System of rare and expensive a few years ago, the heat pipes equip many of today's coolers. It must be said that their price has declined significantly over time and used properly they can significantly increase the cooling capacity of the cooler in question. Tuniq (upscale subsidiary of Sunbeam) understands this and offers us the Tower 120, a monster with three tubes, which some regard as a full six heatpipes. But originality is not to look here. There or the Tower 120 stands very clearly of all that can or could exist is at its weight and size. Indeed, this cooler is more than 15cm high and 963g. Very few can boast of coolers to compete with the Tower 120 on these two points.
The weight and size of the beast is already sufficient in themselves to classify coolers among the exceptions, but Tuniq drives the point home by giving a breakdown of the (many) fins a 120mm fan that does not turn 900 rpm. Descending home under the psychological barrier of 1000 rpm, Tuniq clear ambitions on the market that represents silent products. With 3 heat pipes cooled by fifty fins and a 120mm fan, Tower 120 should provide good performance. Anatomy of a non-standard cooler. The Tower 120 is delivered in a cardboard box leaving perceive the object of our desires through a transparent plastic film. Once the latter is open, you can see the cooler as a whole, well protected in its blocks of polystyrene.
First observation: the Tower 120 seems quite large, which will only be confirmed later. Once unpacked it, you realize that 963 grams advertised are not usurped, quite the contrary! The first grip of this cooler is quite confusing: it is the first time we see such a monster. The cooler is made of a copper base, which leave the famous heat pipes. They are then cooled by fifty aluminum fins. As we pulled into this brief description and appearance, one could think of a passive cooler. However, a closer inspection to realize that a fan is hidden in the middle of the fins.
One can also say that given the shape of Tower 120, with all the mass at the end of the cooler heat pipes, high leverage exercised on the motherboard ... With nearly 1Kg to bear, we feared the worst for the motherboard that has served to test (a K8T Neo). But let's not be nasty, do not hide that we expected much of this product in terms of performance and as you see the whole we were not disappointed. By continuing the unpacking, we found a tube of thermal paste which seems fairly good quality, an installation manual and required to fix the Tower 120 to sockets 478, 775, 754, 939 and 940. The owners of Athlon XP and Duron pass their way. It seems that the reason for this "forgotten" is the lack of heat spreader. The pressure exerted on the die naked Athlon XP would have damaged.
Finally, surprise, a PCI bracket with a potentiometer to vary the speed of the fan. Doing it down under 900RPM.No. In fact, 900 revolutions per minute correspond to the minimum rotation speed of the fan. Up spins at 2000 rpm. The initial prototype should not include this accessory and run continuously at 900 rpm Tuniq but has suddenly decided to increase the speed to satisfy a larger target. Clearly, Tuniq thought his monster associated with a rapidly spinning 120mm fan should be of interest to overclockers. This is what we see in testing.
With 131 x 112 x 150 mm and 938 grams, the Extreme 120 Tower is impressive and he impresses upon unpacking. With a black finish, this cooler necessarily trying to make eye for Gamers, unless the black is more efficient. No, black is especially fashionable. Moreover, this fan is a little beauty, at least, we appreciate his design with its wings sauce flaming and beautiful black matte finish on top and black chrome on the sides. On top was a small logo struck. This part is actually removable, it allows the suspension of the 120mm fan. Indeed, there is not much to say about the physics of this cooler. Technically speaking, apart from the 43 fins and heat pipes that there are just the trick is done quickly.
The negative point of the same is facing the CNPS 10X Extreme, it becomes immediately realize that the New Tower is impressive, they are at almost exactly the same size.
The fan took this cooler is sandwiched between the fins. It is maintained by a cradle that is removed from the top, after removing 4 screws. The cage fan is not in contact with the fins, and four silicone pads isolate the mounting plate from the rest of the cooler. The fan is a 120mm blue LED, you can rotate 1000-2000 delivered through the potentiometer. Up to 90.65 CFM and it delivers its noise level is between 16 and 20 dBA. Turning to the base which consists of heat pipes HDT. We find three patterns in 8 mm and 6 mm in two models. The heat pipes are embedded in a block of aluminum, which is itself cooled by a small heater. The finish of the base is very good for the HDT, probably the best we have encountered so far.
Installations :
Installation done on a Gigabyte X58 UD4 and our Core i7 920. The first thing to do is install the backplate. Very easy thing to do, since you have to put it on the back of the motherboard. But beware, there is no double-sided sticky foam or, therefore it remains in place. Have large threaded rod that passes through the PCB to allow the "pseudo keep up. The rods are locked in the backplate, and thanks to them that we fix the cooler. Then you just slide the plate in the cooler threaded rods and lashing it to the bolts fitted with springs to evenly distribute the pressure. Initially, we wonder whether it is possible to screw quite easily bolts hands, because the place seems lost, but in reality, the operation is going pretty quickly, easily, and maintenance is pretty good.
The assembly is a mere formality, but we still would prefer a bit of double-sided in the backplate. The installation of this cooler for an Athlon64 / FX does not pose much problem simply remove the original rad, H to the plate instead of plastic support of the latter and set the 120 to the Tower plate. Relatively simple, especially as the (large) screws used to fasten and tighten the cooler have a very thick head to tighten by hand. However, in a box a bit narrow, the installation may take some time given the place monopolized by the Tower 120. Generally, remove the power can greatly facilitate the establishment of cooler, even if it is not mandatory.
