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Coolit have clearly been concentrating on the most important aspect of their cooling solutions, the build quality. We had some reservations in regards to their original Domino and with horror stories across the net we are glad to see that the ECO and Vantage have been repairing the faith with consumers.
The Vantage is in a different price bracket however so it has to compete with monster heatsinks such as the Noctua NH D14 Austrian Sandwich – sadly it isn't quite up to the task. Even at ‘Extreme' settings it can't quite cool a heavily overclocked processor in the same manner as the Austrian masterpiece.
To be utterly subjective however, we would be happy using this cooler on our overclocked Core i7 970 at 4.44ghz 24/7 because it is barely audible until all six cores are sitting at 100% load. Even then it isn't as loud as the Domino ALC on high or the painful Thermaltake Frio when both fans are maxed. 47.8dBa is perfectly acceptable to me in a performance system and we also love the fact that when the Core i7 970 drops to under 50% load, then the Vantage lowers noise levels in conjunction.
Right now the price is £105 inc vat in the UK which puts it into the high end category, costing £50 more than the Noctua NH D14 for instance. Why would anyone spend £50 more than the Noctua NH D14 for a cooler you ask?
Well, for one, the Noctua NH D14 is a massive cooler and can cause some fitting issues in specific chassis and can also negate the option to use memory with tall heatspreaders. It also takes some work reinstalling and is basically a ‘once fit, leave it', solution. The Coolit Vantage is more diverse because it only takes a few minutes to fit and it won't block anything in close proximity to the processor. From this perspective it is a fantastic high end cooling solution which bears serious consideration.
The LED system also is extremely practical and entertaining. If you have a side windowed case then the pulsing and colour settings look great, and you can always double check on coolant temperatures with a quick glance.
KitGuru says: It is expensive, but it is a quality piece of equipment and one we rate very highly indeed.
