Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme: Is More Better?
by Wesley Fink on March 7, 2007 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Scaling of Cooling Performance
The Thermalright Ultra 120 was our top performer so far in CPU cooling at stock speeds. The Ultra 120 Extreme, which is the same heatsink with 2 added heatpipes, does even better. As overclocks were raised, the Ultra 120 Extreme with the Scythe S-Flex fan extended its cooling advantage over other tested coolers. The Ultra 120 Extreme outperforms the excellent Tuniq Tower 120 in cooling across the overclocking spectrum. The Ultra 120 Extreme also set a new top air-cooled overclocking record at 3.94GHz with our test X6800 processor.
The Ultra 120 and Tuniq Tower 120 set some very high performance standards for effective cooling in overclocking. By 3.73GHz, the highest stable overclock with the Intel Retail HSF, the temperature at Idle was 56C. This compared to 36C with both the Ultra 120 and the Tuniq Tower 120. The extra heatpipes of the Ultra 120 Extreme lower this to an even better 33C. By 3.90 GHz, the previous best overclock, the Idle for the Tuniq is 40C and the Ultra 120 is 37C. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme drops the idle 2C lower to 35C, and is still at 36C at the highest stable overclock of 3.94GHz. This is very close to the performance level of the Monsoon II which uses active TEC cooling and not air alone.
At overclocked speeds the temperature delta increased as the processor speed was raised, so let's see what happens under stress conditions. While looping the Far Cry River demo for 30 minutes the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the stress test is then reported.
Cooling efficiency of the Ultra 120 Extreme under load conditions was the best tested so far by a wide margin. Compared to the Ultra 120, Tuniq Tower 120 and other top CPU coolers we recently tested it is clear that the extra heatpipes in the Ultra 120 Extreme are very effective in extending cooling performance.
As you can see in the chart above the cooling efficiency of the Ultra 120 Extreme under load is striking. Where the Tuniq Tower 120 and Ultra 120 mirror each other from 2.93GHz to 3.90GHz, the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme creates a new performance curve at a lower cooling temperature. The Tuniq and Ultra 120 are at 47/48 at 3.73GHz compared to the Intel Retail at 71C. The Ultra 120 Extreme shatters those cooling results by maintaining 43C.
The advantage increases even more as the overclock is raised. By 3.90 GHz, which is the highest overclock the Tuniq and Thermalright Ultra 120 could reach with stability, the Tuniq and Ultra 120 are both at 51C, which was the best performance among coolers tested so far. The Ultra 120 Extreme, which is the same exact cooler as the Ultra 120 with just two additional heatpipes, bests both previous leaders by 6C, with a 3.90GHz temperature of 45C. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is still able to push the processor higher, topping out at a stable 3.94GHz. At that speed, processor temperatures under stress remained a very low 47C.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the Tuniq and Thermalright Ultra 120 is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. Other processors tested with the best air coolers ca sometimes reach just over 4 GHz, with a range of top X6800 speeds from 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab with the Intel Retail heatsink.
The Thermalright Ultra 120 was our top performer so far in CPU cooling at stock speeds. The Ultra 120 Extreme, which is the same heatsink with 2 added heatpipes, does even better. As overclocks were raised, the Ultra 120 Extreme with the Scythe S-Flex fan extended its cooling advantage over other tested coolers. The Ultra 120 Extreme outperforms the excellent Tuniq Tower 120 in cooling across the overclocking spectrum. The Ultra 120 Extreme also set a new top air-cooled overclocking record at 3.94GHz with our test X6800 processor.
The Ultra 120 and Tuniq Tower 120 set some very high performance standards for effective cooling in overclocking. By 3.73GHz, the highest stable overclock with the Intel Retail HSF, the temperature at Idle was 56C. This compared to 36C with both the Ultra 120 and the Tuniq Tower 120. The extra heatpipes of the Ultra 120 Extreme lower this to an even better 33C. By 3.90 GHz, the previous best overclock, the Idle for the Tuniq is 40C and the Ultra 120 is 37C. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme drops the idle 2C lower to 35C, and is still at 36C at the highest stable overclock of 3.94GHz. This is very close to the performance level of the Monsoon II which uses active TEC cooling and not air alone.
At overclocked speeds the temperature delta increased as the processor speed was raised, so let's see what happens under stress conditions. While looping the Far Cry River demo for 30 minutes the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the stress test is then reported.
Cooling efficiency of the Ultra 120 Extreme under load conditions was the best tested so far by a wide margin. Compared to the Ultra 120, Tuniq Tower 120 and other top CPU coolers we recently tested it is clear that the extra heatpipes in the Ultra 120 Extreme are very effective in extending cooling performance.
As you can see in the chart above the cooling efficiency of the Ultra 120 Extreme under load is striking. Where the Tuniq Tower 120 and Ultra 120 mirror each other from 2.93GHz to 3.90GHz, the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme creates a new performance curve at a lower cooling temperature. The Tuniq and Ultra 120 are at 47/48 at 3.73GHz compared to the Intel Retail at 71C. The Ultra 120 Extreme shatters those cooling results by maintaining 43C.
