Date:
Tuesday , May 01, 2007
Category:
Cooling
Manufacturers:
Thermalright
Author:
Justin Diduch
Editor:
Kyle Bennett

Thermalright Inferno FX-14 CPU Cooler Preview

Thermalright gives HardOCP an exclusive first look at their new Inferno FX-14 heatsink as we break in our new Core2Duo test bed along with a new cooling editor in the Great Northwest.

Introduction

We have not only a new product, but also a new test bed, and a new author to introduce! Joining the cooling editorial team, for this and hopefully many future articles is Wes Hardcastle. We worked together in the trenches of the tech departments at a couple of local PC stores for a few years before I moved on to where I am now. It became clear early on that we both had a borderline unhealthy PC hardware obsession and we have remained friends/partners in crimes against hardware warranties ever since. I will let Wes tell you a bit more about himself before we get to the new Thermalright cooler and the new testbed.

I am very excited to join forces with Justin on our mission to review exotic cooling products in a real world testing environment. Believe it or not, I am currently working for Justin’s competition as a computer technician at computer repair shop in the same town. Previously Justin and I worked together at another computer store as techs. My alter ego is a part time college student going down the road of network management. From day to day my work will range from building up the latest and greatest hardware with custom water cooling to Windows 98 configurations and dust choked CPU fans. Dealing with water cooling disasters, improper installation of heatsinks, and damaged hardware makes me smile.

For quite some time Thermalright has been known for innovative design and impressive build quality, providing air cooling solutions for the computer enthusiast. Building on their already well established line of heatpipe based coolers, We jumped at the opportunity to take the first look at their latest offering to the cooling enthusiast,the new Inferno FX-14 CPU cooler.

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With a suggested retail price of $79.95 (without fans) this is certainly a high-end cooler. Thermalright tells us the FX stands for Fire eXtinguisher, let’s see what our new overclocked E6300 test-bed has to say.

Test Setup

Although our previous X2 test bed is still a current platform, we felt that the transition to an overclocked Core2Duo would allow us to better test (and stress) a wider variety of coolers. This is in part because of Intel’s use of a square CPU cooler mounting pattern versus AMD’s rectangular arrangement. In addition, the impressive, and easily obtainable overclocking results on the 965P chipset make this transition all the more enjoyable.

At the heart of the system is the Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 featuring Intel’s 965P chipset. Paired with the Intel Core2Duo E6300. We have carried over the same Corsair XMS2-8500 dual channel DDR2 memory kit, and given the video card and upgrade. An ASUS 256mb 7900GS replaces the 6600GT for future VGA cooler testing. The remaining components and BIOS/driver revision information can be found on the table below.

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Ambient temperature is maintained at 24C, as measured by a Honeywell digital thermometer. CPU core temperatures are recorded using CoreTemp v.94. We have started using CoreTemp due to its accuracy measuring internal CPU die temperatures versus other software solutions. For more information about how CoreTemp works check out the CoreTemp FAQ.

Load temperatures were obtained running the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool load generator on both cores at 100% until maximum temperature is achieved.

Fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal interface material is applied to the CPU before every cooler is mounted.