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Product: ThermoEngine V60-4210
Manufacturer: ThermoSonic Technology
Homepage: www.Thermosonic.com.tw
What up ppl? Not seen enough cpu cooler reviews this minute? Well, you have come to the right place. Today's offering from the gods of cooling is the ThermoEngine V60-4210 from Thermosonic Technologies. It arrived on schedule in a box that I hoped betrayed another mountain of goods, as usual my hopes were dashed on the rocks of reality with only one cooler accompanied by extreme cushioning (last month's shredded pay-roll probably!). Back to business, the box that it comes in is well designed, being sturdy and a good bedtime read on it's own. I'm glad to see the effort that is being put into the look of products and packaging, these are the signs of increased competition and therefore the consumer is the real winner.
Oops, just picking myself up from the floor. After taking the unit from it's snug inner packaging, I was able to get a good look at it and yes, it is very attractive. As the consecutive review to the FOP 38, this is really a story of beauty and the beast.
To get a perspective, here it is pictured against the FOP 38.
My initial thoughts were the design of the heatsink which has a different approach to usual bases. It has a solid core which is slightly larger than the cpu core but the rest of the base is cut with fins, presumably to increase dissipation.
The next feature of note on the ThermoEngine is the slimline fan that Thermosonic has chosen to mount. The FOP 38 has a fan that is about twice as deep so it will be interesting to see how these two measure upto one another.
Test conditions
I know we put this in every cooler test but it is important - it shows that all reviews are conducted on the same system and can therefore have their results compared.
The system that the cooler was tested on:
Abit KT7A-RAID
Duron 700mhz
256mb PC100 generic
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI
Maxtor 6 Gig HD
You know the drill: our aim is to provide a real world test, i.e. to simulate the experience that you would have if you had bought this heatsink. Therefore, we will take measurements from the onboard temp gauge under the cpu and decibel readings but not under lab conditions.
The ambient room temperature was kept at 22c, if this changed we stopped testing until it had returned to this base level.
Fitting
ThermoSonic Technology had courteously applied the satanic thermal pad to the base but it came off quickly unlike some of the other pads. A quick Isopropyl cleaning, Arctic Silver II on the core and it's time to rock. Btw, they had colour co-ordinated the pad to go with the unit, I really like this attention to detail however small. Those who read the FOP 38 review will be amused by the next sentence, suffice it to say I am a twat. After a bit of a run-in with a mini super-orb ( can every-one say chipped core? ) I was very wary about the installation process, the core was damaged on opposing corners but still functioned. Phew! With trembling hands I sat the ThermoEngine in place and used the o/cers friend, the screwdriver, to push the retaining clip into place. Was that it? Yup, it was securely fastened and the only sweat was a result of the crack... er heat.
Golden Silence
Ahh. The satisfying sound of.... well, pretty much nothing. The levels at which this fan operate are superb, you are able to forget it's presence which it should be. The fans was running at around 5,000 rpm and the pitch is not very high so the psu is definitely overshadowing the noise. I wish that all fans were made equal, but at any rate this is a true winner.
The charts bears out our first impression with a pair of scores that the FOP is eyeing enviously. These numbers are in the range of the Coolermasters and that is very low, you can hardly notice it and that's a fact, Jack.
Fight the power?
It's all well and good to be quiet, but that is only one reason that you want to part with your cold hard cash for this work of art. The heat disssipation ability is paramount for most people so let's give it free reign. The only note that I wish to make before the results is that ThermoSonic sent me a mail stating that the V60-4210 only operates at it's optimum above a level of 1.1 ghz. This put a bit of a downer on my test since my rig falls woefully short of the 1.1 ghz level. The flip-side is the Duron can really pump out the heat so the tests are not as mis-representative as they may first have appeared.
The first test at 700 mhz 1.6v showed that the ThermoEngine was able to keep pace with, if not match, the FOP's exceptional performance. The temperatures as ever are taken 30 mins after boot up for idle and 30 mins of Seti@home for full load. The custom benchmark of just the cpu test from 3D Mark 200 running in conjunction with Seti raised the temp by 1C, the same as the FOP. This was the same result at every cpu speed.
We took the cpu up a level to 900 mhz using 1.775v to see if getting to higher levels would even out the figures.
As the wattage increases, the gap stays quite constant. A couple of degrees above the FOP at this voltage is exceptional for a 60x60x10 fan cooled heatsink. The temperatures that we were hitting are well below those that the upper quartile coolers are able to reach.
As ever, 945 mhz seems to be the cpu limit so I wound it up and set it loose on the V60-4210.
Well, no change there then. The gap is still apparent and the FOP is smirking somewhat. Despite getting bitch slapped at every turn by the FOP the ThermoEngine had the last laugh using it's cunning and stealth. Once I had finished testing the FOP, I had to turn off the rig immediately and take the cooler out ( I couldn't stand the noise ). Once I had run the tests with the V60 in place, I carried on using the pc as normal. I only noticed after a day of use that it had run constantly at 945 mhz, churning through Seti all the while without a hitch. You can run this and even sleep on top of the base unit, lulled by........
Conclusion
Having spent a period of time with the cooler on board, I can safely say that it is a masterpiece. The Global Win FOP 38 will kick it's ass in every test but only by a few degrees. I for one am willing to forgo the bragging rights to allow myself to think. The low levels of noise coupled with it's powerful cooling abilities mark the ThermoEngine out as a real contender for the cooler's crown. Granted people will mutter that the temperature is the be all and end all but give me a break, I like being able to talk to people near me! For those people, I have got a porsche with razor blade seats for sale.
The tests that we ran are not definitive, as ThermoSonic's statement proves, but they should give you a good indication of where this cooler is positioned when compared to our other test reviews. A re-test when we are using a rig that meets ThermoSonic's minimum rating is scheduled ( we don't actually have a schedule but we like to pretend ).
The upshot of my ramblings is this, I would choose this cooler over any that I have tried to date. It fulfills the aesthetic, audible and functional roles of a cpu cooler with aplomb, something that cannot be said for the opposition.
The FOP is Mike Tyson and the V60 is undoubtedly Mohammed Ali.
The final ChillBlast rating is *********
ThermoSonic's site can be found at www.ThermoSonic.com
Many thanks to ThermoSonic for the supply of this product with such speed and courtesy.