Heatsink Group Test - August 2007

That Kama Cross looks like a badass engine block.

Originally Posted by capnPedro
That Kama Cross looks like a badass engine block.

lol, yeah it does.

good article - I love the way that the motherboard is bent in all the pictures, some of those heatsinks were a complete bitch to fit wern't they?

Good review but still the issue that the Freezer 7 Pro has not been included. I know it is 'old' but it is the best cooler for the money (not the est outright cooler) for C2D's and C2Q's.

It should be included as a bench mark, if I am going to spend more than £17 on a CPU cooler I'd want it to be better and quieter than the Freezer 7 Pro.

You'll be hard pushed to find people that disagree with this as well I reckon. Most other cheaper coolers do perform as the price dictates but the Freezer always out perform their price band.

Originally Posted by Darkedge
good article - I love the way that the motherboard is bent in all the pictures, some of those heatsinks were a complete bitch to fit wern't they?

I did not notice that till you mentioned it, then it becomes all too obvious. Seems to have got bad once the Scythe Infinity was fitted.

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
Good review but still the issue that the Freezer 7 Pro has not been included. I know it is 'old' but it is the best cooler for the money (not the est outright cooler) for C2D's and C2Q's.

It should be included as a bench mark, if I am going to spend more than £17 on a CPU cooler I'd want it to be better and quieter than the Freezer 7 Pro.

You'll be hard pushed to find people that disagree with this as well I reckon. Most other cheaper coolers do perform as the price dictates but the Freezer always out perform their price band.

Hey MG. Thanks for that confirmation. Have my eye on either an E6750/Q6600 upgrade and had put a Freezer 7 Pro on the wishlist - glad to hear that first-hand recommendation.

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
Good review but still the issue that the Freezer 7 Pro has not been included. I know it is 'old' but it is the best cooler for the money (not the est outright cooler) for C2D's and C2Q's.

It should be included as a bench mark, if I am going to spend more than £17 on a CPU cooler I'd want it to be better and quieter than the Freezer 7 Pro.

You'll be hard pushed to find people that disagree with this as well I reckon. Most other cheaper coolers do perform as the price dictates but the Freezer always out perform their price band.

We did have one but the push pins are broken after many uses - I'll get another in and put it through the same tests as these. :)

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
Good review but still the issue that the Freezer 7 Pro has not been included. I know it is 'old' but it is the best cooler for the money (not the est outright cooler) for C2D's and C2Q's.

It should be included as a bench mark, if I am going to spend more than £17 on a CPU cooler I'd want it to be better and quieter than the Freezer 7 Pro.

You'll be hard pushed to find people that disagree with this as well I reckon. Most other cheaper coolers do perform as the price dictates but the Freezer always out perform their price band.

I totally agree.

For the cash it's an incredible heatsink.

Excellent timing by bit-tech, I was looking at some of these coolers just last night.

I'm very interested in seeing bit's results for the Freezer 7 Pro too.

Originally Posted by quack
Excellent timing by bit-tech, I was looking at some of these coolers just last night.

I'm very interested in seeing bit's results for the Freezer 7 Pro too.

Second.

yay! more heatsinks! thanks for the reviews! ;)

Nice review ;)

That Kama Cross looks real sweet. I wonder what the performance gain would be from using a 120mm fan on it? Any chance you guys could get results using the 120mm fan from the Infinity on it? should give a fair comparison :D

And on the note of comparing the Kama to the Infinity.... the results table on the Kama Cross' page 2 is for the Scythe Infinity not the Kama

For all Infinity owners I can suggest the "Scythe Universal Retention Kit". ;)
It provides a much better fit on the motherboard.
Just recently used it myself.

Originally Posted by FooSai
And on the note of comparing the Kama to the Infinity.... the results table on the Kama Cross' page 2 is for the Scythe Infinity not the Kama

Thanks for picking up on that - I'd looked at this for a fair few hours by the time I got to formatting images. :o

Originally Posted by FooSai
Nice review ;)

That Kama Cross looks real sweet. I wonder what the performance gain would be from using a 120mm fan on it? Any chance you guys could get results using the 120mm fan from the Infinity on it? should give a fair comparison :D

Agreed. I've got a killer 120mm fan already that I won't be using once I upgrade (currently fitted on a thermalright XP120) and it's silent at full speed, at least I can't hear it and that's good enough for me.

