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Intel Aircooling - Heatsink Roundup Q4 2003

Cooling/CPU Cooling by piotke @ 2003-12-22

Exotic heatsinks. Some people buy them for the looks, others buy them for the performance. Which one suits your needs ? We reviewed the Scythe Kamakaze, Swiftech MCX478-V, Speeze EE429B0 CopperSnake and the Thermalright SLK947-U.

The heatsinks tested

The heatsinks will be tested with following fans, if they fit of course:

Enermax 80 mm

RPM: Low 1800

Noise level: 26.5 dB

Airflow: 26.87 CFM

AC - Ryan 80 mm

RPM: 2500

Noise level: 27,85 dB

Airflow: 32,37 CFM

Vantec tornado 80 mm

RPM: 5800

Noise level: 55 dB

Airflow: 84 CFM

And following fans were only used with the heatsinks they were provided with:

Kamakaze fan
Tested on lowest/medium/highest speed

Fan Speed: 1300~3400rpm (with rheostat)

Air Flow: 13.6CFM @ 1300rpm ~ 34CFM @ 3400rpm

Fan Noise Level: 16dBA @ 1300rpm (lowest); 37dBA @ 3400rpm (highest)

Speeze fan

RPM: 3200

Noise level: 25 dB

Airflow: 23,8 CFM

Heating it up:
I used a p4 2.6 GHz CPU, but thas wasn’t enough for me. I Overclocked it to 3250 Mhz (fsb250) but kept it to the stock voltage. Most Asus boards overvolt a little bit, so I had a core voltage of almost 1.6 V.
I enable Hyper-Threading, and for heating it up, I used 2 instances of the program “toast” and SuperPi. Then I stressed my system for half an hour, and noted the results.

IMPORTANT:

The ambient temperature was 20°.

I used Artic Silver 3 as thermal paste.

No case was used, this means that if you'll use the heatsinks in a case, your temps will be probably be a little higher.

Madshrimps (c)

The Vantec tornado is a real beast. Very powerful, and very loud...
The three heatsinks perform very well with this fan, and the temperature never got above 28°. With the stock fan of the Kamakaze set to maximum, this heatsink is almost 5° behind, but the fan isn't that powerful as the Vantec.
In this test the Swiftech is the "winner".

Medium noise fans this time. This means also less airflow, and we can see that the Kamakaze runs a little behind this time...
The SLK seems to perform very well with a medium fan, but also this time the difference is too small to name a real winner.

Who doesn't like a silent computer, when you don't have a separate computer room ? So a silent fan is necessary. But silent means little airflow. The Swiftech performs the best with slowest fan. And once again, the stock fan of the Kamakaze keeps the HSF trailing the rest.

Time for a short overview and a conclusion I would say.

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