X-bit labs

Battle of the Titans: Super Coolers from Scythe, Thermaltake and Zalman Face to Face (page 3)

Category: Coolers

by Doors4ever

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

Well, the Big Typhoon is not a good example; its fan is positioned too high above the mainboard’s PCB and rotates too slowly to cool the mainboard normally. I know only two types of coolers that can really cool the mainboard with its components and even the memory modules which are usually located nearby and also require cooling for stable operation. First of all, it is one of the first heat-pipes-based coolers, Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler. Unfortunately, its efficiency and noise are not the best possible. Then, Zalman 7000 and 7700 series coolers can cool the mainboard, but their efficiency is not enough to cool a top-end or overclocked Intel processor.

But let’s get back to system cases. What’s the downside of testing coolers in a system case? The result of such a test will depend not only on the type of the system case, but also on the type and placement of the system fans as well as on the rest of the system components. So, the results would only be indicative of the performance of a cooler in the given system case, with system fans placed this particular way and with this particular graphics card. And the numbers may change dramatically if the configuration of the computer changes. Tests on an open testbed are not influenced by other system components and give you a picture of the pure, ideal performance of a cooler. This ideal picture will of course differ from the cooler’s real-life performance, but we are interested in comparing coolers rather than systems they are used in, aren’t we? That’s why I performed all the tests on an open testbed.

Since the reviewed coolers have roughly the same efficiency, it was necessary to provide the same test conditions for them by maintaining the same ambient temperature. I used a thermal chamber that could keep a specified temperature nearly constant. But which temperature should be set? I first wanted to set it at 35°C but then decided on 30°C. The choice seems random, but I made it after due deliberation.

First of all, I wanted to make sure that all the coolers would pass the test under the given conditions. By the way, that’s why I didn’t overclock the central processor to the limit but stopped at 4.06GHz without any voltage increase. The tests proved that the choice of the test conditions was correct – the temperature of the CPU was rather too high even at 4.06GHz frequency.

Then, if the air temperature is, say, 22°C in your room but 35°C inside your system case, you should think about replacing this case or installing additional fans or changing the placement of the components for better airflows. And if the room temperature is 30°C and the case temperature is 35°C, you should better buy an air conditioner which will do both yourself and your computer much good.

As for the software employed in the tests, I loaded the CPU with the help of the version 1.7.3 S&M utility, selecting a 100% CPU load in its settings. This utility is very efficient for testing purposes since the CPU load it creates can hardly be achieved in real-life games or other applications. By testing the CPU under such a high load we can be sure the overclocked CPU will be stable in even harsher conditions in ordinary applications. I read the temperature data with SpeedFan 4.26 and controlled the CPU thermal throttling by means of RightMark CPU Clock Utility 1.8.

The preliminaries over, we can now proceed to the coolers.