X-bit labs

Two Solutions from SilverStone: Tundra TD01 Liquid-Cooling System vs. Nitrogon NT06-Lite CPU Air-Cooler (page 10)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 03/05/2008 | 02:47 PM ]

Cooling Efficiency and Acoustic Performance

Cooling Efficiency Tests

The results are given on the diagram below:

You can see clearly that the mass production SilverStone Tundra TD01 liquid-cooling system appeared not efficient enough even despite the fact that we tested it on an overclocked quad-core processor. It lost almost 20ºC to the air cooler from the same manufacturer, which is hard to accept, especially since SilverStone Nitrogon NT06-Lite costs more than 8 times less. As for the latter cooler, even though it yielded quite a bit to one of the most efficient air coolers out there, but even in quiet mode it could provide acceptable thermal mode for the overclocked quad-core processor.

The side panels of the SilverStone Tundra TD01 liquid-cooling system heat up quite tangibly during the tests, however the maximum coolant temperature reading from the indicator was 43ºC. I believe we could install a pair of 120mm fans on both sides of the main unit and this way improve the cooling efficiency. In this case, however, the system will be deprived of its main advantage: extremely quiet operation, which will be the topic of our next review section.

Acoustic Performance

We measured the level of noise generated by our today’s testing participants from a 3cm, 1m and 3m distance. The results are given on the diagram below. The coolers are ranked in the same order as on the previous diagram for your convenience:

Here are the obtained results:

Well, SilverStone Tundra TD01 liquid-cooling system generates the least noise of all systems tested today, which is quite logical since it is a passive cooling system without a single fan. You can barely notice slight rattle from the two pumps if you get really close to the main unit. The air coolers performed almost equally from the acoustic standpoint, because we used the same fan for both of them in our tests.