Regarding the new seven heatpipe tower coolers!

[AusWolf]

So you are saying looks is more important than performance?

Nah, I'm saying there needs to be a balance, especially behind a transparent side panel.

 

[GordonFreemanInTheFlesh]

Nah, I'm saying there needs to be a balance, especially behind a transparent side panel.

I despise glass side bonnets
I like stealthy builds and older retro looking cases, it's kind of infuriating how it's almost impossible to find cases without glass fronts or sides totally impractical and restrictive.

 

[tabascosauz]

Well It looks like Thermalright offers their Phantom Spirit 120 se for around 40€ and it does beat the old NHD-15 also Cooler Master dropped another 8 heatpipe cooler which again beat the NH-D15 by a couple degrees!!

Edit: I'm happy we are finally getting some competition on affordability of high end air coolers and stopping Noctua's "Monopoly" .

Right now there's not a lot of reason to get any of the Noctua dual towers but they do offer offset brackets. No one else does for air cooling, still waiting for them to play catch up. No, I still wouldn't ditch my FC140 just for those brackets, but they would be nice to have.

I basically disregard most of the Ryzen "temp testing" data from Youtubers and reviewers these days. The coolers are all neck and neck and it's not hard at all to intentionally skew results with a crappier paste application and less care during mounting (ie. no attention paid to even mounting pressure between sides), just goes to show how variable these things are on Ryzen.

The Masterair doesn't impress at all. Frigging huge, the top cover plate is wonky and ugly as hell, performance nothing to sneeze at for its stupid size, and the price tag is the cherry on top. 165mm and 1.6kg!! Noise normalizing against the NF-A14/15, you may as well have noise normalized against a jet engine. They have the right idea though; we gotta have bigger coldplates. The coldplates on that thing is massive and looks like it could belong on dedicated TR/Xeon products. LGA1700 owners probably will be most happy with the MA824.

You aren’t missing anything, PA120 is better. I have a black Rev.4..

My favourite TR cooler right now is the baby Phantom Spirit. It’s smaller than PA120 but stronger than FC140. Quite impressive.

Was this after or before T30 fan swap? T30 does lose a bit of performance on the FC140 compared to a middle 140mm.

Phanteks where's my 140????

 

[freeagent]

Was this after or before T30 fan swap? T30 does lose a bit of performance on the FC140 compared to a middle 140mm.

This was before, I tried a A14 3K and T30 on FC140 and even with the stock rainbow fans on PS120SE it was doing better, those 4th Gen heatpipes are wicked good.

 

[tabascosauz]

This was before, I tried a A14 3K and T30 on FC140 and even with the stock rainbow fans on PS120SE it was doing better, those 4th Gen heatpipes are wicked good.

omg stop filling up my amazon cart with ideas yo

I was gonna get a second FC140 in white since they're out now. PS120SE is a bit un-aesthetic for my tastes, looking at it from the side

 

[freeagent]

omg stop filling up my amazon cart with ideas yo

I was gonna get a second FC140 in white since they're out now. PS120SE is a bit un-aesthetic for my tastes, looking at it from the side

PS120SE is a tiny cooler, smaller than a PA120SE FC140 in White looks great! I guess my computer is like my Barbie.. I like to dress it up differently when I get bored with it

I am waiting for a larger PS120, without the SE.. just so my front fan doesn't look so ginormous

 

[delshay]

it would be interesting if Noctua did direct touch heatpipe cooler.

 

[tabascosauz]

PS120SE is a tiny cooler, smaller than a PA120SE FC140 in White looks great! I guess my computer is like my Barbie.. I like to dress it up differently when I get bored with it

I am waiting for a larger PS120, without the SE.. just so my front fan doesn't look so ginormous

The more reviews I watch, the less I am convinced that any cooler is better than any other cooler really want to like HW Canucks cooler testing but their testing results are almost always curiously mixed up compared to most others I watch. They have the FS140 not only stomping the FC140 but every other cooler in the list; a quick look anywhere else (mostly Asian reviews since TR is popular over there) and the FC140 rolls all over the FS140 by an equally large gap..........

