Introduction
In today’s market, the demand of HTPCs is growing exponentially. After the launch of Intel’s i3 & i5 with On-Chip graphics solutions companies like ZOTAC & ECS have come up with MINI-ITX motherboards with H55 chipset. Today we explore another offering by Cooler Master, the all new Vortex Plus, a Direct Het-Pipe Touch technology based CPU cooler for a low profile cooling need of an HTPC or a Workstation. At first look the Vortex Plus seems to be a small sized 92mm CPU Cooler however it will be wise to go ahead and put the product on a test bench rather than making poor assumptions just by the looks of it. So let us move ahead and put the product on test.
Packaging
At first look we see that the Vortex Plus come in a very small box as compared to most of the same sized Heat-Sinks in the market, the positive of it is that Cooler Master can ship more quantities of the product in same amount of space as before and definitely it saves the environment by saving the amount of packaging required to box the item.
The front of the box contains the image of the CPU Cooler along with a compatibility list. Good to include it with icons, so that the identification becomes much easier.
The back of the box has the dimensional sketch of the product, defining the top, front & side view of the product along with other pictures of the product. For an elaborate view, Cooler Master has included an installation picture of the product as well. And not to forget, the features of the product.
On either side we have the Specification of Vortex Plus and general product description in many languages.
In the next picture we can see that the Vortex Plus Box is more of a cube.
The Contents
The Vortex Plus is packed pretty well, sandwiched between the fan box and the Styrofoam casing. A real plus is watching the efficient packaging of the product, wasting no space at the same time, efficient enough to keep the product unharmed in transit.
The Vortex Plus contents have all the installation kits (1366, 1156, 775, AM2/AM2+/AM3, S939 etc.), plus a 92mm PWM fan (Blade Master).
A Detailed Look
Moving ahead let us loot at the Vortex Plus from all angles to see and compare the craftsmanship of the product. Right out of the box Vortex Plus is a fairly small Heat sink with Direct Heat pipe Contact technology. Nice to see that we happen to have a small Aluminum heat sink at the contact, to dissipate the heat building up at the absolute top of the CPU Heat sink. See the elaborated pictures.
Looking at the base we see 4 heat-pipes going across it, all the four at terminated at the end of the contact and the other part moves all the way up to the Aluminum fins and get terminated at the end. Above picture also elaborates how low profile the heat sink really is, for everyday HTPC needs.
The side view of Vortex Plus shows the groves made in the Heat-sink Fins to suite the installation of a 92mm fan. Some detailed pictures.
Base & Surface Flatness
The base of the Vortex Plus looks pretty flat when compared against the Hyper 212+. The image below shows that the surface is absolutely flat and there is no gap in the heat-pipe and the aluminum block of the heat-sink.
Comparing the smoothness of the surface, it is not crystal smooth to reflect pure image of the Pencil Cap however is capable enough to distribute the heat evenly and get to an absolute fit on to the processor heat-sink.
Now taking a thermal paste impression of Vortex Plus contact with the CPU is always a good idea, and tells us the whole story about the CPU & Heat-sink contact. And when we took a first look at the impressions we saw that there was 90% contact of the Vortex Plus and the CPU and the thermal paste was spread evenly among the two. A good result after all.
The 92mm Blade Master
Looking at the bundled FAN that is included with the Vortex Plus is the Cooler Master Blade Master 92mm PWM fan, with variable speed from 800 - 2400 RPM (15-54 CFM). It happens to be a good option because the blades of this fan are specially crafted for better air pressure and airflow. Let us look at some pictures. And not to forget the Rubber pads for vibration damping.
Vortex Plus Complete
We now coupled the 92mm Blade Master with the Vortex Plus and the end results are as pictured. Honestly speaking the installation of fan on the heat-sink was fairly easy and the benefit of the clip based approach is that it is easily removable for quick change. Plus the two groves in the clip make it very easy to install & remove the fan from the Heat-Sink.
Features & Specification
Features
• Compact profile design for HTPC chassis and LAN box chassis.
• Universal mounting for Intel LGA1366/1156/775 and AMD AM3/AM2/940/939/754 sockets.
• 4 x Direct Contact heat-pipes for seamless contact between CPU surface and cooler.
