OCZ Vindicator: Heatpipe Tower Cooling from OCZ
by Wesley Fink on April 5, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Overclocking
As cooling solutions do a better job of keeping the CPU at a lower temperature, it is reasonable to expect the overclocking capabilities of the CPU will increase. In each test of a cooler we measure the highest stable overclock of a standard X6800 processor under the following conditions:
CPU Multiplier: 14x (Stock 11x)
CPU voltage: 1.5875V
FSB Voltage: 1.30V
Memory Voltage: 1.90V
nForce SPP Voltage: 1.35V
nForce MCP Voltage: 1.7V
HT nForce SPP <-> MCP:
Auto
Memory is set to Auto timings on the 680i and memory speed is linked to the FSB for the overclocking tests. This removes memory as any kind of impediment to the maximum stable overclock. Linked settings on the 680i are a 1066FSB to a memory speed of DDR2-800. As FSB is raised the linked memory speed increases in proportion. The same processor is used in all cooling tests to ensure comparable results.
The OCZ Vindicator with the stock fan could only reach 3.80GHz overclock with stability. This result is average to below average among the tested heatpipe towers. However a change to the 72 CFM 14 dB-A SilenX IXTREMA 120 allowed us to push the overclock to 3.90GHz with complete stability. This matches the top tier of overclocks achieved by the Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120/Scythe SFLEX, Cooler Master Hyper 6+, and Scythe Infinity with dual push-pull fans.
The only air cooler that has reached higher than 3.90GHz is the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, which was featured at CeBIT. We managed 3.94GHz with that top air cooler. The hybrid TEC/air Monsoon II Lite reached 3.96GHz in benchmarking, but that cooler combines active TEC cooling with passive air cooling and would be expected to reach higher overclocks than an air-only solution
Noise
For many enthusiasts upgrading cooling the goal is maximum stable overclock, and they will live with the inconvenience of a louder system. For other users silence is the most important factor, and these users will forgo maximum overclocking if that increases system noise levels.
We measured noise levels with the OCZ Vindicator with both stock and SilenX IXTREMA fans under both load and idle conditions. As might be expected with fans with noise ratings of 18.5 dB-A and 14 dB-A, the measured noise was below our system noise floor at both 6" and 24" positions above the open side of our system case.
There are virtually no power supplies that do not have a fan. While Zalman and a few others do make an expensive fanless power supply, we have not seen a fanless unit larger than 500W, or one that would be used for seriously overclocking a system. With that in mind the noise level of the system with all fans turned off except the power supply was measured. The power supply used for the cooling test bed was the OCZ PowerStream 520, which is one of the quieter of the high performance power supplies.
We have also measured the Corsair 620 watt and Mushkin 650 watt power supplies which are reported to be quieter than the OCZ. Both the Corsair and Mushkin are indeed quieter at idle or start up speed. However as soon as load testing begins and the PSU fan speed kicks up and the measured noise level is almost exactly the same as the OCZ PowerStream 520 watt power supply. In keeping with our "real world" philosophy of noise, we consider the PSU load noise to be the more realistic noise level of power supplies. We do plan to evaluate additional power supplies and configurations in our upcoming 120mm fan roundup, but we will tilt to real world rather than procedures that test fans on foam blocks or hard drive noise with their "noisy" side pointed toward a foam block.
The noise level of the power supply was 38.3 dB from 24" (61cm) and 47 dB from 6" (152mm). The measured noise level of the test room is 36.4 dB, which would be considered a relatively quiet room with a noise floor slightly below the OCZ PowerStream 520 PSU.
Measured noise levels in this chart should be considered worst case. Measurements were taken with an open side of a mid tower case 6" and 24" from the HSF. Real world would be a completely closed case resulting in a further reduction in noise.
Any 120mm fan should be mountable on the OCZ Vindicator. The fan clips connect to the outside mount hole, which means both open post and the more common closed post fans will work properly. The stock OCZ fan is closed post and the SilenX is open post. This means the SilenX will work on any cooler we have reviewed thus far - including the Thermalright Ultra 120 and Ultra 120 Extreme.
