Would love to see a 30.7 lb heatsink review . Wonder how good the mounting system would need to be for that? Try installing that on your mini-ITX board .


Positive points to Xigmatek for its lower weight and price-to-performance ratio but negative for its lazy oversight (like most heatsink makers) and disregard for AMD users needing to rotate the heatsink for front-to-back airflow. How many times has this point come up in the forums? When will they listen, eh?

Did you read my reply to your first post?

Straight from the horse's mouth:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/0 ... etail.html

I think it's supposed to be 30.7 ounces (oz) not pounds.

Yes, Jesse, I read it several times, but that doesn't account for the fact that the two fans together were objectively measured by the instrument to have practically the same SPL as just one fan alone -- far less of a difference than the 3 dBa one might expect. So there has to be some (mysterious) phenomenon of acoustics at work here.

This would be fairly hard to do if you use the pwm control as the pwm control turns the fan at only 300RPM at full load and 200RPM at idle these speeds were on a E7200 with everything at stock speeds and voltages. However you could control them both by voltage and most likely be able to get very similair speeds.

In an electronic circuit (like a mixer) or in a DAW 2 identical 12db signals added together=15db but in the real world this is never the case since the sound sources are not identical nor are they emited from the same location and differ in distance from the listener or microphone.

Phase cancelation and frequency variations would not add up like in the pure mathimatical formula "sine wave+sine wave=sine wave+3db"


And to the point: the Mugen 2 with its superior fin area seems ideal for cooling high TDP CPUs like i7. Nice one, good price too.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... html#sect0

The table at the bottom of this page sais it all. Using same fan Mugen2 and Megahalems score the same when cooling an i7, though I trust Mike C's accoustic testing and subjective opinion more.

EDIT: I am reffering to the table of temps IDLE/LOAD, not the max OC at the very bottom. may also note that the IFX-14 cools 3c better at idle but at 1560 RPM vs 250 RPM on the Mugen2 and Megahalems.

The Mugen 2 is actually $3 cheaper than the Xigmatek lol

Two signals of identical sound pressure level (SPL) will add together to +6dB, two uncorrelated signals with same SPL will add together to + 3dB

AtW

Acctually the signals themselvs have to be identical for that to happen.

Take 1 1khz tone at say 20 db add to it a 10 khz tone at 20 db and the total spl will still be 20 db as they dont affect one another. now add a 100 hz tone at 20 db and it still 20 db. this is totally frequency dependant and needs to be phase accurate for it to happen like you said.

Depends on where you live! You cannot interpret the US$ price for what it will sell for elsewhere it in the world. Where I live, Mugen 2 is at least $24 more than Xigmatek HDT-S1283. Must be some sort of a Scythe "tax". Good thing I bought the Slipstreams when they were cheap. When you factor in that Mugen 2 includes a better PWM fan and the backplate mounting hardware is included, you could argue the difference is so minimal that Scythe gets the upper hand when all things are considered.

We have much weaker retail competition here, our exchange rate is relatively weak, we pay a GST, high shipping costs and have a strong minimum wage system so prices tend to be quite higher here than in the northern continents. You guys get cheap PC parts; we have a decent health, welfare and wage system. You can't have it all, can you? But we are an insignificant part of the world anyway, so forget us and everything I've said. Enjoy your Mugen 2s.

Yeah, i meant to say two identical signals in the first sentence, it was a comment about adding to identical 12 dB signals, wich will give a SPL of 18 db, not 15 dB. To get +3dB you dont have to add two identical signals, you get +3dB when you add uncorrelated signals. Two fans are broadband (usually) uncorrelated noise, if both have the same SPL, they should added togheter give +3dB.

AtW

hey mate, you guys get better surf than we do here in the continential u.s. that's enough reason to move to australia right there!

*checks*
Seems like newegg has been ramping up the prices on the Xigmateks lately - when I bought my 1284EE about 2 months back, it was $5 cheaper. Might be due to exchange rate fluctuations (Xigmatek's taiwanese, right?).

I'm a land, trees and rivers person myself; not too fond of the sand and sea. But, whatever takes your fancy .


I thought all computer parts trade was done in US$ no matter where the country of origin. Would be interesting to know for sure.

OK, to clarify the 2 fans vs 1 fan SPL measurements and perceived noise, I ran some extended tests this morning on a pair of brand new Yate Loon sleeve bearing 120x25mm fans. These are exactly the same as the Nexus 120, except the top speed is slightly higher than that of the Nexus which is 1000~1100. All the tests were conducted in the anechoic chamber, whose ambient was reading ~11 dBA. The two fans were blowing in the same direction, spaced 2" apart on a piece of foam at the edge of our test table. rpm was set using a calibrated strobe light.

either fan at 1000 rpm: 14 dBA/1m
both fans at 1000 rpm: 18 dBA/1m

This makes sense, more or less. Theory says it should be a 3 dBA difference at 1m, but there are some reflections in the room from the table, other gear, etc...

either fan at 700 rpm: 11 dBA/1m -- 12 dBA/0.5m
both fans at 700 rpm: 12 dBA/1m -- 14 dBA/0.5m

The first reading above -- 11 dBA/1m for the single fan at 700rpm (which is roughly the same speed as 7V w/ the Nexus 120) -- is suspect.

