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Titan Fenrir EVO Review
Manufacturer: Titan
UK Price (time of writing): £30-35 Inc VAT (Stocking at Aria soon)
Introduction
Bling bling baby, bling bling. The Titan Fenrir EVO has finally arrived to our labs and you’d be mistaken if it rolled up with tinted black windows and wearing a gold chain. Yes, the latest addition to the ever popular Fenrir series takes it up a notch with its glaring new teenage look and a name to be associated with that annoying “chav” down the street roaring up and down the road in his EVO blaring tunes you’d rather die first before listening to. It even has a new gold chrome wheel, sorry I meant fan. The Fenrir EVO finally hits the streets and hopes to continue the great line of successes the series has had since the launch of the first Fenrir. Titan have listened to the criticisms they have had in recent times about the noise of their fans. It’s not just the Fenrir fan on full throttle that’s the issue, it’s the whole line of fans Titan produce that fail to meet the mark both performance and silence. The EVO brings with it a fan capable of rectifying both aforementioned problems whilst providing a sleek new look perfect for the common enthusiasts looking for yet another uber black painted piece of hardware to add to his or hers collection of goodies. However, have they concentrated too much on the looks rather than the substance?
History
Titan is one of the leading manufacturers in the CPU cooling industry, as well as providing thermal solutions with products such as VGA coolers, H.D.D. coolers, system blowers, DC fans, and heatsinks. In order to satisfy the demands in a rapidly-changing market, Titan launch new products on a bi-monthly basis. Furthermore, Titan devotes enormous amount of resources in the research and development of new innovations in the PC thermal solutions industry. Titan was launched in 1992 with a focus on low cost cooling solutions for the masses. Generally speaking, Titan hasn’t had the best track record until they struck a bit of fortune with the Fenrir. Previously, many Titan coolers have had less than stellar performance, let alone great build quality.
Specifications
- For AMD Socket AM2+/AM2/AM3/940/939/754/K8
- For Intel Socket 775/1156/1366
- Dimensions (HxWxD): 124x107x156mm
- Rated Voltage 12V DC
- Rated Speed 800-2200RPM +/-10%
- Airflow 24.23-66.62CFM
- Static Pressure 0.02-0.14 Inch H20
- Noise Level 15-35dBA
- Bearing Type Z-AXIS
The Cooler
When it comes to overclocking, you should be safe in the knowledge that your heatsink is up for the job. Moreover, you want something to shout out loud and look the part for what is becoming a glossy scene with your LN2 and sub-zero cooling. For the common home owner, you are stuck with air or water, and what Titan have done well in the past is providing something with bags of cooling performance, but costing half the price of the more expensive coolers from the likes of Prolimatech and Thermalright for example (and in some cases beating them still).
Titan ships the cooler in the usual vacuum plastic casing with specifications and text all over the shop as per usual. Personally, although to them it may save on packing costs, this vacuum packing method is loathed by some and is a pain to get into. Once you tear and break into it, you are left searching for a spare box to keep safe the left over bits and bobs rather than the original box.
Once broken free from its casing, we see the cooler in all its glory. At first it did take a bit of getting used to (colour scheme wise), but it does grow on you even if you do feel like a bit of a “townee” owning something like this.
The cooler itself isn’t much different from its predecessor. Complying to the same U-Shape design and fin density, the Fenrir EVO has just had a wardrobe change. The anodized coating has been done pretty well. With a few pokes and scratches from screwdriver, the paintwork still remained intact and doesn’t give off a cheap feel. Titan stated that one of the measures taken when it comes to anodising the aluminium plates was to make sure that the coating isn’t thick as this will affect the temperatures and heat dissipation from the fins.
Like the past Fenrir’s that lie before it, Titan state that this cooler is optimized to handle up to 160W with its four 8mm copper direct touch heatpipes. The base is machines very smooth and will efficiently conduct the heat away from the CPU to the 50 aluminium anodized fins.
These fifty aluminium cooling fins are somewhat densely packed together with small dimples in the centre area of each fin to alleviate the “dead zone” of the fan and airflow which will (with a high static pressure fan) aid further in dispersing the heat. Since the new KUKRI fan is more optimized for static pressure, we should see a reduction of temperatures at low speeds compared to the older fan at the same RPM.
