TR Ultra 120 Extreme..is IMHO very inconsistent in performance

[nealh]

I bought 2 of these opened one so far and used it
The bottom had a "wear" mark..was not lapped to a mirror finish..had small machine grooves

all that was not an issue what is ...the mounting is crap on this thing..I am 100% sure it is not making a firm contact with the cpu...there seems to be no heat transfer at all....base and heatpipes do not get warm at all...

damn thing slides sideways....I have the screws as tight as they will go

Cpu:
L47G
underwater I was running(not well tested..quickly to see temps and some parameter prior to moving to air)it in my watercooled setup below

1.525v running on the chip, sorry to say idle temps were useless as Coretemp/speedfan/TAT reported 30C..my ambient is 24c (and my L628a266 idles at 41C with 1.525v..loads at 58c max)
so I do not believe idle temps...load after 20min of Prime95 was 58C

Ultra120 E on DFI 965-s
idle at 32C stock....load 45c

go to 1.4875v for 3420..not 3500 and 1.525v)...idle 38C...load 66-68C...and reboots...I should note, 1.5v I saw temps move over 70C

what I did not expect was water temps....but 2min of Prime 95 and temps are mover 25-28C delta....and would climb if the system would not reboot...
Interestingly Speedfan reports core temps of 66-68c...but a "cpu" temp of 74C!

I will not lap this stupid HS and void any warranty....

TR has made a worthless mounting setup and poor quality workmanship on these...I mean I am getting what seems to be ZERO heat transfer

 

[RallyMaster]

gj. all you people who are complaining that your Ultra-120 E sux wahtever....should've gotten a simple to install, no brainer CPU cooler and forgotten all about this cooling shits. it's not like you're going to break your mother's back if you don't OC. simply, don't fix what ain't broken.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
gj. all you people who are complaining that your Ultra-120 E sux wahtever....should've gotten a simple to install, no brainer CPU cooler and forgotten all about this cooling shits. it's not like you're going to break your mother's back if you don't OC. simply, don't fix what ain't broken.

let see thanks for the constructive help..I am no noobie...I setup my own watercooling loop and I am more than capable of installing a cooler....

do you own this HS?..dont see it in your sig..

I paid good money for it to cool my cpu for overclocking..why else buy it

It is not getting any heat transfer from cpu to HS...something is not right....

 

[Puffnstuff]

Running your cpu that high really requires something like a peltier or water. I'm on air myself using an enzotech ultra-x which I've got pics of here http://gphillips515.photosite.com/Album1/ but it doesn't have the thermal dissipation for a cpu running that high or at least I wouldn't try it and it's rated highly just like that ultra 120 is. Did you attach the mounting plates to the bottom of the sink in the correct place as in the right one on top of the other? I'm looking at the installation instructions for it and the x pattern latching system seems like a real pita. If you can't get it to lock down I'd rma it and get something else.

 

[VinDSL]

nealh, sorry to hear about your troubles...

Every time someone comes up with a "Tuniq Tower 120 Killer" my 'ears' perk up!

In this case, the ThermalWrong Ultra 120 Extreme, I've read about the same quality control issues that you describe over-and-over again, here and elsewhere!

Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss. Most ppl believe this HSF is 'the one' -=- the one that's going to clean Tuniq's clock -=- and users are openly attacked if they report ANY problems on these web boards.

Put another way, ppl that complain are quickly branded as heretics -- that don't know what they're doing -- and/or know what they're talking about...

If I was you, I would suffer in silence! The ppl that know -- know! And, the ones that don't have their heads in the sand.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
gj. all you people who are complaining that your Ultra-120 E sux...

From what I've read, the Ultra 120 eXtreme is the Babe Ruth of HSFs -=- the most home runs and most strikeouts of any cooler on the market, all at the same time!

The most common problem reported is the base not being machined properly and/or the heat pipes not being properly soldered to the base, causing it to warp.

To make things worse, if the base/pipes aren't soldered properly, no amount of lapping will make any difference in temps -- plus this voids your warranty!

Ching, Ching! $90 down the drain!

I smell a recall...

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: nealh

...the mounting is crap on this thing..I am 100% sure it is not making a firm contact with the cpu...

When I place the second screw in and try to engage it, it is very hard. I have to push down really hard! I have no doubt that it makes contact to the CPU. If it did not, it would not be so hard to get the second screw to get into the thread. Yes, it slides over the CPU. That means that the mechanism does not hold it laterally in place. But, it definitely holds it down vertically.

