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Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX


Date
: 02/10/07 – 03:55:21 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Rosewill Inc.

Price:
$75 MSRP / $40 USD (Newegg.com)

Today is another one of those days where I get to introduce a new visitor to Overclockers Online. This company is a relative new comer to the computer hardware scene having only opened their doors in 2004 but in that short three year period, they have really expanded their line-up of computer hardware and peripherals to match the selection of other industry leaders. Their product line covers the entire range of computer hardware from cables to LCD Monitors to video cards and everything in-between. All of these products have one thing in common, good quality at a great value.

One of the most competitive divisions of the computer hardware market is CPU cooling. CPU coolers are and always have been the backbone to what has become a tidal wave of success for every peripheral and accessory manufacturer. Because of this, it is only fitting that we introduce the name Rosewill here at Overclockers Online with a CPU cooler review. Rosewill prides themselves on customer satisfaction by providing computer hardware solutions at a fair price and backing them up with excellent service. I can't really review service in a quantitative manor, but I certainly can a CPU cooler.

Today I will be looking at the RCX-Z775-EX CPU cooler for the Intel socket 775 platform. This cooler is just one of a half dozen Intel models that Rosewill produces at this time. The RCX-Z775-EX is a heatpipe designed cooler that stands tall with a 92mm fan providing the active cooling element. The RCX-Z775-EX looks to have some favorable features including a very nice price tag. There is always plenty to cover so let's get down to it, shall we?

Page 2 : Package

The first thing we will take a quick look at is the package of this Rosewill cooler.

Style and classy are just two words to describe the Rosewill package. There are no scantily clad females, no futuristic scenes that have nothing to do with the product inside, just a flat black box with subtle trimmings.

The only images aside from the Rosewill logo and large Z emblem on the front are images of the cooler that is inside. This side has a nice head-on view of the cooler with the included 92mm fan installed.

The back of the package has the basic specifications listed in an easy to read font and color. I won't discuss the specifications here as we will be covering that in the next section.

The last side of the package simply contains a backside image of the cooler showing the fan shroud and heatpipe arrangement.

A quick peak inside the package shows that the fan is placed separate from the cooler in an upper section with the cooler and accessories beneath. We will now go over the specifications we saw a couple images up as well as a look at the fan that is shipped with the cooler.

Page 3 : Specifications

The RCX-Z775-EX package had the small specifications list on the back panel that we caught a glimpse of, here is a complete chart of the specifications from the Rosewill web site. The Rosewill web site, by the way, is quite user friendly and very easy to navigate through. There are also a lot of photos of each product they have which is a very nice feature. Now, let's look at the specs of the RCX-Z775-EX.

I think the image speaks for itself and there isn't a whole lot to explain or comment on. The only thing worth mentioning is the weight and at only 504g, this cooler is definitely not going to be hanging off the motherboard. The specifications also list the base and the heatpipes as copper, obviously they are plated, nickel would be my guess, much like Thermalright does.

The fan is listed as supporting PWM so those looking for a nice quiet fan when it isn't needed are in luck and with more motherboards having the ability to control fan speed in the BIOS, it is nice to see. The highest rated noise level is only 27.45 dB(A) so you should only really need to hush the fan in those extremely silent situations. I normally like to see 120mm fans but with only a 92mm fan, the foot print will be nice and small, and the noise it puts out isn't that bad at all. Plus the included unit is a double ball bearing fan so it should be pretty solid.

Page 4 : Package Contents

We have already seen a couple photos of the cooler on the package but now we will take a very up close and personal look at the RCX-Z775-EX.

These are the complete contents of the package. The cooler comes pre-assembled with the shroud as we can see. The fan comes separate because we have to secure the mounting screws before clipping it in place. The package on the bottom left will be the instructions and mounting hardware.

Along with the instructions and mounting hardware, Rosewill has included a small syringe of Thermal Interface Material and since there is a healthy supply included, I will be able to do testing of all coolers with the included Rosewill TIM for more consistent results.

The RCX-Z775-EX cooler is an upright design with a footprint no bigger than the mounting base. This means that aside from height, the RCX-Z775-EX should mount on any motherboard that the stock Intel cooler will mount…which is all of them. In some cases or certain circumstances, the height may cause an issue but the cooler definitely isn't the tallest out there, not by a long shot.

The fan shroud that is attached via a small screw seen here on the mounting base narrows from the width of the 92mm fan as it moves along the side of the aluminum cooling fins. This narrowing will help increase the pressure of the air moving over the heatpipes and cooling fins. This should aid in the cooling ability of the RCX-Z775-EX without adding too much if any noise.

As we move down the cooler, we take a nice close look at the base and how the heatpipes interact with the mounting surface of the CPU. We clearly have three heatpipes that cross over the center of the base and then angle upwards through the cooling fins. The heatpipes look like they are partially flattened and then sandwiched between the hold-down plate and the actual base. The craftsmanship looks top notch down here and quite a bit of thought looks to have gone into this design, testing results are going to be fun to see.

