spreader. There are also concerns that the clip may not withstand the weight of the cooler (more than 800 g) and come loose during operation, which can lead to damage to both the motherboard and the video card.

However, we have a slightly different opinion on this issue. Firstly, do not be afraid of weak pressure. The most important thing is uniformity. If the base of the cooler is level, then there will be no problems. And the presence of play is characteristic of quite a few solutions, for example, Zalman products. You shouldn't attach special importance to this.

Regarding the fact that the clip may not support the weight of the cooler, we can also quite confidently say that such a probability is quite small. Such precedents are, of course, possible, but the culprit here can only be defective fasteners. Today during testing we encountered low-quality screws. It is likely that someone may receive a defective clip in their box. So be careful and carefully inspect the components of the package. In this case, the likelihood of unpleasant consequences is much less.

As you can see, without an additional fan, the new product is completely similar to the Big Typhoon VX. However, as soon as we attach this element, the cooler takes on even larger dimensions. We installed the fan directly above the video card. You might reasonably ask why not expand it so that it is, for example, above the memory. As it turned out, this is impossible. This design within our case, which by the way is far from the smallest, can only exist in one version (when we are talking about a 120 mm fan). Otherwise, it will run into something: HDD, case wall, power supply, etc. In general, only those with open stands will be able to appreciate the functionality of Big Typhoon VP. There they can deploy it in any way they want. And there will be more use from an additional fan. In the case, all this looks somehow awkward. Moreover, many video cards have turbines as cooling systems (most AMD products, and for some time - NVIDIA), such additional airflow will do little for them. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves; only testing will show the real balance of power. For now, let's move on to the next product of today's review.

Xigmatek Achilles-S1284

For a long time, Xigmatek products were supplied in colorful cardboard packaging. In our opinion, this is the most best option. The surface of the box is quite informative, and removing the cooler without damaging it is not difficult. This time the company decided to diversify its approach by wrapping the product in plastic. It looks, frankly, not very good.

The first thing I want to talk about is the equipment. The manufacturer included all the necessary fasteners, thermal paste, installation instructions and rubber clamps for installation.

Initially, the fan is located in the package separately from the cooler. Therefore, first we will talk specifically about the element designed to cool the Achilles radiator. The operating speed level is 1500 rpm. The cable is branched into four pins. There is PWM support, so you can control the rotation speed of the impeller using the motherboard. The lowest bar is 800 rpm - this mode will be an ideal choice for lovers of silence.

The fan is attached to the radiator with rubber clamps. This operation is fast and convenient. In addition, the fan is held extremely securely.

Finally, we have Xigmatek Achilles himself. In its design, it has a number of aluminum (by the way, quite thick compared to previous cooler models) plates. Four nickel-plated copper tubes, each 8 mm in diameter, pass through them. The first change that immediately catches your eye is the number of heat pipes. Xigmatek increased their number by one, which, of course, should affect the heat removal rate.

The weight of the cooler without a fan is 660 g. Accordingly, with it it exceeds 700 g. Not so little. However, you shouldn’t be surprised, because we are dealing with a super cooler.

Compared to the Red Scorpion, the radiator has a number of differences. Firstly, the profile of the plates has changed. Now they form a kind of ladder. At the same time, along the sidewalls they are bent in two rows, which avoids loss of air flow when blowing the fins. Finally, the radiator itself has changed. He became much thicker. It is likely that it will now need a more efficient fan.

As already mentioned, there are four heat pipes. While studying the products of Xigmatek, we noticed quite a long time ago that the company relies not on quantity, but on the total removal area. The diameter of each tube is 8 mm.

Heat-Pipe Direct Touch is a proprietary technology that allows heat pipes to directly contact the processor. This is the method used in the Xigmatek Achilles cooler. At the moment, all Xigamatek solutions designed for cooling processors work on this principle.

