Not sure what you're talking about, the fins appear to be properly aligned, the angles are along the plane of the airflow and should not interfere with that. I've always felt like some angle along the airflow is required to effectively allow cool air to ram into the cooling surface though. Either way, they've tested this thing so I doubt the airflow is poor.
Although with dual 140 mm fans, they can probably afford to lose some static pressure if it results in better mixing of the air as it passes over the fins.
I think the idea isn't to use this product on a 340W cpu to keep it within thermal spec. I think the idea is to use it on a less-hungry cpu and keep it UNDER thermal spec.
I do realize that. But I still don't get why you would want it. The idea of using it as a silent solution for a regular CPU is understandable, but I don't see how you would want it with the fans given that you can only cool the CPU so much with air cooling.
In theory, a large cooler like this is sufficient for a very hot CPU while maintaining a quiet fan speed. I have a Noctua NH0D15 which is slightly smaller than the reviewed unit, and it does a good job of cooling my 6-core i7. Had I a CPU with a TDP under 100W, however, I would use a NoFan CR-95 or CR-100 for completely silent operation, at least, if I didn't overclock.
This should only be considering on a 130+W TDP part you plan on overclocking by a healthy amount. Honestly short of an 8 core intel HEDT I wouldn't even consider it I wanted to push past 4.5 GHz.
It would probably work as a passive cooler from sheer size, but it's a very poor design for passive. A good passive design has widely spaced fins which are aligned such that, as heat rises, maximum air passes between the fins. Even better designs use ice pipes, but I honestly do not know how they work. The only examples I know of are NoFan's passive coolers, which are absolutely fantastic though a little pricey.
Not necessarily at this *price* point though... I haven't really checked the latest crop, but I doubt an AIO water unit that costs the same 80€ as this would be better. Even a 30$ Hyper 212 EVO can run with AIO watercoolers that cost 3x as much.
"sensible" as in, "more elegant and compact", then yes absolutely. This this is a monstrosity.
Cheap AIO water coolers are overrated. You have additional noise in the water pump and a two additional points of failure (pump and leakage/evaporation). If you do water cooling properly with a big expensive custom set-up to cool your cpu and gpu it's worth it, otherwise something like this for $80 is not a bad idea.
The overkill TDP rating is just begging for Thermoelectrics. 340W is plenty to soak up around 150W of CPU heat + the waste power of the element I reckon. A ludicrous proposition to be sure, but hey! With a judiciously-placed bead of silicone and plenty of 15v DC, one could have a daily-use subzero proc- and that's pretty neat.
Are pelts (peltiers) even viable anymore in the overclocking space? Honest I'm not trying to troll, I'm just so out of the loop on them these days. To mark my age/ignorance the last pelts I remember where when the Athlon Thunderbirds at 1.5Ghz plus (1.7Ghz AXIA) exceeded the 200w pelts offered at the time where you just couldn't get the heat out reasonably from the stack. Cause argh 400w out the back was just too damn much, and the pelt was an insulator (not a slam on the pelt, those levels are insane).
I know pelts were then used for water chillers in loops, but yea. Plus like you said pelts weren't 12v, more like 15-18v... and you can't do the "-5v to +12v" PSU trick nowadays (though, I seriously doubt any PSU of the era would appreciate 200w+ "flowing" through that even then legacy -5v. Hey guys! It's the ISA card from HELL).
After all that, I like the cut of your jibe heheh... but yea I'm genuinely interested in if there have been more recent attempts to get peltiers back in the game. I know CoolerMaster had the V8 heatsinks (which they deserve credit for that) which... I need to research more now to see if anyone modded one to run it "flat out") I never saw any articles where it was an amazing advance over any good twin tower cooler or 120x2 AIO cooler.
As someone who's experienced exactly no problems ever with the HSF a manufacturer includes with the CPU, point of this thing seems merely to charge an unreasonable sum for a pointless product. You know what they say about fools and their money.
Many high end CPU's don't come with coolers, and also pretty much all enthusiasts do use aftermarket coolers, and overclock. Your experience is somewhat irrelevant.
