Heatsink Roundup Q3 2006
 

These heatsinks are multi platform, so while I'm testing them yer old Athlon 64 setup, results should go over nicely to the new Core 2 and AM2.

here's the list of heatsinks which will be included in the test:

- Silverstone NT06
- Zalman CNPS8000
- Titan Amanda TEC Cooling
- Asus Silent Square
- Scythe Infinity
- Thermalright Ultra-90
- Thermalright Ultra-120

the Zalman CNPS8000 I consider testing in a small Antec Aria case, as it meant for HTPC/Barebone use.

Can we get some passive testing too?


Wondering how the 1 kilo monster from Scythe does and how easy to install it is.

that's the plan, much like I did here: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...&articID= 406

are u still testing?

what do you think? ;)

http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=483
http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=487

finished testing Ultra-90, review out soon, next up.. Ultra-120

ultra-120 is very nice but even more nice is the scythe infinity where i'm waiting on but take your time :p

If I never take time, I will never have time ;)

hello everyone at madshrimps, love this site!
cant wait to see these heatsinks tested:)
im about to buy the ultra 120 - just waiting for it to be released here (australia). ive picked up a asus p5b MB and i think ive just got enough clearance on my lian li V1000 to fit the ultra 120- that devider that sits between the PS and the bottom of the MB is a pain. ive got a small case mod (based around a tower cooler) coming up that ill post in the forums soon.

.

:hello: and welcome to the forums; any high end heatsink will offer you performance far superior to the stock cooling when it comes down to noise/performance ratio; the Ultra-120 takes 120mm fans so you're in for the silent treatment! (unless you put a Delta 120mm spinner on there:p)

Testing some fancy JS script:)

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ultra 120 will probably the winner of the test as another site has testes the scythe infinity already and it's even worse than there own ninja plus. And in the past the ultra 120 performed better on the same site than the ninja. Well we'll find it out soon because Q3 is almost finished :d

early impressions is that the ultra 120 rocks- though i am still testing it.
tested in my case (lian li v1000) compared to the stock intel E6600 HS well i did manage to get 12c better using the ADDA AD1212LB-A73GL and 15c lower than stock HS with the panaflo 120mm med BX. with the nexus fan the cpu temp is around 4c higher than the ADDA fan(still testing it though)
i have to say it works better when the MB is flat and the cooler points upwards.
in that setup with a panaflo med speed its 16c better than the stock HS running prime95(but that fan to my taste is too noisy). the ultra 120 does increase the fan noise a fair bit. ill have some pics coming up soon.

cool I almost can't wait :p

also one thing that i should say is that the ultra 120 doesnt work the way you would think it does, meaning that the fan doesnt push air through and past it as much - a lot of air gets pushed up and out through the top of it(the top meaning if the heatsink was facing upward), i thought it was coming out of those 8 little holes it has on top but i just discovered thats not the case. when i placed a bit of cardboard accross the top of the fan and heat sink(leaving the little holes still open) no air was coming out of them holes! so i put my hand around the back and the air flow through the ultra 120 has increased slightly. im going to test this to see if placing something over the top of this(to stop the air passing over it) unit makes any difference to the temps.

placing cardboard across the top of the fan and HS makes no difference to the temp, i found that having the top of the fan level with the top of the HS makes about 1c difference. so that any overhang on the fan (120mm fan is taller than the fins part of this HS) should be on the bottom (toward the MB)intead of the top.

you are indeed right but despite that it's still one of if not the best cpu aircooler arround i think. First i thought the scythe infinity would be but we're all find out in the roundup of madshrimps :d :d

oh dont get me wrong i love the ultra 120. its way better than the stock HS. its so versatile too, i think it has a sweet spot on fan speed/performance, ive ordered a some ulow, low and med speed adda fans that im going to test with it soon.

2 days for the roundup from now :D

still nothing :(

FYI, I was on Holiday past several weeks, I'm back at work since today.