As cooling solutions do a better job of keeping the CPU at a lower temperature, it is reasonable to expect the overclocking capabilities of the CPU will increase. In each test of a cooler we measure the highest stable overclock of a standard X6800 processor under the following conditions:
CPU Multiplier: 14x (Stock 11x)
CPU voltage: 1.5875V
FSB Voltage: 1.30V
Memory Voltage: 1.90V
nForce SPP Voltage: 1.35V
nForce MCP Voltage: 1.7V
HT nForce SPP <-> MCP:
Auto
Memory is set to Auto timings on the 680i and memory speed is linked to the FSB for the overclocking tests. This removes memory as any kind of impediment to the maximum stable overclock. Linked settings on the 680i are a 1066FSB to a memory speed of DDR2-800. As FSB is raised the linked memory speed increases in proportion. The same processor is used in all cooling tests to ensure comparable results.
The OCZ Vindicator with the stock fan could only reach 3.80GHz overclock with stability. This result is average to below average among the tested heatpipe towers. However a change to the 72 CFM 14 dB-A SilenX IXTREMA 120 allowed us to push the overclock to 3.90GHz with complete stability. This matches the top tier of overclocks achieved by the Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120/Scythe SFLEX, Cooler Master Hyper 6+, and Scythe Infinity with dual push-pull fans.
The only air cooler that has reached higher than 3.90GHz is the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, which was featured at CeBIT. We managed 3.94GHz with that top air cooler. The hybrid TEC/air Monsoon II Lite reached 3.96GHz in benchmarking, but that cooler combines active TEC cooling with passive air cooling and would be expected to reach higher overclocks than an air-only solution
Noise
For many enthusiasts upgrading cooling the goal is maximum stable overclock, and they will live with the inconvenience of a louder system. For other users silence is the most important factor, and these users will forgo maximum overclocking if that increases system noise levels.
We measured noise levels with the OCZ Vindicator with both stock and SilenX IXTREMA fans under both load and idle conditions. As might be expected with fans with noise ratings of 18.5 dB-A and 14 dB-A, the measured noise was below our system noise floor at both 6" and 24" positions above the open side of our system case.
There are virtually no power supplies that do not have a fan. While Zalman and a few others do make an expensive fanless power supply, we have not seen a fanless unit larger than 500W, or one that would be used for seriously overclocking a system. With that in mind the noise level of the system with all fans turned off except the power supply was measured. The power supply used for the cooling test bed was the OCZ PowerStream 520, which is one of the quieter of the high performance power supplies.
We have also measured the Corsair 620 watt and Mushkin 650 watt power supplies which are reported to be quieter than the OCZ. Both the Corsair and Mushkin are indeed quieter at idle or start up speed. However as soon as load testing begins and the PSU fan speed kicks up and the measured noise level is almost exactly the same as the OCZ PowerStream 520 watt power supply. In keeping with our "real world" philosophy of noise, we consider the PSU load noise to be the more realistic noise level of power supplies. We do plan to evaluate additional power supplies and configurations in our upcoming 120mm fan roundup, but we will tilt to real world rather than procedures that test fans on foam blocks or hard drive noise with their "noisy" side pointed toward a foam block.
The noise level of the power supply was 38.3 dB from 24" (61cm) and 47 dB from 6" (152mm). The measured noise level of the test room is 36.4 dB, which would be considered a relatively quiet room with a noise floor slightly below the OCZ PowerStream 520 PSU.
Measured noise levels in this chart should be considered worst case. Measurements were taken with an open side of a mid tower case 6" and 24" from the HSF. Real world would be a completely closed case resulting in a further reduction in noise.
Any 120mm fan should be mountable on the OCZ Vindicator. The fan clips connect to the outside mount hole, which means both open post and the more common closed post fans will work properly. The stock OCZ fan is closed post and the SilenX is open post. This means the SilenX will work on any cooler we have reviewed thus far - including the Thermalright Ultra 120 and Ultra 120 Extreme.
