Thermalright XP-90 vs. XP-120 vs. Ultima 90

[Tech Tweaker]

Choosing between the Thermalright XP-90, XP-120, and Ultima 90/90I which would you say is the best for cooling (disregarding the limited socket compatibility of the XP-90 and 120)?

Let's say for the sake of an example that they are being mounted on a socket 939 or LGA775 motherboard.

I ask because I have all three of these coolers sitting in front of me and quite frankly the XP-90 and 120 are a complete PITA to mount and dismount from a motherboard (I spent twenty minutes trying to remove an XP-120 from a 939 board yesterday without destroying the cooler itself, the mounting bracket, or the motherboard). I should mention this was with the board still in the case, because all I wanted to do was swap the cooler and didn't want to have to disconnect and then reconnect everything again. The Ultima 90 on the other hand, I can swap out within 5-10 minutes, and install in say 10-15 (depending upon socket type and other considerations).

Does the cooling ability of these XP-90 & XP-120 coolers outweigh their horribly difficult mounting systems?

I'm really trying to decide if it is even worthwhile to keep the older XP coolers anymore, or if advances in cooling technology (going up to the Ultima-90/Ultra 120 Extreme era) have surpassed their abilities so greatly that they are completely obsolete.

 

[watchthisspace]

I have the Ultima 90 in my rig. It's very easy to mount, after you've got the back plate on. It also keeping my Q6600 @ 1.32v under 60 on a Prime 95 blend test.

 

[Scout]

Isn't the ultima a pretty decent little heat pipe tower cooler I would go with that one that is a pretty modren design if I can remember right.

 

[muddocktor]

The old XP90- and XP120 were good coolers for their day, but sadly their day has been passed by. Of the 3 you mentioned, the Ultima 90 is the only 1 that has a chance of dealing with a new quad (or hex) core proc being overclocked. Also, mounting the old XP series to a socket newer than LGA775 will be very problematic in that you will have to manufacture a mount for them. IIRC, the Ultima 90 uses a heatsink mounting system much like a TRUE and should therefore be able to use a newer TRUE or Ven-X mount for a modern system. You can find the Ven-X mounting system for sale at a few vendors I use, such as FrozenCPU and Performance PCs.

 

[mjw21a]

Mind you, if you want to send me that XP-120 it'd make one cool looking paperweight. I've always wanted one

 

[givmedew]

Isn't the Ultima 90 suposed to be a very good sink? Wouldn't it perform atleast as well as a Hyper 212+?

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, I've now tested all of the coolers in question.

With the XP-90 my Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego idles around 32-34°C, the XP-120 is about the same at 32-34 (might be slightly better with a high-speed 120x38mm fan), and the Ultima 90 idles around 27-29°C. (I don't recall the load temps at the moment.)

Fan used with XP-90 was a Zalman ZF9225ASH (aka ZM-F2 Plus) rated to 56 CFM at 2800 RPM, or occasionally a Vantec Tornado running with 5V. Fan used with XP-120 was an Antec 120mm Tri-cool set to high speed. Fans used with the Ultima-90 were the same Zalman ZM-F2 Plus (push fan) and a DF0922512SELA/SELN rated to 2000 RPM (mine spins between 2000 and 2150) with an unknown airflow rating (pull fan).

Testing was done in a room with an ambient temperature of around 21-23°C (it varies a bit, as I can't control it exactly) and motherboard was run on an open test bench (cardboard box).

The only real complaint I have about the Ultima 90 is that it doesn't natively support the mounting of a 90x38mm fan, so I can't use my Vantec Tornado fans unless I rig up something with zip-ties or something similar.

 

[Conumdrum]

Load temps are what matters, do you have them?

 

[woboy]

Seconded.
38mm fans are/or should not/ be needed. Generally loud and a decent modern cooler is designed to cool with reasonable air flow.
Unless you are doing extreme overclocking, then possibly.
Note, Asrock 1155 motherboards provide 775 mounting holes for legacy heat sinks,

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Load temps are what matters, do you have them?

I never bothered to record any.

Idle temps are what matters to me, since I am concerned about how cool the CPU can run at stock speeds with little to no load. As my computers spend most of their time at idle (when I'm not benching on them) I'm not as concerned with load temps.

Somehow I knew somebody would just absolutely have to complain about my testing methods, but if you absolutely have to see the load temps I'll look into it.

 

[Conumdrum]

Okay, thanks..................... No worries. Dunno why you didn't record them, you know what matters here. Not complaining, just looking for what matters to our members.

We have lots of data from other places, would of been nice to see it generated at OCF.

Don't worry about it, we'll be just fine.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

My curiosity got the better of me, so I tested it.

In a 23°C room under load with the Ultima 90 the CPU temperature sits right around 43-45°C most of the time, but nudges its way up to 46°C every now and then. I didn't see it get past 46°C during testing though.

The XP-90 and XP-120 are around 48-52°C.

The system was loaded using the Prime95 small FFT's test.

 

[ehume]

Nice results at load.

The reason most of us don't care about idle is that your fans are often controlled, and idle temps can all converge at the same place.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

The old XP90- and XP120 were good coolers for their day, but sadly their day has been passed by. Of the 3 you mentioned, the Ultima 90 is the only 1 that has a chance of dealing with a new quad (or hex) core proc being overclocked. Also, mounting the old XP series to a socket newer than LGA775 will be very problematic in that you will have to manufacture a mount for them. IIRC, the Ultima 90 uses a heatsink mounting system much like a TRUE and should therefore be able to use a newer TRUE or Ven-X mount for a modern system. You can find the Ven-X mounting system for sale at a few vendors I use, such as FrozenCPU and Performance PCs.

Yes, the mounting systems of the Ultima 90 and TRUE are identical, in fact I've used mounting parts for a TRUE on my Ultima 90, and vice-verse.

Isn't the Ultima 90 supposed to be a very good sink? Wouldn't it perform at least as well as a Hyper 212+?

It's on the same level as an Ultra 120, but a little below the 120 Extreme (TRUE), so it might actually perform a little better than the Hyper 212/212+ since I've seen in some reviews I've read that the Ultra 120 exceeded it in cooling capacity and the Ultima 90 performs at about the same level.

Mind you, if you want to send me that XP-120 it'd make one cool looking paperweight. I've always wanted one

Nah, I don't think I want to give it away, I might sell it sometime though.

Nice results at load.

The reason most of us don't care about idle is that your fans are often controlled, and idle temps can all converge at the same place.

Thanks for that bit of info.

That explains part of the reason of folks being against idle temps used as a means of comparison around here. In my case though I don't have to worry about that, as I've set my fans to spin at 100% all the time in my bios.