Ninja/Typhoon/Zalman Coolers Compared

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:42 am

There is an extensive review of these big 3 heatsinks at xbitlabs:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... -cool.html

The review gives a complete rationale of the testing methodology and has lots of good information, including extensive notes on the ease of installation for each cooler.

As always determining what is the best cpu cooler is a trade off in performance, price, noise, ease of installation and the type of
case cooling used.

For silentpc addicts, there are no direct noise measurements as we get in Mike C's excellent reviews but you can interpolate the noise from Mike C's measurements and xbitlabs test fan speeds:

Ninja 120mm @ 1600rpm
Big Typhoon 120mm @ 1300 rpm
Zalman9500 90mm @ 2400rpm

All 3 are top shelf coolers and this review coupled with Mike C's two reviews should help you decide which one is right for you.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 2:32 am

I'd like to see a 'same RPM/cfm/dB' comparison between the heatsinks. It's annoying to see reviews where the fan which is using the faster (therefore louder) fan wins the review, but I'd like to know what HEATSINK is the best, rather than the fan attached.

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:23 am

Unless you are going to use the hs without a fan then that information is still not conclusive. Just consider the review of the Sonic Tower which is probably the best of the 5 reviewed w/o a fan.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:09 am

I'm not a fan of absolute fanless because you can generally reduce CPU temps a lot, even with a very low RPM fan. I'm sure that fans with below 700 RPM are almost inaudible, but I'd expect good cooling gains compared to absolutely fanless.

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:37 am

Yes with a top shelf cooler a low rpm fan will work good, especially if it is 120mm and can move some cfm at such a low rpm. Thats why i like my Big Typhoon, at max rpm of 1300 it is virtually silent inside a case.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:15 pm

Isn't 1300RPM the min?

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:47 am

Right now just surfing the net with very light load on cpu:

room temp 21C
cpu temp 28C
fan rpm 892

This is on a Athlon64 @ 1800MHz. The stock fan is a yate-loon.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:09 pm

Ah ok, so you switched the fan.

I was getting about 28C load with my 3500+ @ 2.2 Ghz with my XP120 and Nexus 120 mm fan. But I get about 32-33C after overclocking to 2.5 Ghz.

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:47 am

Those are pretty good temps. I took the heat spreader off my cpu so the heatsink makes direct contact with the core. This seems to give another 2-4 C lower temps.

I had a xp-90 before the Typhoon. I like the direct mounting method of the Typhoon as opposed to the retention mechanism of the xp-90. You can get more mounting pressure with the direct mounting. But i prefer any heat sink with a 120mm fan.