Thermaltake's 0dB Solution: SonicTower

Cooling Processors quietly

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grandpa_boris
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Post by grandpa_boris » Sun Feb 13, 2005 2:57 pm

Slaugh wrote:Now I know they didn't use Pringles for their heatsinks! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Image
this is the most clever and funny image i think i've seen here, ever.

DryFire
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Post by DryFire » Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:10 pm

I'd be scared to mount that. HS size is getting pretty rediculous.

veryevilmike
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Post by veryevilmike » Wed Apr 06, 2005 2:26 am

thermaltake arn't the only ones building skyscrapers. i know lots of people rightfully arn't too fond of thermaltake as a company, but then everyone's darling zalman arn't making them any smaller:

14 heatpipes!!! makes this thing look tiny:
Image

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pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:31 pm

I bought one of their earlier "fanless Coolers" - a Fanless 103
If this works as well as their first one - It makes one expensive piece of scrap metal -
Ironicly , their golf 325 is a pretty good all purpose cooler . they occaisionally do make something that works.
Footnote - their "fanless cooler " is now a pretty good Quiet cooler with a 92mm fan attached.

Slaugh
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Post by Slaugh » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:33 am

Matbe.com recently tested the SonicTower. It was compared to a bunch of CPU coolers including Zalman, Thermalright and Scythe. They were not very impressed and gave the SonicTower a great score of 1.5 / 5... For a rough english translation of the review, follow this link (babelfish).

The case fan used for their review was a Papst 120mm @ 5 and 12V. The same fan was installed on the SonicTower and the XP-120. The SonicTower was tested with and without the Papst. For the other Thermalright heatsinks, a Zalman ZF-F2 (92mm) was used...

Here are the temperatures they recorded on a P4 3GHz (Prescott) after loading the CPU with CPUBurn:

Image

They also recorded the noise levels, but they forgot to explain how they measured them...

Image

Wait! 70.3dbA with a Scythe FCS50 @ 4850RPM? :shock: If such a monster exists, I really don't want to see it!

winguy
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Post by winguy » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:50 pm


pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:00 pm

That would look to be about right .
It is just about equal with an XP-120 in just about all situations (for cooling , not for mounting) So it appears it performs pretty well as a 120mm fanned tower but as a fanless soloution is a dead loss .
I found this also with their "Fanless" 103
But in Australia , at least it is just over half the price of an XP-90

tomcat
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Post by tomcat » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:26 pm

what about using three 120mm fans with this cooler? :shock:

Image

Source: http://www.tweakers4u.de/artikel/tt_tri ... 5,,109.htm (in german)

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:30 pm

I have a box full of 4500rpm 120mm Delta fans , maybe 3 of them would get this thing rocking - but I would have to shut the computer down by 10pm or the cops would have me for the noise :twisted:
But seriously the performance of this thing is not bad at all with a fan . I think a single 800rpm fan on one of these would make a pretty good quiet cooler for some one with a "PressHot " or a very high clocked Northy or the like .
I know that with a 3.2 Northy that a Zalman 7000-alcu can not cope (65+ deg C. load temps and the Cu is only 2-3 deg lower . and setup corectly this would be Quieter with better cooling .
Even with that said I do not think I will buy one as they are just TOO big for my little mATX cases.

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Sat Apr 09, 2005 3:17 pm

tomcat wrote:what about using three 120mm fans with this cooler? :shock:

(sonictower with 3 fans attached)
That should improve things, however the fans will be out of phase (a disaster if you use LED fans!). You can fix this and make it much more noise-friendly by drilling holes in a blade of each fan and putting a metal rod through it, so that they rotate at exactly the same speed.