However, I did have to lap it since the base was not flat.

I am not happy with what I have paid for it either. But, I am not going to complain. I should not have blindly ordered it just because of a good review. I consider it a good lesson for me! I will know better next time.

I may fix it myself so that it does not slide laterally either.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: nealh

...the mounting is crap on this thing..I am 100% sure it is not making a firm contact with the cpu...

When I place the second screw in and try to engage it, it is very hard. I have to push down really hard! I have no doubt that it makes contact to the CPU. If it did not, it would not be so hard to get the second screw to get into the thread. Yes, it slides over the CPU. That means that the mechanism does not hold it laterally in place. But, it definitely holds it down vertically.

However, I did have to lap it since the base was not flat.

I am not happy with what I have paid for it either. But, I am not going to complain. I should not have blindly ordered it just because of a good review. I consider it a good lesson for me! I will know better next time.

I may fix it myself so that it does not slide laterally either.

Yes when mounting the the 4 screws for the Intel setup..you really have to apply pressure to get anything beyond the first tightened down

The facts it moves laterally to me..suggests contact cant be great...I mean you can slide it around and the 120x38 antec fan I had for testinf actually cuases to slde when mounted

maybe the center is getting some contact but the whole base just cant be..I have owned..XP90, SI120, BT, Strom rev2...never had anything move like this

the base does not get hot or the heatpipes...when the cpu is running 65C...the base and pipes should at least get warm...(HS on my 7300gt and NB get very warm)

I love TR products...I buy them becasue they work as advertised

I did not blindly buy this..I saw post at XS and here...I knew some where having issues but I realize all products have failures.....but they clearly have some quality control problems....I got after the first production run, so I hoped it was doing better
Wish I took a picture of the bottom of my HS(both have a "wear" mark...not scratch as if they started to lap it and stopped)

I hate to RMA to newegg..I hope TR is returning there money

 

[nealh]

BTW..I think people need to see this so they know what is going on..otherwise when it is buried in a thread..it can be missed

No way I should have ot lap a HS I paid $62 plus shipping..for a few $$ more I could get a pump/cpu, block a small 120 rad and problably have done better...(apogee $40, $40 rad, $50 pump...I am moron...)

I wanted a tuniq tower but no one had it in stock..these popped up so I bit

well..I tink I am going to buy a Tuniq tower and ship these pieces of crap back to new..damn it..what a waste of shipping costs...

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: nealh
No way I should have ot lap a HS I paid $62 plus shipping..

I agree.

well..I tink I am going to buy a Tuniq tower and ship these pieces of crap back to new..damn it..what a waste of shipping costs...

I suggest you try the stock Intel cooler just to get an idea if this one is really not making contact. I wonder if it is the 120mm fan blowing hard that makes your fingers not feel the warmth of the base.
I am in the same boat. I will be testing my stock cooler today for the same reason.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Would you dl and run coretemp and tell us what the core readings are with it? I'm running my e6400@2.6 on stock voltage and when I encode files and both cores run consistently above 90% my internal core temps will stay 30F above whatever ambient temp is in the case.

 

[MotF Bane]

When you are mounting it, do you have your motherboard horizontal or vertical at that given moment? If you're keeping your motherboard vertical during the mounting, you might not be getting proper connection with the top end of the mounting array. Just my guess...

 

[nealh]

remember this cpu was under water...so the HS must not be making proper contact(no my fans are not affecting temp of base or heatpipes....the 120mm is on lw and nothing gets warm on this HS

I mounted horizontally

my temps are from coretemp and speedfan..core temp are same from speedfan and coretemp

 

[Daverino]

Really disappointing to hear this. ThermalRight has a good reputation for killer products, but it does seem that this product is very hit-or-miss now. It's gotten past the level of coincidence. It has to be an issue of quality control, because for every post on an Ultra Extreme problem, there seems to be one that says it works fine. And it's also funny that the problems seem limited to the Extreme. The Ultra was around for many months before the Extreme and I never heard anything like this.

Calling them ThermalWrong is just stupid though. They're a good company with a good reputation. And if it weren't for dedicated enthusiast companies like them, we'd all be losers. Let's hope that Thermalright can get things back on track.

 

[Navid]

I installed the stock cooler. It heats up to 75 under load and I stopped it! It would go even higher!
With the Thermalright eXtreme cooler, I have never seen core temperatures (reported by Cote Temp 0.95) higher than 55. And this is inside Super Lanboy.

