Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
I'll look more closely at the reviews for the ThermalTake products later.
If you want my opinion, Citarella's reviews at OverClockers.com are the most "scientific" and reliable.
His review of the Ninja -- a month later than the review in August which drove me to the ThermalRight SI-120 -- is most revealing.
The Ninja marginally outperforms the SI-120 at the "top-end" of fan rpm and CFM -- with a minimum thermal resistance of 0.13 C/W in comparison to the SI-120's 0.14 C/W.
But also interesting, I think, is the same comparison at the "low-CFM / low-rpm" (low-noise) level, with the SI_120 marginally outperforming the Ninja -- 0.18 to 0.19.
I still cannot explain how my own setup shows a much lower TR value for the SI-120, but since I would've had to completely revise my motherboard duct for the Ninja -- as opposed to moving "up" from an XP-120 to an SI-120 -- I guess I'm not crestfallen with these more recent results.
You'll also notice another review in which they conclude that the XP-120 and SI-120 were virtually the same with the same performance. But that is a gross error -- born out in several other reviews and independent data.
I've posted a series of observations on my OC'd Prescott system and the SI-120, while we've had mixed "opinions" that AS5 either makes a difference or "cures gradually over time." Earlier, with the identical setup, Mosfet sinks and mobo duct, a room-ambient of 68F produced a CPU idle value of about 89F. It now bounces between 86F and 87F at the same room-ambient.
I guess that dispels another myth . . . .
A colleague who has a water-cooled system reviewed my own results, and agreed with me that single-digit differences from room-ambient in Celsius make anything but CHILLED water-cooling a waste of money in comparison to these new heatpipe coolers.
Last week, I sent my observations at several room-ambients to ThermalRight, concluding in a rhetorical question "What do you folks have on the drawing board for NEXT year?"
Bob, a tech-rep at ThermalRight, wrote back that something is definitely "in the works," that it's pretty good, but he can't let the cat out of the bag just yet.