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41 Comments
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yyrkoon - Monday, April 9, 2007 - link
These 40 posts are a mostly 'bitches' from people who 'claim' Anandtech reviewers are 'wrong' ?In case it is not already obvious, Anandtech is an enthusiast site, which means they cater to the overclockers, and people who care about computer hardware in general, not people who can not sleep when someone drops a pin over in china . . .
Seriously, I can understand pointing out typos, and a disagreement or two on the finer points, and what not, but complaining because you think their data is incorrect, based on data given by another site(which obviously is not even in the same class of a site), is plain stupid. Do you actually know for a fact that the data from this other site is correct ? If so, how do you know ? If 30dba is what is considered a quite room, wtf does it matter if Andantech 'claims' the fan used here is 14dba or not ? Personally, I think some of you guys, are entirerly too anal, and need to learn how to socialize a tad better. something like: 'I do not think 14dba is possible on a computer fan(Correct me if I am wrong), but <insert some other point here>' probably would have worked just fine, without sounding like you are bashing the reviewers of the site.
There are many ways to say that you think the data given is incorrect, without sounding like a horses ass, and in the long run, no one is twisting your arm to come here and read the reviews. If you really, really like this other site so much, that you feel it nessisary to come here and bash the Anandtech crew, I think we all can agree, it would be a much better place here, if you just stayed away.
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Friday, April 6, 2007 - link
Real world testing is great, but isnt this how someone's Core 2 duo article got FLAMED to death because there was a bottleneck?When we test fans, yea it's great to know that 14 dB fan won't do jack in my system when my PSU is running around 30.
Just like it doesn't matter that my sticks of RAM can clock to DDR600 because my Opteron 170 won't let me go past 250 HTT anyways, so I can only go to DDR500 anyways unlesss I really want a lower multiplier.
There are limits left and right, but EVERYONE wants to know the specifications and capabilities of THE PRODUCT IN INTEREST. This is similar to high school science or junior high or whenever you learn that in experimenets, your goal is to isolate one variable and test it.
I don't give a damn that my PSU is going to be loud. What if i used a fanless system? There are people out there who want to know how loud this damn SilenX fan is, and we wnat to know how loud it REALLY IS compared to the specs.
I'm tired of hearing how really only REAL WORLD performance matters. Give us the LAB numbers and then give us how real world performance might come into play.
As an engineer, when you look up materials properties like strength tests, hardness numbers, stress concentration data, it's ALL lab samples that are perfect. It's your job when you choose a material to use in applications to understand the real world implications.
Similarly, it's your job to understand that when you pick up a 14 dB fan, that your PSU may still be louder and that your system may not be that quiet.
DrMrLordX - Friday, April 6, 2007 - link
The "product in interest" is the HSF itself, not the add-on fan. The whole point of adding the fan, I suppose, was to show that the included fan produced as much (or more) noise while yielding significantly inferior results.The HSF still wasn't that great even with the add-on fan, so it's all rather academic to me. Unless this HSF sells for a very low price, I can see no reason to shell out ~$50-$60 for it + the SilenX fan when you can get a cooler that performs better for the same amount of money. Choose wisely, and you might even get one that's just as silent.
People need to stop making a mountain out of a mole-hill here. Geez.
strikeback03 - Friday, April 6, 2007 - link
then go read over at SPCR. They try and tell you how loud each component is, Anandtech tries to tell you whether it matters. no point in repeating tests easily available elsewhere.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, April 7, 2007 - link
Yes I know that. It's great going to SPCR to see good sound testing, but it's just a PITA that I have to hit up like 10 different hardware sites to get information.poohbear - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
wow socket A support for this cooler?!? it prolly costs more than the socket A cpu and mobo put together! lolWesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Socket A is not supported.bob4432 - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
skt 468...sh!t, i missed a whole family of cpus... :(Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Typo corrected :)scott967 - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
I like the noise testing, but at least in my systems I have a problem with hi freq fan whine. It would be nice in your fan review if you could get a spectrum analyzer and look for noise spikes as well as average dBa.