Old Favorites: Vigor Monsoon II Lite And Ultra ChillTec
Vigor Gaming's Monsoon II Lite put forth some impressive cooling in its review, where full details can be found. The cooler's only real fault was noisy "on-off" power cycling for the TEC element, which was accompanied by fan grumble.
Ultra's ChillTec made its debut on day three of our System Builder Marathon. It includes the same digital display bay-mounted controller found on the more expensive full-version Monsoon II, but at a slightly better price. The bay controller exhibited the added benefit of quieter TEC power cycling.
Both coolers use the same cooling fan, sink, TEC module, and mounting method. The Monsoon II Lite is available in either AMD or Intel LGA775 compatible versions, while the Ultra includes three mounting kits, for Sockets 939/940, AM2, and LGA775.
While the under-board support plate of either cooler can be permanently affixed to allow fitting of the cooler with the board installed in a case, one significant drawback of this design is that the spring-loaded nuts are difficult to reach. This is especially true of motherboards that have VRM sinks surrounding the socket.