Overall, it justifies itself. After all, we do not have a loss of efficiency due to the absence of such a thermal intermediary as the sole. The heat is immediately transferred to the tubes, which are transferred to the radiator, where it is dissipated. However, this method also has a theoretical drawback - the likelihood of local overheating in the area of ​​“dead zones”, i.e. in places where the sole does not come into contact with the processor. However, this shortcoming cannot be called anything other than theoretical, because in practice, products operating on this principle usually show excellent results.

At the base, the heat pipes are flattened and aligned. Only the manufacturer apparently forgot about polishing. The quality in this aspect is clearly poor. You can see it without even taking it off protective film. But such flaws can seriously affect efficiency.

Installation on the LGA775 platform is extremely simple. To do this, just take two VTMS mounting clips and screw them to the base of the cooler. You can then safely place the cooling system into the case. In this case, there is no need to remove the motherboard. By the way, it is not required for AMD platforms either. To secure it, a metal swing bracket is used, which clings to a standard mounting frame. I am very pleased that Xigmatek is trying to simplify the installation process for the user as much as possible. It is also important that, along with simplicity, the fasteners also differ in quality. The pressure is quite strong, there are no problems with uniformity either.

True, there are complaints about VTMS clips. This is not the first time we have encountered this problem. It is present in almost all products from Xigmatek. The gist of it is that the clips are too rigid, so sometimes it is very difficult to snap them into place. If you do this, for example, on an open bench, you can see how seriously the motherboard bends. If we were the company, we would pay attention to this. The main thing in the pressure is uniformity. You should not press the cooler like a vice into the motherboard. Moreover, the cooling system has serious weight indicators.

Xigmatek Achilles installed. During operation, it can please the user with a pleasant backlight that combines orange and white. At night it looks great. Surely, for lovers of spectacular coolers, this will be a pleasant addition.

So, the product inspection is complete. It's time to move on to the most important thing - testing. However, first we will tell you how the testing process works.

Test bench and testing

Testing methodology

Any research would be unthinkable without strict compliance with the list of rules that must be followed when testing any cooling systems for processors. So, list of main provisions of the testing methodology:

All testing of air cooling systems is carried out in a normal room, without the use of a heating cabinet, which brings the results as close as possible to what most users might experience. Testing can be carried out both using an open stand and in a housing. In this case, the relevant information is present in the graphs with the results.

The basis for any comparison is the similarity of conditions. Therefore, cooler testing is always carried out on the same day, because... the next day the room temperature may change significantly. In addition, testing begins only after the system has warmed up for a sufficiently long time and the room temperature has completely stabilized. After this, the doors and windows no longer open, which ensures stable conditions.

Before the main heating program starts, the cooler warms up in the system for some time. Only after this operation is completed can testing begin. The basis for the results is the maximum temperature that was reached during heating. After this, the load stops and the system is in an idle state. Only upon reaching a stable minimum temperature is this indicator removed.

All data on processor temperature indicators are taken from the corresponding motherboard sensor. Many test studies carried out clearly show that this method can be trusted, since the displayed values ​​are quite close to the real ones. The test motherboard used is a product from ASUS, model P5B-Deluxe. Information about this board is also included in the test bench configuration described above.

The second source of information for us is special thermocouples. There are two of them used in the system. One is responsible for displaying information about the temperature in the case. This is very important, because we must be aware of any fluctuations in testing conditions and try to maintain them at the same level. The second thermocouple is installed on one of the capacitors of the motherboard power supply system. Experiments have shown that all capacitors have similar temperatures, so displaying information about at least one of them is quite enough to find out the level of cooling efficiency of the area near the socket.

It's no secret that most manufacturers include branded thermal interfaces with their products. They often have a decent level of quality and, accordingly, in practice can make it possible to achieve excellent level efficiency, however, to compare coolers we always use one specific thermal interface. Previously, such thermal paste was a domestic product produced by Khimtek - KPT-8. However, test studies have shown that the use of this thermal interface does not allow us to judge the effectiveness of a particular product as objectively as possible. Therefore, at the moment we are using thermal paste from Arctic Cooling - MX-2.

