CPU Cooler Review Roundup – Noctua, OCZ, Thermalright & More

“The Zerotherm FZ120 CPU cooler very much surprised me in it's overall performance, overtaking the leaders in our CPU cooling charts on most tests.

The FZ120 is truly an excellent cooler offering silence and performance, it's also aesthetically pleasing and is very well made and designed.

This cooler could have gotten a perfect score were it not for the installation issues I encountered, these problems are ones that I believe will most likely affect everyone as well. The size is also a consideration, it is very large and heavy and will not fit in all cases, due to its size; extra steps need to be taken during the installation to get it installed correctly.”

“Quickly find your way to the current Top 5 heatsinks according to FrostyTech. The first pair of lists is for Intel Heatsinks, broken down by lowest temperature and quietest operation. The second set of lists are for AMD Heatsinks. Lifespan indicates if the heatsink is new, old or end of life.”

“Overall the Coolermaster GeminII S is a very good heatsink for both Intel and AMD platforms when running at full fan speed, particularly if we consider its compact height. There are of course a couple dozen other heatsinks to pick from if you demand lower temperatures, or a little less noise. Most of those options are "tower heatsinks" in the +145mm high range however. When running in its quietest fan mode the GeminII S heatsink offers us average performance. Bottom line, the Coolermaster GeminII S is a good thermal option hampered by cumbersome mounting system.”

“Examining the test data leads us to a couple conclusions; for starters the Nexus HOC-9000 heatsink has a natural advantage cooling AMD processors. The wide spacing of the heatpipes on the base of the HOC-9000 give it a slight handicap on Intel chips, most notably when the fan is running at the super quiet speed of 800RPM. Ultimately the Nexus HOC-9000 stumbles a bit with its attempt at 'direct touch heatpipes', yet it remains a perfectly good AMD/Intel heatsink. Just remember that larger diameter heatpipes don't automatically mean better overall performance.”

“Now the Noctua C12P may not be the absolute best performing cooler on the market today but it certainly is close; and when you include facts like it comes standard with a great fan, has an improved mounting system that doesn’t compromise quality or robustness for speed and above all else the added cooling to your motherboard and RAM it becomes one darn appealing product.

That is the good side to this cooler and unfortunately it does have a down side as well, albeit a very small one. The down side is the fact that its size may not make it your best choice as it can interfere with certain kinds of RAM and you can forget about sticking it in all but the most gigantic of HTPCs (and even then we have our doubts). These of course can be considered nothing more than minor blemishes when compared to the biggest negative of this CPU cooling solution. When all is said and done, this cooler is quite expensive for the performance it delivers. However, one must realize that when you are paying the premium that the NH-C12P commands, it is for the simple fact that true quality is expensive to make.”

“The conclusion for this review is easy, as the OCZ Vendetta 2 shares all the benefits of a high performance heatsink without the high price-tag ($33 / €30) it would be hard not to recommend it.

At the same time though you have to realize that its design is similar to that of the Xigmatek units so your choice of product will boil down to availability in your region.

The only drawback comes down to personal preference; currently OCZ opted for easiness of installation with the push-pin method, the downside is that mounting pressure is a bit lower compared to a bolt-through installation kit, and thus temperatures could be lower still. You can pick up the Xigmatek bolt-through kit as these heatsinks share the same mounting bracket design.”

“At an asking price of $45~50 (~€40) it’s more expensive than the Thermalright SI-128 (which doesn’t come with a fan) which offers a better performance/noise ratio when both heatsinks are tested with the same fan.

While the Zipang is a brave endeavor to try an advance top-down CPU cooling performance to help bring better products to owners of smaller enclosures, we can’t really find any convincing arguments to choose it over the competition, or even their own products (Scythe ANDY).”

“So, do you NEED this heatsink? Should you rush out, and snap up the first one available? As much as I'm thinking Thermalright would love us to say yes to that, the answer is really no. For standard cooling needs, a regular old Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme will do the job just fine, and if you throw in, what, a $3 set of fan clips, an $8 tube of thermal grease, and a $12 fan, you're still running a surplus. Is that the point? Hardly. What this product is, is one of the best looking heatsinks that you can get a hold of, not to mention one of the best performing. When people see it through your case's window, not only will it say "I chose Thermalright", but it will also say "I spent a little extra, to get the best.”