X-bit labs

Battle of the Titans: Super Coolers from Scythe, Thermaltake and Zalman Face to Face (page 11)

Category: Coolers

by Doors4ever

[ 10/21/2005 | 11:44 AM ]

When assembled in a system case, the whole arrangement looks like shown on the picture:

The cooler is so tall that there’s a gap of only 1 centimeter between the cooler’s top and the side panel of the system case. But despite its large size the cooler weighs only 790 grams (or 128 grams less than the Zalman CNPS7700Cu).

The cooler is mounted on Socket 478 in the same manner, but using the standard frame on the mainboard.

In this case you avoid the laborious frame-assembly step, but still face the socket orientation problems as with Socket 754/939.

The orientation problem does not arise with Socket LGA775 since the holes on the mainboard are located in the corners of a square rather than of a rectangle as with Socket 754, 939 or 478. You just have to fasten two small mounting brackets on the cooler instead of a single large one and put the frame on the mainboard correctly. I’m ashamed to say I did it the incorrect way. I installed the frame first and then realized that I would have to tighten the screw with the spanner under the heatsink ribs instead of quickly turning them in with a screwdriver. I abhorred the idea of reinstalling the frame so I began to tighten the screws with the spanner. The screws were long and there was little space for the spanner so I had to make tens or even hundreds of quarter-of-a-turn movements. People with less strong nerves would fall in a fit of hysterics, so I am proud I carried the operation through without harming anyone nearby.

And then I put the testbed into the thermal chamber. The cooler’s fan was rotating at its maximum 1600rpm speed and was rather quiet at that. The temperature of the CPU was above 60°C at the launch of the system, giving me some apprehensions, but then it went down to about 50.5-51.5°C . So I calmed down and launched the S&M program. The CPU temperature jumped up in a few seconds – 72°C was the last value I could see – and the system shut down.

At first I thought that I had wiped off the thermal paste during my turning in the screws with the spanner. However, the thermal paste was right there it should have been, but the cooler’s footprint showed that the test was failed due to poor contact between the cooler and the processor.