Thermolab Bada 2010 Review
Category : Aircooling
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 17.03.14
In the past the Korean company Thermolab has been able to surprise with high quality products, which were able to compete with the best in corresponding product categories. With the Bada 2010 the company has been working on a compact tower cooler and we're rather curious to find out how well this model actually performs.
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Mit dem Bada 2010 hat sich Thermolab augenscheinlich eine Nische ausgesucht, die von der Konkurrenz noch nicht oder nur selten bedient wird. Dabei hat man einen Kühler auf die Beine gestellt, der mit drei Heatpipes und einem 92-Millimeter-Lüfter bestückt wurde. Insgesamt wurde der Tower-Kühler verhältnismässig simpel und schmal gehalten, sodass er zu so gut wie jedem X79 Mainboard kompatibel sein wird.
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With the Bada 2010 from Thermolab you get three heatpipes with 6 millimeter diameter which establish direct contact with the CPU, meaning there is no baseplate through which the heatpipes are routed. In case of the this model you get a tower-cooler that is sized to hold a 92 millimeter fan in place. Whereas the heatpipes are made from copper the heatsink comes with 40 aluminium fins. The bundled 92 millimeter PWM fan, is quite simple but still quality is decent.
Specifications |
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| Model | bada2010 |
| Type | Tower Cooler |
| Provided Fan(s) | 1x 92x25mm PWM (1'000 - 2'100 rpm) |
| Supported Fan(s) | 1x 92mm |
| Base Material | Copper/Aluminum |
| Fins Material | Aluminum |
| Socket Support | Intel LGA 775, 1150, 1155, 1156,
1366 AMD AM2(+), AM3(+) |
| Thermal compound | Thermolab Tube |
| Product Page | Thermolab Bada 2010 |
The bundle and the box are also quite simple. The box is made out of solid cardboard and although it is only protected by a plastic shroud our sample arrived without a single dent or any damage whatsoever. The bundled has been attached to the tower while the rest of the mounting components are placed in a separate plastic bag. The bundle includes an installation manual, mounting components, two fan clips, a 92mm slim fan and of course the heatsink itself as well as a syringe with thermal compound.
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
Photo Gallery
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
Installation
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Installation of the Thermolab Bada 2010 is quite simple and easy. The thermal compound is not pre-applied, meaning you'll have to to that part of the job yourself and you're going to be rewarded for that, since the thermal compount is rather decent. On the cooler is in place overall pressure is good and Thermolab made sure, all sockets with significant marketshare are supported.
Since the Thermolab Bada 2010 is an overall small tower cooler there won't be any compatibility issues with memory that features large heatspreaders, whereas we can add that we tested compatibility with ATX and Mini ITX motherboards.
Test Setup |
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| Mainboard | ASUS Z87-Deluxe (BIOS 1602) |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K Stock (Turbo On / HT On) |
| Memory | ADATA XPG V2 2x4GB DDR3-2800 CL12 1.65V |
| Video | Intel HD Graphics 4600 |
| Software |
Windows 7 x64 wPrime Benchmark v2.10 CPUID HWMonitor 1.24.0 |
| PSU | Seasonic Platinum SS-660XP2 |
| Fan Controller | Lamptron FC5 V3 |
| Thermal Compound | Thermolab Tube |
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
Absolute Performance
Temperatures
| 7V | Idle | Load |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 32 °C | 51 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 33 °C | 53 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 34 °C | 57 °C |
| Raijintek Pallas | 37 °C | 59 °C |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 38 °C | 75 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 36 °C | 60 °C |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 36 °C | 61 °C |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 35 °C | 63 °C |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 39 °C | 64 °C |
| Intel Stock | 39 °C | 83 °C |
To measure cooling capacity we took temperatures in idle and load with the fans at 7 and 12 V. The idle temperature represents the lowest temperature hit by the processor package after 10 minutes in idle. The load temperature is the highest temperature hit by the processor package after one pass of wPrime v2.10. The wPrime test takes 4 minutes and puts load on all 8 threads. Room temperature is 25°C.
| 12V | Idle | Load |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 32 °C | 51 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 33 °C | 51 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 33 °C | 53 °C |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 34 °C | 55 °C |
| Raijintek Pallas | 36 °C | 56 °C |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 34 °C | 57 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 36 °C | 58 °C |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 36 °C | 59 °C |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 36 °C | 69 °C |
| Intel Stock | 35 °C | 70 °C |
Fan Speeds
| 7 Volt | 12 Volt | |
| Raijintek Pallas | 960 rpm | 1'440 rpm |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 1620 rpm | 2'580 rpm |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 900 rpm | 1'500 rpm |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 900 rpm | 1'500 rpm |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 660 rpm | 1'530 rpm |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 600 rpm | 1'740 rpm |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 1'200 rpm | 1'980 rpm |
| Intel Stock | 1'260 rpm | 2'040 rpm |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 280 rpm | 2'220 rpm |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 1'580 rpm | 2'400 rpm |
Fan speeds (RPM) at 7 and 12 V.
