Thermalright XP-90 Review [Archive]

Clay

03-03-05, 01:10 AM

Thermalright XP-90 Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/thermalright_xp-90/index.shtml)

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/thermalright_xp-90/images/thermalrightlogo2.gif

I just finished my review of the Thermalright XP-90. It's not the newest heat sink on the block. So, I decided to test it with a variety of fans, fans blowing/sucking, and also horizontal/vertical orientations due to the heat pipes involved. I hope it proves useful and informative to those of you in the market for a new CPU cooler. Oh, and I didn't manage to get overclocked results in but I plan on updating the review with some in the coming weeks.

MUYA

03-03-05, 01:13 AM

Really good stuff! Fan Suck eh? ;)

/me larfs like Buthead

huh huh...huh uhhh huh huh

Good job man!

Neova

03-03-05, 03:00 AM

Nice review.

How does this go up against a watercooler? It would nice to compare it to such a system for those of us considering both for future setups.

GlowStick

03-03-05, 03:08 AM

Wow, great review!!

I have to say the pictures and graphics are definatly improved over other reviews, and I love the bars on the graphs.

Next, i have to say that the XP-90 is giving watercooling one hell of a run for its money!!!

Great Job

Clay

03-03-05, 09:38 AM

Thanks guys ( 'cept you Muya :angel: )

A watercooled system to compare with would be nice I agree but I don't have one and there aren't plans for one at this time.

Thanks GlowStick. I'm constantly searching for better ways to present the data. I made the graphs this way so that a legend wasn't necessary. I'm not sure if I'll use that approach again or not yet but thanks for the feedback. :)

Blacklash

03-04-05, 04:55 AM

I love Thermalright Heatsinks. Good review of a top notch product.

BrianG

03-04-05, 11:55 AM

Caly, those graphs were great. Teach me the way, oh great one...

mrzeld

03-04-05, 12:03 PM

Clay

03-04-05, 01:56 PM

Caly, those graphs were great. Teach me the way, oh great one...
Thanks, I wasn't sure about them at first but one of my co-workers seemed to like them a lot so I went with them. I'm always trying to find better ways to graph the data. Sometimes I like the grid/value approach but temps in this case are best as bars IMO. As for the specifics, I basically created the images for the bars at around 50px wide 200px tall, saved them and then in Excel you can specify that an image be the background of an element in the chart control. Excel stretched the images as necessary, you can also tell it to stack and there's another setting but stretch was best here. The rest of the chart appearance was done by just setting various colors per chart element (lines, borders, etc) and a gradient fill for the chart area.

Clay

03-04-05, 01:59 PM

just FYI... i know crazyPC is probably your sponsor and all, but you can get this HSF at jab-tech.com (http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2474&cat=46&page=1) for 29.95 + S&H. if you buy some other stuff then the S&H is reasonable. no, i am not affiliated with jab-tech, but i have been buying a lot of stuff from them lately and am really pleased with their service.
Yes, CrazyPC provided the review sample, if another retailer had provided it I would have linked to their site with their price. At any rate, both places have >9 rating at resellerratings.com so it's win-win for customers right now. :)

BrianG

03-04-05, 07:48 PM

Thanks, I wasn't sure about them at first but one of my co-workers seemed to like them a lot so I went with them. I'm always trying to find better ways to graph the data. Sometimes I like the grid/value approach but temps in this case are best as bars IMO. As for the specifics, I basically created the images for the bars at around 50px wide 200px tall, saved them and then in Excel you can specify that an image be the background of an element in the chart control. Excel stretched the images as necessary, you can also tell it to stack and there's another setting but stretch was best here. The rest of the chart appearance was done by just setting various colors per chart element (lines, borders, etc) and a gradient fill for the chart area.
Cool. I'll try that in my next review.

einstein_314

03-08-05, 11:33 PM

SH64

03-09-05, 12:32 AM

Great review Clay. I love the hotrod pic.

Yep .. it looked tight ! :D

Clay

03-09-05, 01:12 AM

Great review Clay. I love the hotrod pic. :lol: Is there a reason you didn't use the panaflo fan that is recommended? I'm considering of picking one of these up and was wondering if panaflo is the way to go. Anybody have the 92mm panaflo that is recommended with this HS?
Thanks. :) I didn't use the panaflo because the Sunon was the fan provided with it for review. I already had the Enermax and along with the stock AMD 80mm fan that was enough to compare with. In my opinion, the fans don't have a heck of a lot of impact with the XP-90 as my tests prove. I'd just use whatever fan you like best. You likely won't see a big improvement in temps unless you put a screamer on it.

Bad_Boy

03-09-05, 08:41 PM

Really good review IMO. My xp-90 actually came in the mail today so i hope its as good as the review states when i put it to work :)

Rytr

03-09-05, 09:17 PM

Solid review Clay.

I have been running the XP-90 on my DFI NF3 250Gb w/ 3400+ since November and it has kept the cpu cool no matter how hard I pushed the cpu. It will go 2500+ but 2310MHz seems to be the sweet spot for the Mushkin ram as far as all around perfomance (this is my main system). 48C max temps has been the norm with this setup using the XP-90.

Clay

03-09-05, 09:53 PM

Really good review IMO. My xp-90 actually came in the mail today so i hope its as good as the review states when i put it to work :)
Thanks. Please do post back here and let us know how it went.

@Rytr: Thanks, glad to see that you're not even topping 50C. :cool:

EvilEye

03-11-05, 08:20 AM

Nice review! :thumbsup:

Just got one of these, since my "old" Arctic Cooling fan quit on me yesterday. To bad I´m at work. I will install it tonight and report some figures :) .

Clay

03-11-05, 09:54 AM

Thanks! Please do report some temps when you get a chance, that'd be great. :cool:

EvilEye

03-11-05, 05:54 PM

Ok, i´m back with some figures.

I pared the XP-90 with a Zalman ZM-F2 which has 2 modes:

Silent mode; (dead silent, 1600rpm)
idle: 46,5 C ---- during load: 57 C

Normal mode;
idle: 43,5 C ----- during load: 53 C

This is way better then my Arctic Cooling which had the following temps; 55 C (idle), 66 C (load).

I´m very happy with the XP-90 :) .

Pictures of it in my rig:

Rytr

03-11-05, 06:07 PM

I like the fan you have too. Does a good job and has a good price.

Daneel Olivaw

03-12-05, 10:47 AM

What I'd like to know is, if the XP-90 would keep a P4 stable, HT turned off, Northwood, and downclocked, without using a fan. But with good case circulation.

Clay

03-12-05, 11:28 AM

What I'd like to know is, if the XP-90 would keep a P4 stable, HT turned off, Northwood, and downclocked, without using a fan. But with good case circulation.
Of course I couldn't say for sure without testing that particular situation...however...I was very impressed with the XP-90 cooling regardless of the fan used. I would not be surprised if it would keep a P4 stable under the conditions you describe. If you try it let us know. :)

superklye

03-12-05, 01:01 PM

Oh crap...that's how you're supposed to use those clips?! DAMN IT! I spent a good half-hour with my SLK-900A snaking those clips THROUGH the fan screw-holes. *Smacks forehead*

IDIOT!

superklye

03-12-05, 01:10 PM

And Clay, does a heat duct/tunnel work with this? I can't remember the manufacturer of it, but basically what it is is a clear duct curved into 1/4 of a cylindric tube. It goes between the heatsink and fan to create a tunnel for the air to travel down and eliminates the dead spot caused by the middle of the fan when it usually rests right on top of the heatsink.