Quote Originally Posted by halfwaythere View Post
I guess its kind of bad if it can't beat the 212+ more convincingly with a higher rpm fan. I know hdt heatsinks are supposed to be cheaper to manufacture but its been proven many times that a solid base one is better.
Convincingly ?

Let's discard stock speed tests for now, since the small thermal load can't really create any significant differences between all these high end coolers.

Look at the O/C results:

According to the Overclockers online article, the Polaris beat the 212+ by 3 Degrees C (i5 @ 3.9 Ghz and 1.4v), and according to the Tweaktown article, it beat it by 5 Degrees C. In my book, anything in this range is more than convincing.

This being said, I do not believe in all honesty that comparing the Polaris 120 to the 212+ is fair to the 212+. The 212+ is a 4 heatpipe design, whereas the Polaris is a 5 heatpipe design.

I am only arguing on the word "convincingly" in an attempt to put things into a different prospective: in effect, in our thermal management world once a product reaches the top performance of a given class, the differences in Degrees C become in fact quite small. So in order to attract the attention of the buyers, we have to offer more than just performance: price, looks, convenience, mounting, etc etc.. It becomes a complete package.

The goal for the Polaris was clear, and let me restate it: "The lead concept for this product is value: packing the maximum performance and broadest range of utilizations in an affordable yet qualitative offering"

Did we succeed? Time only will tell. So far, the Media verdict is encouraging, but ultimately, only users like you will make a difference in terms of how succesful the product really is.

Be

BTW, don't feel bad about my argument. When I firt looked at the non O/C results on the overclockers online article, I also saw that the difference was only 1C, and that is non-convincing indeed. What it means is that if you don't overclock, you really don't need a Polaris class cooler