DATA Analysis

Performance wise the new Intel Extreme Reference HSF was the best of all Intel HSF tested, improving temperatures by as much as 8°C. At this performance level the heatsink ranks on par with popular 3rd party solutions as the Scythe Ninja and OCZ Vendetta. When we put the fan speed to “Low” the load temperatures increased by ~4.5°C.

So looking purely at the temperature results this heatsinks does quite okay; but when we include the noise readings this outcome is less impressive. To get 53°C load temperatures the fan is making quite a bit of noise, ~64dBA (at 5cm) and this puts it into the highest noise bracket of the chart; If you realize that the Scythe Ninja gets 53°C at 47.3dBA you understand that the Intel cooler is very noise indeed.

Switching the fan speed to “Low” the noise dropped to a merely “annoying” 56.3dBA level… the list of 3rd party heatsinks which offer better performance at lower noise levels than this is very long.


Blue LED lightening doesn’t make it less noisy unfortunately

Conclusive Thoughts

Overall we weren’t quite impressed with the performance numbers of the Intel Extreme Reference Heatsink (what a mouthful!). While pure temperature results were commendable for its compact size and low weight, the fan makes too much noise to make it a viable solution for “acceptable” CPU cooling.

If you don’t care about noise and you HSF weight and size is critical for your choice, you could try to find this unit on eBAY or similar service. If you value quiet CPU cooling with acceptable performance you should look elsewhere as this Intel cooler doesn’t improve on the performance/noise balance you get from many affordable 3rd party heatsinks.

+ Free with 45nm Extreme Processors
+ PWM fan control
+ Low weight

- Very noise fan
- Below average performance

We thank Thorgal, our local memory module reviewer, who allowed us to test his reference heatsink.