The OCZ Vindicator CPU Cooler Review

The Test System

Just for fun I tried out the Vindicator on a couple popular Intel LGA775 motherboards to see if there would be any fitting problems. First up to bat was the Abit AW9D-MAX and as you can see below, it had no problems fitting on this Intel 975 Express motherboard.

Next up was the actual test system that we would be using, which is the eVGA 680i SLI motherboard. When using this motherboard, the heat sink fan would interfere with the chipset cooler, so it has to be placed facing the rear of the case.

I have recently tested the CoolIT Eliminator, Vigor Monsoon II Lite, Corsair Nautilus 500 and the Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX coolers, so I will be including those numbers in the graphs to help show our readers what a competing air, TEC and water cooling solutions can do.

Here is the Intel Test Platform:

To test out the OCZ Vindicator CPU cooler, I ran it on our Intel Core 2 Duo test platform which was then run at default and overclocked settings. All the temperatures were obtained by using Core Temp Beta 0.94 after sitting at idle for one hour and then again under full processor load for 30 minutes. I used two profiles to test the Vindicator at and they are listed below. The room temperature was kept a constant 20C (68F) for all benchmarking. All of the coolers were tested with Arctic Silver Lumiere as the thermal interface material.

Profile 1: The Normal User (No Overclocking)

• CPU Multiplier: 7x
• CPU voltage: 1.2000V
• FSB Voltage: 1.20V
• FSB: 1066MHz
• Memory Voltage: 2.20V
• Final CPU Frequency: 1.86GHz

Profile 2: The Average Enthusiast (Mild Overclocking)

• CPU Multiplier: 7x
• CPU voltage: 1.4000V
• FSB Voltage: 1.30V
• FSB: 1600MHz
• Memory Voltage: 2.20V
• Final CPU Frequency: 2.80GHz

Enough talk about the OCZ Vindicator, let’s take a look at the performance numbers!