ZEROtherm BTF90: Sting like a Butterfly?
by Wesley Fink on August 13, 2007 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
The ZEROtherm BTF90 is an interesting cooler that does well in our grueling cooler test bed despite the fact that it doesn't top our test charts. It overclocks to 3.83GHz, which places it solidly in the middle of the test results from top air coolers. However, it does this with a smaller 92mm fan that only moves 42.8 CFM, which means the base heatsink is remarkably efficient.
If you look carefully at the cooling scaling charts on page six you will see that the cooling performance of the BTF90 borders on the area of the most efficient Thermalrights and the Tuniq 120. It doesn't beat these superb coolers, but with a smaller, low output fan it does compete well in performance to 3.83GHz. When we also consider the cost is $35 to $45 - much lower than most of the other top coolers - we are forced to conclude that the ZEROtherm is a pretty good cooler for the money.
The lower weight and smaller size will make the BTF90 an easy fit on many boards. The BTF90 mounts securely to socket 775 motherboards with no twisting or tendency to torque when moved. That combined with the lower weight of 678g will be welcomed by those who are fearful of the hanging weight of the bigger coolers in a tower case. The magnetic levitation fan works as promised on the motherboard controlled 4-pin fan connection and it is relatively silent. This makes it a great choice for a quiet PC. The light weight and easy mounting also fit the butterfly image.
When we began this review, we thought the performance of the BTF90 would probably be laughable, but that was certainly not the case. While we are not fans of the cutesy butterfly design, we are left to conclude that the design does work despite being too cute for words. We might even get to like a butterfly in our case.
We would not suggest that the ZEROtherm is the best air cooler we have tested, because it isn't. The Thermalright and Tuniq 120, as well as some push-pull designs, cool better in extreme overclocking than the BTF90. However, the BTF90 does very well to just below the top, with a small, quiet, low-output fan. This fan yields very low noise levels, and the ZEROtherm would be a great choice for a low-noise PC that can still overclock well. However, the BTF90 will not fit slim cases, rack-mount system designs, or under a power supply that mounts above the motherboard. Please check the dimensions carefully if you are planning to use the ZEROtherm in a small HTPC case.
We asked in the title if the BTF90 could "Sting like a Butterfly?" Of course that is a reference to Muhammad Ali's famous "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" quote describing how he boxed. We have to conclude that this butterfly carries a pretty good punch, yet the sting is nearly silent - just the way we like it.
The ZEROtherm BTF90 is an interesting cooler that does well in our grueling cooler test bed despite the fact that it doesn't top our test charts. It overclocks to 3.83GHz, which places it solidly in the middle of the test results from top air coolers. However, it does this with a smaller 92mm fan that only moves 42.8 CFM, which means the base heatsink is remarkably efficient.
If you look carefully at the cooling scaling charts on page six you will see that the cooling performance of the BTF90 borders on the area of the most efficient Thermalrights and the Tuniq 120. It doesn't beat these superb coolers, but with a smaller, low output fan it does compete well in performance to 3.83GHz. When we also consider the cost is $35 to $45 - much lower than most of the other top coolers - we are forced to conclude that the ZEROtherm is a pretty good cooler for the money.
The lower weight and smaller size will make the BTF90 an easy fit on many boards. The BTF90 mounts securely to socket 775 motherboards with no twisting or tendency to torque when moved. That combined with the lower weight of 678g will be welcomed by those who are fearful of the hanging weight of the bigger coolers in a tower case. The magnetic levitation fan works as promised on the motherboard controlled 4-pin fan connection and it is relatively silent. This makes it a great choice for a quiet PC. The light weight and easy mounting also fit the butterfly image.
When we began this review, we thought the performance of the BTF90 would probably be laughable, but that was certainly not the case. While we are not fans of the cutesy butterfly design, we are left to conclude that the design does work despite being too cute for words. We might even get to like a butterfly in our case.
We would not suggest that the ZEROtherm is the best air cooler we have tested, because it isn't. The Thermalright and Tuniq 120, as well as some push-pull designs, cool better in extreme overclocking than the BTF90. However, the BTF90 does very well to just below the top, with a small, quiet, low-output fan. This fan yields very low noise levels, and the ZEROtherm would be a great choice for a low-noise PC that can still overclock well. However, the BTF90 will not fit slim cases, rack-mount system designs, or under a power supply that mounts above the motherboard. Please check the dimensions carefully if you are planning to use the ZEROtherm in a small HTPC case.
