SPCR likely to review the TT SonicTower and the BigTyphoon??

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:42 pm

Elixer wrote:Yes. I don't think it's really fair to bash on TT without being able to make a decent comparison between TT and products from other companies. If you have a TT cooler you're not currently using you should see if you can arrange with a spcr reviewer to send it in and have it reviewed.

I had a PIPE101, but it's not really SPCR material. To perform that cooler needs lots or air, and hence noise. Mind you, and overlock from 1.85GHz to 2.4GHz really wasn't bad on air.....

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:52 pm

I'd have to conclude that the results of this poll is an overwhelming no, seeing as the bottom two options both mean no. It's just the bottom one is more amusing.

The bottom one was actually meant to sort the people with open minds from the lemmings anyways. These are the people who'd bash TT even if they did in fact come up with a good product

Either way, the sum of the lower two vastly outweight those who voted "Yes"

ckolivas · Post by **ckolivas** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:18 am

Why not have a look at this review and see that it ain't half bad: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page ... nictower_1

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:10 pm

ckolivas wrote:Why not have a look at this review and see that it ain't half bad: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page ... nictower_1

Yeah, there's plenty of reviews on the net saying that the SonicTower and the BigTyphoon are great coolers. Thing is, not one of them are from well known and reputable review sites. Every one of them has a big ThermalTake banner at the top of the review as an ad, and this makes me suspicious.

We really need a review from either SPCR or Overclockers.com to get an idea with these things. But then again, nearly all reviews commend on how crappy the coolers retention mechanism is.....

Actually the thing that surprised me most was how high the lemming count was in SPCR forums. Nowhere near as high as at Overclockers.com, but still higher than I expected.

Webfire · Post by **Webfire** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:21 am

Well the thread is not the newest but I thought I can forward you the information I got from a member of www.silenthardware.de/forum . He tested the Sonic Tower with a Yate Loon D12SL-12 (comparable to the Nexus 120) at 5V in between the towers against a Thermalright XP-120 also with the Yate Loon at 5V. The Thermaltake beats the Thermalright by 8°C
Sonic tower: 53°C
XP-120: 61°C
room temperature: 24°C

The testing system is a A64 2800+ Newcastle at 2500MHz @ 1,62V on a DFI Lanparty UT NF3 250Gb. For more information and pictures look here:
Setup with XP-120
or here

Without a fan the cpu temperature with the sonic tower doesn't rise above 57° (With the back case fan I think) CPU at 2400MHz @ 1,4V

All temperatures are load temperatures.

I know most people here at SPCR don't like Thermaltake, but why not test it, when others get good results with this sonic tower. The older coolers were crap but maybe they changed. Give them a chance.

Damn I sound like a Thermaltake salesman

jOcKeL · Post by **jOcKeL** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:30 am

Without a fan the cpu temperature with the sonic tower doesn't rise above 57° (With the back case fan I think) CPU at 2400MHz @ 1,4V

The casefan in the back is a Yate Loon D12SL-12 @ 5V (1300rpm @ 12V) -> 650 to 700rpm.

Before getting the sonic tower i wouldn't believe too, that the sonic tower is such a good cooler, but now i have found out, that Tt sometimes make/build (i don't know what i have to use here) good coolers -> but only sometimes! The most coolers of Tt are very bad without a super turbo fan!

Kwiet · Post by **Kwiet** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:54 am

The Tt monster heat pipe coolers are very interesting. Waaaay too heavy for actual use if you ever move your computer but interesting. I won't pitch my XP90/PanafloL even if it does work better by a few degrees C, but a little competition is always a good thing.

jOcKeL · Post by **jOcKeL** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:10 am

The weight of the sonic tower is 700g. i don't think that this is to much to move your computer to go to a lan party. i went to several lan parties with a hyper 6 @ my old P4 and this cooler has a weight of 1000g.

Another interest thing is that the pwm temps and the graka temps (6800le @ VM-101) are a little bit lower with the sonic tower in comparison with the XP120, although the fan at the XP120 blows over the pwm and to the vm-101 @ Graka.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:57 pm

Thermaltake do make a reasonable quality product that is readily available and usually not overly expensive - mostly not suitable to PC silencers - but an odd product is .
It is not their products I have the problem with - It is their advertising and performance claims which are pretty much plain old "B/S"
I bought one of their first Fanless 103 coolers - It is now a pretty good Quiet cooler (with an attached 92mm fan) the temps were just too high to run it fanless on a 3.2gig northy. So they are not on my favourite company list - but niether is Zalman (a favourite here on SPCR) due to issues I have had with their products and claims

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Mon May 09, 2005 7:28 pm

Wow. What a turn around in the polls. When I first posted this it was an overwhelming no as to whether it would be worthwhile reviewing this. Now, it's only no by the small margin of 2 votes.

