Testbed and Methods

We tested ThermoLab BARAM and its competitor in two modes: in a closed system case and in an open testbed. In the former case the mainboard is set vertically and the “tower” coolers are turned horizontally, while in the latter case the mainboard sits horizontally on the desk and the coolers are installed vertically. Our testbed was identical for all coolers throughout the test session and featured the following configuration:

• Mainboard: DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS (Intel X48), LGA 775, BIOS 10/03/2008;
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (3.0GHz, 1.25V, 2x6MB L2 cache, 4x333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, C0);
• Thermal interface: Gelid GC1;
• Graphics card: XFX GeForce GTX 260 (216SP) Black GDDR3 896 MB / 448 bit, 666/1404/2300 MHz;
• Memory:
  • 2 x 1024MB DDR2 Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D (1142MHz / 5-5-5-18 / 2.1V);
  • 2 x 1024MB DDR2 CSXO-XAC-1200-2GB-KIT DIABLO (1200MHz / 5-5-5-16 / 2.4V);
• Disk subsystem: Western Digital VelociRaptor (SATA-II, 300GB storage capacity, 10,000RPM, 16MB cache, NCQ);
• HDD silencer and cooler: Scythe Quiet Drive 3.5”;
• Optical drive: Samsung SH-S183L SATA-II DVD RAM & DVD±R/RW & CD±RW;
• System case: ASUS ASCOT 6AR2-B Black&Silver (ATX) with 120mm ~960RPM Scythe Slip Stream 120 fans for air intake and exhaust (the fans are installed on silicon spindles), and Enermax Magma fan at ~960RPM fan on the side panel. We applied noise insulation;
• Control and monitoring panel: Zalman ZM-MFC2;
• Power supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W W0218 (with a default 140 mm fan);
• Monitor: 24" BenQ FP241W (Wide LCD, 1920 x 1200 / 60 Hz).

All tests were performed under Windows Vista Ultimate Edition x86 SP1. SpeedFan 4.37 was used to monitor the temperature of the CPU and mainboard chipset, reading it directly from the CPU core sensor and to monitor the rotation speed of the cooler fans:

The mainboard’s automatic fan speed management feature as well as CPU power-saving technologies were disabled for the time of the tests in the mainboard BIOS. The CPU thermal throttling was controlled with the RightMark CPU Clock Utility version 2.35.0:

The CPU was heated up in two modes. First we used Linpack 32-bit with LinX shell version 0.5.5. The RAM capacity was set manually at 1600MB and the test cycle included 15 runs:

Since we ran the test twice with 20/10-minute idle period between the runs for the system to cool down and temperatures to set in, the relatively short actual testing period was quite enough for the maximum processor temperature to become stable.

The complete screenshot from the test cycle looks as follows:

For the second type of load we used OCCT (OverClock Checking Tool) v3.0.0.b23:

We ran a 23-minute test with maximum CPU utilization, during which the system remained idle in the first 1 and last 4 minutes of the test.

I performed at least two cycles of tests in both test modes and waited for approximately 15 minutes for the temperature to stabilize during each test cycle. Despite the stabilization period, the result of the second test cycle was usually 0.5-1°C higher. We took the maximum temperature of the hottest processor core after two test cycles for the results charts.

The ambient temperature was checked next to the system case or open testbed with an electronic thermometer with 0.1°C precision that allows monitoring the temperature changes over the past 6 hours. During our test session room temperature stayed at 23.5-24°C. It is used as a starting point on the temperature diagrams. Note that the fan rotation speeds as shown in the diagrams are the average readings reported by SpeedFan, and not the official claimed fan specifications.

We are going to compare ThermoLab BARAM against a known super cooler – Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366RT:

Since the new cooler is designed to support only new Core i7 platform, we used the retention kit from the universal modification of the same cooler for our LGA775 platform. We didn’t use the default fan. Both cooling solutions were tested with one and two identical Scythe Slip Stream 120 fans (120 x 120 x 25 mm) in quiet mode at 870RPM and at maximum rotation speed of 1930RPM. The fans were installed for air intake-exhaust.