Thermalright Ultra 120 +

mariosimas · Post by **mariosimas** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:41 pm

http://anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2943

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:14 pm

Hi, I saw that article earlier and it's interesting that more heatpipes make it work better. I guess that more heatpipes transfer the heat to the cooling fins better so the CPU is cooler for a given fin temperature. Certainly makes me wonder about my Zalman 9500 with only 3 heatpipes and very cool fins

Don't forget they used a 1600rpm 120mm fan, generally SPCR fans would be looking as 600 ~ 1000rpm fan speed. As ultimate silent cooler I'm not sure if 6 pipes will help, at the low fan speeds we'd run it may well be that the 4 pipe can move the heat well enough that 6 won't really help and they provide a little more obstruction between the fins. I think the Ninja is still the best bet for very low air flow cooling, it too has 6 heatpipes.
Seb

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:27 pm

6 heatpipes... <drool>

I've just bought an Ultra-120 am I entitled to a free upgrade?!

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:06 pm

SebRad wrote:I think the Ninja is still the best bet for very low air flow cooling, it too has 6 heatpipes.

12. The Ninja has twelve heatpipes conveying heat from the CPU block to the cooling fins. For manufacturing efficiency, there are 6 actual pipes with the CPU block in the middle, but there are still 12, repeat, 12 pipes conveying heat away from the CPU block.

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:13 pm

The new Ultra 120 Extreme has 12 heat paths made out of 6 heatpipes, too.

I expect the new U120E to be better than the Ninja as all of its heapipes are located above the copper base, while the Ninja has them laid out on two different levels. Of course with all the usual caveats about very low airflow situations.

Kremmit · Post by **Kremmit** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:54 pm

First, a note for anybody else that may be wondering where the rest of the review is:

Several of the pages had no "next page" button at the bottom (at least for me, using Firefox, if it matters). I had to go to the address bar and manually change the page# in the URL. You're not done until you get to the page titled "Final Words"

---------------------

Anyway, sure looks interesting. I'm surprised that they chose to group all the heatpipes at the outside of the cooling fins, I'd have expected the new, extra pipes to pass through the middle.

I've gotta disagree with Seb:

As ultimate silent cooler I'm not sure if 6 pipes will help, at the low fan speeds we'd run it may well be that the 4 pipe can move the heat well enough that 6 won't really help and they provide a little more obstruction between the fins.

The AnandTech test indicates that the U-120X is practically the same (-1C) as the original U-120 with little or no overclock, but that it starts to pull way out in front when they really push the overclocking. That's a new efficiency curve, where the cooler gets more and more efficient as heat goes up.

Slower fan speed means less airflow, which in turn means less heat being removed from the heatsink fins. Which means that slower fan speed = more heat, which is exactly the situation in which this cooler excels. There's still the question of whether the extra impedance from the tight fin spacing and extra heatpipe can offset that advantage in a slow-flow configuration, but my money's on no. I dunno if it'll be a Ninja-killer, but I'll be surprised if it doesn't outperform a standard U-120, even in a fanless test.

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:44 am

Kremmit wrote:Several of the pages had no "next page" button at the bottom (at least for me, using Firefox, if it matters).

Firefox 2.0.0.2 here, all pages have the link.

Kremmit wrote:Anyway, sure looks interesting. I'm surprised that they chose to group all the heatpipes at the outside of the cooling fins, I'd have expected the new, extra pipes to pass through the middle.

I don't think the extra heatpipes would have been worth the hassle of adding them if they were in the middle.

Air flows faster on the sides; in the middle of the fan you have the hub which obstructs airflow and linear velocity of the wings is minimum.

Kremmit wrote:where the cooler gets more and more efficient as heat goes up.

I would look it at the other way. Every cooler has a limit, that's when its ability to remove heat fast (due to evaporation happening in the heatpipes) is capped, and temperature starts to rise quickly because of increasing importance of transmission by conduction.

The 2 more heatpipes on the U120E raise the limit, thus saturation happen at higher temperatures.

