Zaward Vapor120 CPU Cooler Review

Zaward Vapor120 CPU Cooler Review

 

A heatsink that breathes, say what? Yep
today I’ve got for review the Zaward Vapor120 that is a breathable
heatsink On the heatsink fins are dimples that allow the cooler to
breathe thus improving heat exchange efficiency by up to 30%. Does
it work? Well that’s what we’re here to find out. I’m testing it on
my Corei5 750 CPU and i’ve put it up against a couple other coolers
for comparison, so read on to learn more about this cooler and see
how it performs..

 

 

 

 

 

 


Product
Name:
Zaward
Vapor120 CPU Cooler

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Zaward





 

Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:


Vapor120


CPU Cooler: Vapor120, the
science of ultimate cooling efficiency with breathable heatsink.

patent pending


Features:

-Patented heatsink with
breathing effect design for most energy saving and low noise level.

-Patented backplate mounting
kit applicable for LGA1156, LGA1366, LGA775, AM3, AM2, AM2+ and K8.

-Patented copper heat pipe
direct touch (H.D.T.) with CPU to absorb the heat efficiently.

-Patented Golf Fan with PWM
function for speed adjustment.

-Dual fan installation option.

-Assembly easily and friendly.

-Dual direction installation
option for AMD sockets.


Specification:

Heatsink:

Application:

–Intel:LGA775, LGA1156,
LGA1366

–AMD:AM2, AM2+, AM3, 754, 939,
940

-Dimension: 120 (W) x 50 (D) x
160 (H) mm

-Fin: Aluminum alloy with 3 x
O8mm copper heatpipes

-Base: Aluminum with H.D.T


Fan:

-Dimension: 120 x 120 x 25 mm

-Voltage rate: DC 12V

-Consumption current: 0.45A
max.

-Input power: 5.4W max.

-Air pressure: 3.47 mmAq

-Bearing type: Long life Duro
bearing

-Speed: 300±200 rpm ~ 2000±10%

-Air flow: 93.96 CFM max.

-Noise level: 10~34.3 dBA

-Connector: 4 pin with PWM
function

-LED: 4 blue

-Life Expectancy: 60,000 hours

-Thermal resistance: 0.15 °C/W

-Weight(Net): 684 ± 20g


 

 

A
Better Look at Things:


So we’ll start out with the box
and packaging:



Inside you’ll find three basic
things, the cooler, a fan and an accessory bag.



The fan is a special design of
Zaward that features dimpled fan blades.



I’m impressed by the build quality
of the Vapor120, it seems very well made. As I mentioned in the intro
the fins have dimpling on them that supposedly allows for better
cooling performance. The cooler features three U-Shaped copper
heapipes. It’s interesting to note that on the base of the cooler
there are no spaces between the cooler and the hetpipes that you
might find on other coolers of this type.



Inside of the accessory bag you’ll
find all of the parts for installing the Vapor120 on multiple
sockets. There’s also a hex style wrench included and a tube of
Zaward thermal compound.



The back plate that I’ll be using
for my Socket 1156 is fairly large, and can be used with other
sockets as well.




 

 

{mospagebreak title=Installation, Testing and Comaprison}

Installation,
Testing and Comparison:


I’m using a Cooler Master Sniper
case
, with Corei5 750 on an ASUS P7P55D LE mobo.


The first thing you’ll need to do
is attached the brackets to the cooler for your platform, in my case
it’s for the socket 1156 which is two metal brackets and four screws,
simple enough to do.



Next up is the part that requires
a bit of work and dexterity, getting the back plate in place. This is
done with four basic parts essentially, one back plate, four threaded
posts, four nylon washers and four threaded stand-offs. The Cooler
Master Sniper has a motherboard tray that is cut-out, so I don’t have
to remove the mobo from my case but if your case isn’t like mine then
you’ll be doing a lot more work than I did..




I should note the back plate is
rather large, the biggest I’ve ever seen and it was a tight fit even
with the motherboard tray cut out, I had to angled it to get it in
there.



Here’s the cooler installed
without fan and with fan, the fan does have blue LEDs in it.


It’s a tall and skinny cooler,
even with the fan attached it doesn’t really go over the ram slots in
my board, so if you’ve got larger style ram it should fit with this
cooler installed.



Ok for testing I’ve got both stock
speed a 2.6GHZ and overclocked to 3.6Ghz.


Ambient room temperature during
testing was 22.8C (+/- .3C).


I use CoreTemp to monitor and log
the temperatures and then average them out to get a single
temperature for the charts.


I use two instances of Orthos
Stress Prime to get 100% load on all four cores of the Corei5 750.


Idle temps are the computer
sitting for 30 minutes doing nothing but running Windows, L`oad is
running Orthos for 30 minutes.


For comparison I’m using the
Noctua NH-12P Se2, Thermaltake Frio and the CoolIT ECO ALC since I’ve
reviewed those recently.


It should be noted that I used
Arctic Cooling MX-3 thermal compound on the Noctua, Thermaltake and
Zaward coolers. The CoolIt came pre-applied with thermal compound so
that’s what was used during the testing.



First up is the stock speed of the
CPU:



So as you can see the Vapor120
performs very well overall at stock speeds.


Let’s see how it does with an
overclocked CPU:



Not too bad, a couple degrees
higher than the others, but not bad overall.


According to Intel the Thermal
Spec is 72.7C for the Corei5 750, so we’re well within specs..


The cooler seems to work well, the
results I got were very close to that of the other coolers, so it’s a
decent performer obviously.


One small issue I have is noise
level, the fan is not overly loud, but it’s a bit too loud for my
tastes. I like my system to be as quiet as possible, and I could
easily hear the fan over the rest of the system. Don’t get me wrong
though, the fan is not very loud at all, just too loud for me. If I
was to keep the cooler installed then I would swap fans for a Noctua
most likely.


Another small issue, not for me,
but it might be for some people, is that the cooler is a bit taller
than others, this might pose an installation problem is tighter
cases. The Cooler Master Sniper I have is a rather large case, and as
soon as I put the side on I noticed how much closer it was to the
side panel. On the other hand though, the cooler is tall and thinner
than most so this can be a good thing as it should allow you to use
ram with large style heatspreaders.


 

 

Summary
and Comments:


The Zaward Vapor120 cooler is
decent cooler overall truly. It’s very well made and performs well
even with an overlooked CPU.


The fan is a bit loud yes, but I
prefer a quiet case, so others might not mind the noise, it’s not
overly loud at all really.


The size could be an issue for
people with smaller cases, it’s tall thin cooler that’s both good and
bad. Large style ram should fit fine with this cooler, but it might
not fit in smaller PC cases due to the height of it.






DragonSteelMods gives the Vapor120
a 4.5 out of 5 score.



Pros:

+Decent performance

+Very well made cooler

+Fairly easy installation

+Thin cooler so it should work
with large style ram


Cons:

-Large back plate

-Must remove mobo in most cases
for install

-Rather tall cooler

-Fan is a bit too loud for me






review# 648








Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company
for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for
the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment
from companies to review their products.


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learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings
please see this
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