Sapphire do a very nice line of tweaked
video cards, if you've not noticed. The majority of these utilise a technology
called Vapor-X, which first appeared on their 'Atomic' line back in 2007. It's
taken five years for Sapphire to offer it as a CPU option, but now you can get
Vapor-X cooling for your AMD or Intel CPU.
The concept behind Vapor-X is like most of
the best ideas, simple yet effective. All refrigeration systems work by taking
a liquid coolant under pressure and using a cycle of evaporation and
condensation to move heat from one location to another. In Vapor-X the coolant
is water, but it's held under a very low pressure so it boils well below 100C,
and as it does so it cools the surrounding metal, which in this case is in
contact with the CPU.
Sapphire
Vapor-X CPU cooler
That's the science, so what's it like in
reality? Big, very big. This scale and type of cooler need plenty of headroom
above it and low profile RAM around it. It uses a sandwich-bracket, so access
to the rear of the motherboard is a necessity, and I found this one of the
fiddliest installations I've ever attempted.
The Vapor-X is held onto a raised bracket
with two sprung screws, access to which requires the removal of both 120mm
fans. That part is easy, because of the plastic shrouds they're mounted with,
but the mounting screws are way too short. This means that when you engage the
thread on one side, the spring forces the cooler over, making getting the
second one threaded tricky.
My other concern about this design is that
the transfer plate isn't as flat as I'd like, being dimpled from the
manufacturing process of attaching the vaporization chamber to the opposite
side, it appears. But these things are just details, what's really important is
does Vapor-X work with a CPU, and how effectively does it cool?
What's
really important is does Vapor-X work with a CPU, and how effectively does it
cool?
Given the knuckle skin I lost installing
it, I'd love to tell you it is no better than an air cooler, but that would be
a lie. It's actually better than most air coolers, and as well as a number of
integrated water solutions I've tested. Acoustically it's about the same as
most coolers with dual 120mm fans, as once you start to stress the system the
RPM increases significantly.
What I found fascinating was that other
coolers outperformed the Vapor-X at stock speeds and idle, mostly if they had
more heat Y' pipes, but this cooler really starts to shine when you overclock
or stress a CPU for long periods. My default Noctua NH-L12 cooler climbs above
50C when my LGA 2011 is ramped to 4GHz, where this cooler capped out at 44C!
I
can see Sapphire shipping plenty of these, but just make sure it will fit in
your system before you order one and don't swear excessively when you install
it
The pricing might seem slightly high, but
$16 more than the majority of better air coolers does seem reasonable, and it's
cheaper than the excellent BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2.
I can see Sapphire shipping plenty of
these, but just make sure it will fit in your system before you order one and
don't swear excessively when you install it.
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Details
§ Price:
$84 (Overclockers)
§ Manufacturer:
Sapphire
§ Website:
www.sapphiretech.com
§ Required
spec: Intel LGA 2011/1366/ 1156/1155 or AMD FM1/ FM2/AM3/AM2 system
Specifications
§ Socket
support: Intel LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155 & AMD FM1/FM2/AM3/AM2
§ Dimensions:
135 x 110.4 x 163.5mm
§ Material:
Vapor chamber with 4x 7mm heat-pipes
§ Fan:
2x 120mm fans supplied
§ Noise:
17 - 37dBA (PWM)
§
Airflow: 77cfm x2 Cooling capacity: 200W
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