I was going to mention the CM TPC too. Decent cooler, but not great. I think it has to do with how CM designed their vapor chamber. Some VGA cooler use them, but I also don't see them as "great", not when compared to many of the traditional heat pipe coolers.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by doyll

I know Cooler Master marketed a rectangular tube design design as a vapor chamber in their TPC 812, but heard it didn't perform as well as hoped for. At CES 2015 they had a "3D vapor chamber" prototype, but it look like a cheaper version of ID-Cooling's vapor chamber design in their FI REEX Deluxe cooler seen at Computex 2014 .. and Elohim posted this picture on Computer Base forum 11.07.2013.
CM prototype at CES 2015, ID-Cooling FI-REEX Deluxe at Computex 2014 and FI-REEX in 11.07.2013.

The TPC812 was an odd cooler, and far different than what you are talking about with the REEX or a traditional vapor chamber. It used a "vertical vapor chamber" much the way a heatpipe is used in conjunction with a copper base. The "vertical vapor chamber" was actually a widened heatpipe, and nothing more. The performance was actually very good on it once I found that using ~twice the TIM I normally do was required due to an incredibly low pressure mount.

However....CM did do two CPU coolers with traditional vapor chambers - the V8 GTS and the Sapphire Vapor-X (CM made it for them). The V8 GTS is all show, but has performance comparable with a decent $50 cooler - it just happens to cost twice that. The Sapphire was...how do I put this as nicely as possible...an absolute abomination in every respect. Horrible mounting system, awful finish work and couldn't keep an ice cube cool at the South Pole.

I'm hoping those test results you showed were not indicative of what is to be expected. The REEX has me very curious, and I was hoping for performance on par with the Phanteks.

 

I agree, so far we have not seen a good vapor chamber cooler. That said, The idea of a full contact chamber to vaporize liquid instead of a row of tubes is an interesting idea.
Does a single flat surface release as much heat as round tubes?
Or is it designed like a waterblock with fins / pins inside to increase heat radiation area?

Really looking forward to seeing just how well it works.

I did find a user on Hardware Luxx forum who is testing one on his 4670K against his Dark Rock Pro. So far his results show them both performing about the same, but he is using room ambient, not cooler intake air temp and 3 fans on DRP3, so hard to tell.

 

looking at the physics behind the technology, I question the amount of liquid that is used in the overall system. vapor chamber works because the amount of liquid used is almost entirely held up by the wick inside the chamber so the liquid is in full contact with the heat source and it's able to spread that heat very quickly. adding the heatpipes allows the liquid to drain to the bottom tubes when mounted in traditional tower orientation. in a desktop (horizontal) orientation where all the liquid drains down to the vapor chamber, it would work great since it offers additional surface area of the heatpipes to dissipate heat, but in tower orientation, i'm not sure how quickly / efficiently the heatpipes on the bottom can transport the liquid back to the heat source. it would definitely be interesting to see a full review of this product.

 

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=603&pgno=4

this is a vapour chamber design
for what it is it works pretty good for stock, I wouldn't overclock with this though
it is much bigger and heavier than the piece of junk aluminum intel ships with

 

@psyclum
Hopefully we will have some available soon. I 'm hoping to get a chance to test the FI-REEX Deluxe. Hopefully you will too.

@SirWaWA
I understand that is what it is advertised as, but looks more like a solid base with vertical layers of copper and aluminum with fins radiating from center. Their 'vapor chamber' more like a heatpipe than a chamber supplying vapor to pipes. My guess is it was not as effective in all mounting orientations. Wish they gave more information about it.

I have never used either the Delta DBX-A or DBX-B (4x heatpipe tower) as always used aftermarket coolers on my 1366 systems.

 

I have purchased the ID-Cooling is-vc45 cooler, which uses vapor chamber technology. It's 45mm tall and rated for 130w TDP.

When I tested it, it performed worse than my Silverston ar05, which is 37mm tall and rated for 65w TDP, so I'm not feeling too confident about this technology right now.

