8 - The Test
Testing the coolers
Time to test these puppies.
As stated in the introduction, each of these coolers work absolutely charming with any processor (quad-core included) at default operating speeds. Therefore we decided to test it on a system with higher specs.
Methodology -- We use an nForce 780i Ultra SLI mainboard, equip it with a Core 2 Duo Q6600 processor which we overclock towards 3600 MHz (2400 MHz = default). Now we'll test each cooler in four stages:
- Actively cooled - yet CPU has nothing to do (IDLE)
- Actively cooled - four processors cores 100% stressed (LOAD)
- Passively cooled (no fan activated) - yet CPU has nothing to do (IDLE)
- Passively cooled (no fan activated) - four processors cores 100% stressed (LOAD)
Let's have a look at the results. We'll do this chronologically, therefore first up, the coolers actively cooled.
So in dark blue we see the coolers nicely purring along with the fan activated at 100%. A lower temperature is obviously better. Now as you can observe, the Tuniq cooler beats all .. it's one of the cheapest coolers money can buy. Unfortunately it also the one that makes the most noise. you can forfeit on the fan RPM with the included fan controller though.
For me personally Noctua actually wins this session, though it's the most expensive kit you can not hear that fan yet comes in at second place due to it's really good cooling, closely followed by the Silentator.
Last both the Vendetta 2 and CM Hyper Z600. Mind you that all results are pretty frickin' awesome .. remember we overclocked the processor to 3600 MHz, that is 1200 MHz above reference specification !
All coolers stay within a 11% margin from each other.
Now I have these weird ideas sometimes and I was just really interested to see if we could maintain a stable overclock at the overclocked speed with no fans activated at all.
Do we dare ? Of course we do. Unfortunately the test proved that none of the coolers can keep up with 3600 MHz with a missing ventilator. It makes sense .. the entire idea of heatpipe based cooling is to get rid of heat through the pipes to these aluminum fins. With no airflow .. that heat isn't going anywhere.
Though 77 Degrees C is just downright too much for the Quad Core processor the Coolermaster Hyper Z600 was the best. It's cooling performance is compared to the rest average, but thanks to it's large size and weight .. it can absorb heat much better under hefty load. It's just not enough though, if however you have a reasonable amount of airflow in your system .. it could likely be sufficient. I'm not recommending it though.
BTW -- 80 degrees C was our PC shut down temperature, at that temp the BIOS fail-safe kicked in and disabled the PC, we didn't want to fry our processor.
Let's have a 'look' at volume levels.
You have just seen the cooling performance, obviously we 'look' at noise levels as well. One of the best performing products is the Tuniq Core freezer .. cheap, yet the fan makes a heap of noise when 100% activated. You do receive a fan-controller with this product, yet you'll lose cooling performance. So that's a bit of a trade-off there.
The Intel stock cooler will just get crazy once the temps rise. The rest of the products where barely hearable. Very nice. For the CM Z600 we used a 120mm Hiper fan, these fans offer good performance for not a lot of money. Why the heck CM is not delivering a fan with it's product .. beats me.
The second time I declare a winner, and its the Noctua, though the difference is marginal. The Noctua seems to offer exceptionally good cooling versus near silent operation. Their product is just really good. Coolink was doing good as well, though you can slightly hear that fan.
Second place went to OCZ's Vendetta 2. I honestly think that's an awesome product. Really nice performance, silent operation. And the best has yet to come. But I'll share that in the conclusion on the next page.