Research also shows that many thermal interfaces may change properties over time. Thus, performance can either improve or deteriorate. To ensure that such changes do not affect the compared performance of different coolers, during any manipulation with the cooler (change of platform during testing: transition from an open bench to a version using a case), the thermal interface is applied again. This leads to the fact that during testing of all cooling systems, the thermal interface remains fresh and, therefore, has the same properties. In addition, the removal of thermal paste is carried out using alcohol, which leads to a complete cleansing of the processor cover. In this way, a greater “purity” of comparison is achieved.

Another point that can affect the fairness of product comparisons is that different manufacturers use different fans for their products. Accordingly, these fans may differ not only in efficiency levels, but also in noise levels. Thus, to equalize the conditions, we use several testing modes for certain coolers. Typically, when using a product at a speed level in the range of 1300 to 2000 rpm, we test the first and second cases. If, even at minimum speeds, a given product turns out to be objectively noisier than analogues at comparable speeds, then the speed level is found at which the noise level will be comparable to analogues. In this case, the cooler will be tested not in two, but in three modes. Namely - at the quietest speed level found, at 1300 rpm and at 2000 rpm. Of course, there are certain exceptions when a particular study requires a more extensive study. In this case, other modes can be used. In some cases, on the contrary, we use only one mode. However, conclusions about the cooler are based on the combination of noise and efficiency.

The case described above applies to coolers whose design does not allow changing the fan. However, many tower coolers, as well as other solutions, make it quite easy to change the fan on them. Therefore, we can often install more efficient fans. In addition, if the cooler design allows the installation of two fans, this manipulation is also carried out. However, depending on the nature of the testing and the number of participants, the theses described above may be slightly adjusted within the framework of a particular study.

The utility used to heat up processors has been changing for some time. The main reason for this was that over time, programs were released that could heat processors much more efficiently than their predecessors. Of course, in this case, our choice during testing fell on them. We currently use several utilities. For processors manufactured by Intel, in particular the Core generation, the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool utility is used.

According to our observations, this program manages to create the most atypical level of heating, which allows certain products to develop to a greater extent. In this case, the mode of loading both processor cores at 100% is used. For now latest version utilities - 2.05.

However for AMD processors it is necessary to use another heating tool, and therefore the now classic S&M utility is ideal. It provides high-quality heating, atypical for any other utilities. In addition, it has a number of other useful functions, among which the most important for us is the display of information about temperature, including on a real-time graph. Currently the utility version is 1.9.0a.

* The provisions of the methodology described above relate only to testing cooling systems for processors. In the case of other cooling systems, appropriate rules and research tools are used.

Test results

Today, a non-standard solution is taking part in the study - Big Typhoon VP. Therefore, in order to comprehensively study this product, while simultaneously comparing it with analogues, we took data on three parameters: the temperature of the processor, motherboard batteries and video card video chip.

The results were quite controversial. The reason for this is the incredible density. It is difficult to talk about winners, to put it mildly. We can consider Xigmatek Achilles to be the nominal leader. This cooler was able to surpass Big Typhoon VX with an advantage of 0.2 degrees. But you understand, all this is measurement error. In fact, all products showed almost equal levels of effectiveness. However, here another point comes into force - the level of revolutions. The “Winner” is much quieter than the Typhoon, which is seriously noisy at 2000 rpm. But when the impeller rotation speed is reduced to 1300 rpm, the Thermaltake product becomes a relative outsider. Why relative? Because 4 degrees is not a critical lag. If we talk about the confrontation between the two Typhoons, then there is a draw, which is to be expected. Of course, theoretically, an additional fan could reduce the temperature in the case itself and thereby help itself. But that did not happen. We have an absolutely identical level of efficiency. The difference is within the margin of error.