I guess that might be to do with far more reviews now around for these two heatsinks.

drliamski · Post by **drliamski** » Thu May 12, 2005 6:08 am

mathias wrote:

I've haven't heard anything about anyone actually getting any of the zalman knockoffs, even though some people seemed to like the ones that came with Silenx fans. I think even if they are good, no one wants to mention them because there would be people angrily against them. The Thermaltake fanless VGA cooler, on the other hand, has had possitive responses. And if Thermaltake was to distribute yate loon fans, I'm sure no one would mind.
Thermaltake products also get shot down with plenty of arguments in between the mocking laughter.

I have bought a couple of these to replace stock heatsinks for old sktA and P4 systems, and am pretty impressed. I have both a alucopper and all copper and temps dropped by about 15 deg on the sktA system compaired to stock. Have not tested the all copper version yet as am waiting for a few other parts.

I feel they are justifiable as though they may be copies of a zalman design, they are very cheap and I do ot think that the revenue lost by zalman will affect them, the quality of a pcooler is not as good as the zalman so people who are significantly concerned with performance will sill purchase a Zalman.

In effect I believe these are aimed at different markets, If Xalman produced a cheap heatsink i would probably purchase it!
Saying that the PCCooler HS was of sufficient quality that it does not appear to require lapping, just a simple fan swap!

P.S.
Sorry to jack a Tt thread

mongobilly · Post by **mongobilly** » Thu May 12, 2005 6:58 am

I have the SonicTower staying right beside me (for lack of a board with proper mounting holes as I got suckered to buy Gigabyte

I couldn't test it so far).

For all we know, it performs marvellously with some fan near it (be it 120mm PSU or case fan). The fins aren't THAT close, BTW.

Claiming there are no reputable sites testing it is simply wrong. Silenthardware.de is highly regarded in Germany, they don't herald every crap they get.

As for CPU cooler reviews, I hate to say it here, but I don't entirely trust SPCR on those (PSU reviews are among the bests on the net, so rare to see usable efficiency measurements). Considering that the die hards in Germany can build *entirely* passively cooled (read ZERO fan) prime stable Athlon64 3500+ systems with the NCU2000 and SPCR simply claims it to be a suboptimal solution I have my doubts about SPCRs methodologies as well.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:57 am

Got a link for those? I'd be very interested to see how they managed that. Dissapating 100W+ of system heat with convection is not easy.

mongobilly · Post by **mongobilly** » Thu May 12, 2005 8:08 am

Look around www.teschke.de , those are probably the most hardcore fan haters there are. Some guy in the Forum just recently built a Athlon 64 3000+ with some middle class graphics card, Yesico fanless PSU and NCU2000 for the CPU. Says it runs perfectly for 24h+

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Thu May 12, 2005 9:55 pm

My ambient temps get above 40c in summer I could not even keep a fanless dual P3 running continuously with out the PSU cooking itself , so their base temps are most likely below my 20c winter temps (26c today in early winter)
and keeping a computer cool without any fans whatsoever a little less difficult.
But at nearly $300 AU for a fanless psu - I gave the Idea up - but if someone (even TT ) could make a cooler that was truly passive - I would give it a go .
BUT not until I had evidence of it working properly - especially if it was TT.
With the technology currently available a single fan ultra quiet system should be possible and I for one would be prepared to cough some pretty serious $$$ to get this , and I would buy off any company that would produce the goods , well made , well designed , and working completely as advertised.
I hope TT can eventually do this . They are on sort of the right track . If they do get there I will buy more of their products - I currently have in use 2 of their products both of which are doing their job - After a little customisation .
But definately not as advertised.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Thu May 12, 2005 10:01 pm

hey remember SI-97 ?

mongobilly · Post by **mongobilly** » Fri May 13, 2005 8:04 am

Generally, ambient temps would range between 19-23°C.

You can buy perfectly passive systems from a few companies, actually. Cheap they aren't but they work for all I hear.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sat May 14, 2005 7:21 pm

Generally, ambient temps would range between 19-23°C.

That gives them a 20c head start on me
And it was the PSU that kept failing.
Cpus (p3) were not a problem to cool at all
But back to topic -
I believe that SPCR should review these and other pretenders , the good the bad , the ugly . to let the forum members know what these things are or are not capable of .
Because of SPCRs methodology it would give an accurate rating against known "adversaries" and give us an idea of whether purchasing one is worth the risk .
Most other sites use random fans , with poorly measured Temp figures and generally very dubious sound measurement - IF ANY.
So SPCR staff please give them a test so we can see what they are under controlled accurate conditions.

Chang · Post by **Chang** » Tue May 17, 2005 6:49 am

Rusty075 wrote:
mjw21a wrote:Does anyone know whether SPCR is likely to be convinced to review these two heatsinks.
We're not the ones who need convincing. Thermaltake has always been less than willing to send us samples. They may be reluctant to send samples for the exact same reason you want us to review their stuff.

Ok -- I'll bite. I'd be willing to say pony up $50 or so for SPCR to purchase the Big Typhoon. They could review it and then send the sample back to me once they were done with it. Would that be acceptable? Anyone willing to do the same for the Sonic Tower?

