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DriverHeaven Review - uses javascript
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We have reviewed many Asetek products on Driverheaven in the past, the last being the Vapochill Micro Ultra Low noise which received a glowing outcome a few months ago. Today we turn to another product from the same company in the shape of the Micro’s more extreme brother; the aptly named “Extreme Performance”.
The Vapochill Micro Extreme Performance comes in the same see through package as the Ultra Low Noise unit, nothing wonderfully exciting but practical and compact enough for shipping.
Here you see the cooler with accessories, we have the 939 bundle on test today.
Again sharing simarilities with the Ultra Low noise cooler we reviewed a while back - the Extreme Performance comes with pre-applied thermal compound. The base of the HS isn’t shiny but is smooth enough to ensure good thermal transfer.
The plastic shroud that is used to direct the air over the heatsink and hold the fan in place. As was mentioned in the earlier review of the low noise VC micro, the plastic shroud felt very flimsy and easy to break. And I hope that Asetek will take this under consideration this and perhaps design a sturdier shroud with thicker plastic in the future.
Fans specifications: The only real difference between this and the Vapochill micro heatsinks is the fan. While the Ultra Low noise variation of the VC Micro uses a 17.5CFM fan. The Extreme Performance uses a 73.5CFM fan.
Test system / Installation: The system used in this review was as follows: Antec P180 Toast stresstester Installing the Vapochill Extreme performance onto the DFI NF4 SLI-DR motherboard wasn’t entirely trouble free. It wasn’t possible to get the VC Micro to make full contact with the CPU. This is a known problem and there is a solution on the Asetek webpage. You simply remove the DFI retention bracket and mount the Vapochill micro without it. Tighten the screws down to approx 18mm and you are done. This is not a major issue but one worth mentioning.
Here is the Cooler installed and hooked up to the fan controller.
Testing / Performance Now lets move on to the testing of the Vapochill Extreme
Performance. Ambient 22°C-23°C
As you can see the Vapochill Micro Extreme performs really
well, with the CPU overclocked to 2.6 GHz and the micro’s
fan running at 12v it is able to outperform the xp120
and the 74cfm fan by 2°C, downsides are at this speed
the fan is quite loud. It gets annoying to run at full
blast over long periods of time, but you hardcore overclockers
probably won’t mind a little noise! Conclusion: This unit from Asetek performs exceptionally well. It is able to outperform the Thermalright XP120 by a couple of degrees using a fan that pushes roughly the same amount of air. (Titan 120mm 74CFM vs the VC Micro's 73.5CFM) This shows that the VC micro removes heat very effectively. The 92mm fan is far from quiet at 12v but if you turn it down using the fan controller it becomes virtually silent, obviously at the cost of some cooling performance. The only real issue I would like to detail would be the flimsy construction of the fan shroud; it gives an otherwise exceptional product a cheap “feel” and is something that Asetek really should look into with a forthcoming revision. Overall this is an excellent choice for high end air cooling, and should not be overlooked by those of you who overclock and are not concerned with some noise at the highest setting. This product is aggressively marketed and is available from komplett.co.uk for a mere £26 which in real terms is great value for money. However, taking into consideration the less than stellar and somewhat flimsy shroud design we would have some concerns with long term durability, therefore this product just misses a gold award but hopefully in a future revision Asetek will rectify this design limitation.
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