Introduction

Today we tested Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU cooler, which has a unique design with a centrifugal fan inside a cylindrical heatsink. Will this fancy design translate into a high performance? Let's see.

The product box is simple, made of card paper with no window or details, as you can see in Figure 1.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: Product box.

Inside the box we found, besides the cooler, installation hardware, user manual and a small tube of thermal compound.

In Figure 2 we can see SpinQ VT. Note the position of the fins: each one is slighty rotated from the one right before it, making an interesting "spinning" looks.

click to enlarge
Figure 2: Thermaltake SpinQ VT.

In the next we will see the cooler in details.

Thermaltake SpinQ VT

In Figure 3 we can see SpinQ VT from the front. Note the cooler is very tall, with a big gap between the base and the heatsink.

click to enlarge
Figure 3: Front view.

In Figure 4 we have a side view of the cooler. It is clear the presence of three 6 mm U-shape heatpipes.

click to enlarge
Figure 4: Side view.

In Figure 5 we have a top view of SpinQ VT. The tips from the heatpipes equidistant along the circle formed by the fins. It is also clear the position of the transparent fan inside the heatsink.

click to enlarge
Figure 5: Top view.

Thermaltake SpinQ VT (Cont'd)

In Figure 6 we can see the bottom of the fan. It works blowing air from inside the heatsink in all directions.

click to enlarge
Figure 6: Fan.

The fan has no PWM automatic control, but it comes with a small potentiometer which allows you to manually adjust the fan speed.

click to enlarge
Figure 7: Speed controller.

The nickel-plated copper base has a mirror-like aspect, as we can see in Figure 8.

click to enlarge
Figure 8: Base.

Installation

SpinQ VT retention system is quite simple: for AMD processors, you just need to put the appropriate clip over the base of the cooler and attach it to the CPU cooler frame on the motherboard. With Intel CPUs you must screw the proper clips (there is one set for socket 775 and another for sockets 1156 and 1366) to the base, and then attach it on top of the processor the same way you do with the Intel stock cooler.

In Figure 9 we can see the hardware that come with the cooler, manuals, one small tube of gray thermal compound and the clip sets.

click to enlarge
Figure 9: Accessories.

In Figure 10 we can see the cooler with socket 775 clips attached. We thought that a tall and relatively heavy cooler like this deserved a better holding system, with a backplate to avoid the motherboard from bending.

click to enlarge
Figure 10: Socket 775 clips.

In Figure 11 you can see the cooler installed in our case. As this cooler do not direct airflow to the rear side of the case, it will probably perform better with a good case ventilation. A fan at the rear panel of the case should work nice.

click to enlarge
Figure 11: Installed in case.

In Figure 12, you can see the red glow of the fan when it is turned on.

click to enlarge
Figure 12: Fan glow.

How We Tested

We are adopting the following methodology for our CPU cooler reviews.

First, we chose the CPU with the highest TDP (Thermal Design Power) we had available, a Core 2 Extreme QX6850, which has a 130 W TDP. The choice for a CPU with a high TDP is obvious. To measure the efficiency of the tested cooler, we need a processor that gets very hot. This CPU works by default at 3.0 GHz, but we overclocked it to 3.33 GHz, in order to heat it as much as possible.

We took noise and temperature measurements with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to achieve 100% CPU load on the four processing cores we ran Prime95 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option, and three instances of the StressCPU program, all at the same time.

We also compared the reviewed cooler to the Intel stock cooler (with copper base), which comes with the processor we used, and also with some other coolers we have tested using the same methodology.

Temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer, with the sensor touching the base of the cooler, and also with the core temperature reading (given by the CPU thermal sensor) from the from the SpeedFan program, using an arithmetic average of the four core temperature readings.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the video board cooler so it wouldn't interfere with the results, but this measurement is only for comparative purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6850
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
• Memory: 2 GB Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX G (DDR2-800/PC2-6400 with timings 4-4-4-12), running at 800 MHz
• Hard drive: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (ST31000528AS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
• Video card: PNY Verto Geforce 9600 GT
• Video resolution: 1680x1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply required: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem K100
  

Software Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
  

Software Used

• Prime95
• StressCPU
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 ^oC error margin, i.e., temperature differences below 2 ^oC are considered irrelevant.

Our Tests

On the tables below you can see our results. We ran the same tests with the coolers shown on below tables. Each test ran with the CPU idle and the with the CPU fully loaded. On BigTyp 14Pro, TMG IA1, NH-U12P and ISGC-300 the tests were done with the fan at full speed and at minimum speed. The other coolers were connected directly to the motherboard and it controls the fan speed based on CPU load level and temperature on PWM models. ISGC-400, iCEAGE Prima Boss, Megahalems Rev. B and Thermaltake SpinQ VT were tested at minimum speed on idle test and at maximum speed on full load test.

The next graph shows how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our idle tests.

The next graph gives you an idea on how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our full load tests.

 

Main Specifications

Thermaltake SpinQ VT main features are:

• Application: Socket 775, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 940, 939 and 754 processors.
• Fins: Aluminum.
• Base: Copper.
• Heat-pipes: Three U-shape 6-mm copper heat-pipes.
• Fan: radial, 80 mm.
• Nominal fan speed: 1,600 rpm.
• Fan air flow: 86.5 cfm.
• Maximum power consumption: 5.4 W.
• Nominal noise level: 28 dBA.
• Weight: 1.1 lbs (495 g).
• More information: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 56.00