OCZ Vindicator: Heatpipe Tower Cooling from OCZ
by Wesley Fink on April 5, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
The OCZ Vindicator is a full heatpipe tower that is designed to be used with one or more 120mm cooling fans. OCZ also claims that the Vindicator can be used to cool at stock speeds with no fan at all. That is probably true, but our current case setup is really not optimized with cooling paths for fanless cooling. With the barely average results achieved with the stock Vindicator fan it seemed unfair to test and report less than stellar fanless results with a cooling setup not really geared to fanless cooling. We will be making changes to our cooler test bed in the near future, with the goal of realistically reducing noise and improving case airflow using means available to our readers.
The Vindicator is produced in the same plant as the Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B, so it is understandable that the OCZ cooler bears a striking resemblance to the Ninja Plus B. OCZ ships the Vindicator preassembled for Socket T (Socket 775), so it is ready to install on today's most common enthusiast CPU - Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad. OCZ also includes an easy to mount adapter for AMD Socket AM2/939/940/754. The Vindicator therefore fits all current production processors and most recent CPUs except for Intel Socket 478.
The stock Vindicator fan is clearly designed for low noise first. With a meager 40 CFM output and 18.5 dB-A noise rating it is a great cooler for a low-noise PC just as it comes from the kit. If your goal in purchasing a new cooler is silence you will be happy with the full OCZ stock package. The Vindicator name does suggest more though, and overclocking is one arena where OCZ is always a player.
The problem with overclocking, however, is the anemic output of the stock Vindicator fan. If you push overclocking with the Vindicator as far as it will go you end up with a stable overclock on our test bed of 3.80GHz. This is average to below average among the heatpipe tower coolers we have reviewed. Fortunately this problem can be corrected and the Vindicator is capable of much more. Replace the stock fan with the quiet (14 dB-A) and powerful (72 CFM) SilenX IXTREMA 120 and the Vindicator can overclock with the best.
The OCZ Vindicator with the SilenX reached a stable 3.90GHz, which matches the top tier of cooler performance we have tested. This matches the excellent Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120, Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and the Scythe Infinity with two fans in a push-pull configuration. You can achieve similar but slightly lower results by using two OCZ fans, or similar quiet medium output fans in a dual push-pull arrangement. However two SilenX in push-pull did not really allow a higher overclock, so there is a limit to how much increased airflow will benefit the performance of an air cooler.
For OCZ, the Vindicator is said to be the first in a much expanded line of CPU coolers. We look forward to testing the upcoming OCZ coolers, but we hope the new coolers will be a little more original that the Vindicator. Performance does differ from the similar Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B primarily because a different fan is used, but the cooler itself is a Ninja Plus Rev. B with a different cut-out design on the aluminum fins.
If you want a quiet PC and modest overclocking you will be very happy with the stock OCZ kit. It is quiet and cools reasonably well. If you are an enthusiast who overclocks, buy another fan and clips and do push-pull for improved performance. For top overclocking performance throw away the stock OCZ fan and substitute something like the super quiet/high output SilenX or the Scythe SFLEX SFF21F. With a better matched fan you can reach the performance levels of the best air coolers available.
However, no matter what you do the OCZ is not quite as effective at lowering temperatures as the Tuniq Tower 120 or the Thermalright Ultra 120/Ultra 120 Extreme. The Vindicator with a better-matched fan will not hold back your overclocking attempts, but cooling is not in the same league as the top Tuniq and Thermalright coolers we have evaluated at AnandTech.
The OCZ Vindicator is a great beginning to an expanded OCZ cooler line. We liked OCZ coolers when they were more plentiful a few years ago. OCZ has that cooler background to be tapped in expanding their cooler product line. We look forward to seeing many new designs as OCZ establishes and expands their selection of cooling products.
The OCZ Vindicator is a full heatpipe tower that is designed to be used with one or more 120mm cooling fans. OCZ also claims that the Vindicator can be used to cool at stock speeds with no fan at all. That is probably true, but our current case setup is really not optimized with cooling paths for fanless cooling. With the barely average results achieved with the stock Vindicator fan it seemed unfair to test and report less than stellar fanless results with a cooling setup not really geared to fanless cooling. We will be making changes to our cooler test bed in the near future, with the goal of realistically reducing noise and improving case airflow using means available to our readers.
The Vindicator is produced in the same plant as the Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B, so it is understandable that the OCZ cooler bears a striking resemblance to the Ninja Plus B. OCZ ships the Vindicator preassembled for Socket T (Socket 775), so it is ready to install on today's most common enthusiast CPU - Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad. OCZ also includes an easy to mount adapter for AMD Socket AM2/939/940/754. The Vindicator therefore fits all current production processors and most recent CPUs except for Intel Socket 478.
