Asetek VapoChill Micro Heatsink

Founded in 1997, Asetek's list of milestones achieved in the past decade is nothing short of impressive.  No longer a stranger to the enthusiast market, their products range from AC and DC vapor compression cases to various water cooling kits.  At its best, their units are capable of reaching sub zero temperatures, a claim that not many companies can make.
 

Having etched a name for themselves in the sub zero category and splashed the water cooling scene, Asetek looks to blow through the air cooling market, one in which there is considerable more competition.  Today we'll be examining the VapoChill Micro series to see if Asetek can storm this crowded field, or if they're simply passing wind.

Bundled with Asetek's VapoChill Micro is everything you need to get up and running.  Pictured above, we have the cooler itself, a warranty card, product pamphlet, push-pin screws, mounting plate, fan speed controller, and power dongles.

The VapoChill Micro comes in three different flavors labeled Ultra Low Noise, High End, and Extreme Performance, each with a different balance of noise versus cooling performance.  The heatsink itself remains the same in all three kits, but you'll receive a different fan depending on which kit you order.

Included with both the Extreme Performance and Ultra Low Noise kits is a fan speed controller, while the High End version eschews the peripheral altogether and runs full tilt at all times.

We've all heard the maxim 'you are what you eat.'  Well, following a health conscious diet consisting mostly of alumunim (we counted 53 fins), the VapoChill Micro weighs in at only 278g!  This is easily one of the lighter heatsinks we've tested, especially in the high end arena.  Those that frequently transport their cases to and from LAN parties will definitely appreciate the light weight design, as it puts less stress on the motherboard and CPU socket.

The base of the VapoChill micro comes pre-applied with a white thermal paste, which we promptly removed in favor of Arctic Silver 5.  Once the paste was removed, we were left with a polished base measuring almost 5cm (50mm) in diameter.  Some faint machine marks were evident, but overall the quality looked pretty good.  Still, perfectionists will want to go over the base with a good lapping.

There's a fad sweeping the air cooling nation, and all the cool kids are using them - we're of course referring to heatpipes.  Heatpipe cooling works by taking a sealed tube (the heatpipe) and filling it with a small amount of liquid and/or gas.  As the processor transfers heat to the base of a heatsink, the substance inside evaporates and rises to the top of the heatpipe, where it is then cooled back into its original form to repeat the process all over again.  This is a simplified explanation and those wishing to learn more are encouraged to read Wikipedia's write-up, as well as that of ChE Plus, a chemical engineering resource site.

Inside the VapoChill Micro, Asetek filled the circular chamber at the base with R134a refrigerant.  Attached to the chamber is a copper crossbar and three large copper heatpipes extending vertically.  To aid the process, Asetek enlisted the help of gravity by slanting the heatsink so that it faces somewhat upward once installed.

One thing we despise when installing a new heatsink is when we're required to remove the motherboard in order to attach a backplate.  Offending coolers tend to be heavier and quite frankly, there are too many options out there to have to settle on a unit that forgoes ease of installation in favor of breaking down our system.  Thankfully Asetek agrees with our philosophy, and the light weight VapoChill Micro makes no such demands to the end user, going so far as to advertise the following installation times:

That's not a misprint folks. Most of us here behind the scenes at HardwareLogic dabble in the dark art of overclocking to some degree, so imagine our glee when we learned we could shave a second off of our install time! That might not seem like much, but 59 more of those kinds of time saving tips and we'll have pocketed a full minute!

Kidding aside, installing the VapoChill Micro is a cinch. And while 30 seconds from start to finish is bit on the optimistic side, you certainly won't waste an afternoon getting it up and running.

Our biggest gripe with the VapoChill Micro belongs to the plastic shroud.  Attaching the fan is easy enough with the aid of four included push-pin screws, but it feels almost tacky and just doesn't jive with what we expect from an Asetek product.  It's conceivable that the plastic could snap or break through the course of multiple installs.  For most users this will never be an issue, but frequent upgraders and those that constantly tinker with their systems should take extra care when handling the shroud.