Ultra-120 review out very soon, rest to follow shortly after.

can you name that site? :)

that site was silentpcreview
her's the link to the review of the scythe infinity that lost from the scythe ninja plus:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article658-page4.html

first sentence of final conclusion:
The Infinity is big enough to cool just about anything, even with low airflow. Even if it cannot beat our Ninja or Thermalright Ultra-120 samples, it's still a very good heatsink.

they also mentioned that it could be possible that they have an extremely good version of the ninja plus as they learned this can be possible from earlier reviews or something like that.

and here's the review of the ultra 120 that beats the scythe ninja plus:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article646-page3.html

all what mathers for me is that madshrimps and silentpcreview both have the same thoughts about which are the best coolers else I can not make a good decision which cooler i have to buy because i don't know which website to believe :p
Because it really isn't simple. Some forums say scythe infinity will be the best aircooler of the year, silentpcreview says it's worse than ultra-120 and ninja plus, on other forums they claim that ninja plus will still be the best aircooler around, some say tuniq tower is the best ever even with its unpolished contact with the processor ...
and then you have the sites that review the coolers without comparissing them which certainly will not give me a good view of what the coolers are capable of. But ofcourse i trust madshrimps more because this is a very popular site and i'm from belgium too :D

i've read the ultra 120 review and it seems that the ultra 120 doesn't perform very well with high temperatures.

Tuniq tower 120 is still the bests it seems. Just waiting if scythe infinity is really that bad compared to tuniq tower as it isn't compared before on any other site :)

SPCR setup is quite different, no case, and lower heat output CPU.

if you compare my results with the A64 at stock speeds they are more on par with SPCR results, only when overclocked does the Ultra-120 start to trail.

@ jmke: I want a NT06 cooler for my SG01 but according to the website of SilverStone the cooler doesn't support AM2. Although I've read your article that says that this cooler supports AM2 since july/august. Can you give me more information about this? I've send a mail to SilverStone this week but didn't receive an answer (yet). I also contacted a shop that sells the NT06 and they've checked it and they say it doesn't support AM2.
I really hope this cooler does support AM2 because I cannot find a C2D-compatible mATX board that I really like. So it's back to AMD for me ;) I know it's a bit strange to choose a cooler first instead of a CPU/MB but the NT06 is perfect for my SG01.

since you only emailed SS this week, I'd say to hold on for a few more days before making a decision, what you read in the AM2 compatibility is the info I got from SS, they've got a bracket ready, that you can use to make the NT06 fit on AM2.

I'm testing the NT06 this week, it has a bolt through the mobo mounting system for S939/S754

I hope it fits. I would like to go back to my "old love" abit, they made a nice mATX AM2 board.
And the NT06/SG01 combo is really nice for "passive" cooling:

I tried it with a XP-120 (before SilverStone release their NT06) but the CPU got really hot. Too much space between PSU and CPU cooler :) If I get an answer from SilverStone, I'll post it here if you're interested.

current TO DO list:

- Asus Silent Square
- Scythe Infinity
- TTIC NPH-BIG
- TTIC NPH-1 (updated version)
- Zalman CNPS9700CU
- Zalman CNPS8000 (to be tested in different small form factor case)

the NT06 is slightly higher than the XP-120, so it should work better, the SI-120 is too high most likely

I got answer from SilverStone last thursday:
So the bracket still needs to be ordered separately.

it's also a drawback "-" point in my review

- Scythe Infinity next!

Today I also received a mail from Taiwan:
I can't remember sending a mail to Taiwan :) Anyway, now they say the NT06 with AM2 bracket included is already available. Strange, dunno who's right. I ordered the NT06 so I will find this out very soon.

Nice review, btw! But I don't understand how it's possible to orientate the cooler in 4 different directions.

you can remove the brackets which are on the NT06 and place them in such a way to make the NT06 change orientation; it's do-able, but less easy than then the standard install

do you also review the brand new zalman cnps 9700 which costs 65 euro's :o ???

it's in my list ;)

Oh, okay! Thanks :)

cool scythe infinity is next and zalman cnps 9700 will also be reviewed.
What about the tuniq tower that was promised to be reviewed as well? or will you take the results from the other roundup? if yes, is the setup similar as also room temperatures so the roundup will be completely trustable?

I already review the Tuniq 120, test setup hasn't changed since last year december;)

offtopic: can you also ask liquid3d to make a roundup of cpu waterblocks and vga waterblocks on a same setup and each block tested with high flow and lower flow?

he's ahead of you, I'm editing a CPU block test with different radiators & flow atm.

yet keeping a dedicated setup just for testing one category of hardware is not something everybody can/will do. You need the space & the money. this is still just a hobby, with no $$ earned.