Thermalright Ultima-90: Small Wonder?
by Wesley Fink on August 20, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cooling at Stock Speed
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. The Thermalright Ultima-90 does not come with a fan, but it does ship with fan wires that can mount either a 120mm or 92mm fan. Testing was conducted with two well-respected, high-output, and relatively quiet fans. The S-FLEX SFF21F is the 120mm fan of choice, while the Panaflo H1A is the 92mm fan. Both 120mm and 92mm results are reported in all charts and graphs.
The very good Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, compared to the Ultima-90 at 27C with the 120mm and 28C with the 92mm. The 27/28 results are among the best ever seen in AnandTech air cooler benchmarking. 27C matches the Tuniq120 and the larger Ultra-120. It is only exceeded by the Ultima-90 big brother - the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme - which manages 26C. All these results are significant improvements over the Intel stock cooler performance at 41C, but the chart-topping performance results show the Ultima-90 is the equal of the best coolers tested at idle. We were curious whether the smaller Ultima-90 could do as well under load conditions.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates playing a demanding game. The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you can expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT.
Here are the cooling efficiency results of the Thermalright Ultima-90 under load conditions and stock CPU speed compared to the retail Intel HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers.
The Thermalright Ultima-90 under load at stock speeds reaches a maximum temperature of 35C with either the S-FLEX 120 or the Panaflo 92 fans. This compares to the Thermalright Ultra-120/eXtreme at 32C/33C and the Tuniq at 34C. The Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Zalman 9700 are just behind at 36C. Stock load performance is among the best air results we have measured. The performance of the Ultima-90 under load was really quite a surprise. It demonstrates again how very effective the 6-loop (12 riser) heatpipe design of the Thermalrights really is.
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. The Thermalright Ultima-90 does not come with a fan, but it does ship with fan wires that can mount either a 120mm or 92mm fan. Testing was conducted with two well-respected, high-output, and relatively quiet fans. The S-FLEX SFF21F is the 120mm fan of choice, while the Panaflo H1A is the 92mm fan. Both 120mm and 92mm results are reported in all charts and graphs.
The very good Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, compared to the Ultima-90 at 27C with the 120mm and 28C with the 92mm. The 27/28 results are among the best ever seen in AnandTech air cooler benchmarking. 27C matches the Tuniq120 and the larger Ultra-120. It is only exceeded by the Ultima-90 big brother - the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme - which manages 26C. All these results are significant improvements over the Intel stock cooler performance at 41C, but the chart-topping performance results show the Ultima-90 is the equal of the best coolers tested at idle. We were curious whether the smaller Ultima-90 could do as well under load conditions.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates playing a demanding game. The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you can expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT.
Here are the cooling efficiency results of the Thermalright Ultima-90 under load conditions and stock CPU speed compared to the retail Intel HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers.
The Thermalright Ultima-90 under load at stock speeds reaches a maximum temperature of 35C with either the S-FLEX 120 or the Panaflo 92 fans. This compares to the Thermalright Ultra-120/eXtreme at 32C/33C and the Tuniq at 34C. The Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Zalman 9700 are just behind at 36C. Stock load performance is among the best air results we have measured. The performance of the Ultima-90 under load was really quite a surprise. It demonstrates again how very effective the 6-loop (12 riser) heatpipe design of the Thermalrights really is.
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andereandre - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
In these articles the Intel HSF is always classified as having the same noise level as the best coolers (and system-ps & no fans).
I have a X2 4600 however, and I hear the AM2 stock cooler at idle.
Does this mean that de Intel stock cooler is that much better than the AMD one, or is it just the measurement?
That is of real interest to me as I am looking to replace my cooler to make my pc more silent, not to oc it.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
Early Intel 775 stock coolers were very noisy, but for the last year or so the Intel stock cooler is very quiet. That is further enhanced by the 4-pin fan connection that varies fan speed based on CPU temp and BIOS settings. Intel also uses a fan that is a standard 25mm thick.While I don't have measurements for you, the AMD fan is noisier to my ears. AMD does use heatpipes, but they also use a very thin fan that has to run higher rpm to move enough air for cooling.
Beenthere - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
For years Thermalright has delivered best in class performance with all of the products. No reason to expect any difference with the Small Wonder. Thermalright does good engineering and proves out their product instead of rushing some POS out the door as the trick-of-the week product. And with Thermalright you don't get some stupid shitze whisles and bells to sucker the clueless sheep into buying their products.Axbattler - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
@ Wesley Fink: Can you please confirm that the height of the cooler with a 120mm fan attached is indeed shorter than the Ninja with a 120mm fan attached? I know that the Ninja is 150mm high, whereas the Ultima is 139mm, so I would expect, all things being equal that the Ultima requires less space than the Ninja. But a confirmation would be helpful as I've been looking for a cooler with comparable performance with the Ninja but a few (5-10mm) shorter.Wesley Fink - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
1600 RPM is correct, and the chart is corrected.As for the Scythe Infinity, we can only report what we find, and others report what they find. You might compare test beds and methods for an explanation. The Infinity is deservedly loved by those whose primary goal is silence. That means the fan is relatively low output compared to coolers designed for overclocking as the primary goal.
We did find the Infinity reached 3.90 GHz at the top tier of our performance results when two fans were used in a push-pull arrangement. That is also included in our Scaling charts. As reported in our Infinity review the cooler can mount up to four fans.
jackylman - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
In the first sentence of the last paragraph on the last page."We asked in the beginning of this review if the smaller and lighter Thermalright Ultima-120 might be too compromised...
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
We saved the most obvious for last :) Now corrected.xxxCHAOSxxx - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
Gents,I have been looking at the cooler market for about 2 or 3 months.. I was torn between the Tuniq 120, thermalright Ultra 120 and the Vigor Monsoon.. however each had a few things that i am a bit leary of. Mainly the weight and size issue. Currently I am running a thermaltake typhoon but am not happy with it. I have to go in every so often and adjust the screws holding it down as they appear to lossen over a short period of time. Based on your review of the thermals, i have just ordered the Ultima 90 and will drop you a line based on my results.
thanks!!
E6600
EVGA 680i
2Gig Memory
EVGA 8800GTX KO w/ ACS3
Thermaltake Armor
Thermaltake Toughpower 800
yacoub - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
Been looking forward to an Anandtech review of this cooler for about three months now (since the first sneak peak review was seen on another forum). Glad to see this is indeed a pretty badass cooler! =)MercenaryForHire - Monday, August 20, 2007 - link
Something's not quite adding up there ...