The stock Vindicator fan is clearly designed for low noise first. With a meager 40 CFM output and 18.5 dB-A noise rating it is a great cooler for a low-noise PC just as it comes from the kit. If your goal in purchasing a new cooler is silence you will be happy with the full OCZ stock package. The Vindicator name does suggest more though, and overclocking is one arena where OCZ is always a player.
The problem with overclocking, however, is the anemic output of the stock Vindicator fan. If you push overclocking with the Vindicator as far as it will go you end up with a stable overclock on our test bed of 3.80GHz. This is average to below average among the heatpipe tower coolers we have reviewed. Fortunately this problem can be corrected and the Vindicator is capable of much more. Replace the stock fan with the quiet (14 dB-A) and powerful (72 CFM) SilenX IXTREMA 120 and the Vindicator can overclock with the best.
The OCZ Vindicator with the SilenX reached a stable 3.90GHz, which matches the top tier of cooler performance we have tested. This matches the excellent Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120, Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and the Scythe Infinity with two fans in a push-pull configuration. You can achieve similar but slightly lower results by using two OCZ fans, or similar quiet medium output fans in a dual push-pull arrangement. However two SilenX in push-pull did not really allow a higher overclock, so there is a limit to how much increased airflow will benefit the performance of an air cooler.
For OCZ, the Vindicator is said to be the first in a much expanded line of CPU coolers. We look forward to testing the upcoming OCZ coolers, but we hope the new coolers will be a little more original that the Vindicator. Performance does differ from the similar Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B primarily because a different fan is used, but the cooler itself is a Ninja Plus Rev. B with a different cut-out design on the aluminum fins.
If you want a quiet PC and modest overclocking you will be very happy with the stock OCZ kit. It is quiet and cools reasonably well. If you are an enthusiast who overclocks, buy another fan and clips and do push-pull for improved performance. For top overclocking performance throw away the stock OCZ fan and substitute something like the super quiet/high output SilenX or the Scythe SFLEX SFF21F. With a better matched fan you can reach the performance levels of the best air coolers available.
However, no matter what you do the OCZ is not quite as effective at lowering temperatures as the Tuniq Tower 120 or the Thermalright Ultra 120/Ultra 120 Extreme. The Vindicator with a better-matched fan will not hold back your overclocking attempts, but cooling is not in the same league as the top Tuniq and Thermalright coolers we have evaluated at AnandTech.
The OCZ Vindicator is a great beginning to an expanded OCZ cooler line. We liked OCZ coolers when they were more plentiful a few years ago. OCZ has that cooler background to be tapped in expanding their cooler product line. We look forward to seeing many new designs as OCZ establishes and expands their selection of cooling products.
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Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
For those that have complained that our 36db ambient room noise is very high I am posting info from SilentPCReview's article "Noise in COmputing: A Primer" at http://www.silentpcreview.com/article121-page1.htm...">http://www.silentpcreview.com/article121-page1.htm....SPL (dB) TYPICAL ENVIRONMENT AVERAGE DESCRIPTION
140 30 meters from military aircraft at take off Threshold of pain
120 Boiler shop (maximum levels)
Ships engine room (full speed) Almost intolerable
100 Automatic lathe shop
Platform of underground station (maximum levels)
Printing press room Extremely noisy
80 Curbside of busy street
Office with tabulating machines Very noisy
60 Restaurant, Department Store; Noisiest Gamer PC Noisy
50 Conversational speech at 1 meter; Noisy workstation Clearly audible
35 - 45 Quiet office or library; Typical PC Subdued
25 - 30 Bedroom at night, Quiet PC Quiet
20 - 25 Quiet whisper; Very quiet PC
Background in TV and recording studios Very quiet
15 - 20 Super quiet / fanless PC Barely audible
<15 Sounds of internal organs Normally inaudible
0 'Normal' threshold of hearing Not audible
As you can see 35 to 45db is considered a Quiet Office or Library or the noise level of a Typical PC Subdued. At 36db I am at the low end of that noise category. When you discuss noise it is useful to keep these comparisons in mind.
