[Overclockers.com]

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thermalright is a name that has been synonymous with enthusiast-level air cooling for quite a while now. Their venerable Ultra 120 Extreme (aka the TRUE) has won accolades and was once the favorite high end air cooler among overclockers worldwide. In recent times, the TRUE has fallen behind a little bit. While still one of the top air coolers, it's not quite standing alone on the podium as it once was.

Thermalright aims to up their game with the recently released Venomous X, which we're going to have a look at today.

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[MattNo5ss]

Nice job hokie!

Lol, I just finished up my article on the VX yesterday, just waiting on baditude_df's input on his section.

Our articles should complement each other, since I didn't have any other high-end cooling to test the VX against.

[hokiealumnus]

Sounds good...now I'm looking forward to see how they go together!

[MikeTimbers]

Why not compare to the H50 with identical fans?

[hokiealumnus]

I had no screws to put a 38mm fan on the H50 at the time of its review (which was quite a while before this one). I do have some powerful 25mm fans now and will be running a comparison on both as soon as I have time. There are other new products that have to be reviewed in the mean time, but I'll get more testing done when I have time, rest assured!

[muddocktor]

A couple of points, hokie.

1. Why didn't you just pull the stick of ram out of the board that was getting in your way for running push-pull? That heatsink won't perform nearly as well with 1 fan in pull. I've run into this same problem with my new X58 system I've been messing with and with 2 Denki 1011 fans mounted I can't use the very first ram slot because of the tall heatspreaders. But I can use the second ram slot, so I have the ram using the second channel on the mobo. Personally I find fault with the memory makers for these problems more than the hsf manufacturers. We have had to use big heatsinks for years now for high end air cooling and the memory people know this, but put these tall as hell heatspreaders on anyways for the "bling" look.

2. Did you try screwing the center tension screw down all the way, then mounting the crossbar to the mounting base? If not, give that a whirl. I found that I got more consistent and generally better mounts with my Ven-X by mounting that way.

[hokiealumnus]

Originally Posted by muddocktor

A couple of points, hokie.

1. Why didn't you just pull the stick of ram out of the board that was getting in your way for running push-pull? That heatsink won't perform nearly as well with 1 fan in pull. I've run into this same problem with my new X58 system I've been messing with and with 2 Denki 1011 fans mounted I can't use the very first ram slot because of the tall heatspreaders. But I can use the second ram slot, so I have the ram using the second channel on the mobo. Personally I find fault with the memory makers for these problems more than the hsf manufacturers. We have had to use big heatsinks for years now for high end air cooling and the memory people know this, but put these tall as hell heatspreaders on anyways for the "bling" look.

2. Did you try screwing the center tension screw down all the way, then mounting the crossbar to the mounting base? If not, give that a whirl. I found that I got more consistent and generally better mounts with my Ven-X by mounting that way.

1. Honestly - because I didn't think of it. Also because I ordered a bunch of 25mm screamers and knew I would re-test it. Will do a follow up article after my current review pile is reduced a little bit comparing push- to pull- to push-pull. I'll do that with the Venomous and the H50 if I'm able.

2. That's precisely how I mounted it in the subsequent mounts. The first was done by mounting the crossbar and then tightening the tension screw. The other two I made sure it was tight first. Honestly, it's such a good mounting system, the TIM patterns were about as close to identical as you can get with all three mounts. It's a great system really, very impressive.

[Brutal-Force]

I just want to say, nice article.

For my Venomous X I dropped a 2 very small washers (that fit into the hole on the HSF) to take up about 2-3mm of additional screw down on the HSF and this added way more tension. This keeps the Heatsink from being able to be twisted with relative ease. It also lowered my temperatures immensely. Its the equivalent to the washer trick done on the TRUE.

I believe they were 3mm washers.

[Gwiggles]

Originally Posted by Brutal-Force

I just want to say, nice article.

For my Venomous X I dropped a 2 very small washers (that fit into the hole on the HSF) to take up about 2-3mm of additional screw down on the HSF and this added way more tension. This keeps the Heatsink from being able to be twisted with relative ease. It also lowered my temperatures immensely. Its the equivalent to the washer trick done on the TRUE.

I believe they were 3mm washers.

Thanks for this, I've got some 3mm washers handy and I'll definitely try this out. What kind of temperature drops count as immense?

[muddocktor]

Originally Posted by Brutal-Force

I just want to say, nice article.

For my Venomous X I dropped a 2 very small washers (that fit into the hole on the HSF) to take up about 2-3mm of additional screw down on the HSF and this added way more tension. This keeps the Heatsink from being able to be twisted with relative ease. It also lowered my temperatures immensely. Its the equivalent to the washer trick done on the TRUE.

I believe they were 3mm washers.

Thanks for posting that hint up, Brutal. I guess I'll have to give it a try also.

[Brutal-Force]

I dropped another 4 degrees when I did this. I prime now at 81 degrees.

I think results may vary though depending on how well your VX sits. Mine I could turn very easily, so I went to work and dug up some washers to drop down in the hole. Now I have 4mm left that I can turn the knob. Before I did this, the Screw was bottoming out. on the screw down bracket.

There was two ways to do this, I could either file down the screw bracket, so I could turn down further (I didn't like this idea, because it would require very accurate filing/sanding and possibly mess up the threads) or drop something in the hole to take up the some of the slack.

Basically you can't fill the hole all the way to the top, otherwise, the tip of the centering screw can slide off the HS. But you really only need about 1-2mm to drop down into.



The Thumb Knob bottoms out on the Bridge.