Titan’s new fan is called the KUKRI fan, TFD-12025SL12Z/W1. Its name originates from a symbolic weapon for Gurkha regiments and the Nepali Army which represents the courage of the bearer in the battlefield. The nine curved blades are designed to produce stronger air pressure, speeding up the heat dissipation, and maintain a lower noise level. While we couldn’t dig out the specifics in time, one of the changes that been made is the actual motor used by the new fan. According to a Titan representative, he states that the motor is the same but the the design of it is different. While testing the fan on full throttle, you can tell by the tone of the motor compared to the previous fan as it seems to have a low pitch, gentle hum very common to Scythe’ Gentle Typhoons.
This fan is rated to spin between 800 to 2200RPM producing a max CFM of 66.62 and a noise range from a super quiet 15dBa to 35dBa. Without any equipment to test the rated figures, we can’t test Titan’s claims but concerning the noise, the range given seems spot on to us. Comparing specifications from the old to the new, what’s interesting to note is that the CFM is up to 15% less on the new KUKRI than the older fan. What’s lost in CFM is made up for in plentiful amounts with static pressure being up to 22% higher than the old fan. It would be interesting to see how this effects the results.
Another tweak that’s been made to the fan is the bearings used. Sleeve bearing fans have a much lower life expectancy than most other ball bearing fans at higher operating temperatures. Moreover, another issue with “sleeve” fans is they tend to not like being orientated in a horizontal nature. Over time, the bearing is worn away quicker and defects can be heard from the bearing itself as the thin lubrication is centred in one location while the other side is left bare. Remove this and there is nothing to prevent metal-to-metal contact when the mechanism inside rotates within the sleeve – its advised to keep sleeve bearing fans vertical to maintain its life expectancy as nobody likes to hear the vibrational noise of the rod inside rubbing away without an lubrication causing unwanted noise and (in some cases) slower RPM. Titan informed me that they now use Z-Bearings which can last up to 60,000 hours that equates to roughly 6.8 Years if you were to continually run the fan without stopping. Pretty impressive!
Test Method
All our coolers follow the same rigorous testing conditions. We strapped on a single 120mmx38mm fan in the shape of the San Ace 9G1212H1011, widely considered one of the best fans on the market due to its under-volting ability (lower RPM) and high static pressure – perfect for heatsinks. This fan can produce up to 99CFM at full speed. If a heatsink is supplied with a fan, we shall be testing that stock fan(s) on full RPM.
We now use LinX Build 0.6.1 for our entire load testing of heatsinks as this stresses the CPU more so than other load tests and really puts strain on the heatsinks. Idle testing was taken after a LinX run had finished. We allowed a ‘cooling off period’ of 10 minutes for the idle test. Both minimum and maximum temperatures were taken from Real Temp Build 3.58; an average of the cores was taken. Any energy saving features were disabled in the BIOS. OCZ Freeze was the TIM of choice.
All tests were run a minimum of 3 times (each run was followed by a remounting of the heatsink) and only the best results are represented. Our test system can hit 4.41GHz stable with 1.45v. However, due to the high voltage, not all heatsinks can cope, so we decided on a ‘safe’ voltage level of 1.35v, and a lower stable clock speed of 4.20GHz for our testing.
Test System
Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.20GHz w/ 1.35v
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
HIS HD 5850 1024MB
Corsair Dominator GTX2
Enermax Modu87+ 700W
Intel X25-M G2 80GB
Installation
The EVO is supplied with the usual kit that has previously graced past Fenrir coolers, except this time the Socket LGA 1156 kit is included inside rather than a plastic bag stuck on outside that usually splits open.
Supported Sockets: Intel LGA775, Intel LGA1156, Intel LGA1366, AMD 754, 939, 940, AM2, AM2+, AM3.
Supplied:
- Intel and AMD mounting kit
- TIM (Royal Grease)
- 1 set of fan clips
- Fan Resistor
Concerning installation on LGA 1366, setup was a breeze. Placing the pre-fitted 1366 backplate through the back of the motherboard was simple enough. The next step was to apply some TIM (in our case OCZ Freeze) to the processor.
The next job on the list was to fit the hold down in place. The hold down plate is seated over the contact plate with small notches cut in the plate itself to keep it relatively secure.
