Prolima Tech Megahalems vs fully modded Ultra 120 extreme - my results

I'm sure everyone knows all this by now but I thought I'd post my experience to add to the pile. I just removed my lapped and washer modded TRUE and installed my Megahalems and took down some info for anyone looking at these two coolers that maybe hasn't seen a direct comparison under similar conditions. Everything was pretty much the same except the coolers.

i7 920 CO at 3675mhz 2.8v
Arctic MX-2 paste (used a little more this time)
Coolermaster 9 blade fan with controller at the same speed. Set to about 1300rpm I'm guessing. http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html
Antec Nine hundred case
Same room at the same temp of 73f.
Tested for 15 minutes uninterrupted with prime95 small fft's for the most heat. Temps measured using Realtemp. The room temp was according to the central air controller thing in the hall right outside the living room where I tested.

TRUE---------highest temp- 81-77-76-76
Megahalems--highest temp- 77-73-73-71

Oh and I forgot to add that the mounting on the megahalems is awesome. It's simply impossible to have anything but a perfect mount. The fan clips also seem more secure but are admittedly slightly more annoying to put on than the TRUE's. In all fairness to the TRUE however, the megahalems was fresh out of the box while the Ultra 120 ex had a layer of dust going against it. It wasn't clogged but there was a layer.

Low speed fans are used , everyone knows TRUE does not excel with low speed fans due to high fin density .Do you have high speed fans you can use ?Something like 70 cfm panaflo ?

The fan I used can go up to 2500rpm but I can't have the thing screaming at me all the time so I keep it somewhat quiet. Sorry if I excluded the high noise tolerance crowd.

I will say the TRUE has one of the worst mounting kits I've ever used. HSF itself kicks azz, but the mounting kit was an afterthought by Thermalright.

Any chance you could test it with the higher fan speed?

Sorry but I'm sick of mounting heatsinks. The new one is on and the pc is back together. The antec 900 is a pain to work in. I did turn the fan up on the true all the way at one point during the summer and it helped a little but it wasn't a night and day difference.

I'll give it a month and test again when the megahalems is good and dusty and the room temp is the same.

mattspalace said:

I will say the TRUE has one of the worst mounting kits I've ever used. HSF itself kicks azz, but the mounting kit was an afterthought by Thermalright.

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How different is the Megahalem installation method? I found the TRUE dead easy to install. The only thing tricky was lining up the mounting bracket with the PCB holes and not allowing the heatsink base to slide around too much once touching the cpu. Other than that, piece of cake, and screwed down the spring loaded screws fully. Excellent temperatures first time, even with a bit of sliding around before tightening.

The nice thing about megahalems is that everything is held still by screws and pegs. The bar that goes across the base and attaches to the 2 other things on the motherboard has 2 metal pegs that go in to 2 holes on the top of the heatsinks base so there's just no where for it to go. All of the mounting hardware is thick metal.

The mounting system for the Megahalems looks to be near-perfect among top-end coolers. It was a big part of the reason I would choose this over a TRUE buying new.

just curious but did you let the heatsink spread the paste or did you spread it?

Any chance you'd be interested in doing an article writeup of this for the Aircooling section? PM me for details if you're interested, Brando. I can send you the template, and all you have to do is write a short article about your tests and the results.

just dan- i put a dab on the cpu and placed the heatsink on top of it as straight as i could. then i pressed down gently and twisted it a bit before screwing it down.

jamesman32- sure i'll do it but i'm getting the impression that i wasn't thorough enough. if the test was good enough in your opinion then sure i'll write it up.

also, it's now 73f in my room and i'm priming again just to get it even. i'll edit the original post in a few minutes.

EDIT: The 1f difference in room temp actually had an effect. Today i got 77-73-73-71 (1c higher on most cores) with a 73f room temp just shy of 17 min prime95 small fft's same as when I tested the TRUE. I'll edit the original post.

Batitude_DF is going to do a comparison as well. If you both wanna write something up, it just gives us more validity in the TRUE/Megahalems debate. Nothing wrong with different dating pointing to the same conclusion.

Ok sure.

I spread a thin even layer of AS5 on the cpu-

The other good thing about the Megahalems is the flat base, no need for lapping and no need for 'washer mod' not that the latter is hard in any way. I don't get why it seems like every single one of TR's cooler has a convex base.

Heh, I must have gotten lucky then. No lapping on my TRUE and an 11c drop straight out of the box. What I did was coat the TRUE base with a thin layer of MX-2 and a thin coat to the cpu. then wiped them both off, this was just to seal any pores, kind of prime them. Then I applied a small line to the cpu and installed the TRUE.

Brando said:

Coolermaster 9 blade fan with controller at the same speed. Set to about 1300rpm I'm guessing. http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html

TRUE---------highest temp- 81-77-76-76
Megahalems--highest temp- 77-73-73-71

Click to expand...

How is that COOLER MASTER FAN? I wanted to buy one but I really didn't trust the specs on the site. Tel me something about it. Thanx!

Danny54 said:

Heh, I must have gotten lucky then. No lapping on my TRUE and an 11c drop straight out of the box. What I did was coat the TRUE base with a thin layer of MX-2 and a thin coat to the cpu. then wiped them both off, this was just to seal any pores, kind of prime them. Then I applied a small line to the cpu and installed the TRUE.

Click to expand...

It's not that the TRUE isn't good out of the box it's that it benefits greatly from lapping. The base is borderline mismanufactured imo except that it does do a good job stock but many TR heatsinks of different types (CPU, GPU, chipset) are like that.

Since it is a good cooler it's not surprising you saw drops when using it. What cooler were you using before?