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Intel P4 Aircooling - Heatsink Roundup Q4 2004

Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2004-10-28

In this roundup we compare 13 different P4 heatsinks made by Thermalright, Coolermaster, Scythe, Speeze, Swiftech, Evercool, Aerocool and TTIC. Using different fans at low and high speed we try to find the best bang for the buck, best performer and most silent heatsink out there.

Results: High & Low Speed Fans

Results: High & Low Speed Fans

Here’s our test system again:

JMke's Test Setup
CPU	Intel P4 2.4 "C" @ 3 Ghz - 1.65v vcore With Arctic Silver Lumiere
Mainboard	Asus P4C800
Memory	1 * 256Mb PC3200 Mushkin Special Series
Video	ATI R9000 Passive Cooling

If the result of a fan equals 0°C then it means the System reached critical temperature, it crashed.

Only results included here with the fans specified on the 1st page of this article, I did not have a common 70mm, so the stock one delivered with the heatsink was used.

Noise ranking, remember that a larger fan is more silent then a smaller one, so noise-wise 70 > 80 > 92 > 120mm.

all results were taken with a room temperature at ~25°C, but temp fluctuations, different mounting and user error can account up to 1-2°C of inaccuracy in the obtained results. Please keep this in mind when looking at the results.

Fans @ LOW speed

Madshrimps (c)

The Coolermaster Hyper6 takes the lead here temperature wise closely followed by the NPH-1 and Thermalright’s XP-120, but looking at noise/performance it’s Thermalright XP-120 which takes the crown. The Aerocool, Scythe and other Thermalright heatsinks are all closely together, with a temperature difference between them of 2°C. When looking at the mainstream cooling solutions we only see the CM Vortex in the graph still holding the system below critical temps.

Fans @ HIGH speed

Madshrimps (c)

Turning the dial on the rheobus to its maximum setting changes the layout of the graph a bit. The SP-94 becomes the sole leader, followed by a pack consisting of the Hyper6, FCS-50, NPH-1 and XP-120. The XP-90 and Aerocool heatsinks are in the middle of the graph with still excellent numbers.

The XP-90 catches up with the XP-120 when both are using the same 120mm Papst fan, the Swiftech MCX-478V is barely able to shake of Coolermaster’s Vortex which precedes the NCU2000. The Coppersnake sits at the way station between good performance and average “so-so”. None of the heatsink performed worse then the Intel Stock Aluminum, luckily! :-)

Onto our passive cooling tests ->

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