Computer enthusiasts – people are special. As any fan of the business, they can spend hours messing around with his "brainchild," put in a lot of time and money and get pleasure from it. But there are two types of enthusiasts. The first are those who are indifferent to their appearance, the main thing – what's inside. This is logical, that's why they say: "Behold the root!". But on the other hand, if you put in the computer so much time and effort, then it must look nice, like an expensive car. That's how they talk enthusiasts, which can be attributed to the second view. They have generated a new kind of computer art – modding.
Thermaltake company knows almost every person who moved in a computer environment for a long time. The range of products the company is very large: housing, power supply systems, air, water and passive cooling, fans and much more. The main feature of this production is the focus of a circle of enthusiasts, and special attention to design. That there are nothing but the body under the name Thermaltake, sometimes, it's a work of art! (Author's opinion) and this line can be traced across the entire spectrum of products.
A lyrical introduction, the company dedicated to modding and Thermaltake, was written for a reason, and certainly not for promotional purposes. Today we will tell you about the new cooler, Thermaltake V1, which really was able to surprise us.
The concept of "fan structure" we introduced back in the days when the market exploded coolers brilliant appearance of the legendary Zalman CNPS7000. Compressed in the middle of the beam edges unbend a fan on both sides, and in the center of the resulting "flower" was placed fan. The next concept Zalman CNPS9500 differed in that the edges of the beam is not going to, and not recruited from the upper half of the eight heat pipes. This is also reminiscent out blanket design, but the transfer of heat to it by a more modern way. But who knew then that this fan with a design we will introduce today only!
Through a window in a cardboard box can be seen that the new cooler from Thermaltake company is very similar to the classic fan. But this fan is not easy, before we proceed to the detailed writing of its features, offer you a general view of the contents of the box:
Besides the cooler, inside was a small box with a set of accompanying accessories: Mount for LGA775, clamp platforms AMD, user manual, a bag of thermal paste, and a proprietary label on the case.
The cooler is designed for installation on a modern CPU sockets, obsolete s478 is not supported. A further list of features we offer to see the table of specifications.
Despite the fact that the cooler consists entirely of copper, its weight is placed in a rather modest figure of 637 grams. Fan Bearing type is not specified, but judging by the MTBF, it must be hydrodynamic.
Two fan heatsink prinizany four C-shaped heat pipes – a pair on each radiator. The fan is located between them.
This is done on purpose. We have repeatedly met with tower coolers, which are composed of two radiators and a fan in the middle, but the size of the fan usually does not exceed 92 mm. Use a larger 120mm fan in these conditions is problematic, because the size of the cooler are huge. Remember the Scythe Ninja and INFITITY, how uncomfortable they be installed on motherboards with LGA775 due to massive heat sinks.
A company with a cooler Thermaltake V1 made a "horse course": compressed on one side radiator hast taken the form of a V-shaped fan, and for its area an ideal fit 110 mm fan. Thus, the tower was equipped with a large fan radiator, bypassing the disadvantages and limitations associated with the installation of the cooler on the motherboard.
The fan is not exactly in the middle, but is offset to one of the radiators, "sucking" side. Most likely, this is done to reduce the intake of air from the sides and increase the volume pumped through the radiator. The fan speed can be varied from 1300 to 2000 rev / min with a small knob turns.
But you can not call it easy: only a short cord, so the regulator has to fit in the area of memory modules, then do not hold out.
The noise level is specified in the specifications are too optimistic, at a speed of 1300 rev / min the fan is still slightly audible, but inside this quiet the noise is lost. At top speed the fan is quite noisy, but the noise is not annoying, perhaps this contributes to a low tone.
Base of the cooler for a while before the installation is protected by a cellophane film, we must not forget to remove it. Lurking beneath the surface is smooth and uniform, but to mirror polishing is not driven. (Although the site is written «Mirror Coating Base»).
All places of contact with the base of heat pipes and fins soldered neatly so worried about their reliability is not necessary.
It is impossible not to draw your attention to how stunningly beautiful form of selected edges, and then to the elegant appearance of the cooler.
Say what you like, but Thermaltake V1 is a work of art. There are many different original coolers have visited in our laboratory, but such a handsome man we saw for the first time. Connoisseurs will appreciate the modding blue backlight fan in the chassis with transparent side wall it will look like at 5.
