Review

Vigor Monsoon II Review
by Thomas Gribble

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Testbed and Methods

Test setup

• Case: Vigor Force
• Power Supply: Antec NeoHE 550W
• Motherboard: Intel Desktop Board D975XBX (Bad Axe)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Varying MHz)
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 2500KS 7200RPM, 250GB with 16MB Cache Buffer
• Video: eVGA NVIDIA GeForce 7900GT KO Superclocked (580/1580)
• Memory: 1024MB (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2 PC2 6400 (TWIN2X1024A-6400)
• Optical Drive: Lite-ON SHW160P6S05
• Cooling: Thermaltake Big Typhoon | Vigor Monsoon II
• Audio: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
• NIC: Killer Network Interface Card

Software Configuration

• Motherboard BIOS: D975XBX Express BIOS Update (Rev. 1351)
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
• Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Version 91.47 WHQL Certified (September 14 release)

Our testbed is unchanged since our last full review of the KillerNIC. However, we will not be keeping our settings at stock while testing this cooler because the whole point of a cooler is seeing how well it does under extreme load. If you have a CPU cooler running your processor at 12C under idle conditions but 60C under heavy load, it is basically worthless. Any overclocking enthusiast will tell you they would rather have a constant temperature of 50C (idle and load) than have 12C at idle conditions and potentially damaging temperatures under load.

However, measuring temperatures can be a tricky procedure. Not only do you have to define measurement standards, but you have to maintain constant ambient temperatures or all of your readings will end up as garbage.

The temperatures of the surface of the chip were obtained using the thermal probes from a Logysis FP206BK fan controller unit. Ambient and exhaust temperatures were also obtained using this unit by taping the thermistor in front of the front case where the air was being sucked in, and one on the back where the air was being blown out. We also recorded temperatures from the built-in diode on the back of the processor using a program called Core Temp and verified using both the Intel Desktop Utilities Hardware Monitor and the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool. Temperatures were also taken from the readout on the Monsoon II¡¦s management unit, which records the temperature directly in between the two thermal plates. This is actually a very useful measurement because it gives a good, linear indication of the change in temperature should the TEC be on during the entire test duration. Testing was carried out on stock speeds at idle, under half-load, and under full load for 30 minute durations with a constant ambient temperature, with readings taken every minute and then averaged (temperature fluctuations were at most 1 degree in either direction and thus, a temperature vs. time graph is not necessary). CPU load was created using two separate instances of the popular stress test application Prime 95. Almost identical procedures were used with each of the two coolers being tested., the exception being that we did no test exhaust temperatures with the Thermaltake Big Typhoon because they were not relevant.

A final test we did was for system power consumption. Due to the natural tendency of TECs to use up a hell of a lot of power, we thought it would be interesting to see what kind of power usage (as measured at the wall with a Kill-A-Watt) increases would be seen while using the Monsoon II, as opposed to our alternative cooling solution.

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