OCZ Vindicator: Heatpipe Tower Cooling from OCZ
by Wesley Fink on April 5, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Scaling of Cooling Performance
The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme has been the top performer so far in CPU cooling at stock speeds. As overclocks were raised, the performance the Ultra 120 with the Scythe SFLEX fan maintained its cooling advantage. The OCZ Vindicator is average or below average in cooling efficiency with the stock fan. It is clear the stock fan was selected for low noise and not cooling efficiency. However, a swap to the 14 dB-A 72 CFM SilenX fan improved cooling to the levels of the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Scythe Infinity - two coolers that reached upper tier cooling performance in our reviews.
At 2.93GHz the retail HSF is running at 41C, compared to 32C with the OCZ Vindicator with the stock fan. This is a delta of 9C. The SilenX drops that temperature to 29C, or a delta of 12C. The delta increases slightly with the stock fan as the overclock increases. At 3.73GHz the idle with the retail fan is 56C compared to the Ultra 120 at 46C - a delta of 10C! Performance improvements are much greater with SilenX fan on the OCZ Vindicator. At 3.73GHZ the SilenX cools to 42C, while at the highest stable overclock of 3.90GHz the Vindicator/SilenX is at 44C. This almost straight line at idle at the top of our testing is an indication the SilenX is effectively cooling at idle all the way to the top speed that could be reached in benchmarking.
Cooling efficiency of the Vindicator, with stock and SilenX fans, was next tested under load conditions. Results are compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. The OCZ Vindicator with the SilenX fan generated results similar to the Scythe Infinity with Push-Pull fans and reached the upper tier of overclocking performance. Results with the single stock fan were average at best.
By 3.90 GHz - the highest overclock the Tuniq, Thermalright Ultra 120, and Cooler Master Hyper 6+, and push-pull Scythe Infinity could reach with stability - the Vindicator is at 65C with the SilenX fan. This is still worse performance than many of other top coolers at this speed. The Tuniq and Ultra 120 are both at 51C, which is some 14C lower than the Vindicator. Keep in mind that the Vindicator was completely stable at 3.90GHz with the SilenX fan even though it ran a bit warmer. The stock fan could only manage 3.80GHz so the SilenX is a much better fan for overclocking the OCZ Vindicator.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the top tier heatpipe towers is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4 GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab.
The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme has been the top performer so far in CPU cooling at stock speeds. As overclocks were raised, the performance the Ultra 120 with the Scythe SFLEX fan maintained its cooling advantage. The OCZ Vindicator is average or below average in cooling efficiency with the stock fan. It is clear the stock fan was selected for low noise and not cooling efficiency. However, a swap to the 14 dB-A 72 CFM SilenX fan improved cooling to the levels of the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Scythe Infinity - two coolers that reached upper tier cooling performance in our reviews.
At 2.93GHz the retail HSF is running at 41C, compared to 32C with the OCZ Vindicator with the stock fan. This is a delta of 9C. The SilenX drops that temperature to 29C, or a delta of 12C. The delta increases slightly with the stock fan as the overclock increases. At 3.73GHz the idle with the retail fan is 56C compared to the Ultra 120 at 46C - a delta of 10C! Performance improvements are much greater with SilenX fan on the OCZ Vindicator. At 3.73GHZ the SilenX cools to 42C, while at the highest stable overclock of 3.90GHz the Vindicator/SilenX is at 44C. This almost straight line at idle at the top of our testing is an indication the SilenX is effectively cooling at idle all the way to the top speed that could be reached in benchmarking.
Cooling efficiency of the Vindicator, with stock and SilenX fans, was next tested under load conditions. Results are compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. The OCZ Vindicator with the SilenX fan generated results similar to the Scythe Infinity with Push-Pull fans and reached the upper tier of overclocking performance. Results with the single stock fan were average at best.
By 3.90 GHz - the highest overclock the Tuniq, Thermalright Ultra 120, and Cooler Master Hyper 6+, and push-pull Scythe Infinity could reach with stability - the Vindicator is at 65C with the SilenX fan. This is still worse performance than many of other top coolers at this speed. The Tuniq and Ultra 120 are both at 51C, which is some 14C lower than the Vindicator. Keep in mind that the Vindicator was completely stable at 3.90GHz with the SilenX fan even though it ran a bit warmer. The stock fan could only manage 3.80GHz so the SilenX is a much better fan for overclocking the OCZ Vindicator.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the top tier heatpipe towers is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4 GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab.
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Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
You make a good point, but I remain concerned about introducing additional noise and cooling variables into the test platform with a variable fan speed PS. In flat out gaming every PS I have seen is running at load conditions. However, your suggestions are certainly "real world" and we will definitley evaluate the impact of one of the "silent idle" power supplies on our total cooler testing. Our goal is to find ways to lower the ambient noise and sytem noise floor in realistic ways to provide a wider db test rangeyacoub - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Yeah exactly. My PC DOESN'T sit at Load settings for its fans. See I actually have them all dynamically controlled by temp and they only spin up when the machine is actually processing heavily enough to warm things up to a level that needs the fans to spin up a bit more to cool effectively.I'm starting to think it's more a matter that most folks don't care enough to quiet their PCs down so they don't realize how much nicer it is to have a quiet PC. This would be why they think it's normal to have a PSU making 40db of noise and thus fans can be 36db of noise and they think that's ok.
