CPU Heatsink Roundup May 2006

Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2006-05-01

Eight new heatsinks are compared to 21 other air cooling solutions from different manufactures. We have some promising entries from Spire, Aerocool, Scythe, Thermaltake and Tuniq for you today!

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Introduction & Test Setup

Introduction

Welcome to the next edition of our heatsink roundups, today we have these new contestants for you:

Madshrimps (c)
Tuniq Tower 120 showed up late for the group photo-shoot ;)


  • Aerocool Dominator
  • Arctic Cooling Alpine 64
  • Spire DiamondCool II
  • Spire VertiCool II
  • Scythe Katana CU
  • Scythe Mine
  • Thermaltake Mini Typhoon
  • Tuniq Tower 120


  • And heatsinks included for comparison which were already tested in the Sonata II:

  • AMD Stock Cooling *
  • AMD’s new Heat pipe Stock cooling *
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 *
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro *
  • Asus X-Mars *
  • Coolermaster Susurro *
  • Noctua NH-U 12 *
  • Noctua NH-U 9 *
  • Sharkoon Red Shock *
  • Silverstone NT02 *
  • Scythe NCU-2000 *
  • Scythe Ninja *
  • Scythe Samurai Z *
  • Scythe Shogun *
  • Thermalright XP-90C *
  • Thermalright XP-90 *
  • Thermalright XP-120 *
  • Thermalright HR-01 *
  • Thermalright SI-120 *
  • Thermaltake Big Typhoon *
  • Zalman CNPS9500CU *


  • If you want to know more about the heatsinks starred (*) in the lists above please visit my heatsink review overview

    Test Setups and Methodology

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


  • in-take temperature was measured at 22°C for all tests, but temp fluctuations, different mounting and user error can account up to 1-3°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.
  • Noise level of each HSF combo was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A, the sensor was placed ~50cm away from the case. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was 32.5dBA with everything turned off!
  • 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 for comparison

    To eliminate as much variables in the tests I test each heatsink with a “reference” fan if I can mount them. If the HSF comes with its own fan, I will compare the performance of that fan to the reference one I use.

  • Delta NFB0912L 92mm: 42CFM
  • Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL: 40CFM


    The Case

    Since I’m only using an Athlon 3200+ for my tests, it would be interesting to overclock the CPU so its maximum heat output increases and it can simulate a higher clocked Athlon 64.

    I recently purchased a power meter similar to this. Doing a few basic measurements with the test system gave these results for full system wattage usage.

  • Athlon S754 3200+ @ 2200Mhz - 1.5v: idle: 67Watt / Load: 125Watt
  • Athlon S754 3200+ @ 2420Mhz - 1.7v: idle: 78Watt / Load: 165Watt

    In my days of Athlon XP HSF testing an increase of 0.1v vcore would result in 4-6°C higher CPU temps, so without much surprise the temperature results in this roundup with the 1.7v Athlon 64 will be much higher.

    Noise was recorded approx. 50cm away from the case at an angle, here’s a (very bad) drawing of how the dBA meter was position opposite the case and the test-room.

    Madshrimps (c)
    Green box = Sonata II – White Dot = dBA meter


    3 different test scenarios were configured as such:

    Madshrimps (c)


  • Test Setup 1: Overclocked and Silent

    - Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2400 – 1.7v vcore
    - Antec Sonata II + Silverstone Passive PSU
    - AcoustiFan DustPROOF 120mm @ 5v in the rear as outtake (mounted with soft-mounts)
    - nVidia TNT2 Passive cooled video card
    - Noise produced with system running without HSF fan: 34dBA @ 50cm


  • Test Setup 2: Stock speeds and Silent

    - Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2200 – 1.5v vcore
    - Antec Sonata II + Silverstone Passive PSU
    - AcoustiFan DustPROOF 120mm @ 5v in the rear as outtake (mounted with soft-mounts)
    - nVidia TNT2 Passive cooled video card
    - Noise produced with system running without HSF fan: 34dBA @ 50cm

  • Test Setup 3: Stock speeds and Silent – Passive CPU cooling

    - Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2200 – 1.5v vcore
    - Antec Sonata II + Silverstone Passive PSU
    - AcoustiFan DustPROOF 120mm @ 12v/7.5v/5v in the rear as outtake (mounted with soft-mounts)
    - nVidia TNT2 Passive cooled video card

    What was measured?

  • The CPU temperature was measured with SpeedFan and highest value recorded
  • Temperature of air coming into to the case at the front
  • PWM temperature through SpeedFan, this represent the area around the CPU socket, the power management caps which you see on a motherboard, they are there to make sure the power which is fed into the motherboard coming from the PSU is filtered and delivered the CPU and other components. Too high temperature will cause Vcore fluctuations which in turn causes system instability.

    Let's get started with our first new contestant ->
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