 

I just picked up the FI-Reex Deluxe as I had enough amazon gift cards where it cost me only $20.99.

It honestly doesn't seem all that big. Maybe a little bigger than the Enermax ETS-T40 but it definitely has a bit of weight to it. It is built really well. Haven't had a chance to install it as it just arrived when I was home on my lunch break.

I will probably install it this weekend and give it a whirl with it's stock fans and I have two TY-143's to mess around with.

New to the forum but long time lurker.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by esplin2966

I have purchased the ID-Cooling is-vc45 cooler, which uses vapor chamber technology. It's 45mm tall and rated for 130w TDP.

When I tested it, it performed worse than my Silverston ar05, which is 37mm tall and rated for 65w TDP, so I'm not feeling too confident about this technology right now.

Did you check with ID-Cooling about it? The had some warping problems with some of those.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by doyll

Did you check with ID-Cooling about it? The had some warping problems with some of those.

Actually, I haven't checked with them. Didn't know they had that issue!

Hopefully it's just a faulty unit and not gross exaggeration of specs.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by JH1977

I just picked up the FI-Reex Deluxe as I had enough amazon gift cards where it cost me only $20.99.

It honestly doesn't seem all that big. Maybe a little bigger than the Enermax ETS-T40 but it definitely has a bit of weight to it. It is built really well. Haven't had a chance to install it as it just arrived when I was home on my lunch break.

I will probably install it this weekend and give it a whirl with it's stock fans and I have two TY-143's to mess around with.

New to the forum but long time lurker.

Great news!

FI-REEX Deluxe is single tower 141×97×165mm (WxDxH). That is a quite big for a single tower. Most are only 53-57mm deep.

Can't wait to hear how it performs for you.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by esplin2966

Actually, I haven't checked with them. Didn't know they had that issue!

Hopefully it's just a faulty unit and not gross exaggeration of specs.

ID-Cooling has been around for quite awhile supplying coolers to video card manufacturers and commercial companies. I serious doubt they would market a cooler that was not a quality unit.

 

How Heatpipes Cool


How Vapor Chamber to Vapor Pipes Cool

 

I wonder how their dual tower is doing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by doyll

I found this for FI REEX Deluxe on ID-Cooling website, but no working link to the review.

These are pretty good results for a single tower - although of course this is a very heavy single tower. It is somewhat outperformed though by the Phanteks.

They have a vapor chamber dual tower as well: FI-VC TWIN


Anyways, check these specifications out:
http://www.idcooling.com/Product/detail/id/5/name/FI-VC%20TWIN

Newegg - $110 USD so pretty expensive for a dual tower (for Christmas, I paid $80 USD for a Cryorig R1 Ultimate so that's the benchmark - right now they are $90 USD):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA63M23U0182

But as always, the real question is how it performs.

 

We need some test results using cooler intake air temp. Most test results are use room ambient, not cooler intake air temp for baseline .. more often than not the cooler intake air temp varies more than 2c depending on cooler and fan speeds.

I put together a couple of dimensional drawings. Sorry there isn't more detail, but it's all I could find.

The FI-REEX Deluxe is rated 300w TDP and is 122×141×165mm (W×D×H)


The FI-VC Twin is rated 200w TDP and is 123×153×160mm

 

Hmm. 8mm heat pipes and very solid looking mounting system. The fans have to go, but it has potential.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by miklkit

Hmm. 8mm heat pipes and very solid looking mounting system. The fans have to go, but it has potential.

I have the SE-214X and it is very well built for a lower level cooler. Very fine attention to detail .. it couldn't be better. Hope we see some of these soon and get some performance testing done to see just how good they are.

 

Found a user comparison in German. Not much detail, but appears to perform as well as Dark Rock Pro 3

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by doyll

Found a user comparison in German. Not much detail, but appears to perform as well as Dark Rock Pro 3

That's certainly some good company to be in, provided it is close in noise. BUT.....the DRP3 has significantly more attention to aesthetics.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ciarlatano

That's certainly some good company to be in, provided it is close in noise. BUT.....the DRP3 has significantly more attention to aesthetics.