Another roundup review I saw recently had D12L thrashing the D15

I'm inclined to blame the noise normalized testing - everyone has different equipment and tries to pretend that they're the most scientific. Just show me what they can do as they are, if they're too loud I'll just swap the fans myself ffs

 

[freeagent]

The more reviews I watch, the less I am convinced that any cooler is better than any other cooler really want to like HW Canucks cooler testing but their testing results are almost always curiously mixed up compared to most others I watch. They have the FS140 not only stomping the FC140 but every other cooler in the list; a quick look anywhere else (mostly Asian reviews since TR is popular over there) and the FC140 rolls all over the FS140 by an equally large gap..........

Another roundup review I saw recently had D12L thrashing the D15

I'm inclined to blame the noise normalized testing - everyone has different equipment and tries to pretend that they're the most scientific. Just show me what they can do as they are, if they're too loud I'll just swap the fans myself ffs

I don't even know what to say about some of their results. Very peculiar.. I could say with great certainty that both of my FC140s are not only stronger, but much stronger than my PA120SE.. crazy stuff.

 

[joemama]

it would be interesting if Noctua did direct touch heatpipe cooler.

I don't think direct touch heatpipes are a good design looking from the GPUs, it seems that they just don't work that well as we imagined

 

[eidairaman1]

I don't think direct touch heatpipes are a good design looking from the GPUs, it seems that they just don't work that well as we imagined

Xigmatek tried it, i prefer heatpipes brazed to a block like my cooler

 

[freeagent]

When you mill them down you are removing surface area. So whatever the pipe was rated for before is gone out the window when they took the lazy way out.

 

[sLowEnd]

I don't think direct touch heatpipes are a good design looking from the GPUs, it seems that they just don't work that well as we imagined

GPUs are different than CPUs in that most GPUs don't have a heatspreader like most CPUs do.

 

[tabascosauz]

GPUs are different than CPUs in that most GPUs don't have a heatspreader like most CPUs do.

I'm pretty sure direct touch has never worked out well on performance regardless of whether you're cooling direct die or IHS.

Companies like CM can brag all they want about how good their heatpipe grinding tolerances are; fact is GPUs, laptops (where all are direct die) and IHS CPUs have all moved to some form of coldplate contact unless they are low end enough to warrant cost-cutting like direct heatpipe contact (ie. box coolers and low end low TDP GPUs).

 

[eidairaman1]

I'm pretty sure direct touch has never worked out well on performance regardless of whether you're cooling direct die or IHS.

Companies like CM can brag all they want about how good their heatpipe grinding tolerances are; fact is GPUs, laptops (where all are direct die) and IHS CPUs have all moved to some form of coldplate contact unless they are low end enough to warrant cost-cutting like direct heatpipe contact (ie. box coolers and low end low TDP GPUs).

Issue is unevenness in the heatpipes

 

[freeagent]

Issue is unevenness in the heatpipes

Indeed.. it is hard to mill a spring flat, and if they are using a mill, you are seeing the deflection. Boooo.

 

[sLowEnd]

I'm pretty sure direct touch has never worked out well on performance regardless of whether you're cooling direct die or IHS.

Companies like CM can brag all they want about how good their heatpipe grinding tolerances are; fact is GPUs, laptops (where all are direct die) and IHS CPUs have all moved to some form of coldplate contact unless they are low end enough to warrant cost-cutting like direct heatpipe contact (ie. box coolers and low end low TDP GPUs).

Nah, some direct touch coolers like the Xigmatek HDT-S1283, Sunbeam CCF, and Hyper 212 worked well and were popular during the LGA775/1366/1156 days

 

[tabascosauz]

Nah, some direct touch coolers like the Xigmatek HDT-S1283, Sunbeam CCF, and Hyper 212 worked well and were popular during the LGA775/1366/1156 days

Indeed, and I don't dispute that, but it's not 2011 anymore.