In the revamping of our test bed we will be aiming to drop into the next category if possible using realistic means in our test romm and test platform. We have stated in our reviews that we measure noise at a constant distance above the open side of a system mounted in a PC Case. As we have also said this means you should consider our noise measurements the worst case you will see for the component tested. A closed case reduces noise and greater distance from the component reduces noise. Any measurements that fall below our system noise floor are reported as the noise floor measurement.
bob4432 - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
i would say my bedroom at night is more around 80-100db :)yacoub - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
So basically this thing cools nowhere near as effectively as an Ultra 120 (judging by your charts that show it a good 10 degrees Celcius hotter than the Ultra 120 at given points.Also, what would really make these hsf reviews even more helpful would be to see a nice list fitments on popular boards (a couple 680i, 650i, P965, and 975 boards you have around the labs). Give it a green, yellow, or red for fitment - Green, it fits fine and mounts easily. Yellow, it will fit but requires some frustration and/or 'editing' of the hardware (i.e. adding shims, shaving with a dremmel or similar), and Red, it simply will not fit... caps in the way or similar issues.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
As we said in Final Words " . . . but cooling is not in the same league as the top Tuniq and Thermalright coolers we have evaluated at AnandTech."The OCZ Vindicator is competetive with the better coolers when you add a higher output fan, but the cooling performance is still far below the Tuniq Tower 120 and the Thermalright Ultra 120/Ultra 120 Extreme.
yacoub - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Please don't miss the important part of my comment, which was not the first sentence stating the obvious, but the larger portion in bold. Thanks.Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
I didn't miss your bold. Adding fitment info is a good suggestion.poohbear - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
dude, anandtech or any private site should NOT be responsible for testing product compatibility for a company, that's the company's responsibility.did you get my message in bold? good. unless OCZ is gonna pay sites to do this, then anantech shouldnt be doing OCZ's job for them.
DrMrLordX - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Who got the silentpcreview forum posters all in a tiff? The article wasn't *that* bad. It should be obvious by now that cooling performance and overclocking performance are the two main foci of these articles.As anyone who reads Anandtech regularly should know, Anandtech reviewers doing "sideshow" reviews with limited testing equipment/materials include whatever happens to be handy in lieu of using an extensive array of parts. Someone sent them the SilenX fan, so they used it. Big whoop.
Pay attention to the cfm ratings and ignore the commentary on noise if you're so upset about it.
Overall, I found the review to be "eh" because they reviewed a less-than-exciting hsf. It performed poorly without an add-on fan, and with an add-on fan, it was still beaten soundly by top-tier coolers using included fans (some with lower cfm ratings). I guess I have to ask, "why bother?".
I'm not even entirely sure why they included the SilenX fan other than to discover if the HSF had some kind of potential to be a great balance of silence and performance, but I think we can all agree that the dual low-cfm Infinity holds that distinction.
It IS good to know that a fan comparison is coming up. I guess that may be one reason why the SilenX fan made it into this review . . . we should expect to see it later in the fan review.
Chunga29 - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
My thoughts exactly, for the most part. SPCR has its own niche and this is not the same market. So the noise level is higher than anyone at SPCR would allow? Big deal. I also don't recall reading anything where they stated that the specs of the fan, HSF, etc. were 100% truthful. They just used a fan that almost certainly had a noticeably higher air movement potential, and the testing bears this fact out. For a real-world test case (which SPCR doesn't do) the SilenX was no louder than the original fan and improved cooling. That's somewhat useful information.Actually now that I think about it, I know exaclty why the SPCR guys are pissed. It's the paragraph on page 7:
Looks like someone ruffled the feathers of the "more knowledgeable than thou" silent PC people. You read their testing and it really is quite silly at times. They basically test each part in near total isolation. I can attest to the fact that a "quiet" fan sitting in the open and suspended on foam is not nearly as loud as the same fan in a case. I'm a bit curious as to why the HSF testing environment is so loud, relatively speaking (only 36.4 dB minimum with everything off!?), but at least the results are consistent.
Spoelie - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
You're actually using flawed logic there. How much of the time is your cpu under heavy load? How much of the time has your psu kicked up the pace? The idle and mid load levels are a lot more active and make up the majority of the time of almost any desktop computer. Consider the following for a real world scenario...The corsair and seasonic do not kick up their fans till they provide about 250-300w. This load level will only be achieved when both the vidcard and cpu are under load, a cpu alone will not reach that load level. Now the only case in which both the heavy consumers are under load is gaming, at which point we do not really care about noise levels anymore, since the gaming sound effects will drown out any noisy fan.
However, if we're working in windows, either lightly loaded (browsing, ...) or heavily loaded (encoding a something to h.264, ...) we're much more easily irritated by a noisy computer. The good thing about the other psu's is that in those scenarios, they will be at their base noise floor, and virtually silent, certainly quieter than the OCZ. So at that point we can objectively measure the difference between the fan configurations.
So in essence, PURELY REGARDING NOISE LEVELS, spcr has a more realistic sound measuring system. I do know however that this is not the focus of this article, so it's kinda silly trying to defend the article on these points. Read the article for the overclocking and temperature levels, that's what it's good for.