Why? It's the ambient level. This means the fan could be anywhere between 0 and 11 dBA/1m and there's no way to tell, because 11 dBA is the lowest we can measure. The second reading for the same single fan at 700 rpm, of 12 dBA at half a meter tells us that the fan would probably measure 4-6 dBA lower in a 0 dBA chamber, or 6~8 dBA/1m.

So when both fans at 700 rpm measure 12 dBA/1m, it makes sense. Each fan by itself was actually only 6~8 dBA/1m. Why then, does it go up only by 2 dBA with both fans? uh.... I don't quite get the why of it but I can hear it.

To sum up...

Larry measured 12 dBA for 1 Nexus fan or 2 in his original test. I measured 1 dBA difference this morn. Why? The levels are so close to the chamber ambient... we could call the difference within the margin of error.

It could also be that the first Nexus fan was a bit noisier than the second so that when the second quieter fan was turned on, no increase registered. The Yate Loon fans I used are brand new, while the Nexus 120s Larry used have been in use around the lab for quite a while (probably at least a year).

The gist of the matter is that any of these fans at 700rpm is really not audible under any normal circumstance -- ie, in an enclosed computer a meter away. Two are still inaudible in almost any ambient. When you get really close to the fans -- less than a foot -- you can hear when one fan is turned off but you'd really be hard pressed to say it's quieter.

Hopefully, that clarifies things a bit.

Yeah, totally. Each fan by itself at 700 rpm might only increase the ambient by about 25%, even at 0.5m. So with two of 'em, only about 50%. There's your 2 dBA.

Of course, this leads to: I wonder how the other top performers do with a similar set up?

thanks for the detailed test abut 2 fans vs 1.

sorry to plug this review again but is has this test involving 2 fans

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... up_19.html

I think the reason why both IFX 14 and Mugen2 get the best scores with 2 fans has to do with the pull fan being able to pull some cooler air from the gaps in the heat sink (or from between the 2 sinks in the IFX). this seems like it would help bring temps down a notch.

Yeah +6db. my bad.


my point was this equasion works in a perfert circuit. In the real world, as Mike just demostrated result vary wildly.
Its perfectly reasonable that 2 very low RPM fans wouldnt register more noise than one.

considering the size of the cooler, the location of cpu sockets and the common 120mm fan exhaust on most cases - putting in a 2nd fan may be a bit of a problem, it will end up being very close to the exhaust in alot of situations.

perhaps the exhaust alone will be close enough to give a pretty good performance increase as opposed to a single fan on an open bench?

Hi,

I think all but the hottest CPU's will be fine with one fan or a duct to the rear exhaust (and to the PSU?), and for those that need it a duct and a fan pushing into the heatsink. Two fans with a duct to the rear exhaust fan (3 fans) would be overkill.

Canada's prices aren't great either lol

Our selection sucks too

There's like no thermaltake stuff here (Except overpriced V1's @ $100)
No Megahalems
Half the Thermalright stuff isn't available
Can't get half the Xigmatek stuff (Only S1283 and it's variants, D1264's, and S963's are available)
Coolermaster selection sucks
Scythe stuff availablility is patchy at best

..etc


I'm just basing prices off the US because most people are from there
(Yes I'm jealous of them too)

I have used and would recommend this http://www.akasa.co.uk/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=Cables&type_sub=Fan%20Cable%20Adapters&model=AK-CB002 which avoids pulling any fan current through the motherboard completely.

Speaking about units, I think the commata aren't in the right position for the size specifications in inches.

http://www.scythe-eu.com/forum/mugen-series/

the official scythe forum, for questions regarding fitment issues and such.

Given how fat (100mm depth) the the Mugen is compared to most tower heatsinks, other than Ninja, would you even need a duct? Typical tower heatsink depth seems around 60mm, so we are already >1/2" closer to the exhaust just due to the size of this thing.

A duct would help guide airflow

Thanks lodestar, sweet product. Even found a store on their "where to buy" list that will ship to Canada! Much appreciated!

I nominate the Zerotherm Zen FZ120 for this list. US shoppers can watch Newegg for deals on the Xigmatek & Zerotherm, with each available below $20 at times. Combine one with YL 120(s), and you'll have a top-notch HSF for around $25.