The advantage increases even more as the overclock is raised. By 3.90 GHz, which is the highest overclock the Tuniq and Thermalright Ultra 120 could reach with stability, the Tuniq and Ultra 120 are both at 51C, which was the best performance among coolers tested so far. The Ultra 120 Extreme, which is the same exact cooler as the Ultra 120 with just two additional heatpipes, bests both previous leaders by 6C, with a 3.90GHz temperature of 45C. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is still able to push the processor higher, topping out at a stable 3.94GHz. At that speed, processor temperatures under stress remained a very low 47C.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the Tuniq and Thermalright Ultra 120 is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. Other processors tested with the best air coolers ca sometimes reach just over 4 GHz, with a range of top X6800 speeds from 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab with the Intel Retail heatsink.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
PICBoy - Thursday, March 8, 2007 - link
Oops! actually on every table and image the name "PLUS" is used instead of Extreme. My bad, that's all!Spoelie - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
For the quieter power supplies, I'd look at the Seasonic S12+ series, and the Corsair HX series for a higher powered system.Why? That particular Seasonic is by many a reviewsite considered to be one of the quietest around, and starts ramping up the fan around 250w (depending on how much case cooling you have). The corsair is ~2dB louder in the low wattage scale, but only starts ramping up around 300w given the same conditions.
The ramping-up spot is pretty important, for example, before I had a Venice+x850xt and CM RealPower psu, this proved to be a pretty quiet combination. However, once I upgraded to an oc'd denmark+x1950xt, idle power jumped up and the PSU was already ramping up during idle. It only got worse under load, and I couldn't stand the noise at all. I replaced the PSU with a Corsair HX and have yet to actually hear it ramp up, the other TC fans in the system drown out any noise it makes.
A passively cooled mobo is standard these days, and a minimum of case airflow should be considered as well.
Frumious1 - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
Noise and performance tend to be conflicting goals. Sure, you can get a passively cooled motherboard, and with a down-facing PSU fan you can probably go fanless on the CPU (with something like an Ultra 120/120+). You should probably still mount a low RPM case fan, however, as a "good" PSU that doesn't ramp up fan speed is also not going to move a lot of air.The problem is, if you want to overclock all of that silent/fanless stuff becomes much more difficult (if not impossible). 680i motherboards are known to use quite a bit of power, and the chipsets definitely require active cooling if you want to do some real overclocking. Then you get higher CPU temperatures, and without active cooling on the CPU you tend to rapidly increase temperatures until the system crashes/shuts down.
The cooling test bed appears to be configured as a reasonable compromise between extremes. Some people want silence, some people want performance and quiet be damned, but most are just looking to build a reasonably fast and reasonably quiet PC - hopefully without breaking the bank. Besides, as Wes mentions above, SPCR already covers the "silence above all" market quite well. Why go up against them when there's a vast user base that has more moderate needs?
Spoelie - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
The thing is, with the right aftermarket parts, you can have a totally silent pc AND a high performance/overclocked one. There isn't a need for compromise, as long as you don't want to break any world records. I mean, even in this review, they have a core2 duo overclocked to 3.9ghz without any case air flow. I call that pretty high performance.http://www.jaha.be/ashop/?mod=product&cat_id=5...">http://www.jaha.be/ashop/?mod=product&cat_id=5... Thermalright HR05 for the chipset, this is a passive heatsink that dropped my chipset temperature 10°C over the standard HSF combo. Granted, I only have the DFI nForce4, but there are plenty of high performance alternatives for the 680i. Thermalright also has a good passive cooler for scorching hot ram: http://www.jaha.be/ashop/?mod=product&cat_id=5...">http://www.jaha.be/ashop/?mod=product&cat_id=5...
Choose a good case like the Antec P-series, put the silent psu's mentioned earlier in there, change the exhaust fan for a nice 1000rpm nexus/papst, get the reviewed heatsink (or a tuniq/scythe, it's not like i'm a thermalright fan) with another 1000rpm nexus/papst and you're set. All modern gpu standard cooling solutions can be made extremely quiet at idle with some software tweaking, so you'll only hear them when you're gaming. I guarantee the above combination will support heavy overclocking and be extremely quiet at the same time.
Spoelie - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
Hmmm just want to add that you do have a point about the moderate user not going to put all that aftermarket stuff in their pc, so the thing about the differing user bases is right. On the other hand, a moderate user isn't going to provide extra active cooling to overclock (or even have) a 680i.Baked - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
Nice review. Have the Ultra-120 on my C2D system. When I get the chance to get a C2Q, the Ultra-120+ is going in there.nrb - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
...is you need to actually benchmark the Tuniq Tower using the same S-Flex fan.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
One more time. If a cooler comes with a fan we test with that fan. We chose the S-Flex because the Ultra 120 and 120+ do NOT come with a fan, and the other fans we had available would not fit the Ultra 120/120+ clips. We may well test 120mm fans in the future, but we do not plan to do cooler reviews using several different aftermarket fans as a routine test procedure. We do our best to test the cooler as shipped.Having said that, it is likely a good idea to compare a few of the top-performing coolers using the same top-performing fan in a separate review. We agree that would be interesting.
PCTechNow - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
Why not go back and test the other coolers with the same fan used in this review? It would at least show if the fan or the cooler is making the difference. Better yet, take the fan off the Tuniq and test with it on the Thermalrights and see what the difference is.dm0r - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - link
Air cooling is gettin better and quieter this days...good to see a cooler that improves them both.I was choosing tuniq tower for my next desktop system but i liked the Thermalright ultra 120 in Noiseless cooling.Thanks AT for this review.BTW Any results difference between 120 and 120+ in noiseless cooling?