NCU-2000

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 9:56 pm

Scythe has updated its NCU-1000 fanless CPU cooler supposedly increasing performance by 25%. The updated model is called the NCU-2000:

http://www.scythe.co.jp/en/cooler/ncu2000.htm

Also, here's a review (in terrible English) of the Thermaltake Fanless 103:

http://www.teschke.de/heatpipes/News/co ... s_103.html

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 10:41 pm

Those are some interesting system photos at the end.. what case is this?

http://www.teschke.de/heatpipes/Fanless ... -gr-ss.jpg
http://www.teschke.de/heatpipes/Fanless ... -gr-ss.jpg

Note that the heatsink is installed in the wrong orientation; the large side should face the exhaust fan (back) not the top! I certainly hope this design can be rotated, otherwise like with the Hyper 6 you're at the mercy of the engineers who designed your motherboard's CPU socket.. the orientation seems totally random from vendor to vendor.

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 11:16 pm

Well I thought the NCU2000 looked great, but it looks like it can only be installed in one direction. Which is great for convection, but not for ducting. Hopefully we can get some numbers from it soon.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:53 am

wumpus wrote:Those are some interesting system photos at the end.. what case is this?

The case is a Mercury Midi-Tower Aero One. It is aluminium with lots and lots of holes. The idea of the case is too use it with a passive CPU heatsink and a fanless PSU. Natural convection is the only "driver" for airflow in this case.

A quick Google search results in a long list of online shops selling it, but all of them are located in Germany.

To get back on topic. Teschke's review of the NCU 2000 in German.

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:22 am

An NCU2000 sample is in hand; review should be up w/in a couple weeks. It looks impressive.

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:25 am

MikeC wrote:An NCU2000 sample is in hand; review should be up w/in a couple weeks. It looks impressive.

The Thermaltake Fanless 103 performed almost as well as the NCU-2000 in that review. Which means it must be a bit better than the NCU-1000. So maybe Thermaltake has come up with a decent product here, afterall?

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:41 am

Mike, can the NCU be oriented in the other direction?!?!?

Thermaltake didn't really come up with anything.. it looks just like the Shuttle ICE cooler with a few more HPs and fins.
It also seems to have some installation issues.

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 10:43 am

PhilgB wrote:Mike, can the NCU be oriented in the other direction?!?!?

Yup, just like the original.

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 12:11 pm

Kickass

Pics looked like the base could only be installed one way.
Thanks. Can't wait for the review.

bchung · Post by **bchung** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:14 pm

Well, I could be miffed that I didn't wait. But hey, I got my NCU-1000 for $16 shipped.

I'll stick with my NCU-1000, since I already made a new base for it to fit my athlon. That is unless, Mike's review says I need to upgrade =)

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:37 am

bchung wrote:Well, I could be miffed that I didn't wait. But hey, I got my NCU-1000 for $16 shipped.

Where from?

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 1:13 am

PhilgB wrote:Thermaltake didn't really come up with anything.. it looks just like the Shuttle ICE cooler with a few more HPs and fins.

Whatever. It's performance is on a par with the NCU-2000, it's a bit cheaper than the NCU-2000, and it works with both P4 and Athlon 64. I've read three reiews of this product so far--each of them flattering. Are you going to let your "brand snobbery" deprive you of a decent product? That would be sad, IMO.

PhilgB wrote:It also seems to have some installation issues.

Installation is apparently "a breeze" (according to the reviews I have read). With P4 setups, the standard retention mechanism is used.

Two more Thermaltake Fanless 103 reviews:

http://www.techniz.co.uk/modules.php?na ... tent&id=78

http://sepherum.cybiker.com/html/index. ... =19&page=1

bchung · Post by **bchung** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 6:26 pm

aidanjm2004 wrote:
bchung wrote:Well, I could be miffed that I didn't wait. But hey, I got my NCU-1000 for $16 shipped.
Where from?

Fleabay

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 6:40 pm

aidanjm2004 wrote:Are you going to let your "brand snobbery" deprive you of a decent product?

