Introduction:

Today I’ll be taking a closer look at asetek’s first CPU air cooled solution, the Vapochill Micro Ultra Low Noise.

This quite unique heatsink construction will be thrown in the competition ring with the Thermalright XP-90C and Scythe SHOGUN which have proved to be among the top performers in Madshrimps latest A64 HSF roundup

So the Vapochill Micro, it comes in three different flavors, “High End”, “Extreme Performance” and the one reviewed today “Ultra Low Noise”.

The difference between the versions is the presence of a fan controller and the type of fan;

The package of Micro Ultra Low Noise contains:

Vapochil Micro Ultra Low Noise

Ventilator for Ultra Low Noise version

A transparent fan duct

4 push pins to install the fan on the fan duct

A fan controller + screw.

Power cable for the fan controller

Cable to link rpm measurement to mainboard

Short manual

Heatsink hold-down plate




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A complete package, lot’s to puzzle you might think? Well the website states that this cooling unit can be installed in 29 to 30 seconds. But that’s a bit optimistic.


Specifications:

The fully detailed specifications and complete information can be found here.

Ultra Low Noise CPU cooler and still capable of removing up to 150W. A revolutionary CPU cooler based on the unique and patented VapoChill vapor chamber technology.
The outstanding VapoChill Micro™ Ultra Low Noise CPU cooler is the ideal match for any PC in a noise sensitive environment. A real solid, low noise, reliable and effective solution for all common CPUs on the market.

Dimensions (H×W×D): 139×98×50 mm – can be applied in most ATX midi and tower cases

Weight: 278 g (355g incl. 92mm fan)

Tubes (H): 98 mm

Tubes (Ø): 13 mm

Base (Ø): 50 mm

Base (Thickness): 6 mm

By extracting heat from the CPU, a closed sealed fluid will evaporate and reach top of the pipes - this gaseous form will then be cooled by an efficient fan and radiator and turn into a solid fluid form again where as it will hit the bottom of the CPU cooler once more. The recirculation of the coolant is based on gravity. In other words, no mechanical parts and basically unlimited reliability. This circular process will go on and on and keep the CPU temperature cool at all times – even at a low noise level.

As a picture or a scheme can say more than hundred words, so here it is:



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After manufacturing you’ll get this:



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Capable of removing up to 150 Watt of heat from the CPU and weighing only 350 grams, and available for low price, this MUST be the best air-cooled heatsink to hit the market? Let’s find out ->

Installation :

Normally the first step you take when installing a heatsink is getting some thermal compound on the CPU and heatsink, the Micro comes preinstalled with a “layer” of this and it surely facilitates installation for the first-time users out there.


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Installation is straightforward, the Micro uses the A64 retention bracket, you remove the two screws of the bracket, place the Micro and hold-down on your CPU, put the screws back into place and you’re all set!



Now the tricky part is the fan duct, it’s made out of quite flexible plastic and to secure the fan you need to use push pins, so you end up messing around with this construction far longer then it took you to install the heatsink.

The fan duct does not fit tightly over the Micro’s radiator, which means there is room for movement; now add a fan and you have instant vibrations, which leads to increased noise. For a product called “Ultra Low Noise” this is quite an oversight. The Coolermaster Hyper6 suffered the same fate with its fan duct, adding rubber grommets would remove any vibration issues.

The included fan controller does it job well, but the construction of the unit leaves room for improvement, one of the fan power connectors needs a better solder job as during testing the connector just broke off. I was able to reattach the connector with my trusty solder-iron, but how many people have such gear lying around?




Test setup & Methodology :

Piotke's Test Setup
CPU	AMD Athlon 64 3000+ "Winchester"
Cooling	Asetek Vapochill Micro Thermalright XP-90C Scythe SGOGUN
Mainboard	Asus A8N SLI
VGA	Asus Geforce 6600 GT
Memory	2*512 Mb A-Data Vitesta DDR600
PSU	Antec TrueControl 550 Watt

all results were taken with room temperature at ~26°C, but temp fluctuations, different mounting and user error can account up to 1-2°C of inaccuracy in the obtained results. Please keep this in mind when looking at the results. Each heatsink was tested repeatedly; if I got questionable results the test was restarted.

