Thermalright Ultima-90: Wowser

[Thorsson]

Just seen the Anandtech tests, and I've decided what my next cooler is going to be!

[badass]

Just seen the Anandtech tests, and I've decided what my next cooler is going to be!

Me Too. Even with the 92mm fan, it looks really good.

[Clunk]

Is it the same height? If so, I cant see the point, but then again, I havent read the review

[Supershanks]

Thermalright Ultima-90: Small Wonder? Interesting option with 120 or 90mm fan

[OriginalDon]

Very nice indeed . May have to go for this (if it comes out in the next few weeks or so). The smaller size should work better in my Antec Solo and the lighter weight will make me feel more comfortable moving the case around.

[Biscuit]

Is it the same height? If so, I cant see the point, but then again, I havent read the review

"The height of 139mm is also shorter than most 120 heatpipe towers"


"Those who worry about the dangling weight of the large heatpipe towers will also be happier with the lower profile and weight that is only about a pound compared to the two pounds seen in many large heatpipe towers."

Cant believe it performs pretty much on a par with the other big towers, very impressive. Maybe time to move on from my Big Typhoon

[Supershanks]

Maybe time to move on from my Big Typhoon

What to a little windSounds decent anyway, be interesting to see what results pps get.

[roadie]

I wonder when these will be available in the UK?

[Pob255]

The Ultra-120 eXtreme is bigger, heavier and costs about $65 retail, where Ultima-90 costs about $50.

Not exactly cheap considering the price of a freezer7pro.
What I do find intresting is it's very high performance, just goes to show that it's not the size of the heatsink but the placement of the heat pipes and fins that are of more importance.

[godsdog]

What I do find intresting is it's very high performance, just goes to show that it's not the size of the heatsink but the placement of the heat pipes and fins that are of more importance.

I still can't get over the difference in size compared to the Tuniq.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=137838

I know it's an early ES, but it's not likely to have wound up much bigger than the one displayed. That's some difference.

[Nemz0r]

I wonder when these will be available in the UK?

Already available: here.

Ordered mine for my new PC from there. Would have been elsewhere if I could find it .

[chuckskull]

Only 3c behind the ultra extreme, thats pretty impressive.

[Biscuit]

£30 ouch! I made the mistake of lapping my TTBT and its gone wrong, seems to have made them temps worse but cant afford that atm

[arthurleung]

I personally find these reviews not very reliable
Every heatsink is not manufactured equally. one might be lapped better than another (in the factory), then you might have pasted the thermal compound better, and that could gives +-10'C easily.

For the performance of the heatsink, you won't get a lot of extra performance going for a 12cm heatsink compared to a 9cm because of the temperature gradient. The top of a 12cm heatsink is not hot enough.

I wonder why no manufacturer make a U-shaped heatsink (not to put the fan in the middle), since the center of the heatsink is not gonna get any airflow due to the fan motor. I think Zalman's 9500/9700 design is probably good is the fan is bigger, may be as big as the heatsink's dimension.

[Pob255]

Well heat pipes are not the same as heat sinks, they work through evaporation/condeseing of a liquid inside them to transfur the heat away from the source to another area, the heat sinks/fins radiate the heat out into the surounding air and the fan moves the air across the surface of the metal to constantly replace war air with cooler air (greater the tempture differnce the greater the heat transfur rate)

What I expect would be significant in these reviews is it they took a hacksaw to the heat pipes and looked at the insides of the heat pipes.
The liquid used, it's volume, purity and boiling points
The internal surface area of the heat pipe, greater surface area alows for better condensing.
The internal structure cappilery effect, heat pipes work through cappilery action drawing the condensed liquid back to the primary heat source to be re-evaperated.
Also the tolerances of each heat pipe compaired to the others (I suspect that differnces/tolerances will have a noticable effect)

One major factor of heat pipes is that they tend to have a working peak tempture and performance falls off above and below that peak, the peak is determined by a combination of internal structure & fluid & pressure.

I think you'll find that the main reason they are U shaped is because you can effectively double the size of the transfur area and number of points with the same amount of pipes. ie it's cheaper to make 3 U shaped pipes than 6 L shaped pipes.
The Zalman flower uses the same prinsiple but they just twist it around into a figure 8 which is the most efficent design for a radial off set heatsink.
The fan they use not only pushes air out in a vortex but also throws some air out sideways, this does have an advantage over the tower design with a standard case style fan as that sideways air blows over the motherboard helping to cool it, which the tower designs are not as good at.

[TooNice]

I wonder what is the height of this one like. I am looking for a heatsink with comparable performance to the Ninja, but 5-10mm shorter with a 120mm fan attached (just because I've got spare Yate Loons and do not feel like getting other fans). At 139mm, it is shorter than the Ninja by 11mm, but having looked at the pictures on Anandtech, it looks like a good bits of the fan is taller than the fan, making me wonder if it is even shorter than the Ninja with a fan attached at all.