Of course not. Sorry if it sounded like thats what I was implying. Just meant that it wasn't some great innovation, but I'm more than glad that someone has brought the 'ICE cooler' to the desktop.

The installation comment I made was just about one of the pictures. The heatpipes look extremely close to the capacitors.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:37 am

SilentHardWare Review: Scythe NCU-2000 vs TT Fanless 103 I can't get Babel Fish to translate entire pages. You could try paragragh by paragrapgh... http://world.altavista.com/ ...I've not enough time right now.

Could you mount a 92/120mm fan to the NCU-2000?

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 1:41 pm

Sooty the NCU-2000 is designed to be passive

using your cases existing airflow.
Ideally you would want to have a 120mm rear exhaust and maybe a duct over the NCU.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 2:22 pm

That review shows the NCU2000 to be way better w/o a fan and a bit better with.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 2:24 pm

You have to wonder how many cases that Thermaltake will actually fit into. If the HS really is fitted 'incorrectly' its because there's no space to mount it because of the space taken up by the rear case fan:-

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:09 pm

Tibors wrote:
wumpus wrote:Those are some interesting system photos at the end.. what case is this?
The case is a Mercury Midi-Tower Aero One. It is aluminium with lots and lots of holes. The idea of the case is too use it with a passive CPU heatsink and a fanless PSU. Natural convection is the only "driver" for airflow in this case.

A quick Google search results in a long list of online shops selling it, but all of them are located in Germany.

That case is very interesting. I wonder what the balance would be between increased noise from the lack of acoustic blocking (due to the holes) and reduced noise due to reduced cooling requirements (due to holes)?

icancam · Post by **icancam** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:20 pm

Here's the link to the www.teschke.de review that is now in fractured but intelligible english.
http://www.teschke.de/heatpipes/News/co ... _2000.html

I've been using the NCU-1000 with an Intel Northwood 2.0GHz processor with great success since October 2003. The NCU-2000 with an AMD Athlon 64 with the "Cool 'n Quiet" feature has definitely got me thinking about a possible future upgrade. Hopefully, the upcoming SPCR review will address this combination of CPU and the NCU-2000? It would seem to be an ideal match.

Copper · Post by **Copper** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 3:30 pm

MikeC wrote:An NCU2000 sample is in hand; review should be up w/in a couple weeks. It looks impressive.

I hope you're able to generate a C/W rating for this one.

icancam · Post by **icancam** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 5:09 pm

NCU-2000 is now available at newegg for $43.99 (and $5.99 for shipping).

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 6835185109

Copper · Post by **Copper** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 1:42 pm

Thanks!!

I have my order in. Getting one for testing. If works good I'll equip all three of my machines with one.

Copper · Post by **Copper** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 2:20 pm

NewEgg has them back in stock. I haven't been able to find them anywhere else yet.

Jools · Post by **Jools** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:17 am

I installed an NCU-2000 yesterday in my gaming rig: Asus K8V Deluxe, Athlon 64 3000+, Arctic Silver 5, Nexus NX-3500, Nexus Real Silent 120mm. It was a snug fit with the Corsair XMS3200.

I wanted the noise levels to match my quiet net box (which uses a Celeron 2.4 & NCU-1000, and only has a single fan in it's NX-3500). And they do - when it's ticking over at idle:

Room: 25C
CPU: 38-41C
SYS: 41C
HDD: 29C

Alternately running CPUburn for an hour (and then cooling back to idle) has cured the AS5. CPU max temp started at 55C, but is now constant at 52C under 100% load, with error checking disabled for maximum heat generation. The system temp remains in the low 40's; better than the outgoing CNPS7000A-AlCu (which blew hot air around inside).

An impressive figure, yes? Especially with just the two 120mm fans. But... there is a price to be paid. The normally benign Nexus PSU becomes a raging monster after a short while, ramping up with the heat rising from the NCU-2000. The case fan takes care of the heat from the Northbridge, the 9800XT Ultimate, and what little comes from the SilentMaxx HD enclosure at the bottom of the case.

