Phononic HEX 2.0 Thermoelectric Mid-Sized CPU Cooler Review

[zennada]

TweakTown did a much more thorough review of this product and in insane mode it competed with a H100i GTX. The selling point here really seems to be the performance you're getting in the size.

 

[kenneth_34]

I see this more for people using it in a case where liquid cooling And a larger air cooler is not an option. It's an interesting proof of concept, and I'd really like to see what it could of done with a 120mm fan and larger cooler. I think it would have been much more competitive.

 

[Avenger762]

FUTURE of cool?? My 8yr old Coolermaster V10 kicks this things ass! Also TEC BTW. 200W+

 

[Memhorder]

I'm actually curious if you took the TEC out of the equation some how and just had the Fin array cooling, how it would fair. The website says

" HEX 2.0 provides CPU cooling requiring zero power consumption when the CPU is under low stress, up to a peak power of 35 Watts when the CPU is heating up."

Then it says

"HEX 2.0 performance is compatible with the highest power CPU's on the market, with room for overclocking."

Listing the AMD AM2/+, AM3+ 220W

Is it possible for a 35W TEC to dissipate 200W of heat?

 

[Crashman]

I see this more for people using it in a case where liquid cooling And a larger air cooler is not an option. It's an interesting proof of concept, and I'd really like to see what it could of done with a 120mm fan and larger cooler. I think it would have been much more competitive.

If you use a lower-power CPU, you're likely to get better results. On the other hand, we set our rig up to max out air coolers of similar surface area, so we hardly went overboard.

 

[basroil]

Is it possible for a 35W TEC to dissipate 200W of heat?

No, Peltier pieces generally need more power than they can transfer, the difference is that they can produce a temperature differential, so the input actually gets colder at a given Qinput. A 35W peltier is usually only good for 25-30W before there's literally no point!

 

[Brian_R170]

So, why would anybody ever buy this cooler?

Does it perform favorably to other coolers of the same size?

Would the results look better on a ~90W CPU vs. a ~130W CPU?

 

[cub_fanatic]

This is about as gimmicky as it gets. The only thing missing is a a racing stripe and some rainbow LEDs. I've seen many examples of people trying to get Peltier coolers to cool enthusiast class CPUs since around 2009 on various PC forums. It was actually one of the methods I was considering for my rig along with liquid cooling and standard heat sinks until I did some research on the subject. First, the basic parts to make one of these shouldn't cost you more than $30 or $40. You can get a Peltier cooler kit for $20 on ebay that is about this size. The pads themselves will set you back $3 to $5 each. There is nothing special about them. They are used in those mini desk fridges that can cool a 6-pack of canned beverages. You can get one of those fridges for $30 or $40. Then, there is the fact that these things are also technically heaters. One side cools and the other heats. In a PC, that extra heat can't go back into the case or it is just defeating the whole purpose of the concept. Most amateur TEC experimenters usually ended up with something like this cooler but a lot more crude looking; basically a TEC pad attached to the bottom of a tower cooler similar to a Hyper 212. But, instead of cooling the CPU, the tower cooler is there to cool the other side of the TEC. And the best part, in many cases, the performance is about the same or sometimes worse than just using the tower cooler alone. It doesn't save space compared to a conventional CPU cooler, it makes extra unwanted heat and it requires a ton of power to work. A typical heat sink with 2x 120mm fans might use a few watts at most. An all in one liquid cooler might use a few watts more. This baby's power consumption rivals that of the CPU it is trying to keep cool. There are just too many flaws in this design for it to ever become mainstream. If you want to be that guy who wants one just to have as a conversation piece, build your own. With this product, all you are doing is paying a huge premium for its pretty exterior design. At least if you build your own, no matter how ugly it may end up being, you will have more pride in it.

 

[bit_user]

If you want to be that guy who wants one just to have as a conversation piece, build your own. With this product, all you are doing is paying a huge premium for its pretty exterior design. At least if you build your own, no matter how ugly it may end up being, you will have more pride in it.

