OCZ Tempest Heat Sink Fan Cooler

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The OCZ Tempest has been around for a number of months and even when used on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors it does a fine job when it comes to cooling performance. We were able to increase the voltage and run an aggressive 400MHz Front Side Bus on the Tempest without having to worry about the CPU throttling. The four heat pipe design proved victorious in the end as the Tempest did perform better under load than the Aerocool Xfire with it’s two heat pipe design. Even with the four heat pipes they found to be very hot when the test system was run under load when overclocked, which means that more heat pipes would be nice and a fan that increases the airflow even more. The 92mm 44CFM fan is by no means a pooch, but with 92mm fans like the SILVERSTONE SST-FM92 pushing out 80.92CFM at a louder 48dBA more performance could be had for those that want to pay a little more and add on a fan with a little more kick to it.

We have also know that OCZ will be coming out with another heat sink in the near future that will make the Tempest cooler look puny! The new heat sink doesn’t have a name yet and is known internally as the V-12. This upcoming heat sink will feature twelve heat pipes and since we’ve seen it we know it’s real and massive. Since it doesn’t have a name yet and we know that the packaging isn’t done yet it’s at least a month off, so if you need a heat sink now don’t let the rumors of the V-12 distract you.

Overall the performance of the OCZ Tempest cooler was found to solid and they are available over at Newegg for $59.99 plus shipping. The Tempest is by far not the cheapest cooling solution available and when spending $60+ on a air cooler we highly suggest to our readers to think about water cooling as you are half way there when it comes to price on the basic pre-fab kits that are on the market today.

Legit Bottom Line: The OCZ Tempest features four copper heat pipes and a heat sink base that weighs 580 grams without the fan, which is more than enough to cool the lastest processors from both Intel and AMD.