Well,

I picked up two of these last week or so (Vantec Copper/Thin-Fin heatsink), & installed them to replace my Intel Aluminum heatsink OEM boxed set of CPU coolers that came with them!

I was quite pleased to see they dropped my temperatures on my CPU's nearly 5 degrees under a load simply by getting a better heatsink design (better engineering in design really).

The bottom part of fan mount reversal is the part to catch though, & main reason WHY I put this up!

VANTEC COPPER THIN-FIN HEATSINK PHOTO:



(Photo provided by anandtech: Another jammin' tech review site!)

(The heatsink + fan combo I have is ACTUALLY the CompUSA "gamer heatsink" which uses that EXACT heatsink, which cost me $10 less each than getting the actual Vantec one... I intended to mod from the start with a better higher cfm fan is why!)

The ONLY true difference was the fan putting out 23.1cfm/5000rpm on the CompUSA version of it, whereas the Vantec model puts out 38.1cfm/7000rpm. I saved $10 each on them by doing this which helped offset the cost of my getting the $16 each Deltas in fact!

SO, why'd I change in the first place? Things I read about lately mainly... & the fact I oveclock & we're having a HOT summer here this year! I needed better cooling to maintain overclock & protect my CPU investment.

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COPPER vs. ALUMINUM HEATSINKS "CONTROVERSY" THAT I HAD BEEN FOLLOWING & HISTORY and why I pursued this mod:

Copper's been beating aluminum up good on this year's heatsink + fan combo analysis & tests. I had to give it a shot & am glad I did from the results on the then stock one I had (I just modded it, more on that below). Copper used to lose to Aluminum in the past.

Aluminum is less dense, & sheds heat faster because it is less dense than copper. On the reverse physics/metallurgy-wise, thus being less dense it draws heat out slower than Copper does!

(When I got the Intel one, it was near the top of the charts in those days 2+ years ago, & was beating copper offerings... that changed lately!)

Copper can draw out heat faster though because it is more dense, & on the reverse physics/metallurgy-wise, thus being denser it also holds onto heat longer than Aluminum does. Probably why alot of cooking pots have it on the bottom of them!

The engineers/designers got smart about copper by making more fins & of REALLY thin variety lately... thus, you see heatsinks like Thermalright SK-6 & this Vantec 6040H type heatsink designs models topping the charts now in tests!

I got into this pretty good, doing alot of reading etc. & it seems that they've hit a pretty good "peak" on design now of these copper heatsinks...

Only thing to do now to get more cooling still out of this setup?

Hit it with a higher cfm fan!

Brute Horsepower technique, lol, like using Cubic Inches Displacement on automobile engines!

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FAN TYPES COMPARED (Stock CompUSA 60mm VS. Delta 60mm):

SO, how did I do that?

Well, I ordered a Delta 60mm model fan of 8000rpm/51.1cfm variety, pictured here:



(Photo provided by phamcomputer: This is the ONLY place that had them with the 4 pin connector on them to boot, & shipped with it on already I could find!)

And, replaced the 23.1cfm/5000rpm stock fans with that monster, & again...

I am pleased with the results!

PHOTO COMPARING SIZE OF THESE 60mm FANS:



(Photo by Club Overclocker, good review site for o/c fiends)

By doubling (nearly) the cubic foot per minute air displacement on the heatsink with a more powerful fan, it helped loads!

I can also overclock now to my std. 1127mhz much cooler & push up near 1140's ranges if not higher & remain stable even on the hot 90-100 degree weather we're seeing lately (I turn it down on the hotpoint of the day though, less fsb overclock from noon to 7, then in a.m. turn up more & at night again).

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MY TESTING RESULTS TEMPERATURE-WISE:

At Idle

I went from 87 degrees F at idle to 82 degrees F at idle using it!

Vantec heatsink w/ 23.1 cfm fan = 87 F
Vantec heatsink w/ 51.1 cfm fan = 82 F (more on this below)
Intel Aluminum heatsink = 91 F

The Intel boxed Aluminum heatsink/fan combo set I had left me USUALLY around 91 degrees F (I overclock my CPU's incidentally to 1127mhz here, why I needed this stuff in the first place!)

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Under Load

Under load, I went from 95 degrees F to 87 degrees F now using this new fan ontop of the copper/thin-fin heatsink I have!

Vantec heatsink w/ 23.1 cfm fan = 95 F
Vantec heatsink w/ 51.1 cfm fan = 87 F (more on this below)
Intel Aluminum heatsink = 105 F

The Intel boxed Aluminum heatsink/fan combo set I had left me USUALLY around 100-105 degrees F (if not higher when overclocked & pushing it)!!!

(I use playing Quake III Arena for a single player round, for about 20 minutes to see what-is-what & create a CPU workload here to raise temps etc. to compare... maybe not THE most scientific analysis, but works!)

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FAN MOUNTING REVERSED, ANOTHER 2 DEGREES F Gain (decrease in temp):

Now, the funniest part? I mounted the fans as they were supposed to be put onto the heatsink, that did alright, sat at idle around 84 degrees F, not bad.