We asked in the title if the BTF90 could "Sting like a Butterfly?" Of course that is a reference to Muhammad Ali's famous "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" quote describing how he boxed. We have to conclude that this butterfly carries a pretty good punch, yet the sting is nearly silent - just the way we like it.
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19 Comments
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angelicvoices - Friday, March 20, 2009 - link
I have this cooler and I am trying to remove the red LEDs. I can see from your shots where they're supposed to be but I can't actually see them on my cooler. Any help would be appreciated.andereandre - Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - link
my main interest in getting a new cooler, is lowering the noise.Now in these articles the Intel HSF is always classified the same as the best coolers (and system-ps & no fans).
That would suggest that would I be an Intel user, I would not gain anything by replacing it.
I have a X2 4600 however, and I hear the AM2 stock cooler at idle.
Does this mean that de Intel stock cooler is that much better than the AMD one, or is it just the measurement?
I am just worrying that getting me a cooler like this one would not bring me what I am after.
Jodiuh - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
It's a #$#%ing butterfly on your pc...are you serious?Thinkitect - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
Why compare this cooler to the Tuniq in the conclusion? It's a different product serving a different purpose. It's like trying to arrange a fight between a heavyweight boxing championship contender with a medium weight rookie.It's fine to put the larger coolers on the same performance graphs to see the difference between categories and price ranges, but for the conclusion and main comparison you should have used the directly competing ones. For example the AC Freezer 7 Pro and the Scythe Ninja Rev.B are popular in the price range (from researching for an HSF last month) - which one of the three outperforms the others? That could have been a sensible conclusion.
Your reviews have a purpose - meaningful and accurate comparisons between products. You are doing an excellent job with the research and data presentation, please get the written analysis on the level. Thank you.
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
Sites like Tiger Driect and Amazon still show the BTF90 selling price as $60, which means it competes at the top. That is why we tried to carefully point out the plus and minus points of the BTF90 compared to the Thermalrights and Tuniq. The BTF90 does not compete that well at the $60 price point.However, at its current selling price of $35 to $45 (after rebate) we think it competes very well and is worth considering.
Spanki - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
Good article - It's nice to see you broadening your views (audience) somewhat :). If you really want to see bang-for-buck performance, I wish you'd add some like the CoolerMaster Hyper Tx (http://www.svc.com/rr-pch-s9u1-gp.html">for ~$15.00) and/or the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro (http://www.svc.com/acfzp7.html">generally available for ~$20-$25) to the lineup.Not everyone wants to spend ~$60 - $$80 (or more) on a HSF, so it would be nice to see where these cheaper coolers fall by comparison - of course the results will embarrass some of the higher dollar coolers - but that's kinda the point, isn't it? You don't always get what you pay for.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - link
From tests I have seen, I'd guess the Freezer 7 would be the embarrassed one, but whatever.Wesley Fink - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
We have added the following info to the overclocking page to put the analysis of this cooler and others in cleare perspective:"There is no doubt that the BTF90 is able to dissipate 150W or more of heat. This merely points out the extreme demands that our overclocking cooling tests make of coolers while we push an X6800 processor to its overclock limits. The power requirements of a Core 2 Duo X6800 processor at rated speed and voltage is around 75 watts. At the overclocked speed of 3.830GHz at the commonly required 1.5375V to 1.5625V the wattage has doubled - to 148W to 153W. At the highest air OC with this X6800 of 3.94GHz with a Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme wattage has risen to 165W to 168W.
The stock Intel Retail cooler is really an excellent cooler, and the requirement that a tested cooler must perform better than the included Intel cooler is more demanding than you might think. THe Intel stock cooler topped out at 3.73 GHz at just below 1.5V. This means the stock Intel cooler is dissipating 135W at the highest overclock it could reach. These figures should help keep in perspective the relative efficiency of the coolers being tested and the extreme conditions of our maximum overclock cooling test bed."
RamarC - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
the 'float like a butterfly' citation on the last page should be corrected.Wesley Fink - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link
The citation has always been Mohammed Ali. The word parsing puts the Ali at the start of the next line.