Straker
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Post by Straker » Sun Apr 10, 2005 1:25 am

Storm wrote:It almost looks photoshop'ed
couldn't resist when i saw that comment...
Image

screwed up the inner edge of the front half but whatever, would have to start over to fix it now :P

veryevilmike
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Post by veryevilmike » Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:52 pm

StarfishChris wrote: That should improve things, however the fans will be out of phase (a disaster if you use LED fans!). You can fix this and make it much more noise-friendly by drilling holes in a blade of each fan and putting a metal rod through it, so that they rotate at exactly the same speed.
??? how exactly did you plan to connect the three blades together, as this would mean the rod is rotating through the heatsink itself, not exactly feasible

Cerb
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Post by Cerb » Sun Apr 10, 2005 10:04 pm

veryevilmike wrote:
StarfishChris wrote: That should improve things, however the fans will be out of phase (a disaster if you use LED fans!). You can fix this and make it much more noise-friendly by drilling holes in a blade of each fan and putting a metal rod through it, so that they rotate at exactly the same speed.
??? how exactly did you plan to connect the three blades together, as this would mean the rod is rotating through the heatsink itself, not exactly feasible
I have a feeling you need to recalibrate your sarcasmeter :).

tay
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Post by tay » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:25 am

Cerb wrote:I have a feeling you need to recalibrate your sarcasmeter :).
LOL !!! :twisted:

winguy
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Post by winguy » Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:21 pm


grandpa_boris
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Post by grandpa_boris » Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:15 pm

:shock: it seems to actually work reasonably well. now, if someone would compare it to zalman 7000 or XP120....

Webfire
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Post by Webfire » Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:36 am

For a comparison of the sonic tower and xp-120 check this thread out:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 3&start=30

I posted a system where jockel compared both coolers.

adab721
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TT Sonic Tower

Post by adab721 » Sat May 07, 2005 4:01 pm

I am running the TT Sonic Tower right now with Coolermaster Silent LED 12cm fan on a 3.2ghz Prescott on Asus MB P4P800 SE undervolted to 1.6ghz temp is 26 with the fan at 12v it is barely audible. With the fan at 5v I can't hear it and still get temps of 34 degrees (at 3.2ghz stock speed). This cooler is simply amazing. It is better than the Zalman I used to have. These Temps are with a 6800GT using Zalman cooler below the CPU cooler. I am using a Lubic Combo Case which is really not a case at all but an open framework. (the goal is to elinminate as many fans as possible)
Right now the loudest component is my Maxtor Ultra SATA Raid drives.

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Sat May 07, 2005 4:26 pm

I don't think anyone was really questioning that it would perform well, but it's twice the weight and thrice(!) as tall as an XP-120. Some people - myself included - do not want all that torque.
Also there is no way you can compare them when passive unless you give the XP-120 a duct. (It would be interesting to see a site that does this...)

SpaceDreamer
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Post by SpaceDreamer » Tue May 17, 2005 7:21 am

acaurora wrote:No matter where you mount the fan, it's going to screw up the airflow anyways. Sideways = heats up other column. Dead on = ineffective.
Have more imagination!
I would put no fan in the middle, and put 1 fan on each side, both blowing inwards (the middle gap being the exhaust) or both blowing outwards (the middle gap being the air intake).

That photo with 3 fans in series is a bit dumb,
computer fans work well in parallel, not in series... thus my suggestion above...

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Tue May 17, 2005 2:39 pm

Depending on the orientation within the case , two fans blowing toward each other may not be a bad way to go .
I have used a DP102 (Aero cool) in this configuration with excellent results.
The sonic tower has a lot more balls .
So this would probably give cooling , very hard to equal without resorting to watercooling . As for noise I would have to try it to find out!

mathias
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Post by mathias » Tue May 17, 2005 7:47 pm

pony-tail wrote:Depending on the orientation within the case , two fans blowing toward each other may not be a bad way to go .
I think that would great if it was used with one of those "chassis air guide" things. No idea if it would be better completely ducted out, or letting some air escape out the sides.

Or it could be ducted out the back. Or both preferably.