I don't get the sense that they were trying to rip people off. I think it's a natural consequence of the low volume production, coupled with the custom manufacturing, that made it so expensive.

The thing they did which you cannot so easily replicate, is to interleave heatpipes and TEC pads. That was an interesting idea, but I'm really curious to know how they convinced themselves it would work, before they went to all the trouble of raising funding and building this product. I don't believe people will go to so much trouble and even send out review samples for a product they don't honestly believe in. While I feel bad for them, at least this review will save some consumers from wasting their money (and electricity) on this product.

 

[Crashman]

The thing they did which you cannot so easily replicate, is to interleave heatpipes and TEC pads. That was an interesting idea, but I'm really curious to know how they convinced themselves it would work, before they went to all the trouble of raising funding and building this product.

The article contains this link to a 2007 cooler designed on the same concept:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vigors-monsoon-ii-tec-cpu-cooler,1565-2.html
You see? Those embedded links really can be useful

 

[zennada]

TDP for a i7-5930K is 140w and the cooler specs say it allows users to push any LGA2011 processor to 140W or beyond...I'm a bit confused why you didn't test out all the modes for this since it appears to compare with other big air coolers and even some AIO coolers

 

[basroil]

TDP for a i7-5930K is 140w and the cooler specs say it allows users to push any LGA2011 processor to 140W or beyond...I'm a bit confused why you didn't test out all the modes for this since it appears to compare with other big air coolers and even some AIO coolers

Why? Because it's impossible for this cooler to handle a 140W chip properly, let alone do so on the level of something like the d15 or H100

 

[Crashman]

TDP for a i7-5930K is 140w and the cooler specs say it allows users to push any LGA2011 processor to 140W or beyond...I'm a bit confused why you didn't test out all the modes for this since it appears to compare with other big air coolers and even some AIO coolers

From the article:

If you’re wondering why we’re not showing results for all three HEX 2.0 operational modes, it’s because our CPU’s heat output pushes the HEX 2.0 past its highest TEC engagement temperature. We tested it all three ways and got the same numbers three times, edging out the Noctua NH-U12S at full fans.

In other words, all three modes were tested and, and the data was not just similar but identical. Removing "redundant data" from the charts made more room in the charts to show additional comparison products. Read the conversation above to see how it's possible for all three modes to produce exactly one result.

 

[Crashman]

BTW, you don't have to just "take my word for it" that the data is identical, here are the charts with the actual data from all three settings:

All I had to do was slide the chart data selection box up in Excel to grab these.

 

[Memhorder]

Holy cow. The profiles mean nothing. You'd expect some change on Insane.

I don't think condensation would EVER be an issue but this thing has safeguards to prevent it over a home built TEC cooler

 

[bit_user]

I don't think condensation would EVER be an issue but this thing has safeguards to prevent it over a home built TEC cooler

Think about 100% humidity, with a CPU running at idle. Then, you could conceivably get condensation on the bottom of the CPU or motherboard. Possibly less of an issue for newer CPUs, with integrated VRMs.

I once had a VCR with a condensation warning light. They were concerned that you'd bring it from somewhere cold into somewhere humid. I guess it's a legit concern.

The best use of TEC I've seen is to cool image sensors for astronomical observations. 5 TEC's stacked up, with a waterblock on the end. The sensor had to be in a vacuum chamber, because it was impossible to avoid condensation at those temps. But the difference is that the image sensor produced very little heat. So, the TEC stack was only needed to reduce ambient temp and then remove waste heat from the other TECs.

 

[Crashman]

Holy cow. The profiles mean nothing. You'd expect some change on Insane.

I don't think condensation would EVER be an issue but this thing has safeguards to prevent it over a home built TEC cooler

The profiles are only effective when the CPU output is below the triggering temperature, because the profiles change the triggering temperature. This mildly-overclocked processor output far too much heat for them to do much of anything. The profile did have some effect when I was first warming the processor up, but that's not the point in performance testing: Nobody tests the HP of an engine at half throttle.