Zalman 9700 or the Tuniq Tower 120 Cooler?

Anandtech just posted a nice review on the Tuniq Tower 120..
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2906


My question is, if you guys think it would do a better job than the Zalman 9700? Thanks
I'm on a brink of making a purcahse.. Have less than a week to decide on it and need to be sure which one to go with.. Thanks

Make sure these 2 coolers will fit your case before you take the plunge. They are both nice coolers. I like the esthetics of the Zalman a lot better but that is personal taste. Both are capable of very good overclocks. :)
 
I have the 9700 nt; the dimensions were better for me as I can use the motherboard tray in my TJ09; it's a smaller footprint than other coolers, despite people describing it as huge. It runs cool and quiet, has a nice green Nvidia led fan to match the 8800, and it's also less weight than some other options.

M
 
Thanks.. after reading a couple of reviews and people's opinions i think I'll go with the Zalman 9700.
 
I got the Tuniq, but havent gotten the rest of my system yet. One thing that I am worried about its the weight. In another thread it was a little heftier than the zalman.
 
What is the height from the mobo of the Tuniq? I'm wondering if it would be a worthwhile upgrade from a cnps9500...or maybe a quieter upgrade at the least.
 
I don't have any hands on experience with the tuniq tower but I do with the zalman. I was in the same dilemma and went with the zalman due to not being able to find the tuniq in stock for 2 weeks. The tuniq is supposedly a slightly (2-4c) better cooler due to the massive amount of surface area it has. But if you can't find one the zalman is certainly not a slouch either. They are both heavy units, and some don't like the fact the tuniq weighs around 1kg but I don't find it to be too excessive provided you don't move your pc around. If it's a lan party box that goes everywhere then forget it, I could see it snapping off at some point in its travels.
 
I ran my E6400@3760 and after 6 hours of Orthos my core temps were 45/44C

That was with the Zalman and the case fan set to 75%. If anyone with a Tuniq can beat that overclock and do it 2-4C cooler than I did my hat's off to them.
 
I have the 9700 nt; the dimensions were better for me as I can use the motherboard tray in my TJ09; it's a smaller footprint than other coolers, despite people describing it as huge. It runs cool and quiet, has a nice green Nvidia led fan to match the 8800, and it's also less weight than some other options.

M

damn... I'm putting my machine into a TJ09 this weekend and I got the TT120... oh well, I guess I'll have to mount the sink in the case.. suck!!! hah.. I was very on the fence about the 9700NT and TT120.. I went for max cooling performance because I didn't think either one of them would fit through the mobo tray hole.. gah!
 
I ran my E6400@3760 and after 6 hours of Orthos my core temps were 45/44C

That was with the Zalman and the case fan set to 75%. If anyone with a Tuniq can beat that overclock and do it 2-4C cooler than I did my hat's off to them.

Take a picture of your setup.....and what's your ROOM'S temperature?
 
damn... I'm putting my machine into a TJ09 this weekend and I got the TT120... oh well, I guess I'll have to mount the sink in the case.. suck!!! hah.. I was very on the fence about the 9700NT and TT120.. I went for max cooling performance because I didn't think either one of them would fit through the mobo tray hole.. gah!

Yep, it's nothing I thought of ahead of time, but it's a nice bonus that the 9700 pulls out with the tray.

M
 
One more thing to consider is that the TT120 pumps air in a generally unidirectional way. Since the Zalman is open on all sides, you'll be pumping more hot air into your case. This all depends on how good your case ventilation and exhaust is, of course.
 
Well, you should read the Zalman 9700 instructions if you get a chance; or take a look at one; they use a direct shot discharge straight to the exhaust fan and out the case; air is sucked to the middle, and blown out.

In any even, you can hardly tell the Zalman heats up - there is no heat.

359029090_39d53a2244_o.jpg
 
how tall does the 9700 sit at full height while mounted?

edit.. looks like 142mm high... so it's not short by any means.. one of the things which turned me off about the Zalman is that I had to clean the heck out of my vf700cu's, and they were not easy to clean either.. lots of Qtips and air.. it was a real drag! maybe the nickel plating on the NT repels dust better.. I hope so.. I am not sure how easy the TT120 will be to clean either, but sinks of that style seem to clean fairly easy with canned air and minimal wiping.
 
Take a picture of your setup.....and what's your ROOM'S temperature?

My room temperature is normal room temperature i.e.68 degrees F. Just the same as anybody else would use, the living area of my house

Here is the screen shot of my setup. For the moment I hold the speed record for overclocking a E6400 on air: 3760 MHz.

7725852_1024.ts1168719009000.jpg
 
with 1.55v @ 3760 ? Ya its possible, when you are using speedfan to read your temperature.

No I am using TAT to read my temperature, TAT and Core Temp both actually. The figure I quoted is from TAT.
 
