Petra's Mini Heatsink Roundup (TRUE, IFX-14, Orochi, Ninja, and Cu Ninja)

[JaYp146]

+1 request for some additions ... Xigmatek's HDT-S1284 and HDT-S1283 models, specifically.

[gundamit]

Can't rely on the IFX-14 compatibility chart ... at least in regard to their listing of the Gigabyte 965P-DS3. Doesn't seem "okay" with the number of issues Petra mentioned.

[Petra]

any cooler with the plastic intel mounts, can be bolted down easily. use the backplate and bolts (loose the top plate) from the thermalright kit.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/thlgbo.html

it fits perfectly.

While that may be the case, then I would be testing a "modified" heatsink against unmodified heatsinks and it would no longer provide as as close a representation of what the average user can expect out of the box (kinda like how lapping some heatsinks may help them perform better but it isn't entirely appropriate to compare unless you're lapping all of them).

Can't rely on the IFX-14 compatibility chart ... at least in regard to their listing of the Gigabyte 965P-DS3. Doesn't seem "okay" with the number of issues Petra mentioned.

Considering the compatibility issues that people have run into with the HR-09 MOSFET coolers (hence the the dig about the HR-09's at the end of the article), this isn't surprising at all.

[itznfb]

While that may be the case, then I would be testing a "modified" heatsink against unmodified heatsinks and it would no longer provide as as close a representation of what the average user can expect out of the box (kinda like how lapping some heatsinks may help them perform better but it isn't entirely appropriate to compare unless you're lapping all of them).

good point. it'd be nice to see a roundup of modified coolers. such as modded mounting, lapping, multiple fans, modded fins and things like that. no i'm not asking you to do this.. i know you don't have time

[Digz]

@ petra

Did the stock fan on the Orochi moved enough air to keep the northbridge cool as you cant fit an after market cooler like the HR-05 with that due to it's size

[STEvil]

Please continue bashing push-pins, they deserve it!!

[Digz]

Petra ?

[Kosior]

and what about the IFX 14 WITHOUT that small, tiny radiator mounted on the backside ? Is it still performance leader? cuz I've seen a review without it and it was worse than TRUE.... Could you Petra confirm it ?

[Vapor]

It makes such a tiny difference.

The only reason my review showed it to be better was because when I installed the backside cooler, I also modded the mount for much higher pressure

[Kosior]

@ petra

Did the stock fan on the Orochi moved enough air to keep the northbridge cool as you cant fit an after market cooler like the HR-05 with that due to it's size

So maybe taking just the heatpipes from HR-05 and putting them inside the OROCHI could help ?

It makes such a tiny difference.

The only reason my review showed it to be better was because when I installed the backside cooler, I also modded the mount for much higher pressure

Aha so you Vapor did the mod.... but what about Petra? Was it just an out of box one ?

According to this: http://www.frazpc.pl/artykuly/587/Ro...EME/oraz/IFX14

The IFX is alot worse than TRUE.... The only difference is - if I'm correct - lack of that small backside cooler

so... where could be the problem ?:>

Also - what about mounting 3 fans on IFX ? would it give an enormous difference or not?

[Petra]

@ petra

Did the stock fan on the Orochi moved enough air to keep the northbridge cool as you cant fit an after market cooler like the HR-05 with that due to it's size

Unfortunately, that's not something that I was paying any attention to (also note that I didn't test the Orochi with the stock fan).

and what about the IFX 14 WITHOUT that small, tiny radiator mounted on the backside ? Is it still performance leader? cuz I've seen a review without it and it was worse than TRUE.... Could you Petra confirm it ?

If you look at the chart, I tested the IFX-14 with and without the backside cooler in place. The backside cooler did help a bit, but the IFX-14 still performed better then the TRUE even without it.

[Clue69Less]

The IFX is alot worse than TRUE.... The only difference is - if I'm correct - lack of that small backside cooler

so... where could be the problem ?:>

Also - what about mounting 3 fans on IFX ? would it give an enormous difference or not?

I've been comparing the IFX with and without the backside HS to the TRUE ever since the IFX was released. I've tested open bench and in two different cases. Many cases are too cramped to fit the backside HS. I compared them in a full sized Armor that is equipped with the 25cm side door fan and also in a Lian Li PC60B PlusII.