• 84mm height able to fit in HTC chassis and LAN box chassis.
• Blade Master 92 fan with wide RPM range and anti-vibration pads.
Specification Sheet
Test System Built
Following is the configuration we used for the test system. We specially picked the Direct Heat-Pipe Touch based heat-sinks so as to compare similar products.
Now moving ahead, we wanted to see the fit and installation of Vortex Plus on a general motherboard, and here are some pictures showing the end product.
As we said earlier, Vortex Plus is pretty compact of a product and at the same time it is effective enough cause of the DHT technology. The other thing to notice is that the height of the heat-sink after installation is bare minimum to fit most of the HTPC cases available in the market today.
One small issue though was the heat-sink of our RAM barely touching the fan installation clips. Although if you install the heat-sink in another direction, this should not pose any issue for you.
Test Results
For the testing we simply used the dear old OCCT for a 30 mins stress test to see the performance of the individual Heat-Sinks. And following are the results.
Although the idle temperature is a bit higher than we expected however for a budget Low Profile heat-sink, this happens to be one of the best temperatures I have seen in this product/cost category. Vortex Plus does a fairly good trick in keeping the Load Temperatures under control and just a 4 degree Celsius over Hyper 212+ is certainly a surprise and an added advantage to the Vortex Plus CPU Cooler.
Conclusion
Most of us judge a CPU Cooler by its capability to suffice an over-clocked CPU; however in general the computer that we over-clock does not run 24x7. So for all those workstation that are built for an HTPC NAS, LAN Box or Download Rig purpose the Cooler Master Vortex Plus is the CPU Cooler for them. A low profile, low noise specialty gives it an extra advantage & hence running a PC for 27x7 would not feel noisy at all. Here are my observations.
Pros
• Great CPU Cooler on a budget
• Low Profile
• Low Noise at general computing
• Direct Heat-Pipe Touch Technology
• Solid Build Quality
• Easy mounts for most socket types
Cons
• Noisy at Full Load
• Not for over-clocking
Being a reviewer of this product, I rate it 4/5.
GODSPEED
.....
In today’s market, the demand of HTPCs is growing exponentially. After the launch of Intel’s i3 & i5 with On-Chip graphics solutions companies like ZOTAC & ECS have come up with MINI-ITX motherboards with H55 chipset. Today we explore another offering by Cooler Master, the all new Vortex Plus, a Direct Het-Pipe Touch technology based CPU cooler for a low profile cooling need of an HTPC or a Workstation. At first look the Vortex Plus seems to be a small sized 92mm CPU Cooler however it will be wise to go ahead and put the product on a test bench rather than making poor assumptions just by the looks of it. So let us move ahead and put the product on test.
Packaging
At first look we see that the Vortex Plus come in a very small box as compared to most of the same sized Heat-Sinks in the market, the positive of it is that Cooler Master can ship more quantities of the product in same amount of space as before and definitely it saves the environment by saving the amount of packaging required to box the item.
The front of the box contains the image of the CPU Cooler along with a compatibility list. Good to include it with icons, so that the identification becomes much easier.
The back of the box has the dimensional sketch of the product, defining the top, front & side view of the product along with other pictures of the product. For an elaborate view, Cooler Master has included an installation picture of the product as well. And not to forget, the features of the product.
On either side we have the Specification of Vortex Plus and general product description in many languages.
In the next picture we can see that the Vortex Plus Box is more of a cube.
The Contents
The Vortex Plus is packed pretty well, sandwiched between the fan box and the Styrofoam casing. A real plus is watching the efficient packaging of the product, wasting no space at the same time, efficient enough to keep the product unharmed in transit.
The Vortex Plus contents have all the installation kits (1366, 1156, 775, AM2/AM2+/AM3, S939 etc.), plus a 92mm PWM fan (Blade Master).
A Detailed Look
Moving ahead let us loot at the Vortex Plus from all angles to see and compare the craftsmanship of the product. Right out of the box Vortex Plus is a fairly small Heat sink with Direct Heat pipe Contact technology. Nice to see that we happen to have a small Aluminum heat sink at the contact, to dissipate the heat building up at the absolute top of the CPU Heat sink. See the elaborated pictures.