Included with the VapoChill Micro is a metal socket clip used to attach the heatsink to your motherboard.  The base of the heatinks slips right through the opening at an angle, and the existing screws on the motherboard's retention bracked get recycled to secure the clip.  Keeping in mind that we're dealing with heatpipes, orientation is key and the VapoChill Micro must be turned so that it faces vertically when the case stands upright.  Those using an inverted motherboard need only to turn the heatsink 180 degreees.

The fan and shroud tend to get in the way when screwing the clip down, so we opted to remove the apparatus until the heatsink was secured to the motherboard.  Slipping the flexible plastic onto the heatsink could get challenging in tight quarters, but we had no such issues in our Lian Li PC-777B chassis, nor did we have any clearance issues with the heatsink as a whole in relation to our RAM or other surrounding components.

Testbed

Our testbed today consists of the following heat releasing components housed in a Lian-Li PC-777B chassis:

Idle and load temperatures were measured at the stock clockspeed of 2.2GHz with a vCore of 1.34v on both low and high settings for each fan, minus the High End version, which does not ship with a fan speed controller.  Increasing the vCore to 1.54V, we then overclocked our processor to 2.6GHz, in essence a juiced up FX-60, and recorded both the idle and load temperature of the Extreme Performance fan pitting it against the previously reviewed Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro.

Extreme Performance

As expected, the Extreme Performance leads the pack at high speed, but runs very loud at this setting.  At low speed, the fan runs very quiet with the tradeoff being a 5C temperature hike.

High End

Leading the charge in the middle of the pack, the High End nestles itself comfortably at 41C between the two other fan flavors.  The performance can be described as very good, but like the Extreme Performance, noise is a factor.

Ultra Low Noise

The Ultra Low Noise Panaflo runs whisper quiet at low speed, and only slightly louder on high.  Given the paltry 1C temperature difference between the two settings, there's really no reason not to run the fan on low.

Extreme Performance

Once again, the Extreme Performance turns in the lowest temperature on high speed, however when set to low, we creep uncomfortably into the 60s under load.

High End

The High End again performs nearly as well as the Extreme Performance at a slightly lower noise level, but not well enough over the Ultra Low Noise to warrant the extra decibels.

Ultra Low Noise

While 52C and 57C respectively can't be considered great temperatures, they can be considered adequate.  Factoring in the virtually silent operation, we consider this Panaflo to offer the best noise to performance ratio out of the three.

With the Ultra Low Noise Panaflo already running near the threshold of what we would consider comfortable temperatures and the High End not offering enough of a noise reduction to make itself a compelling option, we only tested the Extreme Performance while overclocking.  We also reran our popular Arctic Cooler Freezer 64 Pro for comparison.

Running the vCore at a high 1.54v, our processor puts out some heat and stretches the boundries of air cooling - this territory really should be reserved for more exotic cooling systems, such as water or phase change units, in which 1.54v would be child's play. The Extreme Performance does a good job at keeping our safety concerns to a minimum, recording 47C at idle and 63C under load.  Granted, running in the 60s over time would have us on edge, but so would the high vCore with only an air cooler.  What this shows us is that there's definitely headroom for overclocking, particularly for those not looking to crank up the voltages quite as high as we did.  Our only real complaint is the noise output, as the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro performs a smidgen better and runs much quieter, though it's also a bit heavier then the VapoChill Micro.

Our Recommendation

With three fans to choose from with varying degrees of performance and support for most major sockets (AMD's new AM2 is not currently supported, but we're told that R&D is looking into it), Asetek's VapoChill Micro series is a good choice for anyone in the market for a light weight heatsink.  Truth be told, Asetek could have gotten away with just the Extreme Performance version, and this is the version we'd recommend for most users interested in picking up a VapoChill Micro - with the bundled fan controller, users can choose between high thermal performance or low noise operation and everything in between.

Speaking of performance versus noise, we would liked to have seen a better overall ratio, and the plastic shroud just seems out of place for an Asetek product.  Shortcomings aside, we have no qualm recommending the VapoChill Micro as a capable option for anyone in the market for a light weight, easy to install heatsink.