Global Win VOS32

SUMMARY: Global Win’s VOS32 performs very well – although not “Intel Approved”, very respectable performance – the best “Non-Intel Approved” CPU Cooler (ex Alpha) I have tested to date.

The Card Cooler kindly sent us the Global Win VOS32 triple threat CPU Cooler – it will fit PII, PIII or Athlon. You can configure it for any of these through some simple screwdriver mods – all parts and instructions are included. Making the required mods is straight forward, easy and the included instructions are clear enough.

As the picture below shows, the VOS32 is very large – it dwarfs the Card Cooler Thin fin by about half. It is about as large as the Alpha P3 125, so expect that for motherboards with restricted space (e.g., ASUS P3BF) that some DIMM slots will be blocked. It measure about 3″ (77mm) tall by 2 7/8″ (75mm) to the top of the fan screws by 4 ¾” (120mm) long. It weighs in at a little over a pound (450 gr), so this is not an “Intel Approved” cooling solution.

Three Fans

Note that the AMK has the PII 300 attached

The fans are the YS Tech 26 cfm units, so air flow is 52 cfm total. Noise levels are not as loud as I thought, I think due to the fairly unrestricted air-flow through the fins. All told, the specs are not bad. For testing, I used my naked PII 300 running at 450 @ 2.0 volts – giving me 33 watts to cool. I used Prime95 to task the CPU and Motherboard Monitor to record temps. I ran Prime95 until temps settled down, then ran it for 5 minutes, taking 500 1 second temp samples. The results are presented in the table below:

PII 300 @ 450 MHz   
HeatsinkLow TempHigh TempAverage Temp
Global Win VOS 3237C39 C37.7 C
AMK SECC80+40 C43 C41.2 C
Thin Fin43 C46 C44.8 C

Cooling performance is quite good – the AMK was the “Non-Intel Approved” leader but has lost its crown to the Global Win VOS32. Performance is at the expense of size – the physics are really simple: The more cooling performance, the more fin area. The more fin area, the more bulk (at least for extruded aluminum heatsinks). I think the Global Win will see a serious threat from a folded fin heatsink; if designed well, it will give the same or better performance with less bulk, thereby not blocking DIMM slots.

In sum, an effective cooling solution – but check your clearances before buying.

PS: Tom Leufkens emailed me that the VOS32 does not fit the ASUS K7M without trimming off some fins, so it you are “Dremel Challenged” look elsewhere.


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