Date:
Thursday , November 01, 2007
Author:
Marc Adams
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Mega-Heatsink Roundup - 0407

Big bucks for big units! We pull out the stops and put 10 big bad cooling systems and heatsinks to the test. What coolers deliver you the best temperature drop for your hard earned dollar? We spell it out for you on a unit by unit basis.

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SYSTEM SETUP

All testing of the various heatsinks will occur on an XFX 650i Ultra motherboard paired up with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6420. We will test each heatsink at the CPU's stock settings of 2133MHz @ 1.35v and its overclocked settings of 3400MHz @ 1.4875v. This will give us a clear picture of how well these heatsinks scale when the heat gets turned up.

 

Test Methods

Testing each cooler will be done under very strictly controlled conditions to ensure an even playing field. Zalman's STG1 thermal paste was selected for this roundup for a few key reasons. Firstly, the thermal paste has been shown to require no curing time allowing us to test each heatsink with equal results. Any curing time could have introduced variables into the equation causing at best dubious results and at worst unreliable ones. Secondly, thanks to the unique applicator of the STG1 it is very easy to apply a thin layer across the CPU consistently thereby removing yet another possible variable from the mix.

Ambient temperature will be kept at 25C for the duration of the tests and measured with a MicroTemp EXP non-contact infrared thermometer. Any variance greater then 0.2C will halt the testing until temperatures return within spec for fifteen minutes. Scores for the CPU will be measured using Nvidia's nvmonitor tool.

For each heatsink tested we will be using a Thermaltake Thunderblade 120mm fan in place of any fan that may come with the various coolers. This is so we can test the performance of each heatsink in a controlled environment where the only variable will be the coolers themselves and not the fans they use. This fan is rated for 78 CFM @ 2000RPM with a sound rating of 21 dBA

Idle

Idle temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Load

Load temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of 100% load. To obtain this we will be using Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT). This has been shown to heat up a CPU greater then Orthos, Prime95, Folding@Home or any other program. The benefit of this is that we will be loading the CPU to a greater degree than many of today's programs are capable of. This is truly a worst case scenario. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.