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FIT AND FINISH
Swiftech has the finishing and polishing of heatsink bases
down to a science. There is simply no one doing it better. My comments from
the earlier review apply equally well here. So well in fact, that I'll simply
report them again:
"As always, the finish on this swiftech is superb.
They really take pride in the finish on the mating surface, and it shows.
I can't imagine that anything would be gained by trying to lap this thing
further, you're more likely to end up making it worse rather than better."
TESTING
The Test Bed for MCX462-V
* ABIT NF7 motherboard, with latest BIOS revisions. Modified with passively
cooled NB.
* XP2100 Thoroughbred B, at stock speed and voltage (1.65v, 62.1 Watts max)
* 1GB of PC2100 RAM.
* ATI 9500 graphics card, cooled with Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer.
* Seagate Barracuda IV hard drive.
* Enermax 365 PSU, modded with a Panaflo 80L1A fan @7 volts.
* Temperatures are read from the internal thermal diode of the CPU with
Motherboard Monitor 5.
* CPUBurn was used to achieve load temperatures.
* Ambient temperature during testing was 20°C.
To test the MCX462-V's abilities with both 80 and 92mm fans the reference
Panaflo 80mm L1A was used in conjunction with a 92mm Papst 3412GL (36CFM,
23dbA)
|
MCX462-V with Papst 3412GL 92mm fan
|
| Fan voltage / CFM (calculated) |
12V / 36cfm
|
7V / 21cfm
|
5V / 15cfm
|
| Idle temp |
29°C
|
36°C
|
45°C
|
| Load temp |
38°C
|
49°C
|
63°C
|
| Rise from ambient |
18°C
|
29°C
|
43°C
|
| °C/W |