BUT, it was "sucking the air up" from the heatsink & thus, hotter air off motherboard & surrounding circuitry too probably... & not blowing air into it that was cooler from outside the case (drawing in cool air being taken in by my modded case side, which has two 3.5" fans drawing in cool air, & was fighting with those).

They designed them to draw air upwards from the heatsink, not force cool air over it! I found that rather odd... SO, I mounted them in reverse... & I got another 2 degrees F believe it or not.

Makes sense too now that I am now drawing the air into my CPU's that is coming from outside the case (being drawn in by my two side-of-case holes & 3.5" fans) & that air is now being directly drawn in & whisked nearly right into these new 8000rpm/51.1cfm Deltas!

* Made QUITE the difference, oddly, to reverse the fans... & I thought I would let you guys know if you ever attempt a mod of your heatsink fans by getting a more powerful set (They're a cheap mod to pull off too! Each of these go for $16 each).

Some pretty wild stuff, & was worth shelling out $32 online to get these better fans for better cooling!



EDIT PART: I am now also noting that returns to lower temperatures after gaming & pushing the CPU's hard is faster as well... quite a bit faster!

APK

P.S.=> Thought I'd share that experience with you guys... for $72 total (for 2 Vantec 6040H Copper/Thin-Fin Style Heatsinks + 2 Delta 8000rpm/51.1 cfm fans for this Dual CPU/SMP setup I run) it was worth it for the gain in overclockeability & long-term duration of the CPU's due to cooler temperatures! On a single CPU setup, that'd run you around $40 tops roughly! apk

Sitting pretty at 84-86 degrees today with an outside of case/room temperature/ambient of 77 degrees F...

Still so far, looking good!

(This is just surfing etc. here today though at this point @ 8 a.m.)

I pushed it harder yesterday night, & found a NEW way to really crank on it, worse than Quake III Arena in fact:

Using Hauppauge WinTV 32 & my USB model of its hardware!

You would not believe how hard this application pushes a PC... harder than Quake III Arena even judging by temps alone which I am monitoring using Motherboard Monitor 5 currently.

I also found (& knew to be true) that my APK Windows Registry Cleaning Engine 2002++ pushes it hard at CPU level as well... as it is a VERY compute-bound/CPU Intensive process in strings processing in its main thread of execution.

(Last night was SUPER-HOT from 2 p.m. into the night even sitting at around 95 degrees F or so, & my system went up to 110 degrees F & froze on me... that ticked me off a bit, but was good test.)

Even with these on, but I am pushing a 1140mhz overclock now though, & it is running with it where I could not touch that before & stay stable even under low-load conditions!

(Best I could do before was 1127mhz...)

I am also doing this for duration of my CPU's really... I intend to keep this box for another year or two, & do not ALWAYS overclock! In fact, at the hot-point of the day, I turn it down (12 noon thru 9 p.m. usually)...

* Hardest part of this testing for me is running it in controlled room temp/ambient conditions really... making sure it's consistent each test run, which has been same time in a.m. around 6-7 a.m. each day now, but temperature is not always same, cool but not same!



APK

P.S.=> Bumped this up in case any of you are into the "cooling your PC binge" I am on lately to compensate for this summer's heat & also pushing a better/higher/faster overclock... AND, to show the 'oddity' of fan mount reversal using these as well! apk

See this post as well, so if you consider "fan stacking" as I did, you save time in considering the possibles in doing it:

http://www.ntcompatible.com/vb/showthread.php?postid=105222#post105222

Continuing this mostly for my own sake & analysis and archving it to .mht file here for future reference:

EXPERIMENT on cooling "cool-down" time on these after 2 rounds of Quake III Arena @ 640x480 with ALL OpenGL settings maxed maps Q3DM11 & Q3DM12 -

(CPU's overclocked only SLIGHTLY on this test at 1110mhz & GeForce4 Ti4600 set 320/670, both o/c'd)

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A.) Initial Temperatures on CPU #1 & CPU #2:

CPU #1 - 84 degrees F
CPU #2 - 84 degrees F

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B.) Temperatures on CPU #1 & CPU #2 (After gaming 30 minutes):

CPU #1 - 107 degrees F
CPU #2 - 107 degrees F

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C.) COOLING RATES OBSERVED OVER PERIOD TO RETURN TO INITIAL TEMP:

1 minute after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 105 degrees F
CPU #2 - 105 degrees F

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2 minutes after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 98 degrees F
CPU #2 - 95 degrees F

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3 minutes after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 93 degrees F
CPU #2 - 91 degrees F

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4 minutes after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 93 degrees F
CPU #2 - 89 degrees F

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5 minutes after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 89 degrees F
CPU #2 - 87 degrees F

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6 minutes after gaming & idling (40 background processes running):

CPU #1 - 88 degrees F
CPU #2 - 86 degrees F

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* Overall time taken to cool down near to initial idling temperature after approximately 30 minutes of Quake III Arena locally, not online = 6 minutes.



