Testbed and Methods

I compared the Asetek VapoChill Micro cooler with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon cooler that was equipped with a standard 120mm fan rotating at ~1320rpm.

The following components were used in the testbeds:

• Mainboards:
• ABIT AN8 SLI (nForce 4 SLI chipset, Socket 939, BIOS v.2.0)
• ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP (Intel P965, LGA775, BIOS 0706)
• Processors:
• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1800MHz, 1.40V, 512KB L2 cache, Cool&Quiet disabled, Venice core, E6 stepping)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1866 MHz, 266x4MHz FSB, 2x1024KB L2 cache, SL9SA Malay, Allendale, B2)
• Thermal interface: Titan Nano Grease (TTG-G30010)
• Memory:
• 2 x 512MB Corsair TWINXP1024-3200C2 PC3200 DDR SDRAM (SPD: 400MHz, 2-2-2-5_1T)
• 2 x 512MB Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM (SPD: 667MHz, 4-4-4-15)
• Graphics card: Chaintech GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB (500/1200MHz)
• HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (3320620AS, SATA-II, 320GB capacity, 7200rpm, 16MB buffer, NCQ)
• System case: ATX ASUS ASCOT 6AR2-B Black&Silver + an intake 120mm system fan Coolink SwiF (~1200rpm, ~24dBA) + two 120mm system fans Sharkoon Luminous Blue LED (~1000rpm, ~21dBA)
• Power supply: MGE Magnum 500 (500W) + 80mm GlacialTech SilentBlade fan (~1700rpm, 19dBA)

Important: ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP mainboard featured a new BIOS version 0614. In our previous cooler review we used the same mainboard for our tests, but the BIOS version was 0507. The new BIOS version features corrected CPU temperature monitoring (it is lowered), therefore it would be incorrect to compare our today’s results with what was obtained during our previous test sessions.

All tests were performed in Windows XP Professional Edition Service Pack 2. I installed Nvidia nForce version 6.82 and Intel Chipset Drivers version 8.1.1.1001 for the ABIT and ASUS mainboards, respectively. I also installed DirectX 9.0c (August 2006 release) and ForceWare 91.31 graphics card driver.

SpeedFan version 4.29 was used to monitor the temperatures and fan speeds on the AMD platform. The temperature of the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 was monitored with S&M version 1.8.1 which was also used to heat up both CPUs by running the FPU test at 100% load for 15 minutes.

Besides the S&M tool we also tested our cooling systems in the “Game” mode. In this mode the computer was running 3DMark06’s Firefly Forest test 19 times in a row with 16x anisotropic filtering but without full-screen antialiasing.

The temperature was read from the integrated CPU sensor. The mainboards’ automatic fan speed management was disabled for the time of the tests. The thermal throttling of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor was controlled with RightMark CPU Clock Utility version 2.15. I additionally controlled the temperature of the Intel Core 2 Duo with Core Temp Beta 0.9.0.91 which would report a 1.5°C higher temperature of both cores than S&M did.

The coolers were tested on an open testbed and in a closed system case that was equipped with two 120mm system fans for intake and exhaust and one 120mm fan on the side panel next to the processor socket. Each cooler was tested in at least two test cycles. I waited for 25-30 minutes for the temperature inside the system case to stabilize during each test cycle. The temperature stabilization took twice as little on an open stand. The highest results from the two test cycles are shown in the diagrams (if the difference was not bigger than 1°C). Despite the stabilization period, the results of the second cycle would usually be 0.5-1°C higher.

The ambient temperature was monitored with an electric thermometer near the system case. During the tests on AMD platform it remained around 22.6-23°C, and during the tests on Intel platform – around 21.4-21.7°C.