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Global Win VEK 12 Review Written : 6/20/99Written by: Moto Racer® Price: $20.50 US Global Win VEK 12 Supplied by: AMK Services The VEK 12 from Global Win is one of the best SECC Pentium 2 heatsink on the market today. Even though it still carries the same name, this VEK 12 is a little different than the first VEK 12 that Global Win shipped. For awhile, Global Win planned to rename the cooler the VEK 18. However they decided to keep the name VEK 12. Go figure. So what is different about this new VEK 12? Well, the sink itself is unchanged. It's the same size as before, which is to say it's big (60mm wide x 125mm long x 20mm high). There are lots and lots of pin fins on this heatsink. 260 of them! It makes Global Win's new VES 20 cooler look positively tiny.
Like the VES 20, the VEK 12 has vents cut into the heatsink for L2 cache cooling. This is a strange feature to include since the VEK 12 is not designed to work with Pentium 3 or SECC2 Pentium 2 CPUs. The SECC2 spec calls for a plastic backplate and an open front face. The thermal plate that is used in SECC cartridges like the old Pentium II is no longer there. This allows the heatsink to make direct contact with the CPU core, making for better cooling. Also the L2 cache ram is not covered up. A vented heatsink will allow air from the overhead fans to blow on the L2 cache to cool it. The only difference between this VEK 12 and the original VEK 12 is new fans. The old VEK 12 use 60mm x 25mm fans that moves 20CFM of air. The new VEK 12 use fans that are the same sizes, but they spin faster. The new fans are rated to move over 26CFM of air. This makes the fans on the VEK 12 nearly 2.5 times more powerful than the fans used on the VES 20. Like the VES 20 fans, the VEK 12 fans have a RPM wire to read how fast the fans are spinning. The VEK 12 comes with a thermo pad to make better contact with the CPU. You can remove the pad if you like. It does take some scraping however. The only reason you would want to remove the pad is if you're going to use thermo compound between the heatsink and CPU. If you do want to use compound, you must remove the pad. It's one or the other, not both. Installing the VEK 12 on a Pentium II is a pretty easy. Taking it off once it's been installed is another story. The clips used to mount the heatsink doesn't allow tool free removal. The clips are very good and they do hold the heatsink to the CPU very firmly. You will need to bring out the screw driver if you wish to remove the heatsink. To test the VEK 12, I installed the unit on a Pentium III-500. I know, you're thinking that the VEK 12 is a PII cooler, so how can it be installed on a PIII? Very easily. Click here to find out how I did it. Installing the unit on a Pentium III also put those L2 vents to work. The first thing I noticed with the VEK 12 is that the system ran much cooler than the stock Intel heatsink or the VES 20. With the Intel heatsink, the system temp measure 93 to 96F when running at 585Mhz. With the VES 20, system temp dropped down to 89 to 92F. Once the VEK 12 was installed, the temp went down even more. 82F at 620Mhz!!! The system never went over 86F during testing. WOW! A big heatsink and 2 big fans moving 50+ CFM of air will do that for ya. Of course, this comes with a down size. Those fans are fairly noisy. This is one of the loudest heatsink you can buy. However, I'll put up with a little noise for the kind of performance this heatsink gives you. The VEK 12's performance is something else. How does 620Mhz with a L2 latency setting of 1 grab you? This is something the VES 20 couldn't do. The VEK 12, with it's bigger heatsink and fans did it without any problems. The vents in the VEK 12 allowed the overhead fans to blow massive amounts of air onto the L2 cache.
Priced at just $20.50 US ($29.99 Canadian) from the AMK Services, the VEK 12 is without a doubt the biggest bang for the buck heatsink you can buy. The only heatsink I can think of that might out perform it would be the Alpha P125 and that cost more than twice as much. Like I have stated, the VEK 12 is a SECC Pentium II cooler and wasn't designed to work with SECC2 Pentium IIIs. However it's very easy to modify so it will work with a Pentium III. The VEK 12 cost just 50 cents more than a VES 20. I can't think of a reason why anyone would get a VES 20 over a VEK 12, other than the fact that they didn't know you can use a VEK 12 on a Pentium III. The bottom line. If you want the best heatsink with the best performance at the best price, the Global Win VEK 12 is it. The Goods
The Bads
Our rating: 9.5/10 |