Indeed if you use practical, inexpensive CPUs and do not overclock, the only reason to get a large cooler is to reduce (or eliminate) fan noise. Those of us that eschew pragmatism need to buy coolers to handle the load of overclocked, hot CPUs that ship without OEM HSFs.
For a quiet computer, I opt for something that doesn't need a fan at all like one of the many Bay/Cherry Trail laptops kicking around out there that have no moving parts inside.
As for boxed HSFs, once again, I don't find them overly noisy and I value my silence. There were days ages ago when I went to great lengths to overclock things with thermoelectric coolers and water pumps, fiddling with DIP switches and jumper blocks. Now, if I need a faster computer, I just go buy a new one. They're just as disposable now as solar powered pocket calculators were in the 1990s so I put forth minimal effort in that kind of thing.
`Alpenföhn rates its fans for 280 thousand hours MTTF (mean time till failure), or about 32 years of 24/7 operation.`
As an Anandtech employee, you should understand what MTTF and MTBF mean, and that isn't it any more than Seagate's 700,000 hour rating means their drives are rated for 80 years of 24/7 operation.
^ This, very much. MBTF/MTTF are not (and should not be) treated as a direct value. It's a very confusing, roundabout, silly way for a company to look good with large numbers, but what it really means is that during a fixed-time test (say 175 days, which is 4200 hrs) a given number of fans (say, 200) have been working 24/7, and by the end of the test n fans (say, 3) have given out. 4200*200/3=280000. This is how it's calculated.
To make use (or sense) of this number you need to convert it into a probability percentage. If I did the calculation correctly, that gives me a ~3.1% probability of a fan failure in the first year, and a ~14.5% probability of a fan failure in the first five years of operation. Those are merely okay numbers, in line with other high-quality fans out there; nothing special.
I hope this cooler can be included in a comparison review which includes the Noctua NH-D15 (mentioned in the article) and others. The Alpenföhn is about 20% larger by mass than the 'D15. It would be great to see what a difference this makes, especially with both coolers using the same fans so the heatsinks design alone is an isolated variable.
Is this physically sound? Can this be possibly bad for bursty heat versus long sustained loads? Will a real CPU with its localized heat points under real world usage be better off with this huge thing?
If i can have a 6700k OC-ed but absolutely trivial over volting almost passively cooled with this, i might consider a non mini-itx build again.
It is about 20% more massive (the 'D15 is 1KG), so it at least has the benefit of greater thermal capacity and. I would hope, more surface area. I'll not be swapping out my D15 though since it works flawlessly.
Lol, This reminds me of the era of the ridiculous Pentium D and AMD Athlon X2 overclocking days. I had a pure copper 1kg heatsink (similar to the Vortex PLUS and Noctua NH U12F) that started to bent my gigabyte motherboard. Seems we're going back to that ERA.
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bill.rookard - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Holy crap. That thing is huge."That's no moon, that's a space station" - Obiwan Kenobi.
ddriver - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Dense fins at an angle - hello poor airflow...niva - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Not sure what you're talking about, the fins appear to be properly aligned, the angles are along the plane of the airflow and should not interfere with that. I've always felt like some angle along the airflow is required to effectively allow cool air to ram into the cooling surface though. Either way, they've tested this thing so I doubt the airflow is poor.ddriver - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Fins are clearly not in the same plane as airflow.saratoga4 - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Definitely at an angle to the plane of the fan's output:http://images.anandtech.com/doci/10004/alpenfoehn_...
Although with dual 140 mm fans, they can probably afford to lose some static pressure if it results in better mixing of the air as it passes over the fins.
YukaKun - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Look closer to the center fins. The sides are oblique, but the center is properly aligned.Cheers!
ddriver - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Yeah, properly aligned right into the fan's dead spot :)Beaver M. - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
What are you talking about? The NH-D15 is not much smaller, if at all.Taneli - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
I am bolting this on a GPU.ingwe - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
That was my thought as well. Why the hell would I want this on a CPU?nathanddrews - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Forget computers, I'll buy a couple of these to replace my AC unit.willis936 - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
If only we could reverse entropy with some metal and a few fans.ImSpartacus - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
I think the idea isn't to use this product on a 340W cpu to keep it within thermal spec. I think the idea is to use it on a less-hungry cpu and keep it UNDER thermal spec.ingwe - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
I do realize that. But I still don't get why you would want it. The idea of using it as a silent solution for a regular CPU is understandable, but I don't see how you would want it with the fans given that you can only cool the CPU so much with air cooling.Murloc - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
overclocking?Sivar - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
In theory, a large cooler like this is sufficient for a very hot CPU while maintaining a quiet fan speed.I have a Noctua NH0D15 which is slightly smaller than the reviewed unit, and it does a good job of cooling my 6-core i7.
