Core i7 4790K Baseline test

Testing the coolers

Time to test. Today's tested coolers will work absolutely great with any processor from low to high-end (Core i3/Core i5/Core i7 quad-core and even six-core included up-to 130W) at default operating frequencies, of course there's room left for overclocking as well. We have built a new test system policy for cooling benchmarks. 

Core i7 4970K Devils Canyon baseline IDLE Temperatures

Let's have a look at the results for the system in its default non-overclocked state. Below, the IDLE temperatures, thus your processor is doing barely anything to nothing. Just sitting and waiting in your system.

None of the coolers obviously have any issue whatsoever in IDLE with the Core i7 4970K not overclocked.

If you have a look at the chart above you can see the processor LOAD temperatures (in the non-overclocked state). We measure in a 21 Degrees C ambient room temperature. Ambient temperatures do affect the cooling performance, albeit a little bit.

We note down the hottest measured CPU package temperature. 

Guru3D's rule of thumb on CPU load vs cooling temps:

• Anything up-to to roughly 50 Degrees C or lower we consider enthusiast class cooling
• Anything in-between 51 to 60 Degrees C we consider performance cooling
• Anything in-between 61 to 70 Degrees C we consider mainstream cooling
• Anything above 71 Degrees C we consider average cooling

That is at considered mainstream cooling, fairly good for a kit with a small footprint, I mean these are intended as ITX coolers at a 95x95mm design, keep that in mind. 

Noctua also delivered some extra fans, so we tried the NH0U9S with two fans in a push-pull config as well. That really works out well, at the cost of extra space though (that you might or might not have). It actually did not increase noise levels.

Above the NH-U9S - we run wPrime 2 times, at the last run we measure the peak temperature which was 66 Degrees actually. Yeah that's with a Core i7 4790K. Not bad considering this cooler is horrendously silent.

Above the NH-D9L- we run wPrime 2 times, at the last run we measure the peak temperature which was 72 Degrees. Yeah that's with a Core i7 4790K. That's OK at best but again considering the small form factor design versus the CPU in use, not bad.