Setup was installed in a case less environment

Noise level of each fan was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A, the sensor was placed ~65cm away from the HSF. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was 30 dBA. The Papst 120mm fan gave <30dba readings so it’s very quiet!

System was stressed by running K7 CPU Burn for 30min (after Thermal Compound’s burn-in); this application pushes the temperature higher then any other application or game we’ve yet encountered. Speedfan was used to log maximum obtained temperatures.

Arctic Silver kindly send us their “Lumière” thermal testing compound which has the same colour as Ceramique, but only a break in time of 30min!

Our contestants in today’s roundup:



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Where are all my fans?

Ah, here they are, I used one extra 92mm fan for the XP-90C and Micro, the Scythe was equipped with a larger 120mm model as it only supports this size of fan.

Papst 4412F/2GLL

Panaflo FBA09A12H

Asetek Ultra Low Noise Fan

Each fan was run at High and Low setting with the asetek fan controller, here’s the RPM readout I got:

asetek high: ~ 2200 rpm
asetek low: ~ 1100 rpm
Panaflo high: ~ not showing?
Panaflo low: ~ not showing?
Papst high: ~ 1250 rpm
Papst low: ~ 675 rpm

I have no idea why the Panaflo did not show values; the asetek offers a wide range of CFM output and drops its noise consistently when you turn the dial to the "low" side of town.


The three coolers installed:



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Performance

I ran the CPU at default and overclocked speeds, please take a look at the results obtained:




The VapoChill Micro delivers very respectable performance, only trailing the XP-90C by 1-2°C and equaling the Shogun in the performance category.

There is another tidbit of information worth mentioning here, the asetek fans seems to offer a better performance/noise ratio than the Panaflo when both are running at 12v; however when the fans are set to “Low” speed the Panaflo takes the lead and seems to push more air.

Noise

Let’s rank the results by adding Temp + Noise :



Although the VapoChill Micro is coming in third, it’s very close on the tail of its two rivals; taking into account that it weighs only 350gr versus the 690gr XP-90C and 790gr Shogun, it is quite a surprise to see this light weight in the same performance class as the others.

Now let’s turn up the heat.



Here we see the heavy weights gain a larger advantage as they are able to cope better with the extra heat, the Athlon 64 @ 2650Mhz and 1.55v vcore is putting out close to 120Watt according to this online calculator.

Burn Baby Burn !

As a last test I decided to see which heatsinks would keep my PC running the longest in case of a fan failure.

The CPU is overclocked to 2650Mhz and running at 100% load, I took down the time needed for the CPU to heat up to 75°C

asetek VapoChill Micro: 4min35

Thermalright XP-90C: 5min11

Scythe Shogun: 7min43

The design of the Shogun allows better dissipation of the heat due to its massive size and weight. The XP-90C really is no good at this, close to double the weight of the Micro, it only lasts ~40 seconds longer.

Conclusion:

When asetek first displayed their VapoChill Micro at Cebit 2005 in Germany many people were interested in its performance, today I was able to find out myself that it delivers, convincingly!

Its light weight and low price might be misleading, but don’t make a mistake this heatsink can stand up amongst the best out there proudly. It’s not without flaws though, the fan duct needs a bit of revising to make it easier to install and prevent vibration and the fan controller needs to be more robust.

Overall I’m very impressed by this "little engine that could" and have no hesitation in recommending this product.

Pro:
+ Very easy installation
+ Feature packed
+ Very competitively priced

Con:
- Fan duct allows vibration noises, and push pins are cumbersome to use with it
- Fan controller a bit too fragile

I’d like to thank Morten from asetek for sending over the test sample.

Questions/Comments: forum thread