Conroe heatsink group test

Asetek Vapochill Micro Xtreme

Price: £25.78 inc VAT
Supplier: Scan
Manufacturer: Asetek

The Vapochill Micro is unique amongst the other coolers in this group test. While it does use heat pipes, it only uses one large chamber, over the copper base. This chamber, in turn, feeds three large heat pipes, which then pass through the aluminium fins.

The fin assembly is covered with a cowling, which has been folded from a 1mm thick acrylic sheet. The heat sink’s fan attaches to this cowling using press studs that hold the fan securely in position in front of the fins.



Base: The copper base is held to the top of the CPU using the standard Intel pin system, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to fit. Much like the Mini Typhoon, this proves not to be the case.

The clip that the pins attach to is free to slip around the base of the heat sink, which makes mounting the unit a pain. It’s actually worse than the Mini Typhoon’s clip system in practice, because of the tight fit, making it harder to get the clip to lie properly in place.

Noise: While the Vapochill’s 92mm fan comes with a four-pin connector, it doesn’t help reduce the noise the unit makes. Unlike the other heat sinks on test, the Vapochill rattles. Because the fan clips to a thin plastic shroud, and the shroud isn’t perfectly formed, there is a lot of mechanical noise.

Unfortunately this buzzing rattle is a lot louder than the fan, which in itself isn’t very quiet. Fortunately the Vapochill comes with a rheostat, which will allow you to lower the fanspeed manually.

Performance: You may not wish to lower the fan speed, though, as even when the fan is running at full RPM it still lacks the performance of the Freezer 7 Pro or the Auras 775. It does pretty well, though, knocking 14°C off the reference temperature on a fully loaded CPU.

It didn’t help the system temperature either. Although it’s a tall heatsing like the Auras, it doesn’t push its hot exhaust directly out of the case. Instead you must install it so that it blows directly upwards into the PSU.

Score:

Value 1
Performance order 2
Noise level 1
Assembly and mounting difficulty 2
Quality and aesthetic 2

Overall 2