OCZ Vanquisher CPU Cooler

OCZ Technology has been a player in the performance CPU cooler market for a long time, even since the dark ages of overclocking when the surest way to improve a heatsink’s performance was to put a bigger, louder, faster fan on it. In those days, OCZ’s offerings consisted of the Dominator, Glacier, Gladiator, and Goliath (which featured an 80mm fan – an uncommon thing at that time). Then for a long time, not much came out of OCZ in the way of CPU cooling, as they focused upon their memory products.

Recently, however, OCZ has re-entered the CPU cooler market with renewed vigor, with three new heatsink/fan models – the Vindicator, the Vendetta, and the Vanquisher (the newest of the three). All three models represent the changing landscape of cooling technology, with slower, quieter fans and larger, more efficient fin structures made possible by heatpipe technology.

The Vanquisher is the newest addition to the OCZ cooler arsenal, and features the same vertical ‘tower’ design as the other models in the lineup. It’s similar in design to Arctic Cooling’s Freezer 64, of which Thermaltake also has a clone. (OCZ’s Vindicator tower-style cooler is also very similar to a pre-existing design, the Scythe Ninja.) And as we all know, following an established formula isn’t a particularly innovative way to design a product, but it can predictably yield a good result. OCZ also provides a 1-year warranty on their coolers, for extra peace of mind should you somehow wind up with a dud.

In this article, we’ll put the Vanquisher cooler to the test and evaluate its thermal and acoustic (noise) characteristics. Is the vanquisher a must-have or an also-ran?