Looking at the base we see 4 heat-pipes going across it, all the four at terminated at the end of the contact and the other part moves all the way up to the Aluminum fins and get terminated at the end. Above picture also elaborates how low profile the heat sink really is, for everyday HTPC needs.
The side view of Vortex Plus shows the groves made in the Heat-sink Fins to suite the installation of a 92mm fan. Some detailed pictures.
Base & Surface Flatness
The base of the Vortex Plus looks pretty flat when compared against the Hyper 212+. The image below shows that the surface is absolutely flat and there is no gap in the heat-pipe and the aluminum block of the heat-sink.
Comparing the smoothness of the surface, it is not crystal smooth to reflect pure image of the Pencil Cap however is capable enough to distribute the heat evenly and get to an absolute fit on to the processor heat-sink.
Now taking a thermal paste impression of Vortex Plus contact with the CPU is always a good idea, and tells us the whole story about the CPU & Heat-sink contact. And when we took a first look at the impressions we saw that there was 90% contact of the Vortex Plus and the CPU and the thermal paste was spread evenly among the two. A good result after all.
The 92mm Blade Master
Looking at the bundled FAN that is included with the Vortex Plus is the Cooler Master Blade Master 92mm PWM fan, with variable speed from 800 - 2400 RPM (15-54 CFM). It happens to be a good option because the blades of this fan are specially crafted for better air pressure and airflow. Let us look at some pictures. And not to forget the Rubber pads for vibration damping.
Vortex Plus Complete
We now coupled the 92mm Blade Master with the Vortex Plus and the end results are as pictured. Honestly speaking the installation of fan on the heat-sink was fairly easy and the benefit of the clip based approach is that it is easily removable for quick change. Plus the two groves in the clip make it very easy to install & remove the fan from the Heat-Sink.
Features & Specification
Features
• Compact profile design for HTPC chassis and LAN box chassis.
• Universal mounting for Intel LGA1366/1156/775 and AMD AM3/AM2/940/939/754 sockets.
• 4 x Direct Contact heat-pipes for seamless contact between CPU surface and cooler.
• 84mm height able to fit in HTC chassis and LAN box chassis.
• Blade Master 92 fan with wide RPM range and anti-vibration pads.
Specification Sheet
Test System Built
Following is the configuration we used for the test system. We specially picked the Direct Heat-Pipe Touch based heat-sinks so as to compare similar products.
Now moving ahead, we wanted to see the fit and installation of Vortex Plus on a general motherboard, and here are some pictures showing the end product.
As we said earlier, Vortex Plus is pretty compact of a product and at the same time it is effective enough cause of the DHT technology. The other thing to notice is that the height of the heat-sink after installation is bare minimum to fit most of the HTPC cases available in the market today.
One small issue though was the heat-sink of our RAM barely touching the fan installation clips. Although if you install the heat-sink in another direction, this should not pose any issue for you.
Test Results
For the testing we simply used the dear old OCCT for a 30 mins stress test to see the performance of the individual Heat-Sinks. And following are the results.
Although the idle temperature is a bit higher than we expected however for a budget Low Profile heat-sink, this happens to be one of the best temperatures I have seen in this product/cost category. Vortex Plus does a fairly good trick in keeping the Load Temperatures under control and just a 4 degree Celsius over Hyper 212+ is certainly a surprise and an added advantage to the Vortex Plus CPU Cooler.
Conclusion
Most of us judge a CPU Cooler by its capability to suffice an over-clocked CPU; however in general the computer that we over-clock does not run 24x7. So for all those workstation that are built for an HTPC NAS, LAN Box or Download Rig purpose the Cooler Master Vortex Plus is the CPU Cooler for them. A low profile, low noise specialty gives it an extra advantage & hence running a PC for 27x7 would not feel noisy at all. Here are my observations.
Pros
• Great CPU Cooler on a budget
• Low Profile
• Low Noise at general computing
• Direct Heat-Pipe Touch Technology
• Solid Build Quality
• Easy mounts for most socket types
Cons
• Noisy at Full Load
• Not for over-clocking
Being a reviewer of this product, I rate it 4/5.
GODSPEED
.....
