-- Tests and
Thoughts
-- Page: 1
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We first tested this unit by using the stock
settings, namely utilizing the heatsink with the provided thermal
pad. Since the pad felt very soft to the touch, the assumption
is that it would fill up any small gaps between the cooler and the
CPU slug to provide ample heat transfer.
From the above picture, there is some
serious blunders when using the pad. Notice the middle, the
pad does not provide any contact in that area. The metal is
exposed, which seems to mean to me that the pad is so soft, the
strength of the clip pushed the pad away from the center and towards
the edges. Not a good sign for efficient cooling.
To combat this problem, we wiped the
bottom clean of any residual thermal pad material. Left with a
clean surface, we brought up our big guns, some good Arctic Silver
Thermal Paste.
Here is our test bed, which consists
of:
-
AMD TBird 800 Mhz Socket A
-
AMD Duron 700 Mhz Socket A
-
IWill KK266 Motherboard
-
Crucial PC133 CL2 128Mb Ram
-
GF2 MX 32Mb AGP Video Card
*Do note that the fan does not appear
to move when it really does, its just the camera taking an action
shot.
Our testing includes our basic approach
to maxing out our heatsink samples. We do a series of test
which include temperature monitoring at idle temps and at full load
temps. Full load is created by running Distributed.Net's
RC5 client and running 30 minutes worth of Mad
Onion's 3D Mark 2001 benchmark program. All temperatures
are retrieved using Via's Hardware Monitor.
What we will be doing is testing this
cooler against some of our previous coolers we have come across.
Most are in the same price and size range, so we did not pit this
cooler against something that is twice as large.
For our tests, we went ahead and used a
Thunderbird and a Duron to test out the capabilities of this unit.
The 800Mhz TBird was also tested at 1003Mhz, and the 700Mhz Duron
was tested at 868Mhz. The thermal pad was used first, but due
to it not providing enough covering for our CPU slug, we dismissed
the results from that test and went with Arctic Silver Thermal
Paste.
|
HSF
- TBird @ 800 Mhz |
Idle |
Full
Load |
| Ambient
Temp. |
28C |
28C |
| Global
Win FKP-32 |
35C |
37C |
| OCZ
Gladiator |
28C |
30C |
| OCZ
Glacier II |
30C |
32C |
| OCZ
Monster III |
30C |
32C |
| >
ThermoEngine V60-4225 |
29C |
33C |
|
HSF
- TBird @ 1003 Mhz |
|
|
| Ambient
Temp. |
28C |
28C |
| Global
Win FKP-32 |
41C |
45C |
| OCZ
Gladiator |
32C |
35C |
| OCZ
Glacier II |
34C |
38C |
| OCZ
Monster III |
34C |
38C |
| >
ThermoEngine V60-4225 |
36C |
41C |
|
HSF
- Duron @ 700 Mhz |
|
|
| Ambient
Temp. |
28C |
28C |
| Global
Win FKP-32 |
34C |
36C |
| OCZ
Gladiator |
28C |
30C |
| OCZ
Glacier II |
29C |
31C |
| OCZ
Monster III |
29C |
30C |
| >
ThermoEngine V60-4225 |
28C |
32C |
|
HSF
- Duron @ 868Mhz |
|
|
| Ambient
Temp. |
28C |
28C |
| Global
Win FKP-32 |
34C |
38C |
| OCZ
Gladiator |
28C |
31C |
| OCZ
Glacier II |
30C |
32C |
| OCZ
Monster III |
30C |
32C |
| >
ThermoEngine V60-4225 |
29C |
32C |
From the numbers, it seems the
ThermoEngine is not producing the heat dissipation that is expected
from this highly touted cooler. It does do a decent job with
this fan setup, do not get me wrong on that part! But it is
not something spectacular, so don't expect this cooler to blow you
away. What I can tell that is lacking from this unit is the
strength of the fan. Indeed if may be rated at 32 CFMs, but I
have no clue who makes this fan or any other specs on it. This
was told to me by Nick over at Cracy PC. The other units we
tested, used very high powered fans which pushed air around the
36-40CFM range, while the ThermoEngine comes equipped with a slower
fan, a definite disadvantage to this well constructed cooler.
I would recommend this unit based on
the fact that it did give the only all copper heatsink (OCZ
Gladiator) in our testing a good run for the money. Added to
that, this is an aluminum based heatsink, it does an incredible job
keeping up. But in the new field of all copper heatsinks, I am
not sure if I would recommend any of these aluminum coolers at the
moment.
If you get one of these units, don't
worry if they ship it in a V60-4210 box. They rushed these
newer models out without updating their actually box. Both
cooler versions are the same, so the specs should not change except
for the fan speed. Just remember to look at your fan when you
get it, just to check and see if its the larger one.
Thanks to Crazy
PC once again for sending us this very unique and fun sample to
test out. Get on over there for some cooling and everyday
computing needs!
Pros:
Cons:
-
Horrible Thermal Pad
-
Weak Fan
Discuss this in our Forums!
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