Thermalright 120-extreme

T

Tinfoilrcr

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Oct 10, 2007
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Hey Guys-

I'm going to start overclocking my c2d q6600, but wanted to get the cooling situation under control. I have been looking at the Thermalright 120-extreme and was wondering what your thoughts were. Are there other heatsinks I should look at or is that a good option. Thanks!
 
Don't think, just go get it. I love it! Truly the best
 
It does weight quite a bit though. If you'd like a smaller version of the 120 ex, and cools almost as well but weighs almost half as much, go with the Thermalight Ultima-90 (not the Ultra-90)
 
I think it is the best air cooler on the market. I have one on my qx6700 and with it overclocked to 3200 it idles at 34 degrees with all 4 cores between 33 and 45 degrees. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks everyone, it was a lot of help!

actompkins- what fan did you pair with yours, as I'm looking to try to get my q6600 up to 3.0 or 3.2. Thanks.
 
actompkins said:
I think it is the best air cooler on the market. I have one on my qx6700 and with it overclocked to 3200 it idles at 34 degrees with all 4 cores between 33 and 45 degrees. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...



What case is your quad and mobo mounted in ?
 
Tinfoilrcr said:
Thanks everyone, it was a lot of help!

actompkins- what fan did you pair with yours, as I'm looking to try to get my q6600 up to 3.0 or 3.2. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have a papst 67 cfm fan. They will run you about $15-20. Most people use the scythe fan but I wanted something with a little more airflow.
 
Manny Calavera said:
What case is your quad and mobo mounted in ?
Click to expand...

I have a Lian Li 1100v plus. My motherboard is an evga 680i A1. My cases' air flow was not to good so I have 2 130 cfm delta fans. One inside blowing to the back and one for exhaust. I just recently switched to the ultra 120 extreme from a zalman 9700 and my temps dropped almost 10 degrees across the board.
 
In a poorly ventilated case, I'm running a q6600@3.6ghz with an ultra 120 extreme. load temps are roughly 55C with idles around 37C. This heatsink is amazing.
 
Slade said:
In a poorly ventilated case, I'm running a q6600@3.6ghz with an ultra 120 extreme. load temps are roughly 55C with idles around 37C. This heatsink is amazing.
Click to expand...

Good god...impressive. Are you running the scythe with the 120 ex?
 
The main thing that worries me about it is that a few people have reported that due to it's weight and the mounting system, it can cause some mobo sag, with so much weight pulling down and the mount not distributing it well enough.
 
I want to know how you guys get these insane temps? I have excellent air flow and AS5 properly seated with a TRUltEx120 heatsink and scythe fans. My idle is 49- 50...and load is 70c.

This is a B3 stepping q6600. Seriously what are you doing to get these temps?
 
I want to know how you guys get these insane temps? I have excellent air flow and AS5 properly seated with a TRUltEx120 heatsink and scythe fans. My idle is 49- 50...and load is 70c.

This is a B3 stepping q6600. Seriously what are you doing to get these temps?
Click to expand...

I was able to lower my Q6600 temps about 7 degrees by adding a case side fan!

I also lost 2-3 degrees by doing the penny mod to my ultra. Mine is a G0 though.

See here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1228356
 
I'm using the scythe on my ultra extreme.

The mobo bending issue is a real thing.

I would NOT do the penny mod to the ultra extreme. I did it and found it was BENDING my motherboard a lot. It was causing the upper heatsink to lose contact with the mosfets and was screwing up power distribution when I was overclocking at 8x450mhz. At 9x400 it was fine and would prime for 48hrs+. But at 8x450 it would randomly fail after 12 hours regardless of voltage settings. What lead me to the mosfets was that I would get sudden fluctuations on the 3, 5 and 12 v lines to trigger alarms.

Once I undid the "penny mod" the board was near flat again and the mosfet contacted the heatsink and it primed 36 hours at 8x450 with no issues. I've been able to use a Scythe E fan as my intake fan too instead of the F. It'll handle ambients up to 30C and load temps on the CPU as high as 70C with no issues. My vidcard was stable with the stock heatsink up to 100C under 6hour gaming sessions (It's using a HR-03 now) and barely breaks 70C when clocked at 650/1100.

If your system can prime for a long time like 24hours +, then it'll be fine for everything else. Nothing I am running can come close to stressing a quad 3.6. Heck I can run prime AND play TF2 online at the same time and hold 60fps...
 
Slade,

I recently got a 120 extreme with a Scythe 120mm fan. So far I'm pretty disappointed. If I stand the case upright, the temp difference between core0/1 to c2/3 is about 10c! When sitting horizontal the difference is about 2-3c which tells me the mount isn't very sturdy. The heatsink moves around a fair bit when clamped down. Does this seem like a lapping issue? Anything I can do to make the mount more sturdy? I plan to do the razor blade test tonight to see how warped the base really is.

Also, would you mind sharing your bios settings since I have the same motherboard as you. Mainly the Jumperfree config page voltages if you have some time.

Thanks,
Robert.
 
jarablue said:
I want to know how you guys get these insane temps? I have excellent air flow and AS5 properly seated with a TRUltEx120 heatsink and scythe fans. My idle is 49- 50...and load is 70c.

This is a B3 stepping q6600. Seriously what are you doing to get these temps?
Click to expand...

For me, the imprtant thing was lowering my case ambient temperature which I did by adding 2 130 cfm delta fans. I also set my fan speed on my 8800 gtx to 100%. That makes a very big difference in overall case temps. I also use a papst fan on my ultra 120 extreme for a little more exhaust. Next I used shin etsu x23 paste instead of as5. I tried both and the x23 is 2-3 degrees better. Overclocked to 3200 my cpu never gets above 68 degrees in prime 95( both blend tests and small ffts). The delta fans are set to low speed with a fan controller so they are not very loud at all.
 
actompkins said:
I have a Lian Li 1100v plus. My motherboard is an evga 680i A1. My cases' air flow was not to good so I have 2 130 cfm delta fans. One inside blowing to the back and one for exhaust. I just recently switched to the ultra 120 extreme from a zalman 9700 and my temps dropped almost 10 degrees across the board.
Click to expand...

The u120 fits ? According to Thermalright's website, they say it doesn't fit the evga 680i :confused:
 
jynxycat said:
The u120 fits ? According to Thermalright's website, they say it doesn't fit the evga 680i :confused:
Click to expand...

The ultra 120 extreme fits fine. The original does not fit without modifying the backplate a little bit . The cpu location on the evga board is very low so on mine I had to mount it horizontily instead of vertically. No biggie. The fan just blows up instead of out.
 
The thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme does not have a faulty mounting bracket or faulty mounting mechanisms.. Plain and simple, trial and error, mine is working perfectly fine, no motherboard bending, nothing of that sort.

Just alot of imaginations and big egos of people thinking they know what the problem is
 
lapped 120e + san ace 1011 @ 7v on GO q6600 @ 3.2g 1.3v idle low 30ish and load 53-55c.
 
RangerSVT said:
The thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme does not have a faulty mounting bracket or faulty mounting mechanisms.. Plain and simple, trial and error, mine is working perfectly fine, no motherboard bending, nothing of that sort.

Just alot of imaginations and big egos of people thinking they know what the problem is
Click to expand...

I wouldn't want to discount other peoples problems just because you've have none.
 
RangerSVT said:
The thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme does not have a faulty mounting bracket or faulty mounting mechanisms.. Plain and simple, trial and error, mine is working perfectly fine, no motherboard bending, nothing of that sort.

Just alot of imaginations and big egos of people thinking they know what the problem is
Click to expand...

Mine does not appear to be a problem either. It doesn't even seem to be as heavy as the zalman 9700 to me.
 
WhiteZero said:
I wouldn't want to discount other peoples problems just because you've have none.
Click to expand...

the problem is them, see where i'm getting at mr.whitezero? :confused:


Many have had no problems with the installation or mountaing backets provided with the heatsink! no motherboard flexing, no "omfg my mosfets aren't getting teh juiceh". I wouldn't be so quick to pull the trigger and blame the product. i blame the person installing the product. but then again, this isn't the blame game.
 
RangerSVT said:
the problem is them, see where i'm getting at mr.whitezero? :confused:


Many have had no problems with the installation or mountaing backets provided with the heatsink! no motherboard flexing, no "omfg my mosfets aren't getting teh juiceh". I wouldn't be so quick to pull the trigger and blame the product. i blame the person installing the product. but then again, this isn't the blame game.
Click to expand...

This is very true, I suppose.
Still, I'd prefer not to chance it myself. Thusly the far less heavy and almost as good cooler, the Ultima-90 is my best choice.
 
RangerSVT said:
The thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme does not have a faulty mounting bracket or faulty mounting mechanisms.. Plain and simple, trial and error, mine is working perfectly fine, no motherboard bending, nothing of that sort.

Just alot of imaginations and big egos of people thinking they know what the problem is
Click to expand...

Its very easy to misalign the mounting bracket on the heat sink because the little screwhead indentation is not very pronounced. I was wondering why my heatsink seemed a bit loose even after tightening all bolts. I discovered I had actually missed the center hole and had to realign the mount. It hardly moves now unless enough force is applied.
 
I'm using the scythe on my ultra extreme.

The mobo bending issue is a real thing.

I would NOT do the penny mod to the ultra extreme. I did it and found it was BENDING my motherboard a lot. It was causing the upper heatsink to lose contact with the mosfets and was screwing up power distribution when I was overclocking at 8x450mhz. At 9x400 it was fine and would prime for 48hrs+. But at 8x450 it would randomly fail after 12 hours regardless of voltage settings. What lead me to the mosfets was that I would get sudden fluctuations on the 3, 5 and 12 v lines to trigger alarms.

Once I undid the "penny mod" the board was near flat again and the mosfet contacted the heatsink and it primed 36 hours at 8x450 with no issues. I've been able to use a Scythe E fan as my intake fan too instead of the F. It'll handle ambients up to 30C and load temps on the CPU as high as 70C with no issues. My vidcard was stable with the stock heatsink up to 100C under 6hour gaming sessions (It's using a HR-03 now) and barely breaks 70C when clocked at 650/1100.

If your system can prime for a long time like 24hours +, then it'll be fine for everything else. Nothing I am running can come close to stressing a quad 3.6. Heck I can run prime AND play TF2 online at the same time and hold 60fps...
Click to expand...

You don't really have to use a penny. I actually didn't. I used a can lid. A small washer will work best I think. I mean, you can feel it when you are overdoing something!!! If I can see that using a penny will bend my board. I wouldn't use it.
 
I can picture it now...

*just...alittle ...more turns....each screw has to be uber-mosfet-not-getting-enough-juice tight..........crack* damn you thermalright!!!
 
Its funny how people do that. You screw up but somehow its the manufacturers fault for not being easy. clear, simple enough.
I love mine though. Q6600 3.2GHz and 35º idle and 52-57º C
 
Does the thermalright 120 also come with pushpin mounts? Im asking b/c i realy dont want to take my mobo out. I was also looking at the thermaItake V1, hear good things about that cooler. Anyone have feedback about it?
 
ezac said:
Does the thermalright 120 also come with pushpin mounts? Im asking b/c i realy dont want to take my mobo out. I was also looking at the thermaItake V1, hear good things about that cooler. Anyone have feedback about it?
Click to expand...

i believe my above replies clearly state it uses screws to mount...which comes with a backplate for proper alignment.
 
ezac said:
you right, must have missed it. Anything about the V1?
Click to expand...

The construction of the V1 is excellent and while the installation process for both the AMD and Intel platforms follows the standard approach, the universal design is impressive. This means when installing the V1 on an Intel LGA775 platform, those annoying plastic clips are used. Nevertheless they can be quite easy to install and most importantly, motherboard removal is NOT required for installation on either AMD or Intel platforms.
Click to expand...

Pretty much answers your question
 
Did you guys use the supplied thermal paste or AS5 with your Ultra 120 eXtreme?
 
My TR Ultra 120 extreme arrived today and I underestimated the height of the cooler. My case has a 25cm fan at the side of the case but after installing the cooler, I can't close the side panel anymore so I need to remove the fan. I did a little mod to the side panel and now the fan is mounted outside the case, not the best looking mod but at least it works. My 3.2GHz (1.32V) load temp went down from 60C(stock cooler) to 43C :D
 
ezac said:
Does the thermalright 120 also come with pushpin mounts? Im asking b/c i realy dont want to take my mobo out. I was also looking at the thermaItake V1, hear good things about that cooler. Anyone have feedback about it?
Click to expand...

I didn't have to take mine out. Just lifted it up at one end and slid the backplate underneath the mobo. It worked. But do not attempt unless you know what you are doing. Its best to take it out.
 
jarablue said:
I want to know how you guys get these insane temps? I have excellent air flow and AS5 properly seated with a TRUltEx120 heatsink and scythe fans. My idle is 49- 50...and load is 70c.

This is a B3 stepping q6600. Seriously what are you doing to get these temps?
Click to expand...

Airflow makes a big difference. I just figured out that I can't really drop my temps without a proper airflow (no matter what HSF i get). My C2D idles at 45C and load temps are exactly 60C.
 
hmz said:
Airflow makes a big difference. I just figured out that I can't really drop my temps without a proper airflow (no matter what HSF i get). My C2D idles at 45C and load temps are exactly 60C.
Click to expand...

You are correct. Airflow in my case had just as big an impact as adding the ultra 120 did. I had to add 2 130 cfm delta fans to get my air flow good.
 
Hello all, I've had my eye on the 120 Extreme for a couple days now and I was wondering if it were possible to use it on a Socket 478-based CPU. I do plan on using the cooler with a new system, but for the time being I wanted to make the most of I have(2.4Ghz Northwood). I understand Thermalright sells a 478 bracket for their HR-01 and Ultra 90 heatsinks, is it possible to use that same bracket with the 120 Extreme?
 
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