Introduction

Hot on the heels of our previous CPU cooler reviews we bring you our long awaited coverage of the most high end CPU cooler out there, the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. When Thermalright introduced their vanilla early Ultra-120 in 2006 the AMD Athlon 64 systems were quite popular as the Intel Conroe had not launched yet. We tested this new cooler on our reference Athlon 64 system and found the results to be less than impressive.

The reason for this apparent lack of performance was due to how the cooler was mounted on the CPU, on Athlon 64 only two mounting points were used, offering less than ideal mounting pressure. Last year we re-tested the Ultra-120 on the new reference system based on S775. Using four mounting screws the heatsink was secured with ideal mounting pressure on the CPU, the performance results were very different from our earlier findings, the Ultra-120 took first spot in our performance charts and remained there ever since June 2007.

It took another Thermalright product to push the Ultra-120 from top spot, the IFX-14 monster heatsink was capable of delivering the best CPU temperatures with low/medium speed fans. Only when paired with high speed fans the Ultra-120 remained superior.

This brings us to today, with help of Sidewinder Computers Systems Inc. an enthusiast online computer shops based in Indiana, USA, we obtained a sample of the notorious Ultra-120 *killer*, the Ultra-120 eXtreme.



Specifications & In the Box

• Dimension : L63.44 x W132 x H160.5 mm (heatsink only)
• Weight :790g (Heatsink Only)
• Recommended Fan :All 120mm Fan

The first set of specs are from the Ultra-120, the second set the new Ultra-120 eXtreme. An extra 45 gram differentiates these products. The extra weight comes from the eXtra heatpipes, the original featured 4, the new one gets 6!



Inside the box you’ll find mounting gear for AMD AM2 and Intel S775 platforms, an installation manual, fan clips and anti-vibration strips, a sticker and a tube of thermal paste.

Let’s take a closer look ->

Closer Look

Thermalright didn’t spend a whole lot of time tweaking the Ultra-120 design; in order to increase the amount of heat the heatsink can effectively remove they added 2 heat pipes, this makes the base of the heatsink quite cramped as you will see in the photos, it’s basically a collection of heat pipes.

The fin design and fan mounting clips remain the same; the dimensions of the eXtreme are the same as the original. So from most angles the two heatsinks are identical.




The Ultra-120 eXtreme takes advantage of the 120mm fan size but it not very deep, as you can see in the photo below, approximately the depth of 2x120mm fans.



In the photo above you can already see the large collection of heat pipes at the base, the next one shows it more clearly:



The base is flat with small traces of machine lapping.



Time for installation ->

Installation

As was the case with the Ultra-120, the eXtreme requires motherboard removal for installation of a custom back plate and new S775 mounting bracket, the design has slightly changed to allow it to pass between the heat pipes.

The heatsink is secured with 4 screws and can be left installed when transporting your system. We had no clearance issues around the CPU socket as the bracket is quite compact and the eXtreme fins leave clearance for fancy northbridge cooling solutions.



Before we install the fan you have to stick these two anti-vibration strips here:



We advise to install the fan on the heatsink before you reinstall the motherboard inside the case, especially if you have a smaller case, access to the fan clip can be near impossible.



Note that in the photo above we have modified the GlobalWin NCB fan to allow the standard clips to be used, “rib” type fans are not support by the Thermalright clips, only “Flange” type.



This allows installation of 120x120x25mm and the larger 120x120x38mm fans with one set up clips, but if you have a “rib” type fan, you’ll to improvise.

Onto the performance tests ->

Test Setup and Competition

We build a S775 system with parts from Alternate.de, the CPU is one hot running Pentium 4 524, 3.06Ghz. It is mounted on a Swiss-army knife equivalent of motherboards: an Asrock 775Dual-VSTA.



The mounting system on S775 is quite straight forward and well thought out, 4 holes around the socket serve as mounting points for the push pins on the standard Intel cooler. Installation is a snap, and removal is very easy too.



With the stock cooling and at stock voltage the 3Ghz P4 was running stable at 3.68Ghz, quite a nice improvement from default speeds.