So, I'm very pleased with the temps from the NCU-2000. If anything, Scythe underplay its abilities. But I'm no better off noise-wise than I was with the previous Enermax 465P/CNPS7000AlCu/Acousti 120mm.

The Mercury passive tower looks promising, but surely it must be like a furnace inside. All the heat from the passive CPU HS will go straight up into the passive PSU!

My only alternative appears to be a TNN500A, but they are heavy and expensive - and could date very quickly (if they can't take X800 XT's for example).

Jools · Post by **Jools** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:39 am

I've been experimenting with the case door open today. The NCU-2000 gets warm (not red hot) to the touch @ 52C, but there isn't a great waft of hot air being sucked into the NX-3500. Not enough to cause the ramp-up.

Curiously, running CPUburn for half an hour didn't seem to make any difference. But as soon as I started playing Thief 3, it did. The majority of the heat exhausting out of the NX-3500 actually comes from the PSU itself, not the NCU-2000.

I can only conclude the culprit is my 9800XT Ultimate Edition drawing power. A recent X-Bit Labs article...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... rcons.html

...states it demands 60W at load, and even 38W at idle!

The passive heatsink on the 9800XT gets blisteringly hot. Well above the 52C of the CPU heatsink. More like 70-80C.

Interestingly, the X-Bit Labs article also states the idle and load temps for an X800 Pro as 15W and 48W respectively. Unfortunately, nobody has managed to make a passive version yet - they've all got fans.

I'm going to swap my Enermax 465P back in tomorrow, to see how that fares.

Is anyone here running a SilentMaxx fanless PSU, btw? They seem a little weedy; 16A on the 12V rail. As opposed to 18A for the NX-3500, and 33A for the 465P. I was wondering if one of those would be up to the job, perhaps with the 9800XT swapped for a X800 Pro?

Jools · Post by **Jools** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:12 am

Yesterday I tried running the NCU-2000 with a single Nexus case fan, and a Yesico FL-420ATX (T) fanless PSU. Temps were fine at idle, but load temps shot up to 66C. AMD's max. limit for an A64 is 70C, and an AMD spokesman has said you should aim to keep it under 60C.

Today I swapped the PSU for my Enermax 465P, which has an internal 92mm fan, and an external (manually adjustable) 80mm. It doesn't add much more noise to the Nexus case fan, and best of all it doesn't ramp up playing games like the NX-3500 did. It must be because it's got more grunt; 33A on the 12V line, as opposed to the NX-3500's 18A. Temps are up slightly @ 57C running CPUburn at max. heat - which is more than with the NX-3500 @ 52C, but a lot less than the 66C with the FL-420ATX!

So I now have a reasonably quiet games machine. Swapping the Zalman CNPS7000AlCu out for the NCU-2000, and the Acousti 120mm for the Nexus 120mm has improved things.

I intend to put the fantastic FL-420ATX in my net box. As it's got thermal management, I'm hoping it will only start up its 120mm case fan on rare occasions. 99% of the time it should run completely fanless and silent, as the NCU-1000 keeps the Celeron 2.4 hovering around 31C - the blades are cold!

Something else I've noticed with the NCU-2000; it cools down slowly, a bit like the Zalman Reserator. Temps take a few minutes to come down, unlike virtually instantly with a regular HSF.

Both Heatlane Zens perform magnificently; they transmit no vibration and don't circulate hot air around the case like all other HSF's.

The best combination would be for two fans; one 120mm on the case, the other 120mm in the PSU - but only if you can find one with higher than average ampage on the 12V line, as 18A obviously isn't enough for the A64 combined with a greedy 9800XT Ultimate.

Jools · Post by **Jools** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:19 am

There are (at least) two new PSU's just coming out, with huge 140mm fans inside them.

1) Superflower SF-450TS (27A, 12V)

http://www.techangel.co.uk/reviews/sf450ts/

2) Coolmax CR500B (28A, 12V)

http://hi-techreviews.com/modules.php?n ... le&sid=754

They will probably be the best PSU's to get if you want an NCU-2000.

NCU-2000

NCU-2000

Brilliant Design, Flawed Implementation

PSU's w/ 140mm fans