The base that mounts to the CPU surface is made of copper but obviously plated in another substance because there is no copper color seen here. What we do see is an absolutely flat and mirrored finish. I don't have an image of the reflection but I could shave in this base if I had to. I know a mirror finish doesn't mean good temps, but it is also perfectly flat. The base is extremely thin and the heatpipes are closer to the contact surface than any other cooler I have seen so I am really anxious to see results.

Looking through the cooler provides a good view of the fin spacing and the cooling fins are about the average gap from each other. Most, if not all, heatpipe coolers have a fin gap of about this size and there shouldn't be excess noise coming from the air as it fights its way through. The one thing I really like about the fan mount is that it is tool-less with the included 92mm fan simply clicking in place.

The top of the Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX cooler doesn't have anything too noteworthy to mention but if you look close, you can see some sort of white substance underneath the black plastic shroud piece. Perhaps it is some sort of adhesive, but I am still going to take it off.

No I didn't break the shroud, but yes it felt like I was going to. Needless to say, if you own or are going to own one of these Rosewill coolers, don't take the shroud off as this adhesive does its job well.

The shroud itself is actually two pieces with the plastic clip on the front for mounting the 92mm fan and the metal sides that screw to the base and direct the air. The RCX-Z775-EX is a very well built cooler and the fit and finish are excellent. I am quite pleased with the build quality from my first piece of hardware from Rosewill.

Without the shroud, the cooler looks pretty impressive and we can get a better look at how the heatpipes are angled backwards. I am assuming the bend in the heatpipes is to enable room for the fan in the front to overhang as little as possible over the base of the cooler to keep the footprint small. It could have something to do with cooling efficiency but I think the footprint is the primary if not the only reason.

The last photo in this section is simply of the base again without the shroud and fan clip in place. To be honest, I just like the way the photos of the base turned out, that's all. We will now see how the Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX mounts on a couple of motherboards.

Page 5 : Installation

I mentioned earlier in the review that the installation was shaping up to be very straight forward seeing as this cooler has a relatively small footprint.

The backplate comes with a small adhesive section supplied by 3M. I wouldn't think an adhesive is necessary to hold the backplate to the motherboard but it doesn't hurt. A slightly padded adhesive wouldn't be a bad idea either but again, not really necessary. Having a backplate, however, does mean that installation will require the motherboard to be removed if your system is already setup. Let's first take a look at the installation on a Foxconn motherboard I reviewed a while ago.

The process is very straight forward. Secure the backplate and set the cooler on top. It is then just a matter of tightening the four screws and attaching the fan. The Foxconn 975X7AB has a slightly tall heatsink quite close to the socket and the RCX-Z775-EX doesn't even come close to it.

The fan clips to the heatsink very securely yet is easy enough to attach. There are no rattling or rubbing/squeaking noises when in operation. You can also see the chipset heatsink just behind the cooler in this image, it doesn't interfere with the heatsink in anyway. This cooler really doesn't stick outside of the mounting footprint that much and I don't anticipate any mounting issues on any motherboard to be honest.

The next motherboard up on the list is my Asus P5B-Dlx Wifi edition. I don't use the stock chipset heatsink/heatpipe setup on my P5B-Dlx but rely on the Noctua NC-U6 to cool my north bridge. There are definitely no clearance issues to be found here with this cooler.

The extra height from the NC-U6 doesn't factor in and the memory is certainly no obstacle for the RCX-Z775-EX. Like I said, I really didn't expect any mounting issues with this cooler because it is so well designed. The last motherboard I will be fitting the Rosewill cooler to is the Asus P5N32-E SLI. I haven't had this motherboard long enough to pull its chipset heatpipe maze so if any motherboard out there is going to have clearance issues, it is going to be this one with it's almost fenced in socket area.

Un-necessary heatsinks on all sides enclose the socket area but again, the RCX-Z775-EX doesn't have a problem due to its upright design and small wingspan. The nature of the Socket 775 mounting system allows this unit to mount in any of four directions and the one I have chosen would provide optimal cooling with the hot air being exhausted right out of the case.

From this angle we can really see that there is a lot of room around this cooler, even on a motherboard that is littered with heatsinks around the socket. I really like how Rosewill have managed to build an upright cooler that didn't occupy a ton of space.

The memory also doesn't pose a problem for this cooler on this motherboard. I really should have grabbed my OCZ FlexXLCs to portray this but I think we get the point already…this cooler fits all motherboards with plenty of room to spare.

Here we have the system up and running, ready for action. This is basically how things will be for the testing period of the review. I fired the system up right after this installation for a little while because I wanted to heat the system up and then check the contact patch that was produced with the thermal paste.

This is what I got after 20 minutes of load and pulling the heatsink. The cores underneath the IHS on the CPU are probably completely covered by this contact patch but I was hoping to see a slightly bigger spread of thermal paste. I tried re-mounting a few times with varying amounts of thermal paste but always ended up with this size of thermal paste spread. Perhaps the pressure on the CPU just isn't as much as some other coolers that I am use to. Either way, we'll see how this affects performance in the next section. Let's get to some thermal testing results.