Had I a CPU with a TDP under 100W, however, I would use a NoFan CR-95 or CR-100 for completely silent operation, at least, if I didn't overclock.
hojnikb - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Hello fried VRMs and GDDR chips.aliquis - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
I'll hook it up to a 500 watt element to get better efficiency out of my over-powered PSU.Pissedoffyouth - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Take fan off and strap to 65w APU for silent buildclose - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
This is definitely overkill for 65W even when completely passive.willis936 - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
This should only be considering on a 130+W TDP part you plan on overclocking by a healthy amount. Honestly short of an 8 core intel HEDT I wouldn't even consider it I wanted to push past 4.5 GHz.xthetenth - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
That level of cooler is pretty good if you want to have your fans start ramping at 40C and the chip stay at 45 C.Sivar - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
It would probably work as a passive cooler from sheer size, but it's a very poor design for passive.A good passive design has widely spaced fins which are aligned such that, as heat rises, maximum air passes between the fins.
Even better designs use ice pipes, but I honestly do not know how they work. The only examples I know of are NoFan's passive coolers, which are absolutely fantastic though a little pricey.
DIYEyal - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
That is awesome! I wonder how does it compare with my D15r3loaded - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
At this point an AIO water cooler would be a more sensible option.KateH - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
Not necessarily at this *price* point though... I haven't really checked the latest crop, but I doubt an AIO water unit that costs the same 80€ as this would be better. Even a 30$ Hyper 212 EVO can run with AIO watercoolers that cost 3x as much."sensible" as in, "more elegant and compact", then yes absolutely. This this is a monstrosity.
Dribble - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
Cheap AIO water coolers are overrated. You have additional noise in the water pump and a two additional points of failure (pump and leakage/evaporation). If you do water cooling properly with a big expensive custom set-up to cool your cpu and gpu it's worth it, otherwise something like this for $80 is not a bad idea.KateH - Thursday, February 4, 2016 - link
The overkill TDP rating is just begging for Thermoelectrics. 340W is plenty to soak up around 150W of CPU heat + the waste power of the element I reckon. A ludicrous proposition to be sure, but hey! With a judiciously-placed bead of silicone and plenty of 15v DC, one could have a daily-use subzero proc- and that's pretty neat.xrror - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
Are pelts (peltiers) even viable anymore in the overclocking space? Honest I'm not trying to troll, I'm just so out of the loop on them these days. To mark my age/ignorance the last pelts I remember where when the Athlon Thunderbirds at 1.5Ghz plus (1.7Ghz AXIA) exceeded the 200w pelts offered at the time where you just couldn't get the heat out reasonably from the stack. Cause argh 400w out the back was just too damn much, and the pelt was an insulator (not a slam on the pelt, those levels are insane).I know pelts were then used for water chillers in loops, but yea. Plus like you said pelts weren't 12v, more like 15-18v... and you can't do the "-5v to +12v" PSU trick nowadays (though, I seriously doubt any PSU of the era would appreciate 200w+ "flowing" through that even then legacy -5v. Hey guys! It's the ISA card from HELL).
After all that, I like the cut of your jibe heheh... but yea I'm genuinely interested in if there have been more recent attempts to get peltiers back in the game. I know CoolerMaster had the V8 heatsinks (which they deserve credit for that) which... I need to research more now to see if anyone modded one to run it "flat out") I never saw any articles where it was an amazing advance over any good twin tower cooler or 120x2 AIO cooler.