Finally, let's look at Achilles' results again. Yes, of course, this solution can well be considered a winner, given the speed level and relatively quiet operating mode. However, note that the advantage over the “Red Scorpion” is some 1.5 degrees. This is quite strange, because... The new product has a redesigned radiator and added a heat pipe, and given its diameter, this should have given a decent bonus in efficiency. What is the reason? And the reason turned out to be on the surface. After the test, we examined the base of the cooler, in particular, the imprint of the paste on the processor and tubes, and noticed that one of them had almost no contact with the heat spreader. In other words, only three heat pipes were fully operational. The fourth performed its function with large losses in efficiency. As a result, it is easy to understand why the new product failed to clearly establish itself as a leader. Is this a special case, or does other instances have this problem? It’s hard to say, after all, this is one of the first copies of the cooler. Manufacturers often make such mistakes. We will not fail to report this problem to Xigmatek so that engineers will pay attention to this aspect.

Now let's see how the coolers performed in terms of cooling the board elements. Here Achilles finds himself an outsider. This is explained simply. The radiator has become noticeably thicker compared to previous models. Air passes through it with difficulty, and, accordingly, blowing the board is seriously hampered. Hence the loss not only to coolers from Thermaltake, but also to the previous model - S1283.

Typhoons did not show anything special. They have been saying for a long time that the excellent airflow around the socket area with this cooler is a myth. Look at him, he has a very serious height. Now try to place your hand in the area of ​​the board elements while working. You are unlikely to feel any serious airflow. Of course, there is some advantage compared to some tower-type products, especially when compared to the massive Scythe Mugen. However, compact towers like the Xigmatek S1283 are not inferior in cooling the area around the processor.

Finally, let's turn our attention to the chip temperature graph Radeon video cards 3870 X2. We used this particular map for a reason. It has serious heat dissipation. Additional airflow obviously wouldn't hurt her. However, a turbine is responsible for its cooling, drawing cold air in the area hard drive. It's not hard to understand that a fan located somewhere in the middle of the card's cooling system will do almost nothing. Unless the PCB temperature drops a little. Unfortunately, Riva Tuner does not display such information, and we had to be content with the temperature indicators of the GPU board. As you can see, the difference is small, however, keep in mind that the card worked in idle mode at minimum turbine speed.

As a result, an additional element in the form of a fan provides a small increase in airflow efficiency. Of course, in the case of a different video card, everything could be different. However, wouldn't it be easier to take advantage of the standard capabilities of the case itself by using fan pads? This, in our opinion, will be quite sufficient. Thermaltake clearly rushed to release the new product, overestimating its potential. At the moment, Big Typhoon VX is sold at a not-so-low price. It will not be a surprise if the VP modification seriously surpasses it in this regard. But why would it be needed even at a higher price, when it is no different?

Conclusion

The new items left a very mixed impression. Let's face it, manufacturers should have thought twice before releasing these. On the one hand, they are, of course, highly effective. In this regard, Achilles and the updated Typhoon can give a head start to many products from third-party companies. The only catch is that their predecessors had the same abilities. This is especially true for Big Typhoon VP. This decision frankly disappointing. The efficiency is no different from the standard version, and the dimensions of the cooler are downright indecent. Xigmatek Achilles also makes you happy and sad at the same time. It certainly contains interesting ideas. This applies to both the four heat pipes and the redesigned radiator. However, mistakes in quality (in this case this applies to our copy) did not allow the new product to be fully revealed. As a result, we have a minimal advantage over the previous model - Xigmatek S1283. So the result is this:

Thermaltake Big Typhoon VP- in general, a good product that has good efficiency and versatility in installation on various platforms. However, there are no advantages over the VX version, so there is no particular point in purchasing the VP modification.

Xigmatek Achilles-S1284- certainly an interesting solution. The company's engineers designed a fairly well-thought-out design of the radiator, including four copper heat pipes with a diameter of 8 mm each. In addition, the cooler has a pleasant appearance, thanks to the presence of nickel in the coating of the tubes and the installation of an impressive backlit fan. In a word, a real supercooler. However, the workmanship was not enough to realize its full potential. One of the tubes had almost no contact with the base, which seriously affected the efficiency. In addition, the quality of the polishing of the sole was disappointing. In general, the company has something to work on, otherwise a champion will emerge with an Achilles heel.