With the hold down in place, its simply a job of placing the cooler with the loosely attached hold down over the backplates screws shoot up through the motherboard mounting holes.
With the thumb screws supplied, attached the four screw to each of the four corners to secure the cooler in place – finish off with a screwdriver for full contact and pressure. Job done. Its that simple.
For those wondering, the clearance and height issue is not really of concern too much as if you look at the photo above, you can still fit 6GB of memory fine but only just. For taller heatspreaders, you may have airflow issues with the fan intake as the taller heatspreader may impede airflow. You could lift the fan higher though.
Results
*Note, testing was done out of case.
Analysis
If we look over the results, it’s clear than there isn’t much difference between the new and old cooler once we remove their respective stock fans and clip on the same fan (San Ace H1011) with load temperatures the same, with only the idle tests in favour of the latest EVO edition, but the difference could be down to variables. However we try to elimate this via testing each cooler three times which includes a remounting and applying TIM.
Once we look at the main difference between the two coolers (the fans), the results tell us that the latest EVO fan is better than the orginal Fenrir fan, albeit not much. With both fans at their limits, the EVO’s fan is only 1C better off than the older fan on our load testing of the Intel Core i7 930 overclocked to 4.20GHz attaining 76C compaired to 77C. However, as the limit of the EVO fan is 2200RPM, this was 100RPMs faster than the older stock fan which could be said the reason why it was better, if only just.
Things change when we dial down the coolers fans to a sensible level of around 1200RPM for quiet (but effective)cooling. The EVO’s fan on our load testing gave us a decent 85C which was 2C lower than the older fan. Moreover, idle testing was 1C better off in favour of the EVO fan. It could be said the 9 blades and better static pressure that Titan state does prove to provide better cooling through the dense fins of the Fenrir heatsink. To attain 85C temperatures on the load testing with the older fan, we had to ramp up the fan to around 1400-1500RPM and more added noise.
While temperatures are one thing, noise levels are another. Compared to the older fan, the new EVO fan is quieter and more bearable at higherRPMs. At 1200RPM, the EVO fan remained vertually silent to the extent that we’d find it hard to replace the EVO’s stock fan as it performs so well.
Conclusion
We walk away from the results not surprised. While the addition of the 9-blade fan has helped the cooler to achieve better results (just) and at a more comfortable noise level, you have to wonder if its worth swapping your previous Fenrir for the new EVO. Answer; no. While the new fan is a good improvement in an already successful heatsink series, those who were tired of the older models stock fan would have already opted to replace it with something more bearable. The new fan is great and looks to be a cheap knock-off of Scythe’ Gentle Typhoon series both looks and noise. Perhaps a fan many people have swapped for. What we’d love to see Titan do next is release a new Fenrir with a push-pull configuration of fans rather than the owner having to do a make-shift job themselves.
While the colour scheme may not suit everyone’s taste, Titan do provide the standard and Christmas edition looking coolers instead to suit your needs. While they don’t come provided with the new fan, heatsink wise, they are all the same so it would be wise to buy your own fan and pick the colour cooler you desire. What Titan have done however is provide a suitable colour many will adopt to (that being the ever popular blacked out look), with a pretty decent fan at a price costing less to buy a decent 120mm fan and the Fenrir separately. You could call it convenience on the part of Titan to help the buyer out, or you could deem Titan as “milking the market” with its colour range – were half expecting a Halloween themed edition one this year anodized all white like a ghost and a flashing LED fan!
Bottom line – if you already own the Fenrir, your better off buying your own choice of fan or alternatively buying this new fan from Titan separately. For those wanting to dip their pockets in the popular Fenrir series, now has never been a better time with the bang for buck quality cooling that rivals all the elite heatsinks on the market, but with a very quiet and effective fan.
Titan Fenrir EVO receives 9.5/10
Pro’s
- Very decent cooling
- Easy and secure installation
- New quiet and effective fan
- Direct heatpipe base provides direct heat transfer to 8mm thick heatpipes
- Decent bang for buck cooling.
- Supports all current platforms and older AMD platforms.
- Provides user a good fan and even better heatsink for less than it would to buy both seperate.
Con’s
- No push-pull option still
- Colour scheme debatable
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