Testing the cooler
Testing the cooler
Time to test. As stated before, the cooler works absolutely great with any high-end processor (Core i5/i7 quad-core included) at default operating speeds, and there's room left for overclocking as well.
Let me show you something, this is a Core i5 750 processor clocked at stock temperatures being cooled by the CPU cooler (PWM controlled by BIOS / Windows set at performance mode):
- Core i5 750 in IDLE -- 33 Degrees C
- Core i5 750 with 100% LOAD -- 49 Degrees C
Now, that's PWM controlled and thus at flexible RPM regulated by the SBIOS. At this stage a near silent cooling solution really, we can already tell that the cooler will deliver great performance judging from these numbers.
Now what we always do (for a little more serious testing ) we test it with higher requirements, mildly overclocked as reference. We change the processor frequency and voltage.
Methodology -- We use an eVGA p55 Classified 200 motherboard, equip it with a Core i5 750 processor, which we overclock towards 3.2 GHz / 1.3 Volts. Now we'll test the cooler in two utilization stages:
- Actively cooled - yet CPU has nothing to do (IDLE)
- Actively cooled - four processors cores 100% stressed (LOAD)
Let's have a look at the results.
As you can see the X10 Performa cooler positions itself in the high-end performance range of heatpipe based coolers. That really is quite okay for a 35 EUR cooler that remains fairly silent.
Please understand for the above results -- temperatures are based on an overclocked processor with a little extra voltage (1.3v), and the fan speed locked at 80% RPM -- temperatures wise -- obviously LOWER = BETTER.
We tested the cooler with a single fan, you can opt to go with two fans as the cooler design allows that.
Now as you have noticed in these results we kept the cooler at default, there's another way to run the active fan. If you remove the resistor cable and connect the cooler towards your motherboard, all of the sudden your fan RPM will go up. While that is more noisy, it did shave off another 4 degrees C of the peak temperature bringing performance down to the same ;evel as the Noctua NH-D14, and that really is good performance.
At default though, for a cooler in this price-range, it's pretty nice really. But let's have a peek at noise levels. We take a DBa gun and point it at the working PC and take a distance of 75 CM.
All fans cooling the CPU cooler in our tests have been fixed at 80% RPM -- roughly the fan speed your motherboard will apply when the processor is getting really hot. On average and especially PWM controller, the noise level as such will be much lower. The cooler does have another strong selling point, though not silent if the CPU is heating up -- it is not very noisy with it's low RPM rating. Our system maxed out at roughly 41~42 DBa with one fan.
But let's really push the cooler and overclock some more, shall we ?