My PC (and it's not exactly designed to be totally silent) is inaudible except when I'm gaming or doing heavy work in a program in windows that requires the cpu to load up a lot. I can surf the Internet, type a Word doc, listen to music, or watch a DVD, and it's inaudible unless you put your ear within a foot or two of the case.
(P150 Antec case, Antec True-Power2.0 450w PSU (recently replaced by a Corsair 520w that has a fan that is a tiny bit more audible), SpeedFan, ATiTool, and good configurations are to thank for that. It's even using the retail cooler on my A64 Venice 3200+ and it's overclocked to 2.4GHz and it's still silent because I have the fan on it throttle down to 40% when it's under 40C, which it is most of the time.)
punko - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
For me, my wife watches television in the same room that I have the computer. When I'm gaming I use either very low sound or headphones.Noise is an issue, whether at idle, low load, or heavy load.
If anything, I tend to have the CPU and GPU maxed out when I'm on the computer, so the "real world" testing of a complete system underload is the most important sound rating. Idle? don't care, that means I'm not in the room.
What I would love to see is a general guide for those of us planning to build a new rig, and get an idea of what is available in terms of major components for building a quiet (not silent) PC. I am more than well aware that there are specialist sites that do component by component reviews, but I am more interested in the "real world" knowledge of people that assemble and use hundreds of components in various configurations.
Articles like this one help, because the focus the attention on a particular component as part of an overall system.
yacoub - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
oh and by "only spin up" i mean "spin up from the level I have them throttled down to" not "spin up from stopped". You never want to throttle fans down to where they stop while the system is on, because there's always the danger they won't spin back up.asdfqwertyuiop - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
This article is poor. The SilenX claims are just false, and parroting their marketing BS without adequate testing is unsatisifactory. There are about a dozen fans, including the stock Intel one, all on the same db rating. So in other words, testing was insufficient to establish whether or not the fans are quieter than even the bog-standard Intel one.Accepting SilenX's BS that their fan achieves dramatically more airflow with less noise than anything else available shows excessive credulity.
Aside, what's with tech firms and the product names that sound like they are aimed at 13-year olds? Vindicator??? This is a heatsink, not an assault weapon.
tomoyo - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
As stated by quotes from a silentpcreview reader here - http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...">http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...There's so many inaccurate and incorrect commentary in this review that it's utterly amazing it was ever posted. It's obvious the heatsink was designed by scythe and relabeled by OCZ, that's nothing terrible to say since tons of brand names are made by different companies. I'm MOST disgusted by the blatant love of Silenx fans when their specifications on their fans are 100% WRONG. It is physically impossible for their fans to be as quiet as they say, which means they're purely and utterly liars. A company that lies should not be praised like anandtech is doing. I'm surprised they are not using a quiet nmb-panaflo, nexus, or other good fan out there.
And the OCZ powerstream is certainly not one of the quieter power supplies out there. A better comparison psu would be something like a Seasonic or Corsair.
There's plenty of other issues with the writing quality here, but I think these are the most blatant.
amdlive - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
What is the true specifications of the fan utilized in this article? If no the specs listed are 100% wrong, then provide the real world results you have. We are waiting and by the way, post a link to your last review.
amdlive - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
What is the true specifications of the fan utilized in this article? If you know the specs listed are 100% wrong, then provide the real world results you have. We are waiting and by the way, post a link to your last review.
goinginstyle - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Silent PC Reviews are a total joke. They in no way simulate conditions inside, near, or even remotely in plain sight of a PC. Most of the members over there are elitist wannabes who drink the Chin Kool-Aid and then march off like ants to spread the gospel of lies that are the SPCR test results. Most of their articles are contradictory once you really read them and the computer equipment they use is several generations old. They are not even using equipment that most of us have bought in the last two years and to even consider a P4 and 6800GT as components that stress a power supply is just laughable. The site is one big cluster "F" with most of the recommendations going to their sponsor list. I could not believe some of the asinine comments posted in that topic. Hopefully they wake up and smell the $h!t that is spewing from the writers over there.My issues with the cooling reviews here are the noise levels in the room. They really need to be around 26 to 30dBA to properly test most components in your "real world" test routines. There are a lot of people who probably have rooms at home in that noise range along with components whose base noise levels fall in the same category. I would also like to see how well the units fit on the top three or four selling motherboards along with some power supply reviews.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
According to a Noise article at SPCR 26 to 30db is the noise level of a "quiet bedroom at night". 35 to 45 db - our ambient noise is 36db - is the noise level of a "Quiet office or library; Typical PC Subdued". The complete chart is in comments below. We hope to lower noise a bit in a reworked test bed but we are not confident we can get below 30db consisitently.