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AMD Athlon XP Heatsink roundup Q4 2004

Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2004-12-28

The Thermalright SI-97, Scythe Kamakiri and Spire VertiCool compared using a variety of fans and reference heatsinks. Does the new generation Athlon XP coolers deliver good value for money? Read on to find out.

Thermalright SI-97

Thermalright SI-97:
Sample supplier: Thermalright

The Thermalright SI-97 builds on the same design layout of the XP-90 and XP-120 which are meant for P4 and A64. The small base is made of copper and has 4 heat pipes leading in a U form up into a series of aluminum fins.

Can be installed on: Socket A/462

Heatsink specifications:
- Length: 116mm
- Width: 96mm
- Height: 75mm
- Material: Copper and Aluminum
- Weight: 280gr (no fan)

Included Fan: None (Thermalright recommends Panaflo FBL09A12M 92mm fan)

Supports Fan: 80/92mm

Product pictures

Thermalright’s product development is in a very mature stage, the heatsink features excellent finishing with a very smooth base and no sharp edges anywhere to be spotted

Fan mounting is done through to metal clips which hook unto the lower lip of the fan; so you need to use fan which does not feature closed corners. 2 small strips of plastic are sandwiched between heatsink and fan to reduce noise from vibration.

Installation

Thermalright includes a copper shim to protect the fragile Athlon XP core, the base of the SI-97 is not that big and without the shim is very likely to tilt during installation. In the pictures below you see the AXP without and with the shim. Do note that in these pictures I failed to remove the protective plastic film on the shim; however before final installation it was removed.

Although the SI-97 installation doesn’t necessarily require motherboard removal, it will most likely be needed to access the small clip which needs to be placed in the middle of the base and over the 3 lips at each side of the socket. The heatsink is fairly high and clears all mosfets and northbridge heatsink.

Performance versus Thermalright SP-97

The SI-97’s toughest competition comes from Thermalright’s own SP-97 which offers excellent performance be it with high output or silent fans. Let’s see how the SI-97 measures up:

Madshrimps (c)

The SI-97 trails the SP-97 when high output fans are used by a mere 1-3°C, however when using the extremely silent Papst fan at 7v the SI-97 takes the lead.

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