The Vapochill Micro Review

Test Setup and Testing

For testing purposes I decided to use different cooling solutions I’ve been working with over the past few months. The Koolance Exos-2 I reviewed here awhile back, and though its expensive, the overall system performance is second to none. Lately I’ve been using Cooler Master’s Aquagate Mini-120 on the test bench as it comes with a universal mounting assembly, is easy to install, features good performance, and at under $100 is a pretty decent water cooling kit for the money.

The following system is currently on my test bench

• AMD 3800+ X2
• DFI NF4 SLI-DR
• 1GB (2 x 512MB) Corsair XMS 3200UL @ 2-3-2-5.
• ATI X850 XT
• OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU
• HSPC Tech Station test bench

For temperature monitoring I’ll be using DFI integrated system monitor, Smart Guardian as well as Everest 2.0’s sensor monitor. While no monitoring program is 100% accurate, these will give us a good comparative representation of each cooling unit’s performance against each other.

Temperatures will be recorded at idle for one hour in a 78F enviroment (+/- 1F), and finally under load conditions by running Sisoft Sandra’s burn in wizard for 50 iterations. The CPU was run at its default speed and with default voltage.

As you can see, not much seperates the Vapochill Micro from some very good and very expensive cooling solutions. Note that the incredibly quiet “Ultra Low Noise” version runs at slightly cooler temperatures than AMD’s stock cooler, but I have to say that it is an almost silent cooling solution.

Another fact worth noting is that the “Extreme Performance” version while at its lowest setting is almost as quiet as the “Ultra Low” version with slightly better cooling, and at its highest fan speed is a bit better than the “High End” version. All of this makes me believe the Extreme Performance is the best option for anyone who does not need an absolutely silent PC.