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Tue May 17, 2005 11:34 am

Chang wrote:
Rusty075 wrote:
mjw21a wrote:Does anyone know whether SPCR is likely to be convinced to review these two heatsinks.
We're not the ones who need convincing. Thermaltake has always been less than willing to send us samples. They may be reluctant to send samples for the exact same reason you want us to review their stuff.
Ok -- I'll bite. I'd be willing to say pony up $50 or so for SPCR to purchase the Big Typhoon. They could review it and then send the sample back to me once they were done with it. Would that be acceptable? Anyone willing to do the same for the Sonic Tower?

Oooh, neat idea - lending things to SPCR for review. Might be especially convenient for anyone in the Vancouver area willing to do without something for a little while so it can get reviewed....

Chang · Post by **Chang** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:27 pm

It's actually a slight variation on the link in Rusty's sig -- just a bit easier for me.

Post by **Rusty075** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:27 pm

If you're serious, and are aware of the shipping costs, plus the fact that the product will not be "new" when you get it back, feel free to PM or email me talk about specifics.

Chang · Post by **Chang** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:55 pm

Shipping costs beyond purchase price? I thought Mike said "no need for the 2nd box. Just a return address & note about return will do."

Regardless, the way I figured it'd go would be that I'd cover the costs to purchase and pay for shipping from the online vendor to the reviewer (MikeC?). The reviewer could test it over the next couple of days / weeks, and then send it back to me. It'd of course be used in the review, but I figure it wouldn't be mutilated / chopped up / mangled. If you wanted to save me the hours involved in lapping it, that'd be fine of course.

The way I see it is that it costs me just a little more for something I might buy anyways. It'll just take a little longer to get to me and I might have to pay a bit more in shipping. Assuming I wouldn't be out the product for months and months waiting for the review to actually take place, it doesn't "cost" me all that much.

But I guess what I'd need to know is how much would be enough to cover the purchase price from the online vendor (shipping + VAT? included of course), shipping back to me (if that's what you were asking for), and how long it'd take. If it's reasonable I'd say I'm 95% serious -- it's just money after all. If there's another user out there willing to do the same for one of the other Thermaltake products, I'd be willing to commit all the way.

So instead of just being the guinea pig for a new product, I'm paying a bit more, for a review and a slightly used product. If I was in Vancouver, it'd be a no brainer for every silencing product I bought.

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:42 pm

I'd love to see a SPCR review on the Big Typhoon...... Kind of irrelevant for me though as it won't actually fit in my Antec Performance Plus 660AMG case.....

Still, I'd love to see one of these reviewed.

Jambler · Post by **Jambler** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:14 am

Well, for what it's worth; I have a Big Typhoon and I love it.

I have it on an Athlon64 3200 (Venice) on a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum motherboard. With Cool&Quiet enabled the CPU idles at a cool 23c and when pushed (I'm slightly overclocked at 2250Mhz) it goes up to 31c and sits there for hours. It's cool here at the moment (around 18c room-temp) so that helps, but I'm pretty impressed with its cooling ability.

As for noise, I can't hear it at all, so I reckon its claims must be pretty close to accurate. When I stop the fan (using SpeedFan) I can't hear any difference at all! It's certainly a lot quieter than my old Zalman CNPS7000B. I should be getting my new Antec Phantom PSU this week (currently using Antec TruePower 480) so that should be interesting.

Only downside is its size and weight. It is huge, so I've supported its top end by attaching it to the case's crossbar, and I'm very careful when moving it. This is a price I'm happy to pay for such great performance.

Cheers.

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:04 am

I just switched from an xp90 to a Big Typhoon on my AMD64 3200 Venice which is overclocked to 2.8 GHz. The Typhoon does a better job than the xp90 (especially under load) and the included 120mm is very quiet.

The weight of the Typhoon is always quoted at ~810 grams but that includes the 120mm fan and fan guard. Without the fan and guard it weighs 620 grams which is less than the Ninja at 660 grams.

The Typhoon mounts with screws to the m/b backplate and you can get very good contact with the cpu heatspreader, which may help the cooling. Also the top mount fan allows the use of an cpu air duct in the case side panel.

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:56 pm

Yes, and that's much more likely to give a performance increase than a higher airflow fan fron what I've seen. Higher airflow fans make virtually no difference at all. Certainly not worth the tiny temp drop you get compared to the noise increase.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:55 pm

I am very happy with my sonic tower - It just sits there silently and gets totally forgotten , no noise no temp. issues no problems.
The way a cooler should be.
As for temps it is running within a Deg. or two of a Thermalright XP0-90c - and unlike the XP-120 paperweight I have, it actually fits on a mobo while it is in a case.

iakovl · Post by **iakovl** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 10:06 pm

so the sonictower is a good hsf?
i was looking for a good silent hsf
i gonna do some AIR moding to my rig before going water
i need silent system for my gob

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 10:21 pm

Passive cooler?

Scythe Ninja

/thread

SPCR likely to review the TT SonicTower and the BigTyphoon??

Should SPCR review the TT SonicTower & TT BigTyphoon

back to the topic...

Re: SPCR likely to review the TT SonicTower and the BigTypho

Re: SPCR likely to review the TT SonicTower and the BigTypho