Prolimatech Samuel 17 Mini-ITX CPU Heat Sink Review

[Myrkvidr]

Prolimatech doesn't include a fan with its Samuel 17 heat sink. It's on you to find your own, and almost any 12cm cooler will do. But at $45 on its own, can the Samuel 17 overcome a lofty price tag with correspondingly impressive performance?

Prolimatech Samuel 17 Mini-ITX CPU Heat Sink Review : Read more

 

[Eggz]

Finally, a mITX cooler that outperforms the stock Intel cooler!

 

[-Fran-]

Not a direct contact, but it performs fine. It's the first I see that performs fine.

That is a surprise all by itself, haha.

Cheers!

 

[lowguppy]

This is the cooler I put in my Millennium Falcon mITX build with a slim fan on top. That puts it within a couple MM of the height of the low profile video card. It has no problem keeping the i5 3570K cool. I even stress tested it overclocked to a modest 4.4ghz without issue.

 

[Baumy15]

the overhang is good you can hang it over your ram to keep it cool aswell

 

[vaelyan]

The quality of articles at Tom's has been in decline ever since the "Best of" group bought them. The two fans they chose were far more expensive than a fan Prolimatech makes and the slim one they chose moves less than half the half the air while the standard they chose come close to the CFM of the Prolimatech USB14 it still falls short.

 

[suau]

Please add the Thermolab ITX30 and the Zalman CNPS2X to the tests!

 

[suau]

Please add the Thermolab ITX30 and the Zalman CNPS2X to the tests!

 

[JeanLuc]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/prolimatech-samuel-17-mini-itx-heat-sink,3970.html

The graph is very misleading if you don't look closely at the numbers, at a glance you might think the Noctua produced half the noise of the Prolimatech yet the actual difference is barely 1.5 db!

 

[Calculatron]

I hope that Thermalright cooling solution gets some love too.

 

[jtd871]

The chart scales are not appropriate for the data when the data points are very close together. I would also argue that the data would be better presented as XY plots of cooling delta vs noise with specific RPM levels indicated by codes or labels. An overall summary or roundup would be helpful, as would a discussion of value (cooling vs noise vs price).

 

[dovah-chan]

Well this isn't about budget and it's well known that small form factors with high performance and low noise are a luxury these days so anyone who is purchasing a case that is so small to need these coolers, will not have any qualms about spending an extra $20 for a fan.

 

[RedJaron]

Splitting the data into six graphs makes it rather hard to follow. It'd be easier to compare if you used two cluster graphs based on temp delta and fan noise. Each fan would have three bars representing the three fan speeds. Grouping the data like this shows how consistent the Samuel 17 is, regardless what fan and fan speed is used. Even at 1000 rpm it stays below 33*. That's fairly impressive considering all other coolers in the roundup were at least 20* higher in that situation.

 

[Haravikk]

Nice to see this reviewed, as it should be great for the size. But you should really have reviewed it with Prolimatech's Ultra Sleek Vortex fans, the Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 would have been especially interesting as it's a 140mm, 15mm thick fan with 120mm mounting holes, so it would cool pretty much every component of a Mini ITX motherboard.

 

[bit_user]

Newegg has it in stock, right now.

I wonder how it compares to Scythe's Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B. I was just about to use one of those in a mini-ITX build. It has 5 heatpipes that are looped around to touch the fins on both ends (does that count as 10 heatpipes?). It's basically the Kozuti with 2 more heatpipes and a bigger fan on top, instead of the small one underneath the fins. I'm currently running one (lapped) in a 3.6 GHz quad-core Sandbridge-E (130 W TDP) system with a Noctua 140 mm round fan. It stays below 70 C, under full load. So, I think it's pretty good.

My beef with both of these coolers is that neither is direct touch. But I guess Xigmatek or somebody probably has a patent on that. I wish I had the tools to grind down the block and convert it to direct touch, myself.

 

[logainofhades]

If I go mini itx, since I intend on getting a Coolermaster Elite 130, I will just get a Seidon 120xl.

 

[spawn05]

So we are talking about $73.00 For the heat sink and the fan. That's a little steep. But if the results stated 27.8 is accurate I think I'm interested. I have a motherboard with a Intel i7 LGA 1155 socket processor. That would be 82.04 Fahrenheit that's 10 degrees lower that mine is running right now. I priced both items on Newegg.com with free shipping. That's with the Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan.