Core i7 4790K Baseline test

Testing the cooler

Time to test. Today's tested cooler will work absolutely great with any processor from low to high-end (Core i3/Core i5/Core i7 quad-core and even six-core including 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 close to nothing. Just sitting and waiting in your system.

None of the coolers obviously have any issue whatsoever in IDLE with the Core i7 not overclocked. The processor idles at roughly 23~24 degrees C.

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 considered performance cooling, fairly good for a kit priced like this versus this processor. We are looking at Noctua D14 class performance here. And as a reminder let me tell you that a D14 would never fir into a compact sized Mini ITX solution. You need to keep that form factor in mind at all times.