Test Results

Below you see the system installed with the two weight reduction wires at each side; the fan is lined up with the 120mm exhaust fan.



I recorded the noise at 20cm from the left side panel of the Antec Sonata 2 case; at this distance at “high” fan speed I got a 48.3 dBA reading, the 92mm fan was doing close to 2700rpm. This is loud in no matter what the ambient noise, at that rpm a 92mm fan blowing air through a series of tightly packed fins will cause quite a bit of noise. When the CPU was idle the fan throttled back to 2400rpm, the dBA meter responded by settling on a 46.8dBA reading, it was still clearly audible in the test room. The fan would spin up at high CPU load, the CPU temperature drops, the fan slows down, the CPU temperature goes up, the fan spins faster, CPU temperature drops, the fans slows down, the CPU temperature goes up… etc. You get the idea: the constant speed throttling of the 92mm fan is clearly noticeable and make the Triumph not an ideal candidate for those looking for a silent CPU Cooling.

For those looking for a high performance cooling, read on. In the charts below I’ve included results from other “louder” coolers which also happen to perform admirably. The XP-90 was coupled with the insane Vantec 92mm tornado fan, which explains its stellar performance. I have removed the dBA readings from the charts as the results are not comparable between the different heatsinks. If you do want to get an idea of how loud each heatsink/fan combo is, just click the chart. Do note that the ambient noise for the other coolers was ~32dBA (vs ~37dBA now) and recorded at a distance of 50cm at an angle (vs 20cm from the side now).

With the A65 3200+ at stock speeds and voltage the power meter normally records ~125Watt total system usage, with the MACS installed and at full load this increased to ~128Watt. Leading me to believe the TEC was not active during this first test:



The PWM area is cooled very well, the CPU temperature is pretty low, but others are able to better the MACS.

At overclocked settings the total system power usage is normally ~165Watt, with the MACS installed it went up to ~173Watt, almost a 10Watt increase, might be more/less of course, as the power supply's efficiency rating may go up/down at different loads. It’s obvious though that the TEC is not running anywhere near full force. The results with the system overclocked are:



Impressive, keeping this overclocked and overvolted CPU below 60°C is quite an accomplished, only a handful of heatsinks on the market are able to do this. Somehow I felt that I didn’t really stress the Triumph enough to awaken the TEC cooling power. So I did what any overclocker would do, increase CPU speed and voltage.

CPU speed was changed to 2530Mhz at 1.75v, total system power draw: ~207Watt, this little furnace will put to shame those hot running Prescott CPUs, keeping it running cool requires some hefty heatsink action, the Triumph… triumphs at ~65°C for more than half an hour, the CPU temperature remained very stable. Then the old S754 CPU decided that it was enough and crashed. I do tend to blame the CPU (which is not known to be an overclocker champ when overclocked “on air”) for this failure.

Conclusion

The MACS Triumph is a high end product for those people who don’t want to cool their CPU with water cooling, but do want excellent temperatures; the overclockers will have some success with this heatsink as the integrated TEC allows for quite a bit of heat to be efficiently removed. For this device you do pay a premium of €90, for which you get a separate control unit, TEC and heatpipe/copper material, all of that doesn’t come cheap, so the total price is but a sum of the components.

While the performance impressed me, the overall noise/performance ratio was less stellar, the 92mm fan is integrated into the unit’s power cabling and won’t be easy to replace, at high speed it’s quite loud and even when running at reduced speed can be clearly heard over ambient.

Overall the product is promising with excellent performance at high CPU loads, but combining it with a larger/quieter fan will benefit its global appeal.

PRO
Excellent performance
Gets better as CPU load increases
Available for all current platforms (AM2/K8 or S775)
Ability to orientate it correctly with case airflow setup

CON
High Price (€89)
Loud 92mm fan

I like to thank Leon from Dollarshop for sending over the product for testing;

Questions/Comments: forum thread