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TESTING
Before thermal testing, we took some basic physical measurements.
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Approximate Physical Measurements
|
| Heatsink |
Gelid Silent Spirit |
Scythe Samurai ZZ |
|
Weight
|
280 g
350 g with fan |
390 g
480 g with fan |
| Fin count |
43 |
47 |
|
Fin thickness
|
0.36 mm |
0.33 mm |
|
Fin spacing
|
1.77 mm |
1.74 mm |
|
Vertical Clearance*
|
53 mm |
35 mm |
|
Horizontal Overhang**
|
-23 mm
+4 mm (AMD mounting clips)
|
-21 mm |
* measured from the motherboard PCB to
the bottom fin of the heatsink.
** measured from the far edge of the heatsink to the top edge of the motherboard
PCB. |
|
Comparison: Approximate Fin Thickness & Spacing
|
|
Heatsink
|
Fin Thickness
|
Fin Spacing
|
|
Scythe Big Shuriken
|
0.33 mm
|
1.19 mm
|
|
Scythe Samurai ZZ
|
0.33 mm
|
1.74 mm
|
|
Gelid Silent Spirit
|
0.36 mm
|
1.77 mm
|
|
Xigmatek HDT-SD964
|
0.38 mm
|
1.86 mm
|
|
Scythe Ninja Mini
|
0.42 mm
|
3.46 mm
|
Testing was done on our new
AM3 heatsink testing platform for small and low-profile heatsinks. A
summary of the test system and procedure follows.
Key Components in 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)
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.
Load testing was accomplished using CPUBurn to stress the processor, and the
graph function in SpeedFan was used to ensure that the load temperature is stable
for at least ten minutes. The stock fan was tested at various voltages to represent
a good cross-section of airflow and noise performance.
The ambient conditions during testing were 10~11 dBA and 21~23°C.
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