Thermaltake Typhoon BETTER & QUIETER than XP120 with Pas

[Deathlife]

According to this review, Thermaltake's Big Typhoon, doens't performe better than an XP120 or XP90C with a Silent Paspt... but is quieter.
I'm a bit confused, since the comparision seems quite rigurous. Is the XP120 overvaluated? Or it's just the Typhoon is so damn good. Remember the undervolted Paspt is more or less equally silent than the Nexus, yet pushes far more cfm!







I would like an awnser to this.

[Bluefront]

What exactly do you mean? Obviously the heatsinks don't make any noise, just the fans. So if you use the same fan, at the same voltage, the noise level/sounds would be practically the same.

Now maybe one runs cooler at the same fan voltage....is that what you mean?

[vertigo]

Okay, here's the thing. Notice the noise level is virtually the same between the two of them. The Big Typhoon has slightly less wind noise, which I think is because it sits further away from the board. This is negligible anyhow, because you wouldn't run the fan at 12v.

As for the cooling, it is moot. Realise the weight of the Big Typhoon is 813g, and have a look at it, the weight is far from the board. It would put much torque on the board mounting, etc. I wouldn't risk such a cooler. The XP/120 is much lighter, it is a far better cooler. However, I prefer the XP/90 (aluminium), it is much more convenient and performs really well.

Anyhow, the XP/120 at 7v in that graph reaches 29C over ambient. On a 30 degree day, that's 59C, definitely cool enough. That cpu is overclocked, and we also don't know how the cooling was set up in the test machine. It's no shabby performer.

[PositiveSpin]

I have great difficulty believing this set of results. It claims that the Intel boxed cooler is substantially quieter than a Zalman 7000 or 7700? That the XP90 is cooling better than an XP120?

Makes me wonder if money changed hands to get these results.

[vertigo]

Makes me wonder if money changed hands to get these results.

Don't sling mud unless you can back up your assertion.

[Elixer]

Their measurements for noise are definitely off. First off their meter's range only goes down to 30db and ambient noise is not stated. Also it is unkown how accurate the meter is. I've used a sound meter before and the one I had was especially poor at detecting noise at low frequencies. Then their testing procedure involves what looks like placing the hsf on a unsecured piece of foam. This means the placement of the fan is not precise. Also the foam could shift the cooler a few degrees of axis which would also mess up the reading.

[Rusty075]

Elixer is on the right track, but missed the biggest flaw: distance.

Because of the high minimum reading of their meter, they had to place it 150mm from the fan to get a reading. That is way, way too close. The nearfield distortion makes their readings esentially meaningless. There's a reason why every sound measurement standard calls for distances many times that, usually 1m.

For comparison, the SPCR-standard SLM is a quantum leap higher in resolution - its accurate down <0dBa if given the right testing environment - and even we can't accurately measure the noise level of 5v Nexus fans.

They'd be better off just describing the noise subjectively, that's often a more accurate way of describing the noise anyway.