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As mentioned before, asetek has designed it so that installing the Micro, no matter what CPU type you have, will not require removal of the motherboard. This is even so with LGA775 motherboards! </p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/06.jpg"><img src="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/06th.jpg" width="250" height="105" border="0" alt="asetek VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise CPU Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>Installing the fan onto the cooler can be simply done with the included push-in plastic screws. With thermal paste already applied to the base, this is one less thing you have to do. Of course, if you prefer to use some other thermal compound then the pre-applied thermal paste creates the additional hassle of having to wipe it off.</p> <p>When installing the VapoChill Micro, it is very important to install it so the tubes and fins are above the base. This is why the tubes are mounted to the dome base at an angle instead of straight up. Because the base is round, the cooler can freely rotate over the CPU until it is secured down. When installing it into a tower case, pay special attention to make sure the fins are indeed above the base in which case the fan would be below the fins.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/10.jpg"><img src="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/10th.jpg" width="210" height="250" border="0" alt="asetek VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise CPU Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>Aside from mounting the cooler, the fan controller will also need to be installed into an available expansion slot. Lastly, make sure everything is connected to together.</p> <p><strong>Performance:</strong></p> <p> The VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise cooler will be tested on an Intel Pentium 4c 2.4GHz on a MSI 865PE Neo2-PFS motherboard. It will be tested at its highest and lowest fan speed settings. In addition to its temperature results, I will also include the temperature results of the last two heatpipe coolers I reviewed, the <a href="http://www.atruereview.com/titan_vanessa/index.php">Titan Vanessa S-Type</a> and <a href="http://www.atruereview.com/gigabyte/index.php">Giga-Byte G-Power Pro</a>, for comparison.</p> <p>Idle temperatures are derived from turning on the computer and doing nothing for 10 minutes. Load temperatures are obtained by running Sandra's Burn-In Wizard (CPU Arithmetic and Multi-Media Benchmarks only) 10 times. All the temperatures are in Celsius. The temperature of the air entering the case is about 29-30C.</p> <p>The Results were:</p> <p align="center"><img src="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/graph.gif" width="456" height="228" border="0" alt="asetek VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise CPU Cooler"></p> <p>As the results show, though it performed well, "the most effective CPU cooling solution in the mainstream market" is not the best performing heatsink cooler on the market. The VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise's performance is nearly equivalent to that of a standard tower heatpipe cooler like the Titan Vanessa S-Type. It's performance pails in comparison though to the Giga-Byte G-Power Pro, which is by far the best performing heatsink I have ever encountered. Even at its high fan speed setting, the VapoChill Micro's load temperature was higher than that of the G-Power Pro's lowest fan speed setting. This of course can be attributed to the G-Power Pro's larger 110mm fan.</p> <p>At the highest fan speed, the VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise's fan is, though audible, very quiet putting out about ~28dBa of noise which is substantially lower than the high fan speeds of the other two coolers. At its lowest fan speed, the fan is almost inaudible at about ~21dBa.</p> <p>One thing I noticed when testing the VapoChill Micro is how fast the CPU reached its load temperature. Whereas the other coolers took about 3-5 runs of Sandra's Burn-In Wizard to reach their max load temperature, the VapoChill Micro took only 2 runs. Equally as fast was how quick it cooled the CPU down from load to idle. The VapoChill Micro was able to cool the CPU down from load to idle temperatures in just a little over one minute.</p> <p>As mentioned before, the fan duct holds the fan at an angle to the fins instead making them directly parallel. The reason asetek did this is so that in addition to cooling the fins, the fan will be able to cool the small components around the CPU (capacitors, chips, etc). In my opinion, this design ultimately ends up hurting the VapoChill Micro's performance. The included fan guide is not really a funnel. Though the sides are walled, the top and bottom are not; therefore, air can escape. I could not test my theory because the included fan only has mounting holes on one side. It cannot be flipped so the fan is sucking air through the fins. </p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong></p> <p> It is nice to see asetek branching out their product line to the more general computer user audience. Design wise, asetek has succeeded in designing a technically advanced cooler that is very light and easy to install. It is also very quiet. </p> <p>Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed at the VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise's performance. Though it is by no means bad, I simply expected more from "the most effective CPU cooling solution in the mainstream market."</p> <p><strong>Pros:</strong></p> <ul> <li> Light</li> <li>Very Easy to install</li> <li> Low noises at all fan speeds</li> <li> Good motherboard compatibility</li> </ul> <p><strong>Cons:</strong></p> <ul> <li> Only one CPU type mounting set is included per cooler</li> <li> May be too tall for certain cases</li> </ul> <p><strong>Ratings:</strong></p> <table width="223" border="0"> <tr> <td width="104">Esthetics:</td> <td width="109">Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Performance:</td> <td>Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Packaging:</td> <td>Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Compatibility</td> <td>Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Installation</td> <td>Excellent</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Price: </td> <td> Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Overall:</td> <td>Excellent</td> </tr> </table> <p>(Ratings Possible: Terrible, Very Bad, Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent)</p> <table align="center" border="1" width="75%"> <tbody> <tr bgcolor="#0066ff"> <td><div align="center"><strong><font color="#ffffff">More Information</font></strong></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><a href="http://atruereview.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=363">Compare Prices</a></div></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><a href="atruereview/asetek_vapchill_micro/heatsink.php"></a> <a href="asetek_vapchill_micro/heatsink.php">Previous (Description)</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <div id="footer" class="clr"> <div class="rk-1"> <div class="rk-2"> <div id="the-footer"> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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