Kremmit wrote:I dunno if it'll be a Ninja-killer, but I'll be surprised if it doesn't outperform a standard U-120, even in a fanless test.

Probably not, the U120E will be criticized for being a heavy weight and its tight packed fins, and ultimately labeled as a toy for overclockers and gamers (who obviously must not care about noise

)

However, I'd switch to the U120E anytime, if I could.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:05 pm

basically, you can think of it like resistances in parallel. Two 50 ohm resistors in parallel have a total resistance of 25ohm, add two more, and the total resistance is halved again to 12.5ohm. Adding two more heatpipes reduces the total thermal resistance of the heat pipe cluster. Since heatpipes have an incredibly small thermal resistance already, it allows for heat to be removed more quickly. I find it impressive that the the fins can handle more heat, there must be some optimum between fin surface area and the number of heatpipes, be fun to try and model.

Ender17 · Post by **Ender17** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:39 pm

Kremmit wrote:I dunno if it'll be a Ninja-killer

Not sure what you mean by "killer", but the original Ultra 120 already beat the Ninja (barely).

Kremmit · Post by **Kremmit** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:29 pm

J. Sparrow, good point about the fan hub. My fan is mounted 8 or so inches away from my HS, at the other end of a duct. So I've got no hub-created dead spot, and as a result, I tend to forget about it. Good thing the Thermalright guys are smarter than me, hey?

J. Sparrow wrote:Every cooler has a limit, that's when its ability to remove heat fast (due to evaporation happening in the heatpipes) is capped, and temperature starts to rise quickly because of increasing importance of transmission by conduction.

Well, of course there's an upper limit. I didn't mean to imply that performance would get better and better into infinity. Just pointing out that the U120X doesn't start to really outpace the competition until the heat goes up a notch or two. Fanless systems ought to run hotter, so, theoretically, the U120X should fare better in the fanless test than it's older brother.

Ender17 wrote:
Kremmit wrote:I dunno if it'll be a Ninja-killer
Not sure what you mean by "killer", but the original Ultra 120 already beat the Ninja (barely).

Not for fanless operation. With the other results so close, and the previous test going the other way, the real winner is still in doubt. Margin-of-error could account for all the differences observed, in either test. A "Ninja-Killer" would be a HS that beat the Ninja decisively, and across-the-board. That's the real challenge for the U-120X; to become the default reccomendation around here.

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:25 am

Kremmit I'm eager to see the U120E tested by SPCR, too. Maybe we should just email TR and ask to send them a sample?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:59 pm

I am waiting for the Ultra 120 Extreme too.
Seems to be a better heatsink than the Scythe Ninja except when you want to have the HR-05 on the Northbridge at the same time.
I guess it will not fit then. Seems tight but barely possible with the Ninja.
A picture is shown in this thread.
viewtopic.php?t=38785

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:18 pm

I'm waiting for the Ultra-120 Extreme myself.

At stock speeds my Ninja was just fine on my E6400, and hell, I didn't see much point to changing the cooler when the Ninja did so well at low noise.

However now that my E6400 is OC'ed to 3.2ghz, the additional performance of an Ultra-120 or Infinity was pretty tempting. Almost tempting enough. The Ultra-120 Extreme looks definitely tempting enough to switch to.... maybe. :p :p

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:03 am

Hi continuum, if you do get the Ultra-120 Extreme please let us know the results. I'd be happy to be proven wrong as it could mean quieter PCs, which is what we're all here for

Seb

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:50 am

Just reviewed here. What's surprising is, it beats the Ninja revB handily with an 840RPM Papst 120mm fan on both.

Gunnerbob · Post by **Gunnerbob** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:00 am

I've been toying getting one of these, but putting a Noctua 120mm @1200 rpm on it. Shouldn't have too much airflow impedence, would it?? Better cooling than my Zalman 9500 I would imagine, and darn quiet with a Noctua on it. Only thing is I hope they can/do rotate 90 degrees on the CPU mount, so they have the option of exhausting out the top for all of us P180 owners......my NB HSF interferes with the standard rear-exhaust setup

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:13 am

Thermy FTW! <3 Thermy products.

