When you think OCZ, the first thing that comes to mind is memory, or ram, that's what they are best know for, making some of the best ram on the market today. OCZ has ventured into the cooling market as well with the release of several CPU coolers and thermal compound, so today I'll be taking a look at the OCZ Vendetta CPU cooler.
The Vendetta is a heatpipe based CPU cooler that is very popular because the system works well. The Vendetta though is a different in that it is small compared to most heatpipe based coolers, and it features a unique fan mounting system that is the easiest I have used to date. So read on to learn more about the OCZ Vendetta and to see how it does up against other coolers I've got on hand using my C2D and P4X CPUs..
OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler Review
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: OCZ Technology
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Using a distinctive, highly efficient heat pipe and fin design developed by Xigmatek, combined with a low-noise fan, the Vendetta is built to tackle heat-induced performance degradation and solves the cooling challenges of today’s enthusiast system builds.
While traditional heat pipe CPU coolers typically use a solid base plate design, the Vendetta’s three copper heat pipes make direct contact with the processor allowing for maximum heat transfer at a more rapid pace. A novel “dimple” design in the micro-configuration of the stacked aluminum fans adds turbulences, thereby reducing the skin effect of laminar air flow. Moreover, a folded "V" shape of the macro-configuration of the fins adds surface area without compromising the compact design. As a result, the Vendetta offers incredibly efficient cooling area comparable to much larger coolers which is reflected in its performance.
The ultra-quiet fan cools without disruption with its anti-vibration rubber connectors to reduce excess noise, resulting in quiet, yet extremely effective performance. Because the OCZ Vendetta has a compact design, even the most crowded cases can accommodate the cooler with ease.
Specs:
-For Sockets AMD 754/755/939/AM2, Intel LGA775*
* Although the Vendetta has been qualified for these processors for performance and compatibility, it may not fit some motherboards
-3 Pure Copper heat pipes for superior heat dissipation
-Pure Aluminum fins for ultimate durability
-Warranty: 24 Months
Fan Specs:
-Size: 92mm
-Rated Voltage: 12V DC
-Fan Speed: 1200-2800RPM
-Fan Air Flow: 39-54.6 CFM
-Noise Level: 22-34 dBA
-Bearing type:ball
-Connector: 4 pin with PWM
Dimensions:
-Heatsink: (L)97 x (W)79 x (H)134mm
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Includes:
-92mm Fan with rubber connectors
-Mounting Hardware for all above CPUs
-Thermal Compound
Part Number: OCZTVEND
You can find the OCZ Vendetta online at various place for $25-$30.
A Better Look at Things
:
The OCZ Vendetta comes in a small box as the cooler itself is small. There is a small window on the front that you can see the fan though, while the back and sides have all the information about the Vendetta and a picture of it assembled.
Opening the box we find two styrofoam inserts, one hold the fan, while the other holds the Vendetta itself and the accessories.
If you paid attention to the Specs page then you'll know that the fan that comes with the Vendetta runs between 1200 and 2800RPMs and has a noise level varying between 22 and 34 dBA (or quiet and loud).
The Vendetta comes with cheap generic thermal compound, a Molex 3-pin power adapter for the fan, rubber fan mounts and of course the socket mounting parts.
The OCZ Vendetta itself is rather cool looking with an almost space-age look to it, or maybe a butterfly look… depends on how you look at it I guess.
The name OCZ is shown on the top between the copper heatpipes so if you have a window in your case everyone can see what you've got in there keeping your CPU cool.
The cooler itself is very well made, the weight is surprising for it's small size it feel heavier than it looks. As we know the Vendetta is a heatpipe style cooler, and I like the contrast of the silver fins and copper pipes running through it.
The base of the Vendetta is different than others I have seen, the heatpipes go into the base as expected but they are not sandwiched between anything, the heatpipes directly contact your CPU, this is something I've never seen on any coolers I've reviewed, so I'm curious to see how this setup performs. The base is well finished, but there are fairly large gaps between the heatpipes and the base plate.
That's that.. let's move on, shall we?
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Since I'm installing the Vendetta on my LGA775 based board, we'll need to install the push-pin style socket mounts to the Vendetta, this is very easy as it requires only two screws to complete the install.
The fan mounting system is very unique and the easiest I have ever used, I like this system much better than using the metal brackets to hold the fans in place, not only does it securely hold your fan, the rubber brackets help to dampen vibrations thus limiting the noise. The rubber fan mounts are secured into the holes of the fan by pulling them through, then you just slide the other end of the rubber mounts between the fins of the Vendetta. Very simple and easy.