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Sat May 21, 2005 6:40 pm

I have just ordered one to experiment (play) with -
My intention is to place 2 fans one each side blowing inwards with just enough flow to get the air through the fins and use the 120mm rear fan to suck out the hot air that comes out of the gap in the middle(possibly with some ductung to controll the airflow) thus (I hope) getting the hot air out of the case before it heats up the case and reducing the Very high (Antec Sonata) case temps without greatly increasing noise hopefully it will be Quiter than the Zalman 7000 cu that is on it at present (which has become louder over time fan now has an uneven grittines to it's bearin noise)
The system is on an Asus P4G8x which does not fit the Thermalright coolers (current ) it does take the SP94 which is no longer available (Damm) so I will give this a go (unless Intel pulls their fingers out of their A**es and bring out an efficient CPU I will most likely have it for quite a while) CPU is 3.06 ghz and is very (not noticeably)slightly slower than a 3.2 that I also use.So other than the notorius "PressHot" there is nothing worth upgrading it to in the intel range.Dual core AMD might be a way to go but I wll wait till other people have tried and proven them - they might wind up as hot as "PressHots".

Webfire
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Post by Webfire » Tue May 24, 2005 10:44 am

You guys should check out this review:
http://www.fan-x.de/testkcpu001_1.htm
He compared the TT Sonic Tower, the TR XP-120 and the Titan Vanessa L-Type. In the other review on that page he made a review of the Noiseblocker Cool Scraper, also a nice cooler.

It's made by a member of silenthardware.de/forum. He's also registered here under the name jOcKeL.
Well he doesn't have the proffesional equipment for sound recording. But he described it very well and that's helpful too.
But most of you know how much noise e.g. the Yate Loon D12SL-12 produces.

hazindu
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Post by hazindu » Tue May 24, 2005 11:12 am

I rarely say this about a Thermaltake product, but that thing seems to have some merit, at least from the reviews I've read. My concern is, if I put one in my Cooler Master Wave Master, would I be able to put the left side panel on. The wave master is not a very deep case, and the sonic tower looks pretty tall, so it may stick out the side.

mongobilly
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The SonicTower WORKS

Post by mongobilly » Wed May 25, 2005 8:10 am

OK, for all you naysayers.

My new system consists of the following:

Winchester 3000+
Asus A8V Deluxe
Radeon 9000 passive
SonicTower
Kingston Value RAM
Etasis Fanless PSU
2 Seagate drives
NEC DVDR
1 (!) Yate Loon (OEM Nexus) running at about 700RPM in the back
all housed in a trusty Antec SLK3700 AMB (stamped fan grills removed, otherwise unmodded).

@1.45 stock, 20h Prime95 leave the CPU temp at 56°C, Mainboard 29°C. HD somewhere between 37-40°.

The system even works stable with the Yate Loon running at 500RPM but CPU Temp will raise above 60° under load.

After undervolting the CPU to 1.2V, I can now run it with the one fan at 500RPM under full load at about 56°CPU perfectly stable. But even at 900RPM, you can barely hear it (and that's BEFORE decoupling anything).

At about 45$, this cooler is very nicely priced, too.

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Wed May 25, 2005 10:35 am

It is on - it works !
3.06/512/533 northwood PASSIVE
I could not fit 2 fans the way I wanted to as there is only 40 mm from the rear case fan to the cooler .
The rear case fan is now acting as a cpu fan (120x38 panaflo L) the fan is conected to the Antec fan only connector voltage and rpm unknown (slow)
the temps I am getting are a couple of degrees hotter at load than a Zalman 7000 CU.
but with a taped on cardboard duct were a little lower - but with the duct the fan started to produce a whine .
Anyone have any idea as to why?
Any way the cooler stays.
It did not seem to be much heavier than the 7000 cu if at all
finish quality could have been better

halcyon
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Post by halcyon » Wed May 25, 2005 10:34 pm

Thanks for the findings guys! This really is encouraging.

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Thu May 26, 2005 2:36 am

pony-tail wrote:It did not seem to be much heavier than the 7000 cu if at all
It shouldn't be (in fact it's a little lighter?) - but it's taller and there were people who weren't fond of mounting 7000Cu either.

Can't find it in the UK yet...

niels007
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Post by niels007 » Thu May 26, 2005 4:06 am

http://www.fan-x.de/

is a good site indeed! I hope he tries various 120mm fans at same RPM and at same loudness on the 120mm cpu coolers. He basically says the 16 blade turbine fans are on a par with the Yate Loon low speed model, and I'd like to know if there are cooling performance differeces at the same rpm! :)

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