Asetek VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise Cooler

INTRODUCTION


CPU coolers usually look pretty similar or at least use a similar technique to remove the heat of the CPU. Almost always you have a block of copper touching the CPU, then a heatsink with lots of tiny thin fins made of aluminum or copper which are heated up by heat coming up from the CPU through the copper base and finally a fan that pulls away the air that has been heated up inside the heatsink. Simple, isn’t it?

Asetek has another idea. The same company that has brought us watercooling kits as well as the much more advanced (and expensive) VapoChill refrigeration cooling now has a new product: the VapoChill Micro CPU cooler. Today, I’m testing this interesting little cooler to see if Asetek again has a winner on its hands.

THE SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES


The VapoChill Micro actually comes in three flavors:

1. The VapoChill Micro High-End (€23 ex. VAT)
2. The VapoChill Micro Extreme Performance (with fan-controller) (€34 ex. VAT)
3. The VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise (with fan controller) (€43 ex. VAT)

The biggest differences between these three are of course price (the High-End being the cheapest and the Ultra Low Noise the most expensive), the inclusion of a fan-controller in the two more expensive kits, and the type of fan included. The Ultra Low Noise kit uses a fan that at the highest setting still has a sound level of less than 28dB. This is compared to the 35 and 38 dB of the two other kits.

What makes this cooler a bit different is that it actually uses a liquid/gas to cool the CPU. The gas used is Tetrafluoroethane-1,1,1,2 (R134A).

By extracting heat from the CPU, a closed sealed fluid will evaporate and reach top of the pipes - this gaseous form will then be cooled by an efficient fan and radiator and turn into a solid fluid form again where as it will hit the bottom of the CPU cooler once more. The recirculation of the coolant is based on gravity. In other words, no mechanical parts and basically unlimited reliability. This circular process will go on and on and keep the CPU temperature cool at all times – even at a low noise level.

Fig. Asetek's own explanation

The liquid is heated up at the base of the heatsink by the CPU and turned into a gas. The gas rises through the heatpipes and is then cooled by the fan at the top. It then turns into a liquid again, uses gravity to flow back to the base, and the circulation is started again.