X-bit labs

Gigabyte Volar CPU Cooler Review (page 7)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 01/21/2008 | 04:01 PM ]

Intel Core 2 Quad Platform

The old B3 processor core stepping boasts pretty high heat dissipation and fits perfectly well for cooling systems tests. That is why quad-core Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor with polished off heat-spreader cover overclocked only to 3.2GHz with Gigabyte Volar cooler and its fan rotating at minimal speed of 1.500rpm. The test was performed in a closed system case and the processor core voltage was pushed to 1.43125V:

The monitoring utilities reported a much lower voltage setting that what was set in the mainboard BIOS, and even lower under heavy workload:

The OCCT test was passed successfully again, although the cooler was running at the maximum of its capacity:

The results for the quad-core platform are given below:

The situation is the same with quad-core processor, as we can see. Gigabyte Volar is as efficient as Intel’s boxed cooler. Besides, at the maximum CPU frequency the results are again not very good for the Gigabyte’s newcomer:

The processor core voltage was the same for Intel boxed cooler and Gigabyte Volar and equaled 1.43125V. For Thermaltake Big Typhoon Vcore was at 1.525V at minimal fan rotation speed, and at 1.55V at maximum fan rotation speed, just like for Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. The latter turned out the most efficient and the quietest one in the long run.