Thermaltake's Big Contender: The Big Typhoon

TESTING

Testing was done according to our unique heatsink testing methodology, and the stock fan was profiled using our standard fan testing methodology. A quick summary of the components, tools, and procedures follows below.

Key Components in Heatsink Test Platform:

• Intel Pentium D 950 Presler core. Under load, it measures 78W minus the efficiency losses in the VRMs.
• ASUS P5LD2-VM motherboard. A basic microATX board with integrated graphics and plenty of room around the CPU socket.
• Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB SATA hard drive.
• 1 GB stick of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 memory.
• FSP Zen 300W fanless power supply.
• Arctic Silver Lumière: Special fast-curing thermal interface material, designed specifically for test labs.

Test Tools

• Seasonic Power Angel for measuring AC power at the wall to ensure that the heat output remains consistent.
• Custom-built, four-channel variable-speed fan controller, used to regulate the fan speed during the test.
• Bruel & Kjaer (B&K) model 2203 Sound Level Meter. Used to accurately measure noise down to 20 dBA and below.
• Various other tools for testing fans, as documented in our standard fan testing methodology.

Software Tools

• SpeedFan 4.31, used to monitor the on-chip thermal sensor. This sensor is not calibrated, so results are not universally applicable; however,
• CPUBurn P6, used to stress the CPU heavily, generating more heat that most realistic loads. Two instances are used to ensure that both cores are stressed.
• Throttlewatch 2.01, used to monitor the throttling feature of the CPU to determine when overheating occurs.

Noise measurements were made with the fan powered from the lab variable DC power supply while the rest of the system was off to ensure that system noise did not skew the measurements.

Load testing was accomplished using CPUBurn to stress the processor, and the graph function in SpeedFan was used to make sure that the load temperature was stable for at least ten minutes. Every fan was tested at four voltages: 5V, 7V, 9V, and 12V, representing a full cross-section of the fan's airflow and noise performance.

The ambient conditions during testing were 19 dBA and 18°C.

TEST RESULTS

As expected, the stock fan and our reference fan sounded very similar; we couldn't tell them apart when they were running at the same speed. The only significant difference was the stock speed, which is 1,300 RPM for the stock fan, but only 1,000 RPM for our reference fan. Despite the speed difference, thermal results with the two fans were not significantly different. Only at 7V did the two fans' performance diverge — and even that was only a 3°C difference.

Fan @ 12V: The stock fan was both quiet and smooth at full speed; with the exception of some of our regular readers, many people would consider it quiet enough without reducing the speed any more. Cooling performance was somewhere in the middle of the pack: Good enough for most systems, but far from challenging for the top end.

Fan @ 9V: At 9V, the stock fan approached the minimum noise level in most conventional systems. Some users will see no benefit in reducing the speed below this level, though the fan was still plainly audible on our test bench. Most of the noise at this level was airflow; the low hum of the fan motor had died away almost entirely.

Cooling performance continued to be middle-of-the-road, rising a modest 3°C above the 12V results.

Fan @ 7V: At 7V, the stock fan was more or less at the ambient noise level, and we had to struggle to pick out the noise from the background. Only the quietest systems will draw benefit from reducing the fan speed below this level.

However, the cooling performance dropped off considerably; it is probably only possible to cool low-to-midrange processors with the fan at this level. In a real system where the ambient temperature would be 10~15°C higher, our test processor would certainly have overheated at this level.

Fan @ 5V: There would be little point to using the Big Typhoon with the fan at this level. Not only is there nothing to be gained from a acoustic perspective (7V is already quiet enough for the vast majority of systems), but the performance suffered too much to be usable. The tightly spaced fins simply didn't cool well enough with so little airflow; if you are absolutely convinced that you need a fan that runs this slowly, you're better off using a heatsink with widely spaced fins.

VS. THE HEAVYWEIGHTS

The Big Typhoon is the first heatsink to be reviewed under our new testing methodology, so direct comparisons are currently a little hard to come by. However, we did profile a few of the best heatsinks in our updated methodology article. Thermaltake definitely has high-end aspirations for the Big Typhoon, so it's worth throwing it into the mix — just remember that it is being compared against the best of the best. It's a little outclassed.

The performance numbers place the Big Typhoon roughly on par with the Thermalright XP-120, although the XP-120 does significantly better at lower airflow levels. With more airflow, it is quite possible that the Big Typhoon would pull ahead... but at the expensive of greater noise. The current high end heatsinks — the Ninja and the Ultra-120 — outperform the Big Typhoon significantly.

NOISE RECORDINGS IN MP3 FORMAT

Thermaltake Big Typhoon: 5V-7V-9V-12V, 5s Ambient between levels: One Meter, One Foot

Comparatives:

Scythe Infinity: 5V-7V-9V-12V, 5s Ambient between levels: One Meter, One Foot

Arctic Cooling Alpine 64: 5V-7V-9V-12V, 5s Ambient between levels: One Meter, One Foot

Scythe Mine w/ stock fan: 5V-7V-9V-12V, 5s Ambient between levels: One Meter, One Foot

Reference 120mm fan: 5V-7V-9V-12V, 5s Ambient between levels: One Meter, One Foot

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

With the Big Typhoon, Thermaltake joins Scythe as one of the only manufacturers we know of that sells a heatsink with an acceptably quiet fan. That in itself makes the Big Typhoon worthy of special mention, no matter what other attributes it has.

The other attributes are fairly run-of-the-mill: Middling performance, wide compatibility, and a poor mounting system. We liked the concept of a "top-down" heatsink with a 120mm fan and heatpipes — tower heatsinks are often a little on the tall side — but we were a little disappointed when we discovered that it didn't actually end up being that much shorter.

What we really want to know is how the fan on the Big Typhoon VX sounds. The VX model addresses our biggest concern with the Big Typhoon — the mounting system — but the change of fan concerns us. It's not easy to find a fan as quiet as the one on the original Big Typhoon, so the change is unlikely to be for the better.

It's tempting to give the Big Typhoon a high recommendation. There's no question that it's quiet, and we think it's capable of remaining quiet while dissipating up to ~60W. These days, it's not difficult to get a high-performance processor within that power envelope. However, the difficult installation procedure — unchanged from the Silent Tower — really holds back our full recommendation. We'll compromise by calling the Big Typhoon the best Thermaltake product we've seen, and hopefully we'll see their products continue to improve.

Much thanks to Thermaltake for the Big Typhoon sample.

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