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Our test system today has been built with the primary focus on maximum value for money, which is exactly the target audience of the Thermaltake Contac 29. Special thanks as always to the manufacturers for donating the hardware.
Test System:
ThermalTake Contac 29 Cooler
Comparison Coolers:
Noctua NH D14 (review here)
Xigmatek HDT S1284EE
Coolit Domino ALC
Zalman CNPS10X Flex
Coolermaster Hyper Z600
Vantec VAF-1225 AeroFlow FX120
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
OCZ Vendetta 2
CoolerMaster Hyper 212
Asus Silent Square EVO
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
System Build:
AMD Quad Core 955 Black Edition
MSI 890GXM-G65 Motherboard
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600mhz (8GB kit review here)
Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition (review here)
Silverstone Raven 02 Chassis
Thermaltake XT 675W PSU
With air conditioning, room ambient temperatures were kept at a steady 25c, comfortable conditions for most people. Load temperatures were recorded by looping Cinebench R11.5 for a 30 minute period under 100% load and recording the maximum results. These are real world conditions … the application uses the Cinema 4D rendering engine.
When possible fans were set to high positions.
We use the following for measurements as many onboard software based results are not accurate.
MultiMeter Thermal Probe
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
The Thermaltake Contac 29 delivers a fantastic set of results with our Black Edition processor, considering it costs less than a third the price of the NH D14!
Most of the coolers on test today could be classed as silent, apart from the Coolit Domino ALC, Vantec VAF 1225 AeroFlow FX120 and the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. The Contac 29 actually scored slightly worse than my ears suggested initially, it sounds no louder than the OCZ Vendetta 2 for instance. Real world the cooler is barely audible with a few system fans running.
Next we increased the voltage of the Black Edition to 1.45 and cranked it to 3.9ghz, the limit for our particular processor.
As the results above show the Contac 29 handled our overclocking tests very well with a joint second place position with the Xigmatek HDTS1284EE cooler. It still managed to remain barely audible which was impressive.
As Thermaltake supply rubber mounts for an additional fan, we decided to add a Noctua 120mm fan to the other side of the cooler in a traditional ‘push/pull' air flow configuration. We are curious to see how the extra fan might help our overclocking results.
Adding the extra fan helped to reduce temperatures by a further 2 degrees both when idle and when loaded. I would certainly recommend an extra fan if you intend to overclock with increased voltage.
My buddy has this cooler its great for the price, I agree.
Really solid results in t hose tests. I had been looking at a new one.
It was the only thing putting me off the NOctua cooler. the incredibly high price which I thought was quite ridiculous. costs more than the Corsair watercooling H50 for instance in the UK. Surely a lump of metal cant cost more than pumps, radiators etc?
I have an old arctic cooling product, I think it might be good time for an upgrade 🙂
Nice review, I read a few reviews of this before and it seems everyone loves it. they must be doing somethign right 🙂
Heh, good timing, was just heading out to get a new cooler for my new 6 core AMD chip. shall hunt this out ! thanks.
I love the orange fan, is it ok to say that without getting slagged off ? 🙂
I like that, and congratulations to Thermaltake for not ripping people off. some of these new coolers are ridiculously priced.
wow thats better than I thought it would be. I passed over it in a shop recently when I saw the crappy box and cheap price. shall have another look over it.
nice to see a site focusing on AMD CPUs for change, there are a lot of us out there with an eye on value for money !
I skimped over reviews of this in the past, but I read the KitGuru one (as I do with all of them). What a great product, and so well priced.
Hello editors, thanks for the review, found it on google. helped me make a buying decision!
Excellent review and nice cross section of coolers showing comparative products and a single class leading one at 3 times the price for any possible gains if you can dip further into your bank.
I think I will order one of these for my upcoming AMD system build 🙂
Thanks, I was wondering about this and I don’t trust many sites for reviews. Might pick one of these up next week in our local store, although its 25 quid with them.
Its purty ! I like it. good price too, I like it more. Ordered one from YoyoTech this morning
I’m going for it! Does anyone know if Thermaltake does a version with the second fan included in the box already?
Dont think they do Pete. ive never seen them. if i were you id pick up a 120mm Noctua fan and slot that on, they do give the rubber mounts with the cooler. probably cost £8
If you are on a budget, these are good fans. for very little money.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-037-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4