Klimax - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
Maybe good replacement for my CNPS12X. (Cooling my i7-5960x, currently at 4,2GHz)BrokenCrayons - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
As someone who's experienced exactly no problems ever with the HSF a manufacturer includes with the CPU, point of this thing seems merely to charge an unreasonable sum for a pointless product. You know what they say about fools and their money.extide - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
Many high end CPU's don't come with coolers, and also pretty much all enthusiasts do use aftermarket coolers, and overclock. Your experience is somewhat irrelevant.Sivar - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
Indeed if you use practical, inexpensive CPUs and do not overclock, the only reason to get a large cooler is to reduce (or eliminate) fan noise.Those of us that eschew pragmatism need to buy coolers to handle the load of overclocked, hot CPUs that ship without OEM HSFs.
xrror - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
"As someone who's experienced exactly no problems ever with the (stock) HSF (...)"Congratulations non-overclocker! This product is not targeted at you!
blzd - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
I enjoy quiet PCs that make minimal noise. Something that can never be achieved with a stock HSF.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
For a quiet computer, I opt for something that doesn't need a fan at all like one of the many Bay/Cherry Trail laptops kicking around out there that have no moving parts inside.As for boxed HSFs, once again, I don't find them overly noisy and I value my silence. There were days ages ago when I went to great lengths to overclock things with thermoelectric coolers and water pumps, fiddling with DIP switches and jumper blocks. Now, if I need a faster computer, I just go buy a new one. They're just as disposable now as solar powered pocket calculators were in the 1990s so I put forth minimal effort in that kind of thing.
Sivar - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
`Alpenföhn rates its fans for 280 thousand hours MTTF (mean time till failure), or about 32 years of 24/7 operation.`As an Anandtech employee, you should understand what MTTF and MTBF mean, and that isn't it any more than Seagate's 700,000 hour rating means their drives are rated for 80 years of 24/7 operation.
moozooh - Sunday, February 14, 2016 - link
^ This, very much. MBTF/MTTF are not (and should not be) treated as a direct value. It's a very confusing, roundabout, silly way for a company to look good with large numbers, but what it really means is that during a fixed-time test (say 175 days, which is 4200 hrs) a given number of fans (say, 200) have been working 24/7, and by the end of the test n fans (say, 3) have given out. 4200*200/3=280000. This is how it's calculated.To make use (or sense) of this number you need to convert it into a probability percentage. If I did the calculation correctly, that gives me a ~3.1% probability of a fan failure in the first year, and a ~14.5% probability of a fan failure in the first five years of operation. Those are merely okay numbers, in line with other high-quality fans out there; nothing special.
moozooh - Sunday, February 14, 2016 - link
Tl;dr MTTF =/= expected longevity.Sivar - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link
I hope this cooler can be included in a comparison review which includes the Noctua NH-D15 (mentioned in the article) and others.The Alpenföhn is about 20% larger by mass than the 'D15. It would be great to see what a difference this makes, especially with both coolers using the same fans so the heatsinks design alone is an isolated variable.
blahsaysblah - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
Is this physically sound? Can this be possibly bad for bursty heat versus long sustained loads?Will a real CPU with its localized heat points under real world usage be better off with this huge thing?
If i can have a 6700k OC-ed but absolutely trivial over volting almost passively cooled with this, i might consider a non mini-itx build again.
Sivar - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
The reviewed unit would be a terrible passive cooler. Go for something designed for passive use like NoFan's products.Denithor - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
2006 called, they want this for the latest & greatest, Pentium 4 EE 965 (3.73GHz dual core, 130W).Otherwise, yeah, I really don't see the point. Unless you are SERIOUSLY overclocking a CPU today you're not going to need anything like this at all.
Madpacket - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Yet somehow I doubt this will outperform the NH-D15.Sivar - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
It is about 20% more massive (the 'D15 is 1KG), so it at least has the benefit of greater thermal capacity and. I would hope, more surface area.I'll not be swapping out my D15 though since it works flawlessly.
tamalero - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
Lol, This reminds me of the era of the ridiculous Pentium D and AMD Athlon X2 overclocking days.I had a pure copper 1kg heatsink (similar to the Vortex PLUS and Noctua NH U12F) that started to bent my gigabyte motherboard.
Seems we're going back to that ERA.
realneil - Sunday, June 24, 2018 - link
This thing is a tribute to excess.If I had one here, I would try it out, and maybe even keep on using it.
But I wouldn't buy it.