Vigor Monsoon™ II Lite Active TEC CPU Cooling System (MACS) for AMD
Overview
Used commonly in the aerospace industry, thermoelectric chips (TEC), or thermoelectric coolers, have not been integrated in the cooling of CPU due to previous humidity problems. Vigor Gaming has resolved these problems and developed the patented Vigor Monsoon™ II Lite series of CPU cooling systems with TEC. The basics of TEC are as follows:
The thermoelectric cooler, or Peltier Cooler, is a solid-state heat pump that uses the Peltier effect to move heat. The modern commercial TEC consists of a number of p- and n- type semiconductor couples connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel. These couples are sandwiched between two thermally conductive and electrically insulated substrates. The heat's pumping direction can be changed by altering the polarity of the charging DC current.
Vigor Monsoon™ II Lite has been tested and guaranteed to reduce the core of CPU temperature by a minimum of 10° Celsius. This is on par or better than many of the current specialized cooling solutions. However, TEC cooling is a more efficient and effective solution than others, such as water-cooling. With water-cooling solutions, many experts have raised concerns over disadvantages, such as possible water leakage and its efficiency dependence on room temperature. In addition, unlike its counterparts, the Monsoon™ II series coolers are very easy to install. The unit installs just like a traditional cooling fan. It utilizes advanced and sophisticated software to automatically control the cooling and the speed of the fan to ensure optimal operating conditions automatically. Therefore, once installed, the unit will operate without any required adjustments. Furthermore, in order to improve the noise level created by the fan, the fan speed will automatically run between a low of 2000rpm to a high of 2600rpm (see specifications for more details) depending on temperature load.
Superb Performance
"... you'll find AMD's Athlon 64x2 4400+ processor boldly over clocked from 2.2GHz ...The Vigor Force Recon AXE's most unusual feature is its cooling scheme. The rig's interior temperature remained consistently cool even while running 3dMark2006 on a loop for hours. Vigor Gaming calls its secret chill sauce-deep breath-the Vigor Monsoon II TEC Active CPU cooling System...."
-Logan Decker - Senior Editor, PC Gamer Magazine
Source: AnandTech, Feb 19, The Zalman Twins Review
"Cooling efficiency of the Monsoon II Lite under stress conditions was compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers.
Once again the well-regarded Tuniq Tower 120 and the Monsoon II Lite were the top performers. It is interesting that the Tuniq and Monsoon II results got closer as the CPU speed under stress conditions reached higher.
... Only the Tuniq and Monsoon II were able to reach 3.9GHz with this processor, but the Monsoon II Lite system allowed an even higher overclock of 3.96GHz, which is the highest we have reached with this CPU."
-Wesley Fink - Case and Cooling System Editor, AnandTech.com
"... Overall, I was impressed by how well the Monsoon II cooler performed. It was easy to install and produced very good results - actually cooling the fully loaded A64 3200+ processor more than 3°C below the ambient air temperature. The Monsoon II offers better cooling performance than most high-performance HSFs or water cooling systems that rely on standard convection cooling... All HSFs were tested on the same CPU under the same conditions. Notice that none of these coolers use active cooling and therefore none of them can achieve sub-ambient CPU temperatures the way the Monsoon II can."
-Lee Garbutt - Case, PSU and Cooling System Editor, PCPerspective.com
For comparison only. All HSFs for the K8 platform and the stock OEM aluminum cooler that comes bundled with the Athlon 64 3200+. All HSFs were tested on the same CPU under the same conditions.
Thermalright Ultra-120 with 120mm Delta SHE Fan
Thermalright Ultra-90 with 92mm Vantec Tornado
Thermalright XP-120 with 120mm Delta SHE Fan
Arctic Cooling Freezer 6a4 Pro with stock fan at 12V
Cooler Master Hyper 6 with 80mm CM Vantec Tornado
Zalman CNSP7000A-CU with integrated Zalman variable speed fan at High Speed
Athlon 64 3200+ OEM aluminum heatsink with 70mm fan
Features
Active CPU Cooling:
The world's first CPU cooling system combining patented advanced software controlled Active TEC technology and heat-pipe cooling modules.
Components
North America 
FAQ