What is price on this?

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:04 pm

Still haven't seen this for sale anywhere. Has anyone else?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:22 am

Now you can find info at Thermalrights website.
http://www.thermalright.com/

According to Thermalright it has the same weight (790 g) as the IFX-14 cooler (upper body).
I guess this is wrong for the IFX-14 (assuming copy and paste beast was there

).

Old Ultra 120 weight is 745 g (2 heatpipes less than the extreme).

Chocolinx · Post by **Chocolinx** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:59 am

I wish cooling companies would make more products with more spaced out fins. It'd make it a lot nicer for low airflow cases like most of us on this forum.

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:11 pm

If you ask me, 5 degrees improvement is nothing to sneeze about, tight or wide; but they're comparing the U120X with the Ninja B using a 775 platform, so the usual caveat applies.

However, I find weird they did not take the time to compare the U120X against the U120.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:48 pm

J. Sparrow wrote:I find weird they did not take the time to compare the U120X against the U120.

There are still U120s sitting on retailers' shelves that need to be sold.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:51 pm

Hello,

A comment on the angled fins -- I think this is to improve the air flow by gathering in the air better, since they match the rotation of the fan blades?

skidrow · Post by **skidrow** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:42 pm

Thermalright ULTRA-120 Extreme 6 Heatpipe Cooler LGA775 S939 S940 S754 Heatsink *Fan Not Included*:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... ERMALRIGHT

Reg. Price: $64.50 CAD

****************************************
Wait a minute ... what the heck is this:

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... _ifx14.htm

IFX-14:

"Feature

Larger surface area than any other heatsinks (140mm x 120mm) with option to install one or even two 140mm fans
Designed for better air flow management to work with the heatsink fans* and the air inside your computer case
Four large 8mm heatpipes to distribute massive amount of heat fast and efficiently
Optional to rotate the heatsink 90 degrees to best fit your system configuration
Multi-platform compatible backplate for installation on vast number and type of motherboard. No need for complicated tools to convert
Includes a back-side dual heatpipe heatsink (patent pending), which not only additionally cools your CPU but also takes care of the heat coming from the back of the motherboard to extend the life expectancy and stability of your motherboard

Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme Ready

AM2 Ready
---------------------------
Technical Spec.

Heatsink Body
- Dimension : L146.2 x W124 x H161 mm (heatsink only)
- Weigh t: 790g (heatsink only)
- Recommended Fan : All 120mm & 140mm Fan

Back-side Heatsink
- Dimension : L134.5 x W163.5 x H112.6 mm (heatsink only)
- Weight : 130g (heatsink only)
- Recommended Fan : All 80mm & 70mm Fan

Compatibility
- INTEL: All Intel Socket LGA775 processors
- AMD: Athlon64 / FX / X2 / Opteron Socket AM2 processors"

born2code · Post by **born2code** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:52 am

Looks like a Ninja Killer to me.

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:20 pm

There is also an 90. Let me see if I find the link to it.

Like I always say. THermy FTW!

Thermalright Ultima-90 ES!!!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... p?t=137838

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:38 pm

MC FLMJIG wrote:There is also an 90. Let me see if I find the link to it.

Like I always say. THermy FTW!

Thermalright Ultima-90 ES!!!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... p?t=137838

So, the new lineup is the Ultra-120 Extreme, IFX, and the Ultima-90? When will we see some comparative reviews? I don't think I'll be upgrading from the Ultra 120, full load temps are only 44C.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:17 pm

ryboto wrote:I don't think I'll be upgrading from the Ultra 120...

The only people who will are those who think a degree or two C is important - overclockers! It's not as if you can replace a passive Ninja, becuz ya cain't!

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:32 am

The ultima 90 beats the Tuniq Tower ?

Willy Higinbotham · Post by **Willy Higinbotham** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:12 am

MC FLMJIG wrote:There is also an 90. Let me see if I find the link to it.

Like I always say. THermy FTW!

Thermalright Ultima-90 ES!!!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... p?t=137838

Uh oh, looks like we have another winner there. Sweet.