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POSTSCRIPT 2: 31 May 2010
A TEST PLATFORM FOR SMALLER HEATSINKS |
It was always our intention to bring back the old socket 775 Pentium D950 platform
to review heatsinks that are more suitable for midrange and lower power CPUs.
This would be done when such heatsinks came our way. The impetus came in the
form of Gelid Silent Spirit and Scythe Samurai ZZ heatsink samples.
We've already mentioned issues with keeping the VRMs on the old 775 test platform
adequately cooled. So two other Intel chipset socket 775 boards were explored;
both overclocking oritented, with massive heatsinks on the VRMs and the Northbridge.
A week of experimentation with these board led only to frustration. The temperature
monitoring on both boards turned out to be unreliable and unstable. The boards
themselves were basically fine, but under long CPU/thermal stress testing, the
monitoring chips seemed to go haywire, giving unreliable and inconsistent temperature
readings.
At the end of the week, we decided to try a new route: An AMD AM3 CPU and AMD
785 chipset motherboard, the latter with large heatsinks for both VRMs and Northbridge
chip. A few days of experimentation were enough to establish that this combination
was stable, had the appropriate thermal load for our requirements, and provided
consistent temperature monitoring. It has become our test platform for smaller
and low profile heatsinks. The details are as follows:
Key Components in Smaller Heatsink Test Platform:
- AMD Athlon II X4 630 AM3,
2.8GHz, 45nm, 95W TDP.
- Asus M4A785TD-V EVO ATX motherboard.
785G chipset.
- Kingston
SSDNow V 30GB 2.5" solid-state drive. Chosen for silence.
- 2GB
Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory. 2 x 1GB DDR3-1800 in dual channel.
- FSP Zen 300W
ATX power supply. Fanless.
- Arctic Silver
Lumière: Special fast-curing thermal interface material, designed
specifically for test labs.
- Nexus 92 fan (part of our standard testing methodology; used when
possible with heatsinks that fit 92x25mm fans)
Asus M4A78TD-V EVO board on our usual 2-tier open platform, with fanless
PSU and SSD on lower level, and shunt resistor on AUX12V connector to
monitor CPU power. |
With a fanless power supply and a solid state drive, the test system is silent
under the test conditions, except for the CPU cooling fan(s). At full load,
the total system power draw is 132~140W AC, with the CPU and VRMs drawing 85~91W
DC (measured at the AUX12V connector), depending on their respective temperatures.
|
Smaller Heatsink Test Platform:
Full Load Power Details
|
|
System
|
132-140W AC
|
|
CPU+VRM
|
85~91W DC
|
Normally, our reference fan is used whenever possible, the measured details
of which are shown below.
|
Reference Nexus 92 mm fan
Anechoic chamber measurements
|
|
Voltage
|
SPL@1m
|
Speed
|
|
12V
|
16 dBA
|
1470 RPM
|
|
9V
|
12 dBA
|
1150 RPM
|
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Extech 380803 AC power analyzer / data logger for measuring AC system
power.
- Custom-built, four-channel variable DC power supply, used to regulate
the fan speed during the test.
- PC-based spectrum analyzer:
SpectraPlus with ACO Pacific mic and M-Audio digital
audio interfaces.
- Anechoic chamber
with ambient level of 11 dBA or lower
- Various other tools for testing fans, as documented in our
standard fan testing methodology.
- SpeedFan,
used to monitor the on-chip thermal sensors. The sensors are not calibrated,
so results are not universally applicable.
- CPUBurn,
used to stress the CPU heavily, generating more heat than most real applications.
- CPU-Z,
used to monitor the CPU speed to determine when overheating occurs.
- Thermometers to measure the air temperature around the test platform
and near the intake of the heatsink fan.
Noise measurements are made with the fans powered from the lab's variable DC
power supply while the rest of the system was off to ensure that system noise
did not skew the measurements.
CPUBurn is used to stress the processor, and the graph function in SpeedFan
used to ensure that the load temperature is stable for at least ten minutes.
The stock fan is tested at various voltages to represent a good cross-section
of airflow and noise performance.
A few of the smaller heatsinks tested on the socket 775 system were retested
on the new AM3 platform to establish some reference points. The ambient conditions
during testing were 10~11 dBA and 21~23°C.
Reference Heatsink Performance:
|
Scythe Ninja Mini w/ ref. 92 mm fan
|
|
Fan Voltage
|
SPL@1m
|
Temp
|
°C Rise
|
|
12V
|
16 dBA
|
46°C
|
23
|
|
9V
|
12 dBA
|
50°C
|
27
|
| °C Rise: Temperature rise above ambient (23°C)
at load. |
|
Arctic Alpine 64 w/ stock fan
|
|
Fan Voltage
|
SPL@1m
|
Temp
|
°C Rise
|
|
12V
|
28 dBA
|
45°C
|
22
|
|
9V
|
23 dBA
|
52°C
|
29
|
|
7V
|
17 dBA
|
57°C
|
34
|
|
6V
|
15 dBA
|
66°C
|
43
|
|
5V
|
12 dBA
|
69°C
|
46
|
| °C Rise: Temperature rise above ambient (23°C)
at load. |
|
Xigmatek HDT-SD964 w/ stock fan
|
|
Fan Voltage
|
SPL@1m
|
Temp
|
°C Rise
|
|
12V
|
34~35 dBA
|
40°C
|
17
|
|
9V
|
26 dBA
|
41°C
|
18
|
|
7V
|
15 dBA
|
45°C
|
22
|
|
6V
|
13 dBA
|
50°C
|
27
|
|
5V
|
11~12 dBA
|
57°C
|
34
|
|
Xigmatek HDT-SD964 w/ ref. 92 mm fan
|
|
12V
|
16 dBA
|
47°C
|
24
|
|
9V
|
12 dBA
|
53 °C
|
30
|
| °C Rise: Temperature rise above ambient (23°C)
at load. |
|
Scythe Big Shuriken w/ stock fan
|
|
Fan Voltage
|
SPL@1m
|
Temp
|
°C Rise
|
|
12V
|
28 dBA
|
44°C
|
22
|
|
10V
|
24 dBA
|
47°C
|
25
|
|
9V
|
20 dBA
|
48°C
|
26
|
|
8V
|
16 dBA
|
52°C
|
30
|
|
7.3V
|
11 dBA
|
59°C
|
37
|
|
Scythe Big Shuriken w/ ref. 120 mm fan
|
|
12V
|
16 dBA
|
46°C
|
24
|
|
9V
|
13 dBA
|
50°C
|
28
|
|
7V
|
12 dBA
|
55°C
|
33
|
| °C Rise: Temperature rise above ambient (22°C)
at load. |
The new AM3 setup rounds out our CPU heatsink testing — at least for the
forseeable future. The two test platforms should provide silence-oriented PC
enthusiasts a wealth of information to choose an appropriate CPU heatsink for
their requirements, whether it's for a hot cutting-edge system or a modest middle-of-the-road
all arounder.
* * *
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