Page 6 : Performance & Testing

The installation went very smooth and no bumps in the road were found. I did point out that the contact patch showed that contact could have been better in my opinion with more pressure. The patch did cover the center of the CPU which is all that matters but we'll see how testing looks to pass judgment. This is the complete list of hardware used for testing:

We already saw the whole setup during installation but another photo won't hurt anyone I guess.

My load testing will be with Orthos Beta on Blend mode. This software utilizes the Prime95 engine and allows for excellent thermal testing by loading both processors with intense mathematical calculations. I have recently adjusted my thermal testing process and will outline it right now.

The only program that I will use for CPU thermal testing is going to be CoreTemp. CoreTemp has a built in logging feature that allows for easy export to MS Excel for accurate temperature averages of its log. I have set CoreTemp to log the temperature of both cores every 1000ms for the 3 hour duration that Orthos will run. I have omitted the first 5 minutes of the run and averaged out the other 14,000+ results for the graph below. I have done thermal testing at the stock speed of my E6600, 2.40GHz / 1.17v, and overclocked to 3.50GHz at 1.30v. The idle result is an average of both cores for 1 hour after the load testing with the system sitting idle.

Stock E6600 with VCORE set to Auto in the Bios

As you can see, I have included the stock Intel cooler and Thermalright Ultra-120 in these results for an all around comparison. The RCX-Z775-EX clearly out performs the Intel stock cooler at the default speed of the E6600 showing a full 10C average advantage on both cores under load. The Ultra-120 does in fact edge out the Rosewill cooler but not by a large comparison. There is only a 3~4C difference under load and 3C gap at idle. The other thing worth mentioning is that both the RCX-Z775-EX and Ultra-120 showed a very small delta between the minimum, average, and maximum temperatures. This should indicate that they can handle much higher heat loads, so that is what I am going to give them.

Overclocked E6600 with VCORE set to 1.30v under load

An overclock of 3.50GHz on air cooling is not the worlds best, but it is pretty substantial and well above the E6600 average. I have increased voltage a fair bit to 1.300v under load as measured by Asus PC Probe. You will also notice that the stock Intel cooler results have been replaced by another Rosewill cooler. This is because the stock Intel cooler can not handle this type of overclock. The stock cooler fails to handle the heat much earlier. At this hefty overclock, we see that the Ultra-120 bests the two Rosewill coolers, but again, the gap between it and the RCX-Z775-EX is only 4C at idle and an average of 5C under load. The smaller RCX-Z2-EX holds its own fairly well, even at this overclock. Look for the full review on this cooler in the near future here at Overclockers Online.

I have included a screenshot of the overclocked testing at the end of the 3 hour period. Overall, I am quite impressed with the cooling ability of the RCX-Z775-EX when compared to the much larger and more expensive Thermalright Ultra-120. Obviously the RCX-Z775-EX is not better than the Ultra-120 but it definitely went toe-to-toe with it despite the smaller footprint, size, and slightly less noise. That's right, despite using a whisper quiet Vantec Stealth on the Ultra-120, the RCX-Z775-EX seemed to produce slightly less noise at the maximum fan speed of 2300RPM. Smaller footprint, cheaper by a reasonable margin, just as quiet with the stock fan, and reasonably similar in performance…sounds like the RCX-Z775-EX is quite a contender to me.

Page 7 : Conclusion

With this being the first Rosewill product that I have not only reviewed but ever owned, I was curious to see a number of things including the packaging, quality of craftsmanship, and of course, performance. I have been quite impressed with all those aspects especially the quality of the RCX-Z775-EX and how it is put together. Every component seems to be really well made and constructed with precision from the how the heatpipes interface with the base to the adhesive secured fan shroud at the very top.

I think it is safe to say that Rosewill really does take pride in the quality of their products and this makes one believe their other goal of customer satisfaction is followed through as well. As for how the RCX-Z775-EX performed, I think the thermal testing results outline the abilities of this cooler quite well. The overclock I tested at and the cooler I compared the RCX-Z775-EX with would have made a lot of coolers look far inferior but the Rosewill cooler didn't back down.

The RCX-Z775-EX showed that it should mount on most if not all motherboards without a problem and the fan that comes with the cooler is not one that you are going to want to replace with another. It is quiet at full RPM and has the ability to adjust the RPMs through use of a PWM header on the motherboard. Needless to say, I am quite pleased with the Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX and at the price Newegg is selling it at, it really is a viable option for many users.

Advantages:

Great build quality
Strong performance, even at high overclocks
Quiet to near silent operation with included PWM fan
Decent price from Newegg.com

Disadvantages:

Added height might cause an issue in some setups
Motherboard removal required for installation
No Canadian availability

Overclockers Online would like to thank Rosewill for making this review possible.