Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme - Disappointing?

Dirkvoodoo

Dirkvoodoo

Dirkvoodoo

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Joined
19 Jun 2006
Posts
21
Hi Guys,

I bought an Ultra 120 extreme in around march following some very favorable reviews and my desire to move away from the stock cooler to stretch my overclocking pants a bit.

So, its November, and after several remounting procedures and TIM application methods, not to mention a bout of frustration that saw me ignore my PC for a few months, I decided to ask the wise old heads here on OCUK.

So, my setup firstly:
Intel Core2Duo E6600 @ 3.0GHz (Vcore = 1.325V)
Gigabyte 965P DS3
2GB Corsair XMS2 PC6400 C4
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB w/ zalman VF900 cooler
Tagan Easycon 580W PSU
Antec P160 case with front fan (antec) and rear case fan (akasa amber)

and finally

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/ Scythe Sflex 1200 rpm fan, arctic silver TIM.

So, I'm afraid I don;t have any pictures but the base of my heat sink does suffer from the famous "concavity" that seems to have caused much debate.

Room Temperature: approximately 15C.

Temperature measured using CoreTemp and IntelTAT.

Idle Temperature : 37C (31C if I remove the side panel of my case).
Load Temperature : 53C (running Orthos for 37 mins).

I was really disappointed with these temps and am at a loss as what to try next.

Any ideas?
 
Yeah that's what I figured...I considered lapping a while ago but I've read a few reports from people saying lapping did little to help them.

I just don't understand how the review that sold it to me (anandtech - can I mention them here?) got such dramatic results. I've gone over and over it again and their test setup doesn't really point out ANYTHING that could be causing such disparity.
 
Did you check the thermal paste spread when you removed the heatsink? That'll give you an idea if there's a problem. Also when the HSF is mounted is it on securely? Some people have reported that the HSF wasn't mounted tight enough and that they could easily rotate/move it. One last thing to try is if you have a tower case lay it on it's side so that the HSF is upright and see if the temps improve. If they do then I'd suspect that the HSF isn't on tight enough.
 
Case on the side and no improvement in my temps.

I'm gonna take out the CPU and heatsink and check the heat spreader for flatness. Hopefully the lapping job suggested will help.

I'll post some results soon!
 
Dirkvoodoo said:
Hi Guys,

I bought an Ultra 120 extreme in around march following some very favorable reviews and my desire to move away from the stock cooler to stretch my overclocking pants a bit.

So, its November, and after several remounting procedures and TIM application methods, not to mention a bout of frustration that saw me ignore my PC for a few months, I decided to ask the wise old heads here on OCUK.

So, my setup firstly:
Intel Core2Duo E6600 @ 3.0GHz (Vcore = 1.325V)
Gigabyte 965P DS3
2GB Corsair XMS2 PC6400 C4
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB w/ zalman VF900 cooler
Tagan Easycon 580W PSU
Antec P160 case with front fan (antec) and rear case fan (akasa amber)

and finally

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/ Scythe Sflex 1200 rpm fan, arctic silver TIM.

So, I'm afraid I don;t have any pictures but the base of my heat sink does suffer from the famous "concavity" that seems to have caused much debate.

Room Temperature: approximately 15C.

Temperature measured using CoreTemp and IntelTAT.

Idle Temperature : 37C (31C if I remove the side panel of my case).
Load Temperature : 53C (running Orthos for 37 mins).

I was really disappointed with these temps and am at a loss as what to try next.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...


mine was the only air cooler which would cool my quad, but i had to lap it, my e6600 ran superbly cool with my zalman 9700, and my ifx-14 for that matter
 
I would say it's your case that's the issue here if you dont think it's the case sell it on and get a tuniq tower that's a solid reliable cooler.
keeps my [email protected] 20-25c idle dependant on room temp and i have an akasa eclipse case.
Try adding a thin layer across the cpu and then adding a half grain of rice sized blob right in the center should help better contact if concave.
 
Last edited:
Just thought I would post a quick update to those who may be interested...

Removed the Heatsink and CPU from the case, checked with a flat edged razor blade. The heat sink is relatively flat across its length (direction = the length of the cooling fins, or perpendicular to heat pipes) however it is MAJORLY convex in the plane orthogonal to this (see attached fig).

The CPU is nearly flat, from a visual inspection, but I may as well lap it also.

In response to the case comment, It is interesting but this case is proven to provide decent temps and even my stock cooler temps were not varying too much from the norm.



Please excuse the poor quality image, I can't take pictures very well with my left hand!
 
i personally consider those temps very good.

i've got around 35c for idle on my 3.2Ghz q6600, and around 60c under Prime load.

have you thought about the penny mod? (google for it) i think it's worth trying if you consider your temperatures bad.
 
First of all, 31c if you remove the case's side, suggests that you have hot air building up in your case... concentrate on getting that out.

Secondly, what's the difference between core temperatures in Intel TAT? If there's a reasonable difference in temperatures between cores, you might find that one core isn't contacting the IHS properly. In which case lapping will do nothing.

A concave IHS could be the problem, but don't expect it to be the problem. I did, then lapped my processor, only to find the above must be what is up.

Thirdly, those temperatures a fine so quit your whining :p;):D
 
I'm not whining about it, just wondering why there is such a large difference between my results and anandtech's. Im getting 52C right now running Orthos @2.93 GHz, while they got 32C and in a warmer environment.

I'm also not running a quad core, so my base comparison is to other dual cores. Kentsfields run pretty hot do they not?

Checked the IHS for concavity, its as flat as a pancake. I've shown my heatsink to a few friends and they have not been impressed by the warped base. Obviously the temperature will be lower if I remove the case side as the warm air has a larger cold sink to convect with, but I'm not going to run my PC with the case off.
 
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