Date:
Sunday , July 30, 2006
Author:
Justin Diduch
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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AMD AM2 Processor Air Cooler Roundup

We bring together 7 CPU coolers on AMD’s new AM2 platform and put them to the test to find out how they stack up against each other.

Introduction

So you’ve got a new AM2 based machine and you want to keep it cool, but you don’t know what heatsink to use? We didn’t either, so we tested seven coolers from six different companies to find out. Rather than just show you a graph with a bunch of temperatures we also take into account ease of installation, perceived noise levels and price. This way you can make an informed decision about which heatsink is right for your application.

Background

First a little background about me. I am your typical 28 year old Seattle area hardware geek you could say. I started out at 6 years old (1983 for the math deficient) with a Commodore64 and a copy of Jumpman. It's been a great ride ever since. After a few years I figured out that it is cheaper to have a hardware habit if you are in the industry, so I started working as a technician at a couple of local computer stores. The owner of one of the stores also happens to be the owner of Koolance USA. Long story short I eventually transferred to Koolance USA to be the R&D/Thermal Engineer. While there I was involved product development, pre production testing, end user support, and RMA.

After a while I decided that I was going to try to work for myself and recently opened my own computer store focusing on custom built systems, and water cooling. At the moment it is still a small affair, but we are growing and I’m having a great time doing it.

Aside from my “professional” life, I can usually be found either modding, overclocking, or gaming on one of my computers (my wife says I have an illness). For those of you that frequent the forums you might know me already as Ctrl_Alt_Delete.

Test Setup

Ambient temperature was maintained at 24C for the duration of all tests. No modifications or lapping was done to the heatsinks. All stock thermal compounds were carefully removed and mounting surfaces were cleaned with isopropyl alcohol before fresh Arctic Silver 5 was applied to the processor.

Load temperatures were achieved using two instances of Prime 95 each running the “in place large FFTs” torture test on a separate core until peak temperature was reached.

Temperatures were recorded with Speedfan version 4.28.

Noise levels given are purely subjective, taking into account not just how loud a particular fan is, but the pitch as well. A lower pitch at the same dB level is typically perceived as “quieter” than a higher pitch by the human ear.

Flatness of the heatsink mounting surfaces is checked with a machinist straight edge from corner to corner.

The motherboard is mounted on a pull out motherboard tray from an Inwin ATX case.

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