Noise Levels
| 7 Volt | 12 Volt | |
| Intel Stock | 33.3 dBA | 37.1 dBA |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 32.3 dBA | 37.4 dBA |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 33.4 dBA | 38.9 dBA |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 32.3 dBA | 38.4 dBA |
| Raijintek Pallas | 34.7 dBA | 39.3 dBA |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 34.2 dBA | 39.5 dBA |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 33.4 dBA | 39.6 dBA |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 33.0 dBA | 40.3 dBA |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 32.3 dBA | 40.4 dBA |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 34.5 dBA | 41.7 dBA |
Decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) has been placed 1 meter away from the cooler. Measurements are conducted in a quiet room, where there are no other noise source. 32 dBA is the lowest we can get in our room. Also here the measurements are conducted at 7 and 12 V.
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
PWM Performance
Temperatures
| Idle | Load | |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 33 °C | 55 °C |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 35 °C | 55 °C |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 34 °C | 57 °C |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 39 °C | 70 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 36 °C | 57 °C |
| Raijintek Pallas | 37 °C | 58 °C |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 35 °C | 59 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 36 °C | 60 °C |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 38 °C | 62 °C |
| Intel Stock | 39 °C | 75 °C |
At this point we plugged the fan(s) to the motherboard CPU fan header and let the motherboard take care of fan speeds. In other words the motherboard will adjust the fan speed via PWM signal according to CPU temperature. The idle temperature is the lowest temperature hit by the processor package after 10 minutes idle. The load temperature is the highest temperature hit by the processor package after one pass of wPrime v2.10. The wPrime test takes 4 minutes puts load on all 8 threads. Room temperature is 25°C.
Fan Speeds
| Idle | Load | |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 380 rpm | 687 rpm |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 450 rpm | 740 rpm |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 471 rpm | 770 rpm |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 800 rpm | 969 rpm |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 765 rpm | 1'077 rpm |
| Raijintek Pallas | 952 rpm | 1'170 rpm |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 950 rpm | 1'465 rpm |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 1'250 rpm | 1'500 rpm |
| Intel Stock | 1'230 rpm | 1'630 rpm |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 1475 rpm | 2253 rpm |
Values are in RPM, we took the lowest speed hit by the fan(s) in idle and the highest under load.
Noise Levels
| Idle | Load | |
| Noctua NH-U12S Single Fan | 32.0 dBA | 32.0 dBA |
| Noctua NH-U12S Dual Fan | 32.0 dBA | 32.4 dBA |
| Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure | 32.0 dBA | 32.7 dBA |
| Corsair H75 Single Fan | 32.2 dBA | 33.2 dBA |
| Cooler Master Hyper 103 | 32.0 dBA | 33.6 dBA |
| Prolimatech Lynx | 33.3 dBA | 33.9 dBA |
| Thermolab Bada 2010 | 33.8 dBA | 34.2 dBA |
| Intel Stock | 33.3 dBA | 34.4 dBA |
| Thermolab ITX30 | 34.1 dBA | 37.6 dBA |
| Raijintek Pallas | 35.9 dBA | 41.4 dBA |
Decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) has been placed 1 meter away from the cooler. Measurements are conducted in a quiet room, where there are no other noise source. 32 dBA is the lowest we can get in our room. Also here the measurements are conducted at lowest and highest fan speeds in idle and under load respectively.
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| Overall the Thermolab Bada 2010 is a decent cooler. It is affordable and aimed at entry-level to mid-range market. As expected from Thermolab, build quality is good but in terms of performance we would have loved to see our test CPU run at temps a little bit lower. Other than that noise level are ok, with the cooler being very silent in idle and silent under load. |
- Compact
- PWM |
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| Installation | + | - | |
| Mounting is quite easy and practical. The fan is installed using rubber grommets, which help reducing noise created by vibration. The mounting kit included in delivery offers wide compatibility and installing the cooler is self-explanatory. Other than that thermal compound can be found in a syringe. | - Easy and practical mounting - Compatibility | ||
| Performance | + | - | |
| Cooling performance of the Thermolab Bada 2010 is defintely not overwhelming, but keeping in mind, that at 7V the fan was only spinning at 280 rpm and the CPU did not get any hotter than 64°C it is certainly not bad either. It was rather interesting to see that even when the fan was running at 2'200 rpm temperatures were still at 59°C, which is a good indicator this cooler has been built with low rpm fans in mind. | - Cooling performances 7V | - Cooling performances 12V | |
| Noise Levels | + | - | |
| The overall noise levels are good and the Thermolab Bada 2010 is silent, except for 12V. Luckily this cooler is powerful enough to keep a CPU at adequate temperatures, even when the fans are driven at 7V, meaning noise level won't be an issue anymore. | - Inaudible at 7V |
- Audible with PWM - Well audible at 12V |
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| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| If you're looking for a cooler that is price somewhere around 45 US-Dollar and offers reasonable performance at 7V, whereas the noiselevel can be described as inaudible, then the Bada 2010 is certainly a good choice. Should you be looking for a cooler that enables you to overclock your CPU to the limit, then we would recommend other models instead. |
- Price
- HTPC - Mini-ITX Gaming |
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| Rating | |||
| We gave the Bada 2010 from Thermolab 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |