Thermalright XP-120
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Thermalright XP-120
Saw this review of theThermalright XP-120 at SystemCooling. Yes, its supports a 120mm fan. yes its huge. Its made of all aluminum, however... and supposedly weighs 250 grams less than the SP-94 (so it can utilize the standard P4 clips!). Interesting. No reviews yet... although, the people at System Cooling state that it outperforms the SP-94.[/url]
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While you could say that, I am not entirely convinced. There's no reason why an SP-94, as it is, couldn't safely handle Prescott's high thermals.
No, I'm more convinced it's to deal with the competition. Thermalright has built the XP-120 to beat Cooler Master's Hyper-6, Aeroflow's HT-101, Zalman's CNPS-7000(A)-(Al)Cu, Swiftech's MCX-478(V), Thermaltake's Tower112, Heatlane'z Zen, Vantec's Aeroflow 2, you name it; this is designed to beat them all down with a stick. After all, up until very recently, I myself was convinced that SP-94 was king, but that only lasts so long, and so came a myriad other products that had the potential to beat SP-94, or did it outright, as Hyper 6 supposedly does.
The king doesn't like losing his throne, and he's here to take it back. This time with a heatsink that not only outperforms SP-94 and its competition, but also outweighs them (which, in this case, means weighing less, not more); as for price, that we shall have to see, but knowing Thermalright's past pricing, this aluminum sink should be an outstanding value, compared to their all-copper models. Of course, I could be wrong on the last item; conceivably, they could price this according to performance, and not materials, and in that case, charge more (most!) for this model; let's hope they don't! If the XP-120 is priced competitively against opponents like the Hyper-6, not only would it mean the revenue comes to Thermalright, but it also means it won't go to Cooler Master, and although that's a very not nice way to think about it, this is competition, after all.
-Ed
No, I'm more convinced it's to deal with the competition. Thermalright has built the XP-120 to beat Cooler Master's Hyper-6, Aeroflow's HT-101, Zalman's CNPS-7000(A)-(Al)Cu, Swiftech's MCX-478(V), Thermaltake's Tower112, Heatlane'z Zen, Vantec's Aeroflow 2, you name it; this is designed to beat them all down with a stick. After all, up until very recently, I myself was convinced that SP-94 was king, but that only lasts so long, and so came a myriad other products that had the potential to beat SP-94, or did it outright, as Hyper 6 supposedly does.
The king doesn't like losing his throne, and he's here to take it back. This time with a heatsink that not only outperforms SP-94 and its competition, but also outweighs them (which, in this case, means weighing less, not more); as for price, that we shall have to see, but knowing Thermalright's past pricing, this aluminum sink should be an outstanding value, compared to their all-copper models. Of course, I could be wrong on the last item; conceivably, they could price this according to performance, and not materials, and in that case, charge more (most!) for this model; let's hope they don't! If the XP-120 is priced competitively against opponents like the Hyper-6, not only would it mean the revenue comes to Thermalright, but it also means it won't go to Cooler Master, and although that's a very not nice way to think about it, this is competition, after all.
-Ed
I'm a little surprised that they have not included a better mounting method for the fan on the HSF. 120mm fans have a lot of torque that you would not want to transmit through the mobo. A small rubber padded area to mount the fan on could help reduce this.
I'm not the only user of Thermalright HSF's that have attempted to decouple their fans from the HSF's to help reduce system vibration. It can also help reduce any resonance between the fan and the HSF.
Come on Thermalright - its a new product, give us a new fan mounting method ! After all, you really want to dish the competition !
I'm not the only user of Thermalright HSF's that have attempted to decouple their fans from the HSF's to help reduce system vibration. It can also help reduce any resonance between the fan and the HSF.
Come on Thermalright - its a new product, give us a new fan mounting method ! After all, you really want to dish the competition !
Last edited by luminous on Sat May 29, 2004 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
About the northbridge problem - it just occured to me that the Athlon64 nForce3 boards would not suffer from this problem, as the single chipset design is located far from the processor socket.shathal wrote:Now I only see certain problems with NB's being passively cooled (like my Intel D875PBZ) ... HUGE ... but, I think, "bigger + quieter" is the way forward. Seems neat .
Best Regards
Last edited by hitman47 on Sat May 29, 2004 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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All copper, while better performing, would be significantly heavier, and I believe lighter weight is an advantage that Thermalright wishes to tout with this new design.
I am not sure I've yet seen Thermalright produce hybrid sinks; it would appear to me that they prefer, if possible to machine the entire sink out of a single piece of metal, and not have to deal with bonding/joining or sealing two pieces together. This also appears to be the first skived-fin Al sink I've seen from them; all their past Al parts were straight cut; their copper pieces are normally skived, however.
My experience is almost exclusive to their newer models (began with the SLK-900A), so if they had straight cut copper or skived aluminum or hybrid sinks in the past, then I wouldn't be surprised, but they must've been before I caught on to the Thermalright scene.
-Ed
I am not sure I've yet seen Thermalright produce hybrid sinks; it would appear to me that they prefer, if possible to machine the entire sink out of a single piece of metal, and not have to deal with bonding/joining or sealing two pieces together. This also appears to be the first skived-fin Al sink I've seen from them; all their past Al parts were straight cut; their copper pieces are normally skived, however.
My experience is almost exclusive to their newer models (began with the SLK-900A), so if they had straight cut copper or skived aluminum or hybrid sinks in the past, then I wouldn't be surprised, but they must've been before I caught on to the Thermalright scene.
-Ed
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I like it. Aluminum is a good choice with the 5 heatpipes.
I did notice that in the "preview" test setup it appears to be mounted upside down on the motherboard. It would have probably worked even better with the curve of the heatpipes at orientated to the bottom or side of the case. Even with an internal wick, the working fluid inside the heatpipes is working against gravity in that position.
I wouldn't think they'd cost more than the SP-94 when introduced with a drop a few months later after the new wears off.
I did notice that in the "preview" test setup it appears to be mounted upside down on the motherboard. It would have probably worked even better with the curve of the heatpipes at orientated to the bottom or side of the case. Even with an internal wick, the working fluid inside the heatpipes is working against gravity in that position.
I wouldn't think they'd cost more than the SP-94 when introduced with a drop a few months later after the new wears off.
Sorry, I meant that if (and hopefully when) the Thermalright XP-120 supports the K8, we would see fewer or perhaps no such northbridge problems.Edward Ng wrote:hitman47 -- It's for P4, not K8, so yes, it could be an issue for many boards with taller northbridge coolers, if the northbridge is closer to the CPU.-Ed
Best Regards
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Edward Ng wrote:I am not sure I've yet seen Thermalright produce hybrid sinks
I believe the alx-800 is hybrid, even the old and very popular ax-7 was a hybrid.
And the alx-800 has been very successful on the market.
It might not be a great heatsink by our silent standards but it's highly used on many overclocking forums.
So I wouldn't be surpised to see the final outcome of this product to be a hybrid.
More pictures along with another monster heatsink from 1A-Cooling.
http://www.madshrimps.be/forums/showthr ... eadid=5342
http://www.madshrimps.be/forums/showthr ... eadid=5342
It's actually Nickel plated copper w/aluminum fins
He updated the page.
As I suspected from viewing the images, it's actually made from nickel plated copper, with Aluminum fins, though, the fins look like nickel plated copper, as well, in my opinion.
Another reason for thinking the fins are nickel plated copper, the base plate and fins are made from a sandwich of plates, from the looks of it and machined to look like one piece:
http://www.systemcooling.com/images/rev ... pe2_lg.jpg
If they are aluminum, I would imagine that they would be really easy to bend, being so thin.
There are some holes drilled through the base plate, for the heatpipes, which is probably where they saved a good deal of weight, in which you can see the layers.
I'll be getting one as soon as it's available, along with another Panaflo 120mm L1A.
As I suspected from viewing the images, it's actually made from nickel plated copper, with Aluminum fins, though, the fins look like nickel plated copper, as well, in my opinion.
Another reason for thinking the fins are nickel plated copper, the base plate and fins are made from a sandwich of plates, from the looks of it and machined to look like one piece:
http://www.systemcooling.com/images/rev ... pe2_lg.jpg
If they are aluminum, I would imagine that they would be really easy to bend, being so thin.
There are some holes drilled through the base plate, for the heatpipes, which is probably where they saved a good deal of weight, in which you can see the layers.
I'll be getting one as soon as it's available, along with another Panaflo 120mm L1A.
Last edited by CRT_Leech on Fri Jun 04, 2004 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.