Thermalright XP-120 vs SI-120

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walla walla
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Thermalright XP-120 vs SI-120

Post by walla walla » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:11 pm

What exactly is the difference between these coolers? I am trying decide which on to get but I'm not sure which one to get.

Aris
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Post by Aris » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:22 pm

the only major difference is motherboard compatability

mattg82
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Post by mattg82 » Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:16 pm

Yes its mainly about compatibility.

The SI-120 works with almost all boards its designed for.

The XP-120 is less compatible, and has issues with a few mainboards.

Have a look at these links

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... 120_p4.htm

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... 120_k8.htm

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... _si120.htm

thetoad30
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Post by thetoad30 » Sat Mar 25, 2006 7:16 pm

Personally, if you can fit the XP-120 on the motherboard, I would say go with that. It has much more surface area to dissapate heat.

walla walla
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Post by walla walla » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:24 pm

Thanks. I was reading some reviews and although the xp-120 has more surface area, it only cools about 1ºC better than the sp-120.
With a customized LGA 775 adapter kit, XP-120 is designed to fit all socket T (LGA775) motherboard. So far, we have not found any board that is not compatible with XP-120. If you've found any, we would appreciate if you could report them to here.
With a customized LGA 775 adapter kit, SI-120 can be installed on a Intel Pentium 4 socket T motherboard. So far, we have not found any board that is not compatible with SI-120. We would appreciate if you could report them to here.
Since both of them are supposed to fit on all LGA 775 motherboards, I will rpobably go with the XP-120

thetoad30
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Post by thetoad30 » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:29 pm

Remember that most of those reviews are with very high airflow fans. When you start taking down the CFM, the XP-120, I believe, cools better.

walla walla
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Post by walla walla » Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:36 am

Yeah that seems like it makes sense since the xp-120 has the fins on the bottom of it.

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Post by jmke » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:07 pm

in my tests inside an antec sonata II with passive PSU and 1x120mm fan as exhaust the SI-120 scored noticeably better.

mattthemuppet
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Post by mattthemuppet » Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:15 pm

I would have thought the SI-120 would have worked better at low airflow as there would be less backpressure from the thinner heatsink, though that's just conjecture as I don't have either the SI or the XP-120 (I do have an SI-97A thought, which is ace).

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Post by patord » Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:19 pm

Go to jmke's website (madshrimps.be) to see his results of the SI-120 to the XP-120. He saw a 4-5c diff in favor of the SI version in a closed case environment compared the open test setups most other reviewers did (which show only a 1c diff).

I have both versions as well, and had similar results as jmke. In a closed case environment (antec p160 + seasonic ss12-500) I saw an avg of 3-4c diff with the SI coming out on top.

walla walla
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Post by walla walla » Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:32 pm

Thanks a lot. I will probably go with that, unless I decided to get the ninja. I probably won't thouhg because i want the fan to cool the motherboad.

thetoad30
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Post by thetoad30 » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:34 pm

:shock: A 4-5C difference? Wow. I wonder if someone can explain that to me, because right now it doesn't make any sense. I'm not arguing with the results, however.

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Post by jmke » Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:25 pm

hard to say, but the SI-120 is taller; so longer heatpipes, and the base is wider.

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Post by JJ » Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:06 am

I just installed an SI-120 tonight. Here's a potential problem that I haven't seen mentioned: The heatsink is so tall that once you mount a fan on it, particularly a 38mm thick fan, there may not be much room between the top of the fan and the case's side panel. I'm no engineer, but I would think that's almost certain to have an effect on the efficiency of the fan.

With a Panaflo L1A 120x38mm fan on top of my SI-120, in an Antec TX-635 case (same size as the P150) there's only about 1 1/2" of space to the side panel. A 25mm fan would be better, giving 2". Still better would be the XP-120 if it will work on your motherboard.

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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:56 pm

jj - that's just crying out for a side panel duct. Dremel, bit of thin foam and some cardboard and you'll have nice cool air for your CPU :)

as to the temp difference between XP-120 and SI-120, I'd personally guess that it's due to less back pressure in the more open SI design. The XP's a high performance HS with lots of close spaced fins that go down along way. As such it's likely to have a fairly high impedence to air flow. This isn't a problem with high CFM fans as they can overcome the backpressure and force the air through the HS, but low CFM fans (like the Nexus) can't. So theoretically the SI-120, even though it still has the fan spacing, should offer less impedence and therefore higher airflow and cooling with low CFM fans.

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Post by JJ » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:21 pm

mattthemuppet wrote:jj - that's just crying out for a side panel duct. Dremel, bit of thin foam and some cardboard and you'll have nice cool air for your CPU :)
The case actually has a duct - one of those extendable jobs, but it had to be removed just to clear the heat/fan assembly. There's also a second, smaller opening a little lower on the side panel, for the video card I assume. I'd planned to cover both of them in order to give better front to back cooling (hopefully better airflow over the hard drives where I'm using a low speed Nexus fan) as well as to block direct noise from the CPU fan.

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Post by PositiveSpin » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:26 pm

thetoad30 wrote::shock: A 4-5C difference? Wow. I wonder if someone can explain that to me, because right now it doesn't make any sense. I'm not arguing with the results, however.
The XP120 has the fan blowing into a somewhat closed space - the air must blow in, then make a right-angle turn and exit sideways, all in the narrow gap between fins. Potentially results in dead spots in the middle where the air's not flowing.

The SI120 has the fan blowing through the fins into open space - means next to no back pressure, so the air flows smoothly (and quietly!) and there are no dead spots.

Yes, the XP120 has bigger fins, but the extra metal isn't particularly useful, because it's mostly retarding the airflow.

That make sense?

mattthemuppet
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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:39 pm

jj- sorry, wasn't familiar with your case :oops: When I installed my SI-97A+YL 25mm fan, I needed to remove the extendable tube, cut down the tube fixed to the case wall and reattach the extendable tube to get the right hight. Perhaps it might be worth experimenting with some cardboard and cellotape to use the provided hole and make your own tube/ duct?

I don't think it interferes too much with the airflow through my case (though admittedly I haven't sealed the hole and removed the duct to test) as both the CAG and front intakes are foam filtered, the graphics card vent on the side is sealed and all possible openings other than the one in front of the HDD are sealed (with a sheet of A4 paper cut to shape). The 2 YL exhaust fans (1xD12SL12 in the PSU, 1x D12SM12 on the case, both @5v) together pull enough air though the case to keep my 7200.7 120GB at 35-40C. I avoided a front intake fan as I found it made marginal difference (2-3C) cooling the HDD.

patord
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Post by patord » Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:08 pm

One thing I noticed is that there are two cooling paths with the SI-120.

1. the top finned section which is cooled directly with a 120mm fan
2. the base plate that mounts to the CPU which is a few from the top fins.

The air, even if warmed from the aluminum fins at the top of the hs, can provide secondary cooling to the base plate. Just as it can provide secondary cooling to your RAM and MOSFETs, depending on the fan speed and how you mount the 120mm fan.

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