No I am using TAT to read my temperature, TAT and Core Temp both actually. The figure I quoted is from TAT.

That's really amazing. I have never seen such temperatures... Anywhere....

You are talking about a 2.13ghz chipt overclocked to 3.76ghz using 1.55V with an ambient temperature of 68f.

The system I built for my brother is being pushed to 3.52ghz and I haven't gone any further because it requires me to drive for a while to his place.

Next time I go there, I will try to push his chip to 3.8ghz or so.

Right now, I'm waiting for my own Tuniq Tower 120 so that I can take my E6600 past 4.1ghz:eek:
 
Here is one I made just a few moments ago while I am running another test of Orthos with different memory timings. Note core temperature under 100% CPU load: 42C and 43C. While I am browsing the web and chatting to you all my CPU is running at 42C running orthos at 100% CPU load. While I am typing this the test is running at 100% on both cores.

7824290_1024.ts1168996349000.jpg
 
Here's another one I took about 3 minutes aog.

I cranked the fan up to 75% a few mnutes ago so I could show you, temps are continuing to drop a little. Before that I had it set on 35% speed because I like it nice & quiet.

7824502_1024.ts1168996755000.jpg
 
That's really amazing. I have never seen such temperatures... Anywhere....

You are talking about a 2.13ghz chipt overclocked to 3.76ghz using 1.55V with an ambient temperature of 68f.

The system I built for my brother is being pushed to 3.52ghz and I haven't gone any further because it requires me to drive for a while to his place.

Next time I go there, I will try to push his chip to 3.8ghz or so.

Right now, I'm waiting for my own Tuniq Tower 120 so that I can take my E6600 past 4.1ghz:eek:

I am reaching the end of the line with this chip but with some luck & Lord willing I might be able to get 3800 stable . See attached screenshot from last Sunday with Orthos at 1 hr 11 min @ 3800. I managed to get about 2-1/2 hours but cannot get to the magic 4 hours stability.

Just to show you what is possible. Normally I do not post these until I have been orthos stable for 4 hours or more but since you are interested. Remember this is not just "does it POST" or "will it boot" this one was more than an hour of Orthos on both cores.

Note core temps after 1 hour: 46C & 46C

7801284_1024.ts1168917539000.jpg
 
Wow, just Wow, love your temperatures and great chip you have there...

What RAM are you using with that setup?
 
Wow, just Wow, love your temperatures and great chip you have there...

What RAM are you using with that setup?

Like it says in my sig I am using Corsair XMS2 6400C4. If you only want to run it at 400 MHz 4-4-4-12 published specification and never overclock it, Corsair is good solid memory though no bargain at $276. I would not recommend 6400C4 for overclocking at all: Corsair barely and I mean barely, performs at the speeds and timings they advertise it does. In my experience if you even tried to overclock it by 10% and keep the 4-4-4-12 timings Corsair 6400C4 will fail to perform.
 
Yes, very great temps at that clock!!! And you did it with a Zalman 9700; but a tower is on the way, eh?

Clearly - those are Unusual temps, aren't they.
 
here's my E6600 being punished by Orthos for 10 hours or so with very respectable load temps using my 9700 cooler. I have a Tuniq 120 coming in a few days just to see if in fact it is any better.

currentCPUspeed.jpg
 
wow.. I got my TT120 today... I should get the TJ09 on thursday or friday.. I am eager to see how this sink does over my water system now.. (apogee + koolance)
 
Here's another one I took about 3 minutes aog.

I cranked the fan up to 75% a few mnutes ago so I could show you, temps are continuing to drop a little. Before that I had it set on 35% speed because I like it nice & quiet.

7824502_1024.ts1168996755000.jpg

Damn dude, nice chip!!!
 
got my tuniq installed in my new TJ09 today.... the tuniq does fit through the motherboard tray hole whlie installed! I was pretty happy about that.. it was closer than it looks in this pic.. but anyways, for those who are wondering about the tt120 in a TJ09. the only thing which would not fit was the 40mm fan on my NB, which I had to off-set a little so the tuniq could mount properly.. not a problem. though the fan came close to blocking my SATA cables on my raid card. whew..

tuniq1.jpg


love the light from the tracers :)
tuniq2.jpg


my cpu idles at 27c @ 3.5ghz (1.50 vcore set in bios) and not sure what the load is now.. but Oblivion runs perfect so I am sure it's not getting too hot.. I'll test load temps thoroughly after the AS5 has set..
 
I have a question maybe someone can help me with. I just built a new c2d system to be my media center and I'm getting conflicting temp readings. Asus onboard monitor and speedfan are showing me 41-43 idle temps, while TAT is showing me 28-29 idle temps at the same time:confused: what the heck do I believe?
 
In response to the OP I really like my new Tuniq Tower, but you really can't argue with wdn's temps/clocks w/ the Zalman.
 
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