For owners of Pentium4/Celeron, it would have to put the motherboard in order to install the back plate, this home for Athlon 64. It is illusory to try to keep 963g of the beast on the socket. Once the Tower 120 in place, you simply connect a cable to your motherboard to keep monitoring the number of rpm and connect the second potentiometer provides. During installation, one finds that the database is properly polished, but it may be possible to win even a few degrees in the polishing by hand. The gear is in place. There are gently PC and after a few seconds. The motherboard seems to keep going. It's been 2 weeks since the Tower 120 is attached to it and we have so far encountered no problems. But we, of course, not attempt to move the computer. Needless to say, with such a watch inside the slightest vibration a bit too high and your motherboard is good for the trash.
One last point before passing the test: The tower 120 is so huge that it is very close to the 120mm exhaust fan housing, thereby interfering with the breakdown of the latter, which was revealed in tests 5-10 ° more Hot's usual position as it was.
Performance :
To do this, I used the following configuration:
- MSI K8T Neo motherboard
- CPU Athlon64 3000 + 0.13μ
- 2 * 512MB DDR400
- Radeon 9800pro + VGA Silencer
- Seagate 120GB SATA 7200:7
The following protocol has been successful, as three sessions of 30min. A first in idle, during which we listen to MP3s, were surfing the web and had two programs in the background: MSN Messenger and Outlook to be the closest to current situation surf. The second session was aimed at testing the cooling capacity in burn, to do with the PC turned 30min SuperPi simultaneously (32millions of decimals to calculate), CPU Burn-in (set to "maximum heat generation), Bonus 95 and compression of a video DVD with DVD Shrink: as you say that the processor was operating at maximum.
Finally, after one hour of rest to allow the CPU to cool the burn test was repeated but with the CPU pushed to 2200Mhz, and a Vcore of 1.675V (usually 1.48). We were unable to push the CPU further, because of the memory block, and the quality is poor. But we compensated by significantly increasing the Vcore. At this ratio voltage / frequency, the coolers had to dissipate 101W cons usually 89. For reference, we included the results of the team that usually Zalman 7000Aalcu our test bench as well as those of the original AMD cooler. But comparisons are difficult in so far neither does coolers heat pipes to ventilator or 120mm. This is just to situate the Tower 120 compared to coolers widespread.
Last, the case was cooled by a 120mm fan in volts @ 7v
In terms of noise, the picture is more mixed. Indeed, a level of minimum rotation, Tower 120 is very quiet, you hear just 2 meters while the asset is a single 120mm fan on 7v volts (although it remains the 80mm feed.). Also the sound is rather pleasing to the ear for a little noise can be. Actually at 900 rpm it is probably one of the quietest coolers we was in good hands. An excelling work from Tuniq. However, at 2000rpm, the Tower 120 is a true fan. Even being in the room next door, it is impossible not to hear the Tower 120 is operating at its maximum level. We have unfortunately no meter to support these figures say, but the readings would have probably figured in the records.
After an extended listening session, it was found that the noise does not come from the fan but the air flow it generates, which runs into the fins. Again, Tower 120 was designed to operate with low air flow generated by a 120mm 900tr/min. To ensure its effectiveness in spite of this handicap, the number of fins is important and these are relatively tight. The technique has proven very effective, just look at the results 900tr/min. But when the airflow becomes important, it has come up against these fins and has little room to move, where the noise is very important when the fan is running at its maximum. Here we see clearly that the decision to push the number of rpm of the fan was taken well after the design of the cooler .
Temperature
It is now time to pass tests in order to know the performance of this thing with his Extreme fan that can spit out 2000 trs / min and 95 CFM.
The cooler was mounted on a Core i7 920 to the initial tension, HT enabled, but the frequency of 3.2 GHz thrust. We performed 30 minutes of full load with OCCT and 20 minutes of rest. The temperatures shown in the table are averages of four cores. The fan that was used is the original model in 5, 7, 9 and 12 volts. The 5 volts corresponds to the minimum speed potentiometer, while 12 volts is the maximum.
Tuniq promised excellent performance for its new cooler, and the mark does not disappoint on this level, since the Tower 120 Extreme comes to do better than the Prolimatech Megahalems with its original fan (we point out, it has its important). In 5, 7, 9 and 12 volts, the Tuniq is simply better in some Burn 2 to 4. A feat could be thought, although the gap is less at rest. And what about compared to Hammer of Thor is just very far behind.
Conclusion :
It is clear that in terms of performance, the Tower 120 has serious advantages. Temperatures are very good, and according to a P4 Prescott 3.6GHz Tuniq overclocked to 4.3 Ghz@1.6V (overclocking big enough to stress!) Would not exceed 66 ° 900tr/min mode (59 ° @ 2000rpm).
These figures are to be taken lightly, but our tests confirm that the Tower 120 has an excellent cooling potential, even with a fan running very slowly. The silence of the cooler is very nice, but the price is then a size and a weight far greater than the limits acceptable to most users. The 15cm of Tower 120 in effect make him brush the kilo bar that only the inglorious Hyper6 of Coolermaster has expired.
In the end we may learn something from this first product Tuniq it offers excellent value for noise / cooling @ 900tr/min-mode that we recommend, that will delight fans of silence wishing proper cooling. At 1500rpm, the performance gains are very sensitive and noise increased dramatically to become deafening at 2000 rpm. However at this level allows the cooler cooling very interested, especially for the overclocker. For ordinary mortals, the noise will be much too high.
But this good performance with such low air flow are paid by a footprint that far exceeds anything we could imagine reading the press releases. Huge is the word that probably best. It will therefore choose between congestion and the default except performances. Mais Tower 120 really appeals to us: very quiet and very powerful what more. A much lower noise at 2000rpm and a slightly smaller heat sink can be. But for a first test, a sign Tuniq very successful product. Cheaper than XP120 (delivered without fanless) but a tad more expensive than a Zalman 7700Cu. The Tower 120 is therefore positioned in the average prices of its competitors directly.
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