Testing heatsinks in the middle of a British summer can be pretty tricky, what with massive modulations in temperature thanks to those frequent rainstorms and the generally hotter ambient temperatures too. However, we still follow our heatsink testing methodology to the letter, using our now default testing methodology and setup.

This includes running our full gamut of tests three times, including fully re-fitting the heatsink to ensure we eliminate any potentially erroneous results caused by variables in the mounting process. These variables could include differences in the tension of the mounting bracket, consistency and amount of thermal paste applied or improper mounting and can seriously compromise the accuracy of test results.

We use the results from the three separate test runs to create a set of average temperatures - that's exactly what you're seeing here in our results tables. We order our results based on the delta T value of the CPU under load – this means the difference between the ambient temperatures that we tested in, and the highest CPU temperature recorded.



Well, it’s a bit a let-down on the side of thermal performance, with the Vendetta 2 recording an identical Delta T value to that of the smaller original Vendetta. Whilst the Vendetta 2 was tested in an ambient temperature two degrees higher than that of the Vendetta, we saw identical thermal performance despite the significantly increased cooling fin surface area on the face of things seems more than a little disappointing, although these results still place the Vendetta 2 well inside the top half of our performance table and only a few degrees off of the top performers.

While there might not be much difference between the two iterations of the Vendetta thermally, they aren’t even in the same league in regards to noise levels. Whereas the original OCZ Vendetta 92mm fan was sanity threateningly noisy at the full flow required to achieve a 25°C Delta T value, the Vendetta 2’s 120mm is massively more ear friendly. It’s still audibly noisier than the best 120mm fans, but is an enormous improvement over the original Vendetta considering their near identical cooling ability.