Review

3DXtreme, May 1, 2007
Vigor Gaming Monsoon II Lite TEC CPU Cooling System Review

Supplied By Vigor Gaming

Author: Dean Nottis

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Test System Configuration and Results

Here is a look at the test bed we are using for this review. We will be looking at stock and overclocked results. The results are pulled using Intel TAT, which we realize may not be 100% accurate but using the same application will give us an idea of the delta between the Monsoon II Lite and the water cooling setup we are using to test with. Load results were taken after 20 minutes running Orthos to load both cores of the processor.

The competition today is my custom-built water cooling system worth upwards of $400. We wanted to show how the Monsoon II Lite would handle it own against some worthy competition!

Here are the results of the testing. I think what we need to note here is that the Monsoon II Lite stood up very well against a much costlier water cooled system. When we started really pumping some volts and jacking up clock speeds we can see that the Monsoon II Lite just wasn’t able to keep up with the water cooled solution. For a mild overclock I’d be willing to bet the performance would have been almost spot on.

Now consider this, we are comparing a $115 off the shelf TEC cooler against a setup that took hours to layout, design and install. The only con of the Monsoon would be that motherboard removal was necessary and that it was loud. A quick cheap mod would be to strap 2 x 120mm fans to the Monsoon II Lite which would help with cooling and reduce the noise.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with my camera and the pictures I took with the Monsoon II Lite installed were not usable. I apologize for this, however I didn’t have time to go back and re-shoot pictures once the unit was removed.

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