Anyway you can check this?

FTA:

Before we move on, it’s worth highlighting the fact that the Infinity’s mounting mechanism is far from optimal again. It’s incredibly difficult to ensure the pins are exerting enough pressure on the CPU because there is virtually no room to get to the pins from above.

The mount pins have a distinctive click when they lock in place. I've had nothing but positive results with this cooler as I can add it to a system without hassle and significantly reduce heat without adding system noise.

When it came to removing the Infinity, we used a combination of pliers and brute force to disengage the four push-pins, which put up quite a fight. This makes me wonder how many times this heatsink could realistically be re-fitted – whether through the pins wearing out or through sheer frustration on the user’s part.

To remove the Infinity the mount pins must be rotated slightly, this will disengage the lock via an internal spring. Once the lock/spring is free on all 4 mounts the cooler can be pulled off with a slight amount of force. I've personally removed and re-mounted this cooler in my own desktop a half-dozen times without issue. After installing this in others systems I have yet to remove it so I have no mass reference. I will say the sheer size can be a bit of a hassle in some cases.

http://www.tacoclub.net/images/junk/guts002.jpg

http://www.tacoclub.net/images/junk/guts007.jpg

It feels like the Scythe Kama Cross is leaking a lot of air out on the sides that should have been force through the heatsinks...

please keep in mind that there are those weirdos out there that don't use C* .... myself included. For the next review would you please include Fahrenheit?

It seems the majority of the heatsinks tested are taller towers. Would it be possible to test lower profile coolers? I know the Zerotherm CF900 is pretty slim but a comparison of several for the small case market would be nice. I don't know what would qualify as low profile but seeing testing in the below 100-mm range would be fine by me.

Some possible coolers are:
Thermaltake Blue Orb II
AeroCool Dominator 140-mm
SilverStone NT06 - Perhaps compare fans mounted facing opposite directions.
Zalman 7700 - Comparing the aluminum-copper and the full copper versions would be interesting to see.
Thermaltake CL-P0006 - Perhaps compare fans mounted facing opposite directions.

Originally Posted by Andune
It feels like the Scythe Kama Cross is leaking a lot of air out on the sides that should have been force through the heatsinks...

You beat me to it, my thoughts exactly!

Originally Posted by Tim S
We did have one but the push pins are broken after many uses - I'll get another in and put it through the same tests as these. :)

Thanks Tim, I hope you don't think I was moaning about it, I just think it's a great hsf. It keeps my Q6600 running at around 33 degrees C for general use, maybe up to 37 after gaming. This is running at stock and in a CMStacker 830 with only the standard case rans and the sig speced machine inside (incase anyone wondered how well it can cool a quad core :) )

Tim, are you aware of the pressure mounting system for the infiniti? It's a wee ghetto thing involving some M4 bolts and a bit of jiggery pokery, but it allows you to get a way tighter fit. I did it myself and although my temps barely dropped because of some unfortunate low-rise caps that I ran into, I can see that for most folks the reported drop of 2-5C is quite likely.

I would of really liked to see the Andy Samurai tested or even the Enzotech Ultra-X. Are there plans to review these two anytime in the future?

Originally Posted by -EVRE-
please keep in mind that there are those weirdos out there that don't use C* .... myself included. For the next review would you please include Fahrenheit?

funnny you say that i have never seen Fahrenheit used in the last err i have never seen Fahrenheit ever used ever in tests on any web site (never on UK/EU and even on USA test results ,USA wether reports are the only ones i know off that use use Fahrenheit still) why are you bringing this up now :? not that you are an weirdo just seems an strage request as it make it Very hard to compare results as well with other web sites

I would like to see an extensive test between: Zerotherm BTF90 vs Scythe Infinity vs Thermalright ultra 120 extreme + others On an overclocked quad core.

I was dissapointed the thermalright ultra 120 extreme did not make it in this roundup.