One small problem I could see, and from my personal experience, is that these rubber style mounts break very easily when trying to remove them from the fan, OCZ might want to include additional sets for those that want to swap the fan out. If you're very careful the rubber mounts can be removed, but you won't do it more than a couple times before they break on you…
To give you an idea of size comparison, here's the OCZ Vendetta next to some other popular CPU coolers (from left to right: Noctua NH-U12P, OCZ Vendetta, Scythe Ninja Copper, Coolink Silentator and in front of the Intel Stock CPU Cooler):
You can see from the pictures that the Vendetta is not only shorter but thinner as well than the other heatpipe style cooler I have.
Since the Vendetta is using the familiar push-pin style mounting system it's easy to install to my motherboard and I found no clearance issues with any of the components of my motherboard.
Once everything was installed in my case, here again I found no clearance issues at all.
-Please note that normally you won't have to remove your motherboard from the case to install the Vendetta, but before the Vendetta I had a CPU cooler installed that required it's own mounting hardware and backplate so I had to remove all of that first before installing the Vendetta.
My test setup consists of:
Intel P4 Extreme Edition 955 CPU @ 3.46GHZ
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R LGA775 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 PC2-8500 (2x1gig)
Connect3d X1800GTO Video Card
-with Arctic Cooling Accelero VGA Cooler and Turbo Module
Ultra X3 800-Watt Modular Power Supply
1x hard drive
1x dvd/rw drive
2x 120mm case fans, (1 intake and 1 exhaust)
all housed in a Thermaltake Matrix VX case
Ambient temperature during all testing was approximately 20.6C.
The OCZ Vendetta was installed in this system for over two weeks and during those two weeks the system was stressed using Orthos Stress Prime for 30 minutes several times a day and the results recorded, then averaged out to what you see in the graph below. To get my idle temperatures I turned the system on and let it sit doing nothing for the same 30 minute time period.
In the graph below you'll find results for the Vendetta with the fan connected to the CPU header utilizing to system to control the fan speed automatically, and to a Molex connection (running at full speed), of course I've included other CPU coolers as well for a comparison.
The first observation is that when the fan is running at full speed it is quite loud and pretty much the only thing you'll hear in your system. The next observation is that while connected to the CPU it's virtually silent under low temps, or idle, and even while under load it's barely audible, though it never hits full speed while connected to the CPU header. We can see the temps are very comparable to others while the fan is running at full speed, and while connected to the CPU header the temps might be higher than others they are still very good, easily overtaking the Intel stock cooler.
In this graph here I have the test results using the same setup but with my Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 CPU @ 2.13Ghz. It's the same exact setup, just a different processor. The comparison is only comparing it to the Intel Stock cooling solution. The difference you'll see here in the chart is that I included temps for the Vendetta without a fan, I was curious to see what kind of temps I'd get if I took the fan off.
The C2D runs cool, much cooler than it's predecessors, so the stock cooling solution does a fairly decent job of cooling at stock speeds, but of course there's always room for improvement, and we all know that cooler is always better. Obviously the OCZ Vendetta does a very good job of cooling the C2D CPU whether it's connected to the CPU header or a Molex connection, it just depends on what you're doing with your system, overclocking or not and whether or not you care about the noise levels.
The temps aren't the greatest without the fan on the Vendetta, but it's nice to know that if your fan dies for whatever reason you won't fry your CPU… as I said I was just curious as to how it would perform with no fan so I threw those results in as well to show you.
-I've officially retired my P4X CPU, it's now in use processing security footage at my friends place of business, so all future reviews will be done using the C2D CPU, and I'm in process of re-testing all of the CPU Coolers I have on hand using the C2D. I also upgraded my main system to a quad-core so I'll be doing all of that testing all over again with the quad to check out how these coolers I have can handle a C2Q.
You can find the OCZ Vendetta online at various place for $25-$30.
Summary:
The OCZ Vendetta proves that a CPU cooler does not have to be a huge, hulking heavy beast to keep your CPU cool, it's nice to see that such a small cooler can do the job of those much bigger than itself.
The installation of both the cooler itself and the fan can't be much simpler, and I really like the new fan mount system that OCZ has come up with for the Vendetta.
The Vendetta can provide you with a quiet and cool system while the fan is running at low speeds, but of course once you turn the speed up it can get quite loud and personally I think it's annoyingly loud… but to each his own, some people don't mind a loud fan if it means they can eek out a few more megahertz of speed from their processor.
DragonSteelMods gives the OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.
Pros:
-Cools well
-Easy installation
-Easy / innovative fan installation
-Silent on low speed
-Small size
-Can be run without a fan
-Inexpensive
Cons:
-Fan loud on full speed
-Only one set of fan mounts included
I would like to thank OCZ for the chance to review the Vendetta CPU Cooler and for their continued support of DSM.
Discuss, Questions for the Author HERE
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