A Watt Meter recorded peak power consumption under heavy CPU load at 138W, which is less than our previous Athlon 64 setup which consumed up to 165W. The Asrock bios lacks CPU voltage manipulation, so at default voltage is seems this Prescott setup is more power friendly then the over-volted AMD system.

We’re using a compact Antec Sonata II mid tower case, swapped out the PSU for a passive model from FSP rated at 400W, the outside of the PSU case never went past 40°C during our stress tests,

Intel S775 Setup
CPU	Pentium 4 524 @ 3628Mhz - 1.36v vcore
Mainboard	Asrock 775Dual-VSTA
Memory	1 * 512Mb Mushkin PC3200 LVLII V2
Other	Antec Sonata II with AcoustiFan DustPROOF 120mm @ 5v in the rear as outtake (mounted with soft-mounts) ATI R9000 Passive Cooling FSP ZEN 400W Passive Cooled PSU Seagate 7200.8 200Gb HDD in Scythe Quiet Drive

in-take temperature was measured at 22°C for all tests, but temp fluctuations, different mounting and user error can account up to 1-3°C of inaccuracy in the obtained results. Please keep this in mind when looking at the results. Each heatsink was tested repeatedly; if we got questionable results the test was restarted.


example: dBA meter is placed right at the edge of the case - with side panel removed

Noise level of each HSF combo was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A, the sensor was placed ~5cm away from the side of the case with panel removed. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was 36dBA! with system running without HSF fan.

System was stressed by running K7 CPU Burn for 30min (after Thermal Compound's burn-in); this application pushes the temperature higher than 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!

Arctic Silver's ArctiClean was used to clean off thermal paste of the CPU and heatsink between tests

Fans used for comparison

Delta FFB1212VHE 120x38mm Very High Speed provided by Sidewinder Computers

151CFM – 3200RPM – 12V fan

To eliminate as much variables in the tests we test each heatsink with a "reference" fan if it can be mounted.

GlobalWin NCB 120x120x25mm fan with 41.7CFM rating.

Delta NFB0912L 92x92x25mm fan with 42CFM rating.

Delta FFB1212VHE 120x120x38mm with 151CFM rating.

The Competition

These are the heatsinks we have tested so far on this platform and will compare the NH-U12P to:

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Auras CTC-868

Auras GTO-990

Auras LPT-709

Coolermaster Vortex 752

Coolermaster Sphere

Coolermaster Hyper 212

Coolink Silentator

Coolermaster Eclipse

Coolermaster Hyper TX

Coolermaster GeminII

Coolermaster Mars

Evercool Buffalo

Noctua NH-U12

Noctua NH-U12P

OCZ Vendetta

Rosewill RCX-Z5-Ultra

Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX

Scythe ANDY Samurai Master

Scythe Kama Cross

Scythe Katana 2

Scythe Ninja

Thermalright IFX-14

Thermalright SI-128

Thermalright Ultra-120 A

Titan Amanda TEC

TTIC BIG

TTIC NPH-1000

Tuniq Tower 120

Ultra ChillTec Thermo Electric CPU Cooler

ZEROTherm BTF90

Zalman CNPS9700LED

Zalman CNPS8700

and three Intel stock heatsinks:

Intel Reference Alu (included with older Pentium 4 S775 and Intel E2xxx)

Intel Reference Alu/Cu (included with Core 2 Duo models)

Intel Reference Alu/Cu Big (included with Core 2 Quad models)

Onto the results ->

Performance Results

Here we compare the performance of Ultra-120 eXtreme with different fans, fan speeds and display the data in a chart showing both maximum CPU temperatures obtained under load, as well as noise levels at those settings.

We sorted the obtained data by Noise level ranges, then by lowest CPU temp. Since we measure our dBA level from very close distance, the numbers by themselves have little value without some information. Ambient noise in the room was 36dBA, so we used the following “categories”:

Extremely Noisy: >57dBA. These heatsinks can be heard from the room next door, if you are into overclocking the results obtained here will be most interesting if you don’t care about becoming deaf.

Moderately Noisy to “Not so bothersome”: All results between >44-56< dBA, while the difference between the two extremes is “twice as loud” the loudest reading at 56dBA will be do-able for most, while those who want it quieter should look at the results below 50dBA.

