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Asetek VapoChill Micro Showdown


Date
: 09/23/05 – 03:21:00 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Asetek Inc.

Price:
43 Ultra Low Noise / 34 Extreme performance / 28 High-end

Just over a month ago I was given the pleasure of reviewing Aseteks blockbuster little CPU cooler the VapoChill Micro. At the time I was only given the one model, the Ultra Low Noise. Recently I was greeted with another shipment from the Denmark based cooling giant. In the small box were the other fans that accompany the remaining two models in the VapoChill Micro series. With the three different fans in my possession, I was now able to effectively compare the three models.

The VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise is at the top of the pyramid sporting an ultra silent fan that cools extremely well while remaining invisible in your system. The next in line is the VapoChill Micro Extreme Performance designed for the highest performance possible out of the VapoChill Micro series. Both of these models come equipped with fan controllers. The cheapest of the three is the VapoChill Micro High-end and it does not come with a fan controller but is a 3-wire fan so it does have PWM abilities. Today we will be putting the three fans up against each other in a head to head showdown to see what they all offer and to pick a winner.

Page 2 : Specifications

I am not sure if Asetek is trying to be secretive about the fans used on the three different models but the fans themselves give no indication of a model number or any other information with the exception of the Ultra Low Noise model which is a Panaflo fan made by Panasonic. Because of this lack of info on the fans, the only information that I could find was lifted from the Asetek web site.

High-End

Extreme-Performance

Notice the information in the brackets of the High-End model? the Asetek website has some wrong information about the High-End fan listed. The other note that I don't think I have to point out is the fact that the first two fans use a 4-wire connection where the Ultra Low Noise is only a 3-wire fan. I was confused at first, but after talking with Asetek I was informed there was a mix-up with production that has been rectified and all models will come with a 3-wire fan.

Ultra Low Noise

We can see that the first two models use a generic 90mm fan with a basic sleeve bearing while the Ultra Low noise models come equipped with a 90mm Panaflo fan built with a hydro wave bearing. The Ultra Low Noise Panaflo fan is rated for almost 20,000 working hours more than the other two models which make it well worth the extra money right there. Let's do some testing and see if the performance can justify the extra price as well.

Page 3 : Testing & Performance

I will use the exact same setup that I did for the original review aside for the change in power supply. The list of components is as follows…

For each fan, I applied thermal paste and mounted the cooler, the system was booted and left to idle for 5 minutes while monitoring temperatures to ensure the cooler was correctly mounted. At the 5 minute mark, Prime95 was run on Torture Test Blend for 3 hours. At the end of the 3 hours the temperatures for the CPU and MB were recorded with data supplied by SpeedFan. I had also placed a temperature probe inside the fins of the NB cooler on the base, as seen in the photo above, and recorded the temperature at the 3 hour mark from that as well. Prime95 was then stopped and closed and the system sat idle for 1 hour with no activity except any normal Windows services and processes alongside SpeedFan. It was then that the temperatures were recorded again using the same methods for the chart below. During the testing period, room temperature remained between 23 and 24 degrees Celsius and as stated, there was no additional fans cooling the motherboard in any way.

In addition to the NB temperature probe, I taped a probe to the first stick of RAM to gauge the effects of the air being directed to the motherboard surface by the fan duct. I also placed a probe at the top of the case near the exhaust vent to keep an eye on the case temperature during testing. Results from both of these probes will be plotted in the charts below. We will now look at those charts starting with the load results…

I decided to run the fans at their full speed and then at the same speed for a direct comparison. It is evident that the Extreme-Performance with the higher RPM has a slight advantage at full speed. However, with that performance increase there is a substantial increase in noise as well. I would even go as far to say that the noise is greater than the stock HSF that comes with AMD64 socket 939 CPUs. At 2300 RPM all of the temperatures look identical for the three different fans. The RAM shows a slightly lower temperature with the ultra Low Noise fan which would indicate a little more air being pushed but not to any significant amount.

As expected, the Idle results do not show a huge favor to any of the fans but once again the Extreme Performance does show a degree or two advantage at full RPM. The one number that does stand out is the northbridge temperature of the Ultra Low Noise at the 1600RPM speed. It appears that there is just not enough air being drawn over the passive cooler by this fan RPM to sufficiently cool it.

Overall the Noise is not bad on any of the fans with the exception of the Extreme Performance at the full RPM of 3800. The performance gains are not justifiable of the noise but, with the included fan controller, this can be remedied by turning it down to a little over half where it runs at 2300RPM and makes no more noise than the High-End model at the same RPM only increasing the CPU temp by a degree or two at most. Let's move on to the next page where we can see who I think the overall winner of this head-to-head battle is.

Page 4 : Conclusion

As we can see in the testing numbers there is not a huge difference between the three models and because of this there is no single winner. Really, they are all winners in certain setups and situations.

The High-End model is one heck of a budget cooler as it comes in as the cheapest of the three and is essentially the same cooler as the other two models. It does not come with a fan controller and because of this, it is left to run at 2800RPM all the time. At this speed the fan is not overly loud but it is not silent. If you have a fan controller in your system or a PWM control header on your motherboard that you can plug this fan into then save some money and purchase the lowest model as it is very quiet when just turned down slightly to around 2300RPM and the noise at this RPM is nearly identical to the other two.

The Extreme Performance model is the most powerful of the three and it does show an advantage at the high RPM of 3800. If noise is not an issue, then you will need this one as it clearly outperforms the other two fans. Even if noise does factor into your decision, this is still a smart purchase as a fan controller comes with it and you can simply turn it down to where the noise is acceptable for your system and know that the performance is there when you need it.

The Ultra Low Noise model is definitely the most expensive and rightfully so. The fan is rated for 2/3 a longer life than the other two and it comes with a fan controller as well. At the full RPM of 2300 it is slightly quieter than the other two fans at the same RPM but not by a lot. When turned down just slightly by a few hundred RPM this fan runs indistinguishable from any other fan you might have in your system giving you virtually invisible performance. If you are building the quietest case possible then I highly recommend this model as the performance at even 1600RPM is amazing and at that speed you can not hear this fan moving.

Once again, I would like to thank Asetek for providing the three samples for comparison.