If there was any real performance advantage (or even if they were just competitive) over modern cooler coldplates in any of those 3 applications, it would be used not just in the most bargain basement products.

Actually, I don't even remember the last time I saw it on a GPU. Even the cheap stuff either uses a baseplate, or gets rid of heatpipes altogether and uses a slab of aluminium.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I despise glass side bonnets
I like stealthy builds and older retro looking cases, it's kind of infuriating how it's almost impossible to find cases without glass fronts or sides totally impractical and restrictive.

I'm kind of mixed on that one, while I don't use the side window on my case to show it off or admire the innards, I DO like being able to easily see inside it to exam how much dust has built up so I have a better idea whether I need to do more than clean the filters. Other than that it sits on the floor beside my desk atop an oak lam board and you'd never even know it had a window if you didn't peek under my desk.

 

[freeagent]

I'm kind of mixed on that one, while I don't use the side window on my case to show it off or admire the innards

I don't know about you.. but I have thousands tied into my rig, I wanna see it without taking the side off

 

[sLowEnd]

Indeed, and I don't dispute that, but it's not 2011 anymore.

Yeah, but "never" encompasses a rather large timepsan, wouldn't you say?

 

[tabascosauz]

Yeah, but "never" encompasses a rather large timepsan, wouldn't you say?

Fair, but my point was performance in comparison to coolers with a baseplate. In reference to a comment about it being interesting if Noctua tried direct heatpipe contact, implying that it would perform better or at least on par than what they usually do.

 

[sLowEnd]

Fair, but my point was performance in comparison to coolers with a baseplate. In reference to a comment about it being interesting if Noctua tried direct heatpipe contact, implying that it would perform better or at least on par than what they usually do.

It's not too far fetched to be curious about something like that IMO. Outside of budget-focused products, we haven't seen a direct touch product aimed at the high end cooler segment in a while. (Apart from maybe the Corsair A500, which had quality control issues)
The Titan Fenrir was a direct touch cooler that outperformed Noctua's offerings at the time like the NH-U12P and the NH-C12P

Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler Review - Page 6 of 6 - Legit Reviews

- Page 6 of 6

www.legitreviews.com

Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU Cooler | bit-tech.net

It doesn't look like the giant mythical wolf of legend which shares its name, but Titan's Fenrir CPU cooler is ferocious in its own way - at cooling CPUs and what's more, it's compatible with LGA775, LGA1366 and Socket AM2+ straight out of the box.

bit-tech.net

 

[freeagent]

I recall Thermalright tried it on a True Spirit something something.. 5 HDT pipes..

It did not do too well iirc.

 

[tabascosauz]

I recall Thermalright tried it on a True Spirit something something.. 5 HDT pipes..

It did not do too well iirc.

This one? http://thermalright.com/product/true-spirit-140-direct/

It's not too far fetched to be curious about something like that IMO. Outside of budget-focused products, we haven't seen a direct touch product aimed at the high end cooler segment in a while. (Apart from maybe the Corsair A500, which had quality control issues)
The Titan Fenrir was a direct touch cooler that outperformed Noctua's offerings at the time like the NH-U12P and the NH-C12P

Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler Review - Page 6 of 6 - Legit Reviews

- Page 6 of 6

www.legitreviews.com

Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU Cooler | bit-tech.net

It doesn't look like the giant mythical wolf of legend which shares its name, but Titan's Fenrir CPU cooler is ferocious in its own way - at cooling CPUs and what's more, it's compatible with LGA775, LGA1366 and Socket AM2+ straight out of the box.

bit-tech.net

C12P is a downdraft cooler. It's always going to be at a disadvantage. Interesting results with the U12P, not sure what's going on there. U12P is kinda like a U9B that got fatter, though. Maybe unoptimized, all I know is U12S beat it by a couple degrees despite only having 1 fan (similar story with U9B SE2 being replaced by U9S).

Between the evenness concerns and heat density/distribution on current CPUs though, I doubt that still holds true today.