Review

Vigor Monsoon II Review
by Thomas Gribble

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The Monsoon II from Vigor represents a new chapter in PC cooling: Air-cooled TECs. Does the Monsoon II deliver the enthusiast level performance of more extreme and often more expensive cooling solutions?

A few months ago, we published an article entitled "The Fundamentals of Cooling". In this article, we gave a pretty in-depth explanation of each type of commonly used CPU cooling technology. As much as we would like to think the article was all-encompassing, it decidedly wasn't. Not only are there other methods of CPU cooling, but there are variations of the ones we described. Don't get the wrong impression, though; we still think that was a pretty good article with a lot of useful information, and if it wasn't for those confounded innovators out there, it would be much closer to complete.

We have reviewed and written about several different innovations over the last year, from eMagin's Z800 3DVisor to CoolIT's Freezone TEC CPU Cooler; Bigfoot's KillerNIC; and AGEIA's PhysX PPU. These products are the ones that shape the future of computer hardware - true cutting-edge devices that redefine standards and break new ground. Thanks to close relationships we have built with all of the four companies behind these products, we can tell you definitively that the people in charge of the companies are extremely enthusiastic about their products and 100% dedicated towards the cause of innovation. Meeting these people and testing out their products is what really makes our jobs interesting, and keeps us doing what we love.

Last month we published a review of a very large Full-sized steel ATX computer case, called Force, from a company called Vigor Gaming. Vigor has been in the system integration business for about 2 years now, providing extremely high-end systems aimed at gamers with big budgets and bigger performance expectations. Like other companies, such as Corsair, OCZ, and Mushkin, Vigor has decided to expand their product line beyond what they started with - in this case to the component market. Unlike other companies, Vigor's entries into the component market are a far cry from the generic-looking, average-performing parts that are flooding the market these days.

To get back to the point at hand - where are we going with this new company/innovation/cooling subject? Introducing the Vigor Monsoon II TEC CPU Cooling System: an innovative cooling solution from a company you, more likely than not, haven¡¦t heard too much about.

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