Thermalrigth AXP-100 showed up yesterday so thought I would share

[doyll]

Okay, here are the first pics and my initial feelings
Opened box and here this little beauty. It looks so small in real life!


Cooler in bag. Typical well packed in foam for protection


Cooler and fan are so nice! Quality is excellent but I didn't expect anything less.


Heatsink base is 40x42mm with 6x 6mm pipes. There are 2x 2mm wire braces from opposite side of where pipes come out that attach into cooler so they can't get bent easily. A nice touch showing the engineers are thinking. Sorry they don't show better in picture. Will try to get a better shot of them and edit it in.

AXP-100 has a 2mm wire brace built into from base to radiator.

The supplied 120mm fan adapter plate.


The usual mounting kit for all Intel and AMD. Not much I can add. Bunch of little screws and 2 sets of knurled nuts
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a331/doyll/AXP-100
/AXP-1007mountingkit_zps2e4978d2.jpg

and lastly the screws for 120mm fan mounting plate, TY-100 fan and thicker 120/140mm fans


This is one very nice little cooler! Good attention to detail and quality. I can't wait to try it out and see how well it cools!

I could ramble on and on with all the measurement and weights but they are all on Thermalright's website.
http://www.thermalright.com/html/products/cpu_cooler/axp-100.html

All I have to test right now is i7 920 on EX58-UD3R. I'll use Thermalrigth Macho HR-02 for baseline comparison.


I will present my results in bold text. Hope this makes it easier to scan to see results.

Thermalright Macho HR-02
on i7 920 stock
Handbrake @ realtime

Cooler Intake . Idle CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . . 100% CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust
21c . . . . . . . . . 30-28-33-27c 650rpm 24.5c . . . . . . 54-54-56-53c 950rpm 29.0c

First pass
Thermalright AXP-100 w/ TY-100
on i7 920 stock (130watt CPU)
Handbrake @ realtime

Cooler Intake . Idle CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . . 100% CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust
22.0c. . . . . . . . 37-36-40-35c 1000rpm 31c . . . . . . . 65-65-66-63c 2400rpm 35.1c
22.0c. . . . . . . . 32-3a-36-31c 2400rpm 26c

TY-100 is almost silent below 1500rpm. Progressively louder as speeds increase. There is a slight hum at high speeds.
Noticing vibration noise dependent on rpm.. Smooth to 1500rpm, maximum is 2000rpm and smooth full speed. Assume this is a defective fan and not normal. Tested using voltage fan control and get same so not PWM related. I assume this is a defective fan as I've never had this happen with any other Thermalright fan.

Ran a second pass after 30 minutes idling and got exact same results. See no need to run a third pass. Changed to TY-140 fan and testing it now.

So far at idle 39-38-43-38c @ 725rpm.

 

[doyll]

Finding the TY-140 results interesting. I was expecting more of a difference between TY-100 and TY-140. Evidently the 105x105mm fin area minus the fan motor shadow keeps the added cfm of TY-140 from being used to increase cooling. Ty-140 is increasing the motherboard and case cooling and would be ideal in a case with intake vent directly above TY-140.

AXP-100 w/ TY-140
Tested with i7 920 stock (130watt CPU)
Handbrake @ realtime

Cooler Intake . Idle CPU & Fan rpm Cooler Exhaust. . . 100% CPU & Fan rpm Cooler Exhaust
23.0c . . . . . . . . 37-35-40-34c 700rpm 31.1c . . . . . . . 69-68-70-69c 1200rpm 38.6c
24.0c . . . . . . . . 35-34-38-33c 1280rpm 29.1c . . . . . . 67-68-68-66c 1300rpm 39.0c
23.5c . . . . . . . . 34-33-38-33c 1280rpm 28.0c

Hearing some of the same "vibration" noise so may have something to do with my test station. Will let you know more later.

 

[doyll]

Bench temp is back down to 23c. 2 meters away low/high are 21.7-22.4c today day. Kinda interesting how just one little old i7 920 can change the temperature in the whole corner of the room.

 

[doyll]

Okay
Found the shroud and mounted it between TY-140 and AXP-100. It's 15mm thick. 140mm diameter to 107x114mm rectangle.. fits perfectly on AXP-100 120mm mounting plate.

AXP-100 w/ TY-140
Tested with i7 920 stock
Handbrake @ realtime

Cooler Intake . Idle; CPU; rpm; Exhaust. . . . . . . 100% CPU & Fan rpm Cooler Exhaust
23.0c . . . . . . . . 37-35-40-34c . 700rpm 31.1c . . 69-68-70-69c 1200rpm 38.8c
24.0c . . . . . . . . 35-34-38-33c 1280rpm 29.1c . . 67-67-68-65c 1280rpm 38.0c
23.5c . . . . . . . . 32-33-38-33c 1280rpm 28.0c
TY-140>shroud>cooler
23,0c . . . . . . . . 33-32-37-32c 1250rpm 27.5c . . 65-66-67-65c 1250rpm 33.8c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 32-31-36-30c 1250rpm 26.5c . . 63-64-65-62c 1250rpm 35.5c **
**Last pass I turned base 90 degrees so it was better fitting the AXP-120 adapter mount.

