X-bit labs

Little Coolers for a Big Processor: AURAS TwinW, APACK ZEROtherm CF900 and Scythe Shuriken (page 12)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 05/07/2008 | 08:21 PM ]

Cooling Efficiency and Acoustic Performance

Cooling Efficiency Tests

The results are given on the chart below:

First of all I would like to say that all three testing participants proved more efficient than a regular boxed cooler that comes bundled with Intel processors. However, even in a well ventilated system case the overclocked quad-core Intel processor heated up quite a lot. We can only guess what will happen inside a compact system case where these coolers are supposed to be used. Although on the other hand, no one installs overclocked quad-core processors into systems like that anyway, so it is really pleasing to see that these small compact coolers cope with overclocked processors.

Now let’s see how these coolers compare with one another. Of course, APACK ZEROtherm CF900 turned out the most efficient cooler of the three, even though the thermal diode placed so uselessly didn’t let the fan reach its full speed and it was late to react to actual processor temperature increase. Four heatpipes soldered to the base and copper heatsink plates put this cooling system ahead of the competitors in terms of cooling efficiency. The next best one is AURAS TwinW, and the Japanese Scythe Shuriken took the last place. Unfortunately, this solution failed to demonstrate high cooling efficiency, however, it is the most low-profile and the only really universal cooler.

Acoustic Tests

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:

Regarding the acoustic measurements, I would like to explain that AURAS TwinW turned out so noisy at the lowest fan rotation speed because of the resonance from aluminum heatsink plates, which practically jingled even at 1200RPM. Very unpleasant, shrewd sound gets even louder as the CPU temperature rises and at 2100RPM becomes unbearable. However, the boxed Intel cooler is even noisier.