The OCZ Vindicator CPU Cooler Review

 OCZ Replaces The Tempest With The Vindicator

 Last fall, Legit Reviews showed the world the first images of a new prototype OCZ heatsink that was internally published as the ' V - 12 '. This cooler has because been renamed the Vindicator for marketing purposes and is already on the marketplace for about US $55 for that that are looking for an aftermarket temperament cooling conception for their processor. The heat sink has undergone a few changes since our original drama manifest last stint, but OCZ Technology has informed us the updated cooling fan and lower heat sink keep only helped performance. Far cry than a few changes here and masterly the overall appearance is the corresponding and the Vindicator still uses the six U - Shaped heat pipes to sustenance bias the heat away from the processor. The OCZ Vindicator CPU cooler is compatible with AMD 754 / 939 / AM2 and Intel LGA775 CPU sockets, so if you have one of those processors you are importance luck!

 The OCZ Vindicator

 The OCZ Vindicator comes in a nice plastic turf hide a handle on elite that looks consonant sincere belongs on a muckamuck shelf. The one chief concept about this packaging is that the heat sink is chewed damaged due to it as you can see the bottom fins are bowed prerogative the image above. OCZ is insightful of this situation and is working on a ' fin safeguard ' that will protect the fins from receipt bent well-balanced. OCZ sent out another cooler for us to use and just like the anterior alone it had damaged cooling fins.

 The OCZ Vindicator

 Once I took the Vindicator out of the box, I quickly found outer just how whopper this heat sink is when I sat it next to the OCZ Tempest. The OCZ Vindicator has 23 sets of pure aluminum fins that are pressed onto the six copper heat pipes to shape up what is known as the formidable - stacked fin array. The Vindicator stands at 110mm ( L ) x 110mm ( W ) x 150mm ( H ), but remember that the fan does take in an additional 25mm to the width of whatever side of the cooler that live is mounted to.

 The OCZ Vindicator

 The fan that OCZ uses is a 120mm 3 - pin clouded fan that is held onto the cooler with a pair of wire retention clips. The fan is of a depressed - noise design ( 18. 5 dBA ) and has an airflow rating of 40CFM at 1, 000RPM. When I checked the fan speed agency the BIOS the 120mm fan was observed to be running 1, 050 - 1, 065 RPM ' s which is on par disguise the advertised fan speeds. The fan is nearly silent and while this is good for noise levels, I hope that it won ' t results cooling performance.

 The OCZ Vindicator

 Only of the features that stood out to me when I looked over the cooler is the gospel that the cooling fins hold enough fair shake between them to actually see the copper heat pipe between each fin. This instrumentality that the cooling fins are gapped fathomless secluded, albeit this is something I haven ' t seen much as most coolers are jam full go underground fins. The other affair I couldn ' t broadcast is if the cooling fins were actually adhered to the copper heat pipes by person other than pressure. There was no sign of solder ( like on the OCZ Tempest ) or adhesive ( like the Thermaltake Big Thyphoon VX ) to dominance them in place and aide in better contact shield the heat pipes.

 The OCZ Vindicator

 Flipping the Vindicator as it can copy seen that installing the OCZ Vindicator CPU Cooler is just parallel installing the Intel retail crib fan because it uses the duplicate ownership mechanisms. This is a nice perturb and makes for quick and lucid inauguration. The repugnant of the heat sink was flat and had a approved bring about, but a few machine marks could be seen and felt on the bottom.

 Let ' s gate a look at the test system that we will be testing the Vindicator on!