 

[doyll]

Shroud does restrict fan cfm and increase static pressure.. as rpm shows.
It also makes things quieter mostly because fan is spaced 15mm away from fins and also because air is being smoothly directed into fins and not slamming into the flats of the adapter mount.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Cool looking low profile heatsink, thanks for sharing!

 

[Conumdrum]

Looks good! We knew it would be pretty good coming from Thermalright.m You proved it.

 

[doyll]

Yes it is Conumdrum.

It is really a very good little cooler. My only complaint is the fan isn't as quiet as TY-140.

I pulled it off but think I'll put it back on and run some more tests with The TY-100 fan and see what it will do slowed down some. I was in too much of a rush to test it with the TY-140 and didn't really run the TY-100 like I should have... like start at full speed / full load and test AXP-100 with TY-100 at 2500, 2250, 2000, 1750rpm and see what the CPU temps are. My guess is it will still cool my i7 920 at lower rpm.


I need to figure out the fan vibration noise I got on my test platform. I think it's just a harmonic moving through into wood worktop. Thinking of maybe putting some rubber washers on under the screws and between fan and cooler. I don't think it will take much.

Tomorrow I will take some more pics showing the shroud I used and rubber washers if I can find some.

 

[doyll]

Cool looking low profile heatsink, thanks for sharing!

Thanks. I hoped it would be of help to the community. I know most have systems it won't work on but...

 

[doyll]

Did the testing but didn't get the pictures done yet. Will try try and do it later.

AXP-100 w/ TY-100
Tested with i7 920 stock (130watt CPU)
Handbrake @ realtime

Cooler Intake . Idle CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . 100% CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . mobo & NB
21.5c . . . . . . . . 33-31-35-31c 2250rpm 25.5c . . . . 63-64-65-63c 2250rpm 34.5c . . . . . 37c 45c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 36-35-39-33c 2000rpm 30.0c . . . . 69-70-70-69c 2000rpm 40.0c . . . . . 39c 51c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 35-34-38-33c 1750rpm 29.5c . . . . 72-73-73-71c 1750rpm 43.0c . . . . . 40c 54c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 35-34-39-34c 1600rpm 30.0c . . . . 73-75-74-72c 1600rpm 44.0c . . . . . 39c 54c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 35-35-39-34c 1500rpm 30.0c . . . . 76-78-77-75c 1500rpm 47.0c . . . . . 40c 57c
23.0c . . . . . . . . 37-36-41-36c 1200rpm 31.0c; 39c & 46c mobo & NB

I was surprised. At 1750rpm I thought it would get hotter.. Than went to 1600rpm instead of 1500rpm because I was sure it would get too hot. But it actually does okay at 1500rpm!! So you can have a HTPC capable of gaming and still near silent with fixed fan speed. Use PWM and idle at 1200rpm set fan to ramp up as load increases. And about same size as two 120mm fans. Very impressed!

And the vibration was just a rogue harmonic resonance going into my worktop. Put my test board on some rubber pad and it noise was gone.

 

[doyll]

AXP-100 120mm adapter and custom shroud for TY-140 fan

 

[doyll]

AXP-100 w/ TY-100 on GA-EX58-UD3R and i7 920 (130watt CPU)


I still need to get some with the adapter & shroud under TY-140. The 15mm thick shroud improved cooling and noise considerable. Of course with it and TY-140 total height is 87.6mm.
AXP-100 with TY-100; 44.15 + 14 = 58mm
AXP-100 with TY-140; 44.15 + 28.5 = 72.65mm
AXP-100 2/TY-140 & shroud; 44.15 + 43.5 = 87.65mm
Edit: CPU fans in socket is approximately 6-9mm above motherboard.
From the results I'm not sure I would go the TY-140. I'm a TY-140 series lover and all but this little cooler really isn't designed to use 140mm fans. The fin face is 92x104mm = 95.7sq cm. TY-140 has a 42mm motor hub = 13.85sq cm while the TY-100 only has a 30mm motor hub = 7.1sq cm. All of TY-100 air is blowing into cooler while TY-140 is dumping a lot around the sides of cooler... which hinders the cooler exhaust trying to get out from under cooler.

A good 120mm fan would be forcing all it's air through cooler just as TY-100 does.