Quiet to Whispher Quiet: Any result under 44dBA is included here, you’ll have to focus to hear the fan running with these CPU coolers, on most you’ll be unable to do that unless you take the PC in very very quiet room and open the side panel and have no other actively cooled component inside the PC.

In the chart below we have added a few descriptions after each heatsink’s name to tell you how we tested them.

We hooked the fan up to a Zalman Fanmate2 which gives 11V at “@ High” and 5V at “@ Low”.

Some heatsinks did not allow manual fan speed regulation, those are marked with “@ Auto”

While testing some of the heatsinks with their fan "@ Low" the system overheated, instead of reporting no data, we decided to measure the fan noise and stop fiddling with the fan controller when the dBA meter read 45dBA. These results are marked “@ Low(er)” in the chart.

“+Stock” means tested with the fan included with the heatsink, “+Papst” or “+NCB” or “+Delta” or “+Delta 3200rpm” means respectively that the heatsink is tested with a 120mm Papst fan, 120mm NCB Globalwin fan, Delta 92mm or Delta 120mm High Speed fan.



Results explained and conclusive thoughts on the next page ->

Performance Results Explained

Looking at the overall results the Ultra-120 eXtreme doesn’t seem to improve a lot compared to the Ultra-120, however this is more likely due to our test system, than the product tested here today.

In order for the two extra heat pipes to have a noticeable impact, the CPU heat output has to be high enough for this extra cooling power to show off. Our previous CPU cooler review, Noctua NH-U12P displayed the same tendency, the improved design and cooling efficiency will only benefit those with a system which has a high wattage CPU; either stock or running overclocked.

Current Core 2 Duo systems, be it 65nm (Conroe) or 45nm (Wolfdale) have a very low heat output compared to older systems; on these systems a high end CPU heatsink will not offer a big benefit compared to mid-range coolers. However if you have a Quad Core CPU those extra cores will require cooling and in this case a high end heatsink will have a noticeable advantage, allowing for lower temperatures at comparable noise levels.


Standard Intel CPU Cooler for new Core 2 Duo E8500 High End 3+Ghz CPU!
(click for zoom)

It’s in our interest that new CPUs run cooler and use less power, but for heatsink manufacturers the opposite is true… who’s going to buy a third party heatsink if the standard Intel/AMD cooler keeps the CPU cool and quiet?

This brings us back to the Ultra-120 eXtreme. It’s target audience is the eXtreme enthusiast who runs his system at high overclocked speeds, using more vcore and thus increasing the need for better cooling compared to the Ultra-120.

Our modest CPU cooler test setup is based on the heat output of your average Core 2 Duo system and thus large differences on the high-end scale are not seen. What’s more, in low noise tests the opposite is true.

NCB @ Low: the eXtreme doesn’t come near the top, offering performance slightly lower than the original Ultra-120.

NCB @ High: Higher airflow shows a benefit, on par performance with the IFX-14 which is more expensive, heavier and harder to install.

2900rpm fan: Slightly better than the Ultra-120, but hardly noticeable.

3200rpm fan: Excellent performance, but not able to best the IFX-14.

Conclusive Thoughts

Two years ago at Cebit (2006) we got our first glimpse of their new CPU coolers, abandoning their previous XP/SI-120 style heatsinks which blew air onto the mainboard, instead they introduced their first tower coolers. The Ultra-120 on S775 took the performance lead and kept your CPU running cool, no matter how high you overclocked.

With the release of the Intel Quad Cores the Ultra-120 had met its match, but Thermalright did not sit on their laurels, the Ultra-120 eXtreme was born.

Our performance tests today show that the eXtreme is indeed better than the Ultra-120, but not worth the extra cost unless you have a system to match its eXtreme nature. The original Ultra-120 handles Dual Core systems without problem, the eXtreme does not offer a tangible benefit here. If however you have Quad Core system the extra heat pipes on the eXtreme will pay off and allow you to run the CPU cooler than before.

Ultra-120 eXtreme Recommended for


+ eXtreme performance for extreme CPUs
+ Support for 2x120mm fans

- ~$15 more expensive than Ultra-120
- No noticeable performance advantage over Ultra-120 on lower wattage CPUs.

We thank Sidewinder Computers Inc for helping us bring our readers a review of this eXtreme product!