I am still hoping to see a review of the Big Typhoon here soon, but I would really like to know how it compares to say a Thermalright XP/SI-120 with a Papst or Nexus fan, both when it comes to cooling and noise.

Some ppl really praise the Typhoon for its cooling ability, but I am very sceptical towards the noise levels of TT products...

Dont be sceptical of the noise levels on this product, it is a very quiet and powerful cooler.

If you search around you can find reviews on other sites measuring its performance

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=1&artpage=1521&articID=384

Is just one.

I have bought one and am very happy with it. The fan on the top i a yate loon and is quiet at stock 1300rpm, almost silent at 1050rpm, and practically silent at 800rpm.

I do agree I would like to see how it stands up to Mikes scrutiny, i guess that thermaltake have to submit a sample if they want it reviewed. Shame they dont, they could be losing potential business from this site.

Basically,if it cools the CPU at 800 rpm...what's not to like? 800 RPM is nice and quiet,any of the jumbo heatpipe sinks with an 800 rpm 120 can handle a fairly cool running CPU. X2's,overclocks=a few more rpm,decibels.

To clarify.

Mine was cooling a 2100xp palamino in free air at 800 rpm. The ramp up to 1100rpm made very little difference to temps.

The fan would also run slightly lower than 800rpm as well, but speedfan couldn't measure any lower than that. I would guess it was starting at 770rpm. I was using the mobo header so I dont know what voltage the fan starts at. It is 3% on the speedfan guage. I also used 8rdavcore and it reported down to the low 700's rpm before failing to measure.

That processor is a 75w hottie. I forget the temps I was getting I'm afraid but in free air I am not sure they are relevent 30-40c rings a bell. I have now undervolted the processor to 1.4v and 1122mhz so its putting out approx 29.8w. In a case with mesh above and to the sides of the cpu I'm running passive. The fan is still on the top with speedfan there to switch it on if the cpu hits 60c So far it has not switched it on. The highest temp I have reached is 59.5c under full load. I run media centre so when watching TV the processor is approx 20% utilised and at that it sits at 54-56c depending on the ambient..

I am planning on removing the loonie fan from the top and have the mobo provide the emergency shut off if the cpu hits 65c. So for £25 (uk) I have a passive heatsink and a spare loon fan worth about £7-£9. I call that a result.

Any of the other big coolers would easily cost me considerably more and they dont generally come with a fan.

***I have just for my own curiousity just switched the fan back on to 1350rpm to see what kind of drop it can produce. I am sitting 3m away from it and though the case is effectively open I can just hear a hum. The temp has levelled off at 36.5c I guess that this may be the temperature where the heatpipes cease to function as dropping the fan speed down makes no difference to the temps now till I get to 1100rpm.***