 

[doyll]

AXP-100 w/ TY-100 pulling out
Tested with i7 920 stock (130w CPU)
Handbrake @ realtime

Room ambient . Idle CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust. . 100% CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . . mobo; NB; Cooler intake*
21.5c . . . . . . . . 32-31-35-31c 2450rpm 26.0c . . 62-62-63-61c 2450rpm . 33.5c . . 34c . . 46c
21.5c . . . . . . . . 33-31-35-31c 2250rpm 25.5c . . 63-64-65-63c 2250rpm . 34.5c . . 37c . . 45c
21.5c . . . . . . . . 33-32-37-33c 2000rpm 30.0c . . 64-65-65-64c 2000rpm . 35.5c . . 34c . . 48c
21.5c . . . . . . . . 35-34-39-34c 1750rpm 28.5c . . 66-67-66-65c 1750rpm . 37.5c . . 35c . . 50c
21.5c . . . . . . . . 34-33-38-32c 1500rpm 27.0c . . 69-70-70-69c 1500rpm . 39.5c . . 34c . . 51c
21.0c . . . . . . . . 35-34-38-33c 1200rpm 28.0c; 34c & 47c mobo & NB
*I neglected to put a probe under cooler, sorry.
. 2450rpm is maximum rpm mounted pulling out


AXP-100 w/ TY-100 pushing in
Tested with i7 920 stock (130w CPU)
Handbrake @ realtime

Room ambient . Idle CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust. . 100% CPU; rpm; Cooler Exhaust . . mobo; NB; Cooler intake*
21.5c . . . . . . . . 33-34-35-31c 2400rpm 28.0c . . 67-68-67-66c 2400rpm . 39.5c . . 36c . . 51c
22.0c . . . . . . . . 33-34-35-31c 2250rpm 28.0c . . 68-68-69-67c 2250rpm . 39.5c . . 36c . . 51c . . 30.0c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 36-35-39-33c 2000rpm 30.0c . . 69-70-70-69c 2000rpm . 40.0c . . 39c . . 51c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 35-34-38-33c 1750rpm 29.5c . . 72-73-73-71c 1750rpm . 43.0c . . 40c . . 54c
22.5c . . . . . . . . 35-35-39-34c 1500rpm 30.0c . . 76-78-77-75c 1500rpm . 47.0c . . 40c . . 57c
23.0c . . . . . . . . 37-36-41-36c 1200rpm 31.0c; 39c & 46c mobo & NB
2400rpm is maximum rpm mounted pushing in
*Temperature of air 30mm above TY-100

:doh: I re-ran a couple of the fan pushing in tests. Intake air is much warmer than room ambient.. like 8c warmer!.

From now own I'm going to worry more about what actual cooler intake temperature is and not ambient temperature.

 

[ehume]

The problem with that is you cannot predict what your intake air will be. While in an open test stand I can get repeatable results by subtracting CPU temps from intake temps when the heatsink is a tower (Megahalems, D14), when the heatsink is a down-blower (NH-L12) results were all over the map. I could only get repeatable results by measuring the true ambient of the room, away from the intake.

 

[Bobnova]

From a review standpoint it makes more sense to me to measure the air as it's going into the heatsink. That's the only number that directly influences core temps, inside each person's case will be different. If the review is going to give them an idea how it'll perform for them you either have to use the same case, or use fan intake temps so they can measure that in their own case.

 

[doyll]

I understand what you're saying. I wanted to know why I was getting such a variance between push and pull tests. I couldn't believe the fan could pull that much better than push.. and it doesn't.

I was able to find a reasonable explanation for 5-8c difference between using fan as push vs pull... the air temp going into cooler.

You are correct ehume, I cannot predict what the intake air will be. But I can tell what it is. And knowing what it is will help me know how well a cooler is performing. the AXP-100 is a very good little cooler and has taught me a valuable lesson. RAM size, GPU placement, etc. all play a very important part in the airflow pattern of downflow coolers. There are so many different ram sizes and GPU/PCI slot placement possibilities.. just like there are so many case, fan, GPU, RAM, cooler, etc. combinations. In order to have an even playing field to compare coolers we need to use cooler intake temp and not room temperature.

I started using room ambient temperature because that's the norm. I now know that the key is not room ambient but cooler intake temperature. Room temp a meter away or 2 meters away is of no real consequence. I want to see how well different coolers cool. And to do that I need to know what the air temperature is going into each cooler I put on the CPU and not the temperature of the air in the room.

I'm always telling people to keep the heated exhaust and cool intake separate on their CPU and GPU cooling. I do not normally use downflow coolers because it is very hard to do that. Most GPU's are as bad as downflow coolers.. or worse.

From now on it's "cooler intake temp" and cooler exhaust temp", not that exhaust temp means much. But it does help in determining when the cooler is reaching it maximum cooling ability.

I will reserve "ambient temp" for comparing cases.

It's also why I am doing my work on a bench and not in a case.

I could give detailed comparisons of how a TC14PE performs inside modified Define R2. But unless you have same setup what good is it to you?

 

[gigabit]

Sweet looking cooler.Kind of reminds me of the XP 120 that i loved so much.

 

[doyll]

I see they are now in stock here in UK for £36.98
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-105-TR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2352

 

[baobeiiii]

I don't like those coolers that have the fan blowing on the mobo, in a normal case it doesn't let the hot air escape the case as fast as a regular style cooler imo.

 

[doyll]

I don't normally like them either. I don't normally build small compact systems like HTPC's.. which is what this cooler was designed and built for.

I guess I don't understand why you posted what you did. Are you trying to make a point relevant to the conversation or just comment on your personal taste in coolers?