AMD A64 Heatsink roundup Q2 2005

Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2005-05-15

In this massive Athlon 64 heatsink roundup we compare 17 cooling solutions from different manufactures including Scythe, TTIC, Arctic Cooling, Thermaltake, Titan, Thermalright, Zalman and Coolermaster.

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Intro & Test Setup

Introduction

Following up on our P4 Roundup we have a few heatsinks designed especially for the A64 platform; some of the HSF combo's previously tested could be mounted on A64 and P4, and with the help of a custom bracket almost any P4 heatsinks which uses the Intel retention bracket can be installed on A64.

This will be a to the point review, each heatsink will be evaluated on easiness of use and installation, compatibility and of course its performance will be thoroughly tested.

This review is split into 2 parts; the first part describes each heatsink in detail with pictures, good/bad points and performance with different fans and settings. In the second part we’ve combined all results in 2 graphs sorted by cooling performance and noise/performance ratio.

Previously tested but included for reference (links lead to detailed overview of these heatsinks done in previous reviews):
  • Coolermaster Hyper6
  • Coolermaster Hyper48
  • Thermalright XP-120
  • Thermalright XP-90
  • Zalman CNPS7000CU
  • Zalman CNPS7700CU
  • Stock A64 Cooler

    New contenders:
  • Scythe SCNJ-1000 Ninja
  • Scythe SHOGUN Heatlane
  • Titan Vanessa-L
  • Titan Vanessa-S
  • ThermalTake Sonic Tower
  • TTIC NPH K8-1
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer64
  • Scythe Kamaboko
  • Scythe KamabokoZ
  • Thermalright XP-90C

    So let’s get on with the show

    Test setup

    Madshrimps (c)
    Test Setup


    JMke's Test Setup
    CPU A64 3200+ @ 2200Mhz default vcore
    Mainboard DFI NF3 Lanparty
    Memory 1 * 256Mb PC3700 OCZ
    Other
  • ATI R9000 Passive Cooling
  • Silverstone 300W Passive Cooled PSU
  • Maxtor 120GB IDE HDD


  • all results were taken with 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. Each heatsink was tested repeatedly; if we got questionable results the test was restarted.
  • Setup was installed in a case less environment
  • Noise level of each fan was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A, the sensor was placed ~40cm away from the HSF. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was 36 dBA. There were a couple of heatsink and fan combo's which produced <36dba readings, they were placed in a quiet room (~30dba) to obtain below 36dba readings.

  • System was stressed by running K7 CPU Burn for 30min (after Thermal Compound’s burn-in); this application pushes the temperature higher then any other application or game we’ve yet encountered. Speedfan was used to log maximum obtained temperatures.
  • Arctic Silver kindly send us their “Lumière” thermal testing compound which has the same colour as Ceramique, but only a break in time of 30min!
  • Arctic Silver’s ArctiClean was used to clean off thermal paste of the CPU and heatsink between tests


    Fans used

  • Aerocool Extreme 80mm : 34CFM
  • Vantec Tornado 80mm TD8038H: 84.1CFM
  • Panaflo 92mm FBA09A12H: 56.8CFM
  • Papst 92mm 3412 N/2GL: 36CFM
  • Vantec Tornado 92mm: 119CFM
  • Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL: 40CFM
  • Titan 120mm (included with Siberia): 115CFM

    With all the details explained it is time to meet our first new contestant ->
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