The fact that other coolers do not move laterally means that their mechanisms hold it laterally. Not that they put more vertical pressure. Extreme's does not hold the cooler in place laterally. That is another negative for Extreme.

Stop the fan on your Extreme and I am sure you will feel the base warm up.

Edit:
My tests were done on E6600 @ 370x9 = 3.33GHz.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: Navid
I installed the stock cooler. It heats up to 75 under load and I stopped it! It would go even higher!
With the Thermalright eXtreme cooler, I have never seen core temperatures (reported by Cote Temp 0.95) higher than 55. And this is inside Super Lanboy.

The fact that other coolers do not move laterally means that their mechanisms hold it laterally. Not that they put more vertical pressure. Extreme's does not hold the cooler in place laterally. That is another negative for Extreme.

Stop the fan on your Extreme and I am sure you will feel the base warm up.

Edit:
My tests were done on E6600 @ 370x9 = 3.33GHz.

Ok..you ar missing the point..my fan at low speed moves very little air..I own other HS with heatpipes..the heatpipes will warm up a bit....they would have too...even with a fan on them

Temps with my 120 Ultra E with 1.4875v..will easily exceed 55C...they hit mid 60s and even saw 72C on the cores in coretemp..eve nyou look at my first post will see all this

Daverino

Who called them Thermalwrong..not me


Bottom line this product QC is terrible....and price is out of sight for what you get
I a msorry no HS fasten down should move this much in ay fashion..poor mounting mechanism

 

[God Mode]

I had 2 xp-90's that were consistantly 5c different from each other on the same setup. Wasted half a tube of AS5 to test this.

When I poked around, I felt that the heatpipe QC and the tensile strength of the mounting mechanism seems to make them a hit or miss. On the better sink, the heatpipes did get a bit warm while on the dud it was relatively cool to the touch.

 

[nealh]

FWIW..I edit the title..maybe I was a bit harsh ...but buyer beware..I a mso tempted to try the second one and see what happens

 

[Daverino]

Originally posted by: nealh

Daverino

Who called them Thermalwrong..not me


Bottom line this product QC is terrible....and price is out of sight for what you get
I a msorry no HS fasten down should move this much in ay fashion..poor mounting mechanism

Sorry, should have been more specific. Vindsl wrote that, and he writes in more-or-less every TR thread I've read. . .

But I agree with you about the QC here. Too many people are having a problem with the cooler for it to be a coincidence. I'm wondering if anyone has had similar problems with the regular Ultra? I don't recall people posting on problems when that came out. Makes me think that those extra pipes are screwing something up in production.

 

[Henny]

Read the reviews over at Newegg. This HSF doesn't seem ready for prime time!!

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: Henny
Read the reviews over at Newegg. This HSF doesn't seem ready for prime time!!

Newegg reviews are useless....

 

[WoodButcher]

I got the original U120 and it too had the machine marks across the base. I lapped to a point where flat was guaranteed. as pictured here you can see it was concave, my 6600 before lapping was also concave I would have been crying too. If my photo were better you could still see the machine marks in the center area but now they are just micro grooves whereas before they were ridges and valleys.
"Quality Control" ??? where? My temps are great after lapping but really,,, this should have been 100% right out of the box.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: nealh

Originally posted by: Henny
Read the reviews over at Newegg. This HSF doesn't seem ready for prime time!!

Newegg reviews are useless....

Not everyone who posts a review on newegg is a noob. You can get a feel for things there, like if a bunch of ppl report "DOA" then I tend to shy away. Some of course are stupid, like "250GB HD only shows up as 131GB in windows setup" well duh the reason for that is obvious.

The best ones of course are when it starts out "I'm a pro PC tech" then lists his complaint and it makes you wonder what 8 year old wrote it

 

[Henny]

Originally posted by: nealh

Originally posted by: Henny
Read the reviews over at Newegg. This HSF doesn't seem ready for prime time!!

Newegg reviews are useless....

Not totally useless. I think the're pointing out major quality control problems on this HSF.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: nealh
I wanted a tuniq tower but no one had it in stock..these popped up so I bit

well..I tink I am going to buy a Tuniq tower and ship these pieces of crap back to new..damn it..what a waste of shipping costs...

I know Tuniq Tower 120s are hard to find! My first one was on backorder for over 6 months...

One thing you gotta realize though is Tuniq checks EACH & EVERY TOWER for defects!

Source

100% Quality Assurance : every single piece is tested by the unique designed testing machine before packing.

Maybe TR should be doing the same thing!

So what if they're hard to find? It's better than trashing your reputation and client base!