I would have liked a better description of this Cogage. HDT? Aluminum block? Copper? It could have used a few more pictures as well.

Hey guys! of coarse....THG rocks... THG is #1 in tech! The concept of comparing air, water and tec/water is great! Unfortunately this is no easy matter! WE, WarpedSystems, KEEP THIS STUFF AS TRADE SECRETS! WarpedSystems build triple loop systems with 250 l/h and with 750l/h pumps. We build the WarpedSystems Hybrid Single Loop water cooling - which can integrate tech cooler such as the Boreas from coolit - sure i slammed cool-it and they deserved years ago - but they continue to improve. (Warped Hybrid Single loop = large tubes running of the pump or pumps then slip off after 1 or 2 rads and then addtional cooling on raditors 3 or 4) Sure, they did ship product that did not work (yes?)- try a qx6700 at 3.6ghz with the freeze> We did at great exoence and time and you needed a 5000rpm fan too cool the tec's. Sure, or yes i am willing to forgive them and try the new stuff and still try incorporate products like the borealis but pure water is the way to go for most! Ya dual phase coolers are cool but..... we our shipping 24GB ram, 4.5ghz 965.975 i7 systems that do not need tec's, phase coolers or what ever! I will close by saying, the i7 GREATLY BENFITS FROM WATER COOLING!!!!! BIG TIME! I will tell THG people we use hybrid single loop (on reserve and 2 pumps that split off after the intial heat removal, the we use cool air rad too feed the cpu, you want one save up $6k+! thx! THG rocks!

Come on, Tom's! Hire a proof-reader already. Your writers obviously can't do the jobs themselves. And it simply makes this site look more unprofessional than it already has become.

Is the Spirit better than the TRUE 120?

The article said they never sent the Ultra 120 Extreme.

lol! me? sorry about the typos - i am testing a system while i test this - keep in mind its running at 4.15ghz at 72c with prime 95 and 3d mark06 running at the same time!!!!! with hypo treading on! try that cyber-loser! or ibuyjunk! o man i should not do that sorry THG! i know they support the site but, when they claim 4.1ghz but do not spec 100c with prime 95 - well we get a little up set over here! hybrid single (keep in mind this is our low end system!) (includes push pull fans in 3 rads- look for the split at the upper left)anyone that wants to build ther own email me or pm me! tech support is free for THG, loop: http://s329.photobucket.com/albums [...] s-i7-2.jpg ,,,, http://s329.photobucket.com/albums [...] C_0166.jpg enjoy and good luck! we do plumb the boreas in this too - sorry for no proof rading~! [IMG]http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l373/warpedsystems/WSZWC-cms-i7-1.jpg[/IMG]

"At full speed (2,800 RPM) its fan was over twice as loud as that of the True Spirit."

That will lead people to believe it was 56dB, when in fact something that is "twice as loud" is only +6dB

No. Twice as loud is +10db. Twice as many fans would be +3db. We didn't have a accoustically dampened room to test them in, and taking meter readings against background noise provides skewed numbers that most people can't work out. It's easier to simply say "at least twice as loud" when you mean more than 10db louder.

What makes that observation most significant is that both companies rate their devices at similar full-speed noise levels, when it's quite obvious to testers that one device is very much louder than the other.

There are many ways to screw up a reading even in a silent room. The standard from audio devices is to test at one meter, but some review sites do it at around one decimeter. If you go in the other direction, perhaps the "noisier" device was tested at 1 dekameter.

Any company who advertises noise readings that were taken at more than one meter without specifying the distance is cheating its customers. Any company who advertises noise readings that were taken at less than one meter is cheating itself.

rating and real life are very different, there are many factors in actual "feel" of the sound. I mean by "feel" is how loud somthing sound relative somenting else.

The photos i posted above - the system is running at 4.1-4.3ghz the range is due to turbo. I have been running 3dmark over and over with quad sli set up and the i7 had not past 80c this is a single loop. OK, its hybrid, we slit the loop atfter so many rads and then send the rest to reverse flow rad - air blowing in so the rad is cooled with cold air. OK THIS IS NOT AN AD! had any one else seen numbers even close to that? we running prime 95 in 64bit vista, with 3dmark 06 and getting less then 80c with hyper threading on. The 3dmark drops from 24-25k quad sli with 9800GX2 to 12-13k while running prime 95~ Dream it! build it! (screw those guys who say you dream it we build it! you dream it you build it! free help!)

Congrats on getting a good processor. I get those once in a while too. With Core i7, it's like one out of five.

You should be banned, not for your shameless plugs, but for your idiotic posts and worse proofreading performance than THG

can i delete that? looks like i was sleep typing again!

worst part is the system above i was mubbling about in my sleep runs 60-70c in prime 95, even after running 3dmark06 3 times in row. That is at 4.2ghz.
I make you a deal you find a better systme for under $4k, that is single loop that can match those specs and i quit! lol!

i am central time, i wrote that at 4am after i woke up and then went to bed! lol! ya i should be banned! again!

^not banned, shot.....As for the article, I too would have liked a bit more info on the Spirit, like base material and smoothness?

Wow, lots of messages rated as useless here.

A decameter, Crashman? I'm not sure many people read from 10 meters away but I bet someone has, lol. SPL is a difficult thing to rate objectively.

I am a little surprised the HSF beat that little water cooler by so much.

I agree with kschoche, You should be banned for your 'no-proof claims' and stupid adv. posts dragonsprayer.

Yeh, it's a shame that the liquid cooler was both noisier and less effective at cooling.

Be nice to see the results next to a nicer liquid cooling system. But was a good review. I've seen results like this many times and am always surprised by people claiming that liquid is so much greater than air cooling.

Very great article. I miss such great detail and compelling reviews!

Real, QUALITY, liquid cooling is much greater than air. The problem is this is not quality liquid cooling and neither are the cheap water-coolers on the market. Tom's did a review of 3 REAL liquid coolers and (granted it was a quad core but not an i7) full load was around 43-45c. In this test they were around 77c. i7's run hotter but you should still see around a 20c drop if you use QUALITY liquid cooling.