Passive tests:



I placed the 120mm Papst 30cm away from the CPU and aimed it at a predefined angle towards the heatsink, the 120mm Papst delivers 40CFM at 18dBA, so only a minimal amount of air turbulence was created. A more extensive article with in-case testing is scheduled for release next month so look at these numbers as a guideline, they are not definitive.

Only the NCU2000 was designed for passive cooling, but I though it would be interesting to see how the other large heatsinks would handle P4 when they were passively cooled.

P4 @ 2000Mhz – 1.65v vcore



The NCU2000 does what it is supposed to do, very good. No other heatsink comes close, although the XP-120 is showing impressive numbers. The Hyper6 is handicapped due to the metal fan bracket which blocks most of the air from passing through its copper fins. Aerocool’s DP-102 is very close to critical temperatures.

P4 @ 2400Mhz – 1.65v vcore



When we add 400Mhz to the clockspeed all results increase quite linearly with ~5°C, the DP-102 drops of the list, while the Hyper6 is running very close to the limit.

Overall I was quite surprised by the results of XP-120, which provided impressive numbers when compared to the NCU2000.


Detail test: XP-90 vs SP-94

Since the XP-90 was touted as the SP-94 killer, here are all the different results I obtained in one graph, color coded for your viewing pleasure



What conclusion can we draw from the above numbers?

80/92mm @ High: SP-94 takes the lead

80mm @ Low: comparable performance

92mm @ Low: XP-90 takes the lead

Now remember that comment I made on the SP-94 detail page about heatsink orientation:

Horizontal gives best performance, while vertical will give 1-2°C higher results.

Let’s take worse case scenario and add 2°C to the results of the SP-94:

80/92mm @ High: SP-94 lead is reduced

80mm @ Low: comparable results

92mm @ Low: the XP-90's lead increases

Since most users are moving away from small, noisy fans the XP-90 will accommodate their needs excellently, providing better performance with large low speed fans when compared to the SP-94.

With all the results compared it is time for a summary and conclusion ->