The method of fastening is made very simple and convenient. For AMD uses a classic clip as a rocker, which clings to the teeth of the near central frame. And for the Intel LGA775 socket with a ground screwed two pairs of legs, equipped with standard clips.
To install the cooler on the motherboard does not have to remove it from the body. Clips pressed hard enough cooler, but not to such an extent that the fear for the motherboard.
External review of the design created a very positive impression of the new cooler, Thermaltake V1, the only "reproach" was short cable speed controller. The rest of the cooler is almost perfect. One can only hope that the test results did not please us less.
Testing
Since we are not an ordinary cooler, and we compare it with the best representatives of this family has been in our laboratory: Zalman CNPS9500 LED, Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX, ASUS Silent Knight and Scythe INFINITY.
Agree, serious opponents. The battlefield is not an easy one – a test stand at the overclocked CPU Intel Core2Duo E6400:
Consider the conditions for the heat of summer, when the room temperature fluctuates around 31 њ C mark So even the best coolers in such a situation would not be easy. Of the features of the stand, we note that the card is used a lot of warm inside the case, despite the fact that the cooling system, in theory, emits heated air outside. But the general ventilation in the building is good enough.
Zalman CNPS9700 LED cooler is not tested with the native thermal paste, but with the KPT-8. This is because the native thermal interface in the form of "nail polish (or rather, the processor)" found in its composition any particulate matter that much scratch the base of the cooler and processor, so its use was impossible.
Methods of testing has not changed and probably familiar to our regular readers. For those of you who read our reviews of the coolers for the first time, briefly describe the three modes in which the coolers are tested:
Simple. In this mode, there is no load on the processor, but it disabled all power-saving technologies. As a result, we obtain the temperature of the processor, which is characteristic of the "office" mode of the computer, surfing the Internet and multimedia content.
Games. And this is a serious load on the processor and not an easy task for its cooler. The processor in this mode are usually loaded with 80 … 100%, but still working at 100% of card sets in the housing climate "tropical" in nature. For this type of load simultaneously run two applications: a test for artefacts program ATI Tool, which fully loads the video card and processor for about 80%, and archive with WinRAR in a single-mode to bring the CPU usage to 100%.
Max load. This is a stress test for the CPU and its cooling system. We used a unit of stress tests in Everest, which is cyclically chasing two of the most severe test of processor. In this mode, the CPU is heated up to a maximum temperature to which it can not warm up or a "domestic" problem.
Results:
You can say only one thing: another super-cooler had more. All coolers have shown similar results with a difference of 1 … 3 degrees, which is not very significant. Although the native thermal grease Zalman CNPS9700 LED cooler could play another 1-2 degrees.
In conditions of high heat load and good ventilation Thermaltake V1 showed a very small temperature difference between the minimum and maximum fan speeds. This means that the resistance of the radiator is small and there is no need to tolerate the fan hum at high speed.
Conclusion
What qualities should a cooler, to earn the title of an ideal?
High performance. Here considered Thermaltake V1 has shown excellent results on a par with the best air coolers. Let him not ahead of them, but is on par.
Quiet operation. The range of changes the fan speed is 1300 ~ 2000 r / min, while working at the minimum speed silent cooler, but if necessary we are able to increase it. And with a small increase in performance during the transition to the maximum speed, this is an opportunity rather than necessity.
Ease of installation and use. On this point clearly put "5", install the cooler easy. Motherboard to get out of the case do not have in any case. Design features of the cooler is that the base is very compact, and will not interfere with elements of the system in the space near the CPU. On the platform LGA775 cooler can be rotated to any of the four sides, and on AMD platforms with a standard vertical mounting holes are always cooler can be installed in an advantageous position.
The only downside, which could find – a short cable to the speed controller, and the inability to bring it to the front panel of the chassis. Although, in my opinion, you can set the speed on low and forget about it.
Impressive appearance. This parameter is important for modders and fans of the beautiful. Design – a matter of opinion, rightly so, but still looks great Thermaltake V1, from the shape of the edges and finishing with a soft blue LED fan.
Frankly, a little bit more, and the Thermaltake V1 cooler would have received the highest award of the editorial board, but he did not have to do a little performance to beat the competition, and some inconvenience fan speed control. And so no less, has turned out a great cooler, and we are happy to entrust him to a well-deserved reward:
From the author