Vortez review of Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme

[doyll]

Was just looking over their review:
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/thermalright_silver_arrow_sb_e_extreme_review,8.html

Couple things jump out. H100 shows 4.6-6.7c cooler stock and 12-12.6c cooler overclocked than K2 and D14.

How can this be when other reviews show D14, K2, and Phanteks all within a couple of degrees of H100.

Test system, coolers compared and methodology:

CPU - Intel Core i7-3930K (3.6GHz)
Motherboard - GIGABYTE X79-UP4
Memory - 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600MHz CL9
Graphics – Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB
PSU - NZXT Hale90 650W
Hard Drive - Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA III SSD
Case - Corsair Carbide 500R White
Program Suite
Real Temp – Maximum temperature analysis
LinX 0.6.4 – Applies thorough stress test to CPU
CPU-Z – Confirmation of CPU frequency/voltage
AIDA64 Extreme Edition – Confirmation of temperatures/fan speeds

CPU Coolers
Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure(120mm Wingboost: 300-1200RPM)
Alpenföhn K2 (120mm Wingboost: 500-1500RPM, 140mm Wingboost: 300-1100RPM)
Alpenföhn Gotthard (140mm Wingboost: 300-1100RPM)
Noctua NH-D14 (120mm NF-P12 PWM + 140mm NF-P14 PWM: up to 1200RPM)
Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E Extreme (Dual TY-143 fans – 600-2500RPM)
Corsair Hydro H100 (Dual 120mm fans – low: 1300RPM, mid: 2000RPM, high: 2600RPM)

Testing methodology

Testing will be based on temperatures recorded by Real Temp after 20 passes of LinX stress test. The maximum absolute temperatures will be recorded after the test and averaged over the 6 cores. The delta is then calculated by subtracting the ambient temperature recorded near the intake fans from the average temperature calculated. Tests are conducted with the Intel i7 3930K at its default 3.6GHz stock speed and overclocked to 4.6GHz @ 1.42V. The tests are done inside the Corsair Carbide 500R chassis to simulate real world conditions. To keep the tests standardised we are using Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste on all coolers.

CPU coolers are reviewed as they come out of the box – with their factory cooling fans, as the manufacturer intended and as the consumer expects.

Additional tests include a passive test where the cooling fans are taken away from the heatsink and a comparison between the cooler used with stock thermal paste against our Noctua NT-H1 paste.

But when I searched Vortez reviews I found D14 in 500r, but can't find reviews of other coolers SA SB-E Extreme is compared with in this review.

 

[BrianB]

Maybe a bad seat? Or industrial propaganda...I don't believe the SB-E is 10c away from the D-14. I don't believe that the H100 performs that much better with stock fans either. They have the D-14 within 1c of the Matterhorn which is £29.99. I don't believe it. If it's true, I'm ordering a Matterhorn for my second build lol. One thing is for sure, it looks an absolute beast with the red fans!

 

[doyll]

I do not agree with "bad seat", but "industrial propaganda" I agree. I see lots of smoke and mirrors in there. Coolers being compared without data to show their testing... not a good sign.

I will believe the SA SB-E Extreme is as good or better than H100.. and very possibly 5-10c cooler than SA SB-E, D14 and K2 with 1200ish rpm fans versus the SA SB-E Extreme with 2500rpm fans.. yeah, 1200rpm more will increase cooling... and noise I know I have TY-143 fans on my Phanteks.

 

[BrianB]

I believe it's the best performing heatsink, but I think it's not that good looking and it's too wide for my liking.. Still shouldn't be as loud as the H100 without different fans. H100 with all Gentle Typoons must be pretty nice, but can probably buy two normal air coolers for that much money invested.

 

[spixelspixel]

All reviews contradict each other especially with coolers. There's only 1 or 2 review sites which has results I believe.

 

[Helios1234]

Btw, this is not my review so as always, I'll be skeptical. Lack of testing at different fan speeds or with different fans makes this review pretty rubbish in my opinion. And the fact that the H100 is 10C better than the other air coolers is questionable.

 

[spixelspixel]

A more believable review

http://www.nikktech.com/main/articl...ver-arrow-extreme-cpu-cooler?showall=&start=5

 

[BrianB]

Look's more realistic. Especially since H100 isn't in an aircooler comparison.

