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Mako Shark
OCZ Vanquisher CPU Cooler
Although the Vanquisher may have been out for a while, with products like this and other products such as power supplies, I believe its best to fully test the product over the course of a year.
As ever, this is my impartial opinion and not the patter off a shopping site. The Vanquisher was installed over a year ago in an acquaintances system. Just finished servicing the system and decided it was worthy of a review.
To start, with the boring technical details:
Socket AMD 754/939/940/AM2, Intel LGA775
Fan Speed 800 to 2000RPM
Bearing Type Ceramic Bearing
Heatsink Material Aluminium with Copper
Voltage 12V
Heatsink Dimensions 11.0cm (W) x 13.4cm (H) x 7.2cm (D)
![](http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/directron/ocztvanq3.jpg)
First consideration is price. At the time it was a bargain at £20. Nowadays it's closer to £12. Still a great price considering the cost of some other coolers that are double or more in price, yet dont offer too much more.
However when you open the box its slightly disappointing to find just a push-pin bracket. Not to start a mud slinging match, but I prefer bolt-ons for that extra security. However a pure copper base that's quite polished is re-assuring.
Because of the size this makes installation an absolute pain. A handy tip is to remove the PSU as the cooler fins are close against the PSU interior fan, then you can get to all the push-pins. What made it worse is the plastic clips were slightly less sturdy than some others.
I would have liked to have the option of a bolt-on bracket, but alas!
The sound levels are quite low as well. Dependant on the CPU, on idle the noise level ranges from 25dba to 31dba (according to my sound meter). When the side is on, the noise is diminished even further. On load the noise is nearly 40dba, not too noisy!
The 92mm fan is quite unique in size. Not 90mm, nor 95mm like the similar Akasa AK-965, but 92mm! The design however is worth mentioning. The fan blades aren't enclosed in a funnel and have just a minimal guard around it. It is a pleasure though to listen and look at the fan on low RPM's, very smooth operation, which OCZ attributes to the ceramic bearing.
The downside is you better not have stray wires! With a minimal guard, wires could get in the way of blades.
The upside is however, when servicing the system it was in, there wasn't a speck of dust on the cooler. To put this in to context, this is in a system where the owners have such a dusty environment the previous stock cooler jammed up and damaged the fan itself! This time, over a year later, the 80mm case fan was jammed with dust so tightly the blades wouldn't turn, the GPU fan was jammed, everywhere had a mat of dust/fur that had the consistency of a carpet but at least the Vanquisher was clean as a bell!
Here a comparison might help. The Akasa AK-965, which is priced at nearly £20 at the moment is an interesting comparison which I've tried before. The heatsink itself is nearly identical, the fan isn't however.
While the Akasa may offer 1*c lower on idle and 2*c-3*c lower on load, the fan isn't as dust resistant as the Vanquisher. This shouldn't be an issue to you or I, but if the cooler is installed in a clients PC, it can make all the difference, since they may not be as clean with airflow as we are.
The above observations are taken with Pentium 4 dual core, which are notorious for being hot! With Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo CPU's, the noise and heat are a bit better.
Pentium 4 D ends up idling at around 25*c and on load I haven't managed to push it past 50*c. With a 2.1Ghz Core 2 Duo upgrade the temperature on idle hovered around 18*c, hitting the 37*c mark on full load.
Quite an ideal cooler for Pentium 4's, P4 D, Core 2 duo and possible a low clock rated quad, however if you're thinking of going down the line of a high clocked Core 2 Duo or a quad, you may want to consider more aggressive cooling methods!
In conclusion, if dust is an issue and you're tidy with you wiring, this is an ideal mid range cooler.
If neither are of concern, its still a great cooler, but the lack of a bolt on option is a hindrance. Sure I could buy one, but it only costs OCZ a maximum of £1, why not include both?
Still, I would give this cooler a 8/10 and recommend this cooler above other similar competing products.
Last edited by wh666-666; 06-23-2009 at 03:44 PM.
Compaq A910em: T2330 dual core 1.6Ghz, X3100 384MB GPU, 160GB sata HDD, 2GB RAM
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