Return to the frontpage Read all the latest news-items on one page Download drivers, demo's, patches, tools in our huge file-section Our game reviews Our articles and guides Our latest hardware reviews and tests Return to homepage Be one of the 150.000 users discussing in our forums Search specific things in our news and articles
 


 Vapochill Micro Ultra Low Noise

 By: Hilbert Hagedoorn Edited by  | Published: August 5, 2005  


The technology behind it all

Let's have a look at the technique used. I already told you that it is somewhat based on 'refrigerator' technology right? Asetek calls this their VapoChamber technology. Gotta love marketing, as in Vaporize that heat! In all honesty this is a combination of the technology used in refrigeration and actually phase changer coolers. When you look closely at the the cooler you'll see copper pipes and cooling ribbons. An internal gas is inside these pipes and flows from the chamber upwards towards the cooling ribbons where heat will be dissipated with the help of airflow. I'm quite confident that the gas used is HFC 134a (R134a). Due to its low impact on the ozone layer it's not very toxic, although any coolant is dangerous I guess. R134A is a single hydro fluorocarbon or HFC compound.

The cooling method is all based around circulation. Although we just named it gas it's initial cold state R134a is in a fluid like state. The refrigerant material (R134a) is unusual in that it has a very low boiling (or vaporising) point well below 0°C at atmospheric pressure and a freezing point more than 100°C below zero. It is liquid when cold but easily becomes a vapor when heated and vice versa.

By absorbing heat from the processor, the fluid will dissolve and form into gas which travels towards the top of the pipes. Once the gas is cooled down it'll turn into a solid fluid form again and travels back to the bottom of the CPU cooler. The recirculation of the coolant is based on gravity.

So the evaporation chamber absorbs whatever heat energy is available to it from it's surroundings to vaporize the refrigerant.

The Package

So what do we get ?

  • VapoChill Micro
  • Special designed low weight fan duct.
  • Ultra Low Noise fan.
  • Fan plug pins
  • Instructions
  • PCI Bracket with molex passthrough connector (6-12V / 1-24W)
  • Socket bracket ( depends on the version you buy )
  • Fan and controller wiring
  • one packaged screw, really! :)
  • A small manual covering the basics

Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com
The gear you'll find inside the packaging.

 

The Installation

Now then, when we can believe the Asetek website installation of this cooling unit can be done in roughly 30 seconds. Okay, I have a stopwatch, let's do a little race and time it!

3-2-1... Go ! - unscrews two screws from the mainboard, fit plastic cap over the cooling ribbons, secure fan onto plastic cap, placed the metal shim over the cooling chamber, place the unit on top of the CPU, aligning the position of the ribbons downwards,  wiring is positioned wrong on the backside, fan need to come off again, wiring fixed, plastic cap back on, trying to secure the fan with the two screws... fu** the plastic shim is in the way and blocking one screw, removing plastic cap again. Secured the two screws, install plastic cap again, plug in wiring to mainboard, plug in wiring to fan, plug in wiring to control switch, connect wiring to the power supply... STOP TIME!

Installation time according to Asetek website:
  Gamers 30 seconds
  PC experts: 30 seconds
  Beginners: 30 seconds
  Professionals: 30 seconds
  HW enthusiasts: 30 seconds
   Overclockers: 29 seconds
   
  P4  S478 clip: 30 seconds
  P4  LGA775: 30 seconds
  AMD K8 clip:  30 seconds
 
Installation time done by:
  Hilbert 453 seconds !!

Good, we overclockers save one second, that's a huge plus right :)

Hahah thirty seconds? ...not a chance. You'll be assembling and fitting this cooler for at least 10-15 minutes. All intended humor aside, granted installation is easy though and the best thing is, there's no need to access the backside of the mainboard.



 


 

Pages (6): « previous 1 [2] 3 4 next » ... Last »


 

previous page

homepage

 

Check lowest prices on these products in Guru3D.com price guide, among the available categories: Retail & OEM Processors - Video Cards - Motherboards - Memory - Soundcards - Hard Drives - Monitors - Printers - DVDs - CD-RWs - PDAs and more !

Copyright (c) 1997-2011 Hilbert Hagedoorn, All Rights Reserved. - Legal disclaimer/notice
The Guru of 3D, Guru3D, the Hardware guru, HardwareGuru and 3D Guru are the trademark ownership of Hilbert Hagedoorn.



  Site Navigation
   Home
   Latest News
   Submit News
   Hardware Reviews
   Articles & Guides
   VGA Charts 
   Game Reviews
   Forums
   Download Section
   Guru3D Price Grabber
   Guru Price Grabber UK
   Guru PC Buyers Guide
   Guru3D Stereo Section
   Guru3D Clan
   Guru3D Folding@Home
   Contact us
   Join our news-letter
   Follow us on Twitter new
   Set as Homepage
 

  Affiliates

RivaTuner
nVHardPage
3DMark Vantage
SiSoft SANDRA
AfterBurner OC tool
nVTempLogger
ATI Tray Tools

Guru3D Rig of the Month
  Links
Your company ?
Registry Booster 2011
Your company ?
  Downloads
NVIDIA GeForce drivers
ATI Catalyst drivers
Benchmarks & Demo's
Game Demo's
NVIDIA Chipset drivers
Intel Chipset drivers