The PC60B is not the best breathing case out there by any means. It does have a 12cm front inlet fan and a 12cm inlet in the side door but the exhausts are just 8cm fans on the back and out the blowhole. With the case fans in the stock configuration, the TRUE and IFX had almost identical performance, and different fan configurations on the IFX had little effect. The Zalman 9700 was at most 1C warmer than the TRUE and IFX in the PC60B with the fans set up stock and often the temps were identical. That made me think that the case airflow was masking the performance differences between the HSFs. So I took the front fan and flipped it around to an exhaust, used a Scythe Kama Bay to add another 12cm front exhaust and put in a higher flow side door intake fan. That dropped temps for all HSFs by 3 to 5C under load. With the IFX set up with fans in pull/pull orientation, it outperformed the TRUE by 1-2C and the 9700 by 2-3C.

The above led me to pull the guts of my image server that lived in the Armor. My Armor has two Icages and therefore two 12cm front intake fans. It also has a 12cm rear exhaust, a 9cm rear exhast and a 9cm blowhole fan in addition to the 25cm side door fan. After checking all of the fan cfm specs, I flipped the two front fans around so they would be exhausts, mirroring what I'd done on the PC60B. It worked great. The mobo, GPU, NB and CPU temps all went down by ~5C below the lowest PC60B temps. The gap between the TRUE and the IFX widened but the 9700 got closer to the TRUE. Without the rear IFX HS, the IFX was 1 to 3C cooler than the TRUE and the 9700. With the backside cooler on, the gap was 2 to 3C. Again, I ran the IFX in pull/pull and I think that works well with a side door fan that pumps air into the gap between the two TS towers.

So I yanked the rig back out of the Armor and compared the three HSFs on open bench. If I just used the fans that were on the HSFs, the temps were equal to or 1C higher than those in the Armor with the same ambients. That was surprising but maybe it means that the Armor exhaust fans and the big door fan really add to the HS airflow picture. So I put a four high flow 12cm fans around the CPU HSFs and they brought the open bench temps down to where they beat the Armor results. Still though, the IFX had an ~2C advantage over the TRUE and 9700.

My first comparisons were done on a DFI 3200CFX with a S939 Opteron 185 running at 3GHz. But most were on an Asus Blitz Formula with a Q6700 at 3.4GHz with no water on the NB Fusion block.

[Digz]

@ petra

Thanks

what do you think of modern aircooling against watercooling for those that don't overclock and are after silence ?

[Kosior]

@Clue69LAnd

what about 3 fans - one pushing, one between the two towers and one pulling ??

@ petra

Thanks

what do you think of modern aircooling against watercooling for those that don't overclock and are after silence ?

If you don't overclock you can go passive with let's say Ninja Copper - it will handle even quad cores but you won't be able to overclock them unless you have good airflow in your case... But as long as you don't want to oc - I'd go aircooling... Even if you'll mount 1 or 2 low cfm fans on a radiator in a warer cooling rig they won't be quieter than the same fans on the aircooling heatsink + in wc there's another source of noise - the pump.

I personally wanted to go WC just for silence but I've given it up. Now I have Accelero S1 with SilverStone FN121 fan, Scythe Zipang with stock 140mm fan which is almost silent + 2xFN121 as intake and exhaust.... The case is virtually silent. I can bearly hear it while sleeping just next to it.

[Clue69Less]

what do you think of modern aircooling against watercooling for those that don't overclock and are after silence ?

I'd never use water unless it was really needed, such as for OC'ing. There's too many things that can go wrong with a WC loop. Pure passive cooling for low heat load systems does work and if you can tolerate one or two quiet fans, performance is excellent.

@Clue69LAnd

what about 3 fans - one pushing, one between the two towers and one pulling ??

I can bearly hear it while sleeping just next to it.

I tied that 3 fan route and it was a degree warmer than pull/pull. I'm using 38mm fans and they move quite a bit of air. I'm guessing that the advantage of pull/pull is that both HS towers get cool air on their inlet side. If you use a fan in the middle of the towers, one of them will be working with preheated air. I also tried push/push with the case door fan turned around to exhaust and it didn't work as well.

Sleeping right next to it? That sounds kinky!

[Exedy]

Nice review

Good coolers...i love my ultra-x anyway

[Petra]

@ petra

Thanks

what do you think of modern aircooling against watercooling for those that don't overclock and are after silence ?

If you aren't really overclocking and are purely after silence, then water cooling just doesn't make sense. Where water cooling shines is in providing a reasonably quiet system that can handle the heat of heavy overclocking.

[Digz]

@ Kosior , Clue69Less , petra

Thanks


@ petra

Shame it costs so much to ship too the UK as i see you have the Orochi on a great sale price


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[RealTelstar]

+1 to sticky