 

[spixelspixel]

I can't imagine how loud those fans are as well, all for a ~4 degree difference. I find 140mm fans too loud over 1000rpm, and my 2000rpm 120mm fan is unbearable. 2 x 140mm fans at 2500rpm.......my ears

 

[Helios1234]

Lol at Vortez credibility going down the drain. And the stupid thing is, they left the fan speed to adjust automatically. Ideally for a review, you set them at a particular speed and compare how performance varies with fan RPM. In that review, there is no information to help us correlate fan speed with performance and the graphs themselves don't give any indication of this either. So it may well be that the K2 or Noctua were operating at very low RPM, the maximum temperature went through the roof before the fan speed could increase to maintain the temperature and as such that high temperature was recorded for the test results. This is not how a cooler review should be done.

 

[BrianB]

Yeah 140mm at 1000RPM is all I can handle too. 1150RPM for 120mm, and seems 500mm for my 200mm Bitfenix, terrible. Watch your fingers in those 2500RPM 140mm... XD

 

[C64]

Yeah 140mm at 1000RPM is all I can handle too. 1150RPM for 120mm, and seems 500mm for my 200mm Bitfenix, terrible. Watch your fingers in those 2500RPM 140mm... XD

the thermalright ty-140 aren't too noisy over 1000 rpm I have 2 on my d14 but yea there is always a question mark because how are we to know certain brands get good reviews because they want new hardware sent / sponsorship.
This is why I actually like TTL reviews because the guy actually does things like you know actually build a rig in to cases when reviewing them and other hardware little things like that lol

 

[Uncle Petey]

Helios shoulda been doing this review.

 

[Helios1234]

the thermalright ty-140 aren't too noisy over 1000 rpm I have 2 on my d14 but yea there is always a question mark because how are we to know certain brands get good reviews because they want new hardware sent / sponsorship.
This is why I actually like TTL reviews because the guy actually does things like you know actually build a rig in to cases when reviewing them and other hardware little things like that lol

He actually used to benchmark coolers on a test bench until I pointed to him that I review inside a case so that I can replicate real world conditions. He followed suit soon after.

Ironically, he now gets sponsored by Corsair...

 

[BrianB]

My delivery route is in Camberley, small world (island) . Must be nice getting sent goodies by Corsair. I would have a test rig for my reviews, no test benches lol.

 

[C64]

He actually used to benchmark coolers on a test bench until I pointed to him that I review inside a case so that I can replicate real world conditions. He followed suit soon after.

Ironically, he now gets sponsored by Corsair...

yea figures huh ah well at least can rely on his case reviews, thats the problem really unless you pay for everything yourself nobody is going to send you free hardware to test if there's a chance it shall get a bad review or you are known to be honest and tell it like it is

 

[Helios1234]

My delivery route is in Camberley, small world (island) . Must be nice getting sent goodies by Corsair. I would have a test rig for my reviews, no test benches lol.

Ha really? Who do you deliver for?

yea figures huh ah well at least can rely on his case reviews, thats the problem really unless you pay for everything yourself nobody is going to send you free hardware to test if there's a chance it shall get a bad review or you are known to be honest and tell it like it is

Absolutely. Manufacturers only want to see an award at the end of the day and review sites just want the most views through exclusive hardware so you get very few sites which write reviews reliably. Most sites have some sort of agenda I found. OC3D tends to like showing off exclusive hardware and if they get them late when others have already reviewed that component, they'll write an article that will try and grab attention (NZXT H2 and Silver Arrow). Eteknix, on the other hand always want hardware to keep and will award the components based on that. Vortez generally will be honest but there have been a few articles where results look odd and the reviewers will fail to investigate why. A lot of reviewers you will find are not actually technically minded either and will simply run tests without discussing results, something anyone can do.

 

[C64]

I don't think there's some conspiracy going on at vortez their cooler chart seems much more legit than others.

 

[BrianB]

Ha really? Who do you deliver for?

A buffet company. Usually delivering to The Meadows lol.

 

[doyll]

I don't think there's some conspiracy going on at vortez their cooler chart seems much more legit than others.

You must be kidding.
How can even be legit with no data to back it up?
No reviews of coolers used for data in chart.
H100 compared to air... But no data saying how it was compared. Where was it mounted? Was it drawing air in or pushing air out?

A genuine fuster cluck review.