The guy who tested the FI-REEX Deluxe didn't like the fans as well as the be quiet! fans.

 

How would it perform with TY-143s or better yet esthetically, FHP-141s?

 

No idea as I haven't had the pleasure of using one yet. As for aesthetic, the TY-147 or new TY-147A with black housing and white fan look much nicer .. or TY-149 like is on the Silver Arrow ITX with black housing and red fan.

 

I've been curious about this myself for some time - I've done the leg work, but not the sitting work. I mostly gave up after seeing how nvidia and gigabyte use them - WF doesn't perform that much better than other aftermarket coolers that don't use vapor chambers, and nvidia dropped vapor chambers for their reference designs with the 900 series, which led me to believe that the performance increase is minimal and that, with ever lowering TDPs, the cost is prohibitive when contrasted to the performance gain. The V8GTS didn't impress, either, and that should've been the winner with it's fancy horizontal vapor chamber, huge heatpipes and triple-tower.

@psyclum, killing it as usual - http://www.overclock.net/t/1204092/vapour-chamber-with-heatpipes-much-better-than-heatpipes-only/0_100

Claims 10%-30% performance increase over heatpipes! - http://celsiainc.com/blog-integrating-vapor-chambers-into-heatsinks/

Another - http://www.radianheatsinks.com/VaporChamberTechnology.aspx

Same but without hopelessly optimistic marketing - admits limitations of vapor chambers - http://www.1-act.com/vapor-chambers-2/ - 105C limit for vapor chambers?

ACT on heatpipes - http://www.1-act.com/water-heat-pipe-parameters-and-limitations/

Case study comparison - http://www.1-act.com/case-studies-comparing-conduction-cooling-plates-hik-plates-vapor-chambers-and-encapsulated-conduction-cooling/

Comparison table - http://www.1-act.com/when-to-use-heat-pipes-hik-plates-vapor-chambers-and-conduction-cooling/ - notice the "$$$"

Case study in more consumer based environment - http://www.qats.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ATS-White-Paper_How-and-When-to-use-Vapor-Chamber-
Technology-in-the-Thermal-Management-of-Electronics.pdf

Argues that vapor chambers are a good place to store heat before dissipation by heatpipes - http://etd.fcla.edu/CF/CFE0002332/Krishna_Kota_M_200808_PhD.pdf

Nice background - https://books.google.com/books?id=7QluAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=heat+pipe+vs+vapor+chamber&source=bl&ots=HKOEfmNyTV&sig=qGeLXFQfCYXpZ3z89ijUpTMsjso&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cZMxVazmC8PfoATBxIHYBQ&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBzgU#v=onepage&q=heat%20pipe%20vs%20vapor%20chamber&f=false

And Thermacore's proprietary thermabase (only "3D" vapor chamber): http://www.thermacore.com/products/vapor-chamber-assembly-heat-spreaders.aspx

All in all it seems like the performance gains are negligible for PC applications - vapor chambers are just big, flattened heatpipes, after all. But, hey, I suck at math, so you tell me!

 

So, I got the cooler and installed it. Don't have pictures right now because I was home shopping and running around and just got the thing in when I could.

Fans aren't too bad to be honest. One funny thing though....with both the stock fans and the ty-143. Anything higher than 1400rpm and a strange buzzing sound comes from them....under 1400rpm quiet as a mouse. I don't think it's the fans because...well, two different fans and same issue. Just something odd that I noted.

Anyway, didn't do any stress testing but played some games while running a virus protection program and downloading something else. FX-8350 and temps on the cores never got above 43 celcius. Temp in case and around cooler are about 24C.

Going to probably check it out with my 2500k in the future.

 

Thanks for the update.

May I ask what cooler you were using before and what kind of temps it gave?