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When it comes to motherboards ASUS is always one of the first names that comes to mind and the same can be said when talking about graphics cards. Even when discussing other computer components, such as LCD Monitors, optical devices and even notebooks, ASUS is generally a name that quickly pops up. However, while ASUS is the go-to man in most of these large consumer markets, I feel they are yet to make a name for themselves in the cooling industry. In fact, for anything that falls under the thermal solution category, it is generally best sourced else where.  To date ASUS has failed to impress us with their cooling solutions. First they submitted the “Star Ice” cooler which was based on the same design as the Thermaltake Beetle. The Beetle was a complete failure, so needless to say the Star Ice did not impress us. In fact, we did not even bother reviewing that cooler as the performance and installation process was simply terrible. Then many months later ASUS sent us their new basic “Chilly Vent” and “Vent Lux” coolers which again failed to excite. While these coolers were far more impressive, they were unfortunately outperformed by the standard AMD box cooler. This time we have been presented with the “V-60” and out of all the ASUS coolers that we have been presented with thus far, the V-60 looks to be the most impressive. The installation process of the Chilly Vent and Vent Lux coolers was very quick, easy and most importantly safe which was a huge bonus for these coolers. The V-60 is just as easy and safe to install, though the procedure does take a little longer. This is primarily due to the fact that the motherboard must be removed from the case in order to install the V-60. Of course for a first time PC build the motherboard will already be out of the case, so this may not be an issue. The V-60 is an unusual looking cooler, measuring 121mm tall, and also has quite a large surface area, measuring 107mm by 107mm. Comprised of 36 fins the V-60 also makes use of 4 (dual) heatpipes that extract heat from the small copper base which is roughly the same size as the heat spreader found on LGA775 chips. The heatpipes which extract the heat from the copper base, are then used to disperse it via the large array of aluminum fins. This is an effective means of moving heat away from the processor and has now become a very popular method among heatsink manufacturers. Upon first glance the V-60 appears to be a passively cooled heatsink, which would be highly unusual for a product that claims to cool high-end Core 2 Extreme/Duo and Pentium D processors. However, the specifications make note of a 2300-RPM fan that operates at just 2000-RPM when the system is not under load and at this speed the fan generates jut 16dBA of noise. However, under load the fan can spin up to almost 2600-RPM to help deal with the added thermal loads. Even when operating at maximum speed, the fan lodged within the V-60 is amazingly quiet. That’s right, the 90mm fan can actually be found right in the center of the V-60 heatsink, where it can effectively cool both sides of the heatsink with ease. While ASUS are not the first to develop such a design, it is still rather impressive and above all seems to work pretty well. This design gave us the impression that there would be more air-turbulence generated from such a setup. Surprisingly the V-60 goes about its business without disturbing the peace. As I have mentioned, the V-60 is a large cooler and may have trouble fitting some motherboards, though we did not run into any compatibility issues. The V-60 was tested on the ASUS Striker Extreme motherboard which features a great deal of cooling, most of which surrounds the CPU socket. Nevertheless, the V-60 just fit into place and managed to work quite well with this motherboard. Once the support bracket was placed on the rear side of the motherboard it was simply a matter of screwing the V-60 down. |
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