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ThermoEngine: A disturbing change in direction

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Hello all,

I got a ThermoEngine from CoolerGuys.com yesterday. The damn things runs 4 to 5 degrees C hotter at idle then cheap $19.00 CoolMaster.

I took that thing off as fast as I put it on. I have also informed the CoolerGuys who I might add are really good folks. If your looking for service with a people touch, that's the place to go.
 
Glad I got mine from AZZO back in March!
It runs awesome !
axia 1.33 at 1.55 (155x10) , 1.92v (iwill 1.825 in bios , but seems like my board has a built in transistor mod!)
38c-41c max temps.
And it's 78f in my house !
 
F***!

(sorry)

I just purchased one of these on the weekend at a swap meet (computer market) in Victoria Australia.

I'll let you guys know how it goes with the cooler, will unscrew the fan off the top tonight, tell you if it has a cap.

As I'm buying a KT7A I'm still using my coolermaster on my AXIA t-bird, so I havent tested the thermoengine at all yet, still sitting un-used on my desk, with thermal pad in perfect condition.


Also, what weight should it be, and should it not be, has anyone actually measured the differences?


And does anyone know if there _REALLY_ is a difference in performance, which is the most important thing

I purchased this baby for 48$. AU or 24$ US :( (Australian prices suck)

I got it because from Kyles review @ H-OCP seemed to indicate it's one of the best low rpm heatsink / fan combo's out there (I hate too much noise)

And if I did manage to get over the noise and strap on a 7k fan it seems to perform amazingly!

Well of course I'm quoting stuff we all know here, but the real problem is, .....

Is there something officially to be wary of, has anyone got BOTH heatsinks and tested them side by side?!!

Personally I feel someone needs to definately address this with a proper comparison side by side!
Someone hook kyle up with a new one (solid, if they really are solid) with 7k rpm fans and with the stock fan see what the differences are?

(or of course some other webmaster if Kyle is busy, but Kyle seems to do a good fan review)

Any thoughts on this?
 
It seems that Kyle's position is fixed. Don't you think he would have done a comparison by now if he was going to do one? After all this is "old news". Thankfully, Joe here at Oveclockers has pledged to get to the bottom of this mess.
 
Update!!!

I had not taken the fan off of my ThermoEngine as of my last post. I have it off as I type this post and the center is solid as a ROCK!!!

Damn those guys!!
 
Paladon06:


What does your heatsink weight, WITHOUT the fan, just the metal on it's own?

in ounces

and what performance are you getting out of it (how do you KNOW it's solid?)

- Scott
 
Sorry, I don't have a scale to weight the ThermoEngine. The reason I say it's solid is by closely examining the top and bottom surfaces, fan removed of course, it does not show any indication that it was capped. The is no appearance of welding or sealing at any of the surfaces. The edges are sharp and clean as when cut buy a metal machining tool.

As far as performance I am presently running the fan from a Coolmaster DP5-5GII with the heatsink from a Global Win FOP 32-1 on my AMD Thunderbird 950mhz co'ed @ 1036 (109 FBS). The temp with the HSF combo above reads 39 degrees C at idle and 42 max under load.

The ThermoEngine is 44 degrees C at idle. It reached that temp in less then 15 minutes. I didn't even want to try it under load.

Yes, I do use Arctic Silver II.

PS - Anyone want to buy it? The ThermoEngine that is.
AbRASiON (May 01, 2001 08:24 p.m.):
Paladon06:


What does your heatsink weight, WITHOUT the fan, just the metal on it's own?

in ounces

and what performance are you getting out of it (how do you KNOW it's solid?)

- Scott
 
For those wishing to verify their ThermoEngine's core status, here's a tip. From what I understand (and from the actual measurement of our ThermoEngine versus retail ones) the one with a heatpipe should weigh approximately ~228 grams, while the solid one should weight approximately 241-244 grams. This is with shroud and stock fan on both heatsinks.

Hope this helps!
 
Paladin:

That's a REAL disapointment, worse than a coolermaster, this heatsink / fan definately need's a re-review! :(

What a shame! - I cant believe this, I was kind of proud of myself to do some research and find what looked to be a clear leader in the quiet hsf market for performance, and got completely rolled.

Cant someone sue them since they took a patent out on it, and still print the patent number on the side of the damn unit!


Rizen:

Thanks for the weight information, I'll have to get myself a decent set of scales.

- Scott
 
First off Colin, I know for sure you don't know a thing about what is going on around the [H] or what I am "fixed" on, so your speculation is just you making stuff up.

I have already gotten an official reply from ThermoSonic (will you state we have taken the high ground when we post it?) and will be doing a side by side this weekend IF I GET THE PART. What you have failed to ever ask was if I even had one to review in-house, which we do not. That is why you have never seen an official comment on this. Honestly, I have had other things going on and have let this slide outside of a disclaimer that was posted in our article last month. I am pretty much a one man show and ThermoSonic HSs has not been a priortiy.

Also, wasn't Overclockers.Com the site that was suggesting that the hollow core was a sham to begin with. Now they find out that it is not there and it is a scam? Hmm, seems like OCers is anything but fixed, like you suggest we are.

Colin (May 01, 2001 08:11 p.m.):
It seems that Kyle's position is fixed. Don't you think he would have done a comparison by now if he was going to do one? After all this is "old news". Thankfully, Joe here at Oveclockers has pledged to get to the bottom of this mess.
 
Whoa, slow down there guys. Maybe they're telling the truth about the retail version not having the cap. The cap was made of parafin wax right? Parafin wax has a density of 0.918g/cm3, while aluminum has a density of 2.7g/cm3. Now, this doesn't totally compute, but neither does the 20 gram difference accounting for the "solid core" rumors. For that 20 gram difference to work out right, the core would have to have had a diameter of about 1cm, and a height of 2.5cm. Both of those numbers are way off, at least from the pics I've seen. "filling" the core with aluminum(or rather, not drilling it out) would raise the mass by a lot more than 20 grams. And how much do you think it could cost to zip out a hole with a drill, and slap on an aluminum cap? It's not like they're saving on materials here, and I'm no machining wizard, but I'm sure if I had a solid piece of aluminum, I could drill out a hole pretty quick. Until we start seeing pictures of retail thermo engines being cut apart, revealing a solid core, there's really no reason to believe any of this. If people are getting a couple of degrees higher temps, maybe that's because their systems are probably hundreds of miles away from those at the [H], and are in a totally different environment. A 2 or 3'C difference is nothing to get excited over, it might not be seated exactly the same way, or it might not have the exact same amount of thermal compound(assuming they didn't use the TIM, which [H] said actually performed fairly well). The point is that there are so many factors which could be attributed to the weight being higher, and the temp's being higher, there's no reason to start pointing fingers when really, nobody ACTUALLY knows anything for sure.
 
That's it... Where's my freagin' bat? Forget the bat, just give me a big rock damnit. Clearly someone is in dire need of a good cranium crackin'.

BiZ

Colin (May 01, 2001 08:11 p.m.):
It seems that Kyle's position is fixed. Don't you think he would have done a comparison by now if he was going to do one? After all this is "old news". Thankfully, Joe here at Oveclockers has pledged to get to the bottom of this mess.
 
Well, I must admit to being disappointed with Thermosonics actions . However, I personally would "try to make lemonade" out of the situation.

I do have a drill.
Also, have to wonder about drilling it all the way through and installing some copper rod........
 
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