APK

P.S.=> External room temperature @ 77 degrees F... Online gaming temperatures were approximately same, same system settings & gaming settings also! Temperatures monitored by MotherBoard Monitor 5 program...

apk

I USED CPU COPPER HEATSINKS INSTEAD!!!

I applied one of the CPU heatsinks + fan combos above also to my GeForce4 Ti4600! BUT, not modded with Delta, stock fan only this round!

(AND, I got to use my 23.1 cfm fans from the ones I have on CPU's above as well, BONUS! No wasted fans from my mod above...)

I applied the YSTech 23.1 cfm fans from my CPU heatsinks which my 51.1 cfm Delta's took the place of, to my GeForce4 Ti4600 huge aluminum AT PowerSupply heatsink's on its lower RAM!

They're way way cooler literally & figureatively speaking now as well... No waste either of the equipment!

Instead of the Thermaltake Copper GeForce 4 cooler in fact to my GeForce Ti4600 which I was considering!

Was a bit of 'wire-splicing & electrical tape hell' because of 3 to 4 pin connections & having to extend one to reach the CPU motherboard fan shunts, but worth it! The ends DID justify the means!

(WORKS GREAT TOO! Better I'd wager, by FAR, than even this thermaltake unit which has gotten great initial reviews (over stock heatsink + fan combo on GeForce4 units)):

THERMALTAKE COPPER GeForce4 Cooler photo for reference:



10cfm approx out of its fan vs. 23.1 cfm by YSTech fans on the CPU cooler heatsink I used in lieu of the thermaltake offering, stock setup of the CompUSA copper gamer heatsink + fan combo!

PLUS, the Thermaltake good as it is, has WAY less surface area than the Copper CPU cooler pictured above!

That CPU cooler is applicable to the GeForce4 Ti4600 CPU as well (bonus!) but eats PCI slots!

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MY RESULTS:

Dual Intel Pentium III 1ghz Cpu's set overclocked now at -

+17x 7.5mhz increments via Abit VP6 SoftBIOS
1.9 volts
1127mhz (had to go DOWN from 1140 here oddly once the GeForce4 was WAY overclocked... 13mhz loss, but worth stability. It worked but was unstable suddenly. Not temperature related, cool day today at 69 degrees F...)

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Ram Speeds on 512mb PC-133 Micron RAM set at -

Turbo
Cas/3 (for overclock it is better than Cas/2)
4 way interleave x 128mb sticks = 512mb

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PCI latency set at 16 (down from default 32)

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GeForce4 now STABLE & FASTER at:

330mhz core GPU processing speed (up from stock 300) - 10% gain

* NOTE & EDIT PART AFTER LONG TESTING OPERATION/DURATION OF THESE SETTINGS FOR MEMORY:

I can go up to 335, but it does not last too long... this is just the unit itself I imagine & not temperatures... timings in the circuitry traces on the video card itself may be the issue, or even in the GPU itself. Timings & shapes of traces, matter, in board design.

770mhz memory processing cycle speed (up from stock 600) - nearly 30% gain here, I have not tested IF I can nab that though, I may yet be able to here!

* NOTE & EDIT PART AFTER LONG TESTING OPERATION/DURATION OF THESE SETTINGS FOR MEMORY:

I ended up doing 755 on memory: was getting small artifacts on 2d even in browser, & after 5 hours I lockup & was seeing small specks on Quake III Arena screens:

This WILL work in winter though when temps go down in ambient surrounding area!

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Quake III Arena test was done at:

640x480 FULL OpenGL settings

q3config.cfg file set for visuals best

4xAA

8x Anti Isotropic set

With full Quake III colors set Trilinear & full details.

160fps (great speed) on Q3DM6 for those setting for me. I test in the area on the high cliff with 'bounce elevator' where the Red 100% armor is & 100% health boost blue orb.

(Widest area in that map, & STRONG test of Quake III motor: Has hard times with open areas.)

Need to get a GOOD demo test for Quake III Arena 1.31 patch build though, old ones do not work anymore!

Anyhow: This mod & running 640x480 makes FULL use of 4xAA & 8x AntiIsotropic worth it, decent performance from them, stable & NO LOCKUPS and HIGH FRAMERATES due to low-res usage!

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* OVERALL: $20 for an average 20% increase in performance, cooling, & life-expectancy/duration of board too...

FOR 5% of the video card's cost!

That $20 cost of another CompUSA Copper/Thin-fin heatsink ONLY represents 5% of the cost of the GeForce at $427.00 for me as well...

* This was a GOOD investment! I came out WAY ahead in cost/benefit terms AND in terms of performance on the cheap AND STABLE TOO!



APK

P.S.=> I used one of these tall things, because I have 2 HUGE Aluminum heatsinks from an old AT PowerSupply I attached to my GeForce4's RAM on the lower end... eating 3 PCI slots already! This being the case, I got a fan + heatsink combo that way outperforms the Thermaltake unit even. 2x++ the cfrm output at 23.1 on its fan, & way more surface area from the copper heatsink itself! apk