New Thermalright Ultima-90 heatsink

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:15 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:
nick705 wrote:Review at Anandtech. Looks like the early promise is confirmed - the only HSF that notably outguns it is the Ultra-120/Extreme, and then not by a huge amount.
Keep in mind, the 120mm fan Anand uses is the S-Flex F, and the 92mm fan is the Panaflo H, both fast, noisy fans. Meanwhile, some of the other HSFs are tested using their default slow fans, such as the TT Big Typhoon Vx, the Scythe Infinity, etc.

A fast, noisy fan on a given HS will always outcool a slow quiet fan on the same HS. Is that what we at SPCR want? If Anand also provided dBA readings, or even fan RPM, the reader would be alerted. But the way Anand tests, the high speed fans always (appear to) win.

Bingo....take the hottest CPU and relatively high rpm fans and a "noise" measurement where the majority of these---get the same mark because of all the OTHER noise and...what we know is that the downsized extreme is an effective design--for it's size.

This does not match things up on an undervolted Brisbane 3600 with a 500 rpm fan---or no fan. That would tell US something. Then again----some sites figure the "best" motherboard is the one that OVERCLOCKS best. Reviews that base most everything on how "high performance" the component makes a GAME....which tends to come down to frame rates,may be relevant if your puter is just a high price toy and you have Metallica cranked up all day long.

Gamer oriented reviews only tell half the story.....unfortunately...that's 90% of reviews

ame · Post by **ame** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:58 pm

from the original review

For test 2 I decided to use the stock Tuniq Fan at full rpm for each heatsink, reviews that ignore this methodology always concern me.

Test 2) E6400 3.7Ghz (8x463) - 1.4875 VCore - Arctic Silver 5 TIM - 120mm Fan (used Tuniq Fan on both for 1 to 1 comparison) - 20c-21c Ambient
Idle and load Temperatures
Tuniq - Idle 33c - Load 62c
Ultima-90 - Idle 32c â€“ Load 57c

Using the same fan at same speed got better load cooling on the Ultima than the Tuniq.
Seems I've found my next HS.

salvador · Post by **salvador** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:21 pm

I found this thread on a google search, so I thought that I'd sign up and ask a few questions.

I'm looking to pick up a new cooler for my socket 939 X2 4200+. I almost purchased the 90 Ultima, but the bolt through kit only lets you install it (on my motherboard anyway), so it would blow up towards the psu and not out the back of the case. It's a great cooler, but it's not ideal IMO.

OTOH, the 90 Ultra with the optional S Clip allows you to mount it any way you want. The S clip is $5 extra, so it makes it $20 at SVC with the Ultra 90. This is really appealing to me.

Now.. I'm looking at that SI-128 for $30 at case mod. It comes with the S clip that allows you to mount it any way you want. This is definitely another option.

I'm also looking at the XP90 and XP90C.

BTW.. I'm not looking to hang a huge slug of aluminum off my mobo like one of those Scythe's or Tuniq's.

Which one of these would be my best option for my socket 939 X2 4200?

How would you rank these coolers from what I mentioned from best to worst?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:34 pm

salvador wrote:How would you rank these coolers from what I mentioned from best to worst?

Define best; define worst. If you want the best cooling/noise ratio of the HSFs you listed, obviously the one with the 120mm fan will be best.

Does your mobo have a 4-pin fan header and "Quiet Fan" or the equivalent in bios, and does your computer spend most of its time browsing (low power) or most of its time playing games (high power)? If your computer spends most of its time browsing, a 92mm fan HS will work fine and very quietly. Either the XP-90 (which is what I'm using at the moment) or the upright Thermalright equivalent with the S bracket.

So the answer is, it depends on your usage.

salvador · Post by **salvador** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:29 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:
salvador wrote:How would you rank these coolers from what I mentioned from best to worst?
Define best; define worst. If you want the best cooling/noise ratio of the HSFs you listed, obviously the one with the 120mm fan will be best.

Does your mobo have a 4-pin fan header and "Quiet Fan" or the equivalent in bios, and does your computer spend most of its time browsing (low power) or most of its time playing games (high power)? If your computer spends most of its time browsing, a 92mm fan HS will work fine and very quietly. Either the XP-90 (which is what I'm using at the moment) or the upright Thermalright equivalent with the S bracket.

So the answer is, it depends on your usage.

Well.. I'm going to overclock this system, but noise is still important to me. My mobo does have the quiet fan feature too. I don't know if I'm going to run it or use my Zalman Fanmate 2 to control the fan speeds.

So, to answer your question, I want a little of both. A good overclocking cooler that is quiet. I actually think that any of these would be a good quiet solution because I have a Thermalright SLK900A on a socket A system with a quiet 92mm fan on a fan controller and it's an excellent setup.

I like the idea of the upright 90 Ultra because it would draw air from my RAM and send it back out over the caps behind my processor and out the back of my case with the 120 mm case fan right behind it. This makes the most sense to me. That's why I didn't go the 90 Ultima route even though I originally wanted to. If you look at the 939 bolt through kit for the 90 Ultima, it only lets you configure the cooler one way. In my case, it would be sending air up towards the psu instead of out of the rear of my case with the 120mm case fan directly behind it.

The SI-128 looks appealing because of the 120mm fan as you mentioned. It's big and heavier than the others, but the weight isn't top heavy like the tower coolers. It also comes with the s clamp, so I can configure it any way I want. The only drawback besides its size is that I don't get the same air flow through the case that I would with the upright 90 Ultra. I have a feeling that it's going to give me a boost in cooling just because of the configuration and I might be able to run the fan slower (and at quieter speeds) because of it. The SI-128 will also cool the components around the socket by blowing air down on them, so that's probably a wash as far as cooling the RAM and components go.

It seems to me that the Ultra 90 is just a newer version of the XP90. From what I've seen in reviews, they are close to one another in performance. I've seen one review where the XP90C outperforms the 90 Ultra and another where the 90 Ultra outperforms the XP90C. Because of the air flow in the case that I spoke about, the 90 Ultra might have the edge because of this.

I don't know.. What do you guys think? Which cooler would you get if you were me?

TooNice · Post by **TooNice** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:08 pm

TooNice wrote:I also noticed that on the pictures in Anandtech. Would that make the Ultima-90 with a 120mm fan taller than a Scythe Ninja despite the heatsink being 11mm shorter?

Any takers? I am looking for a Heatsink that is about 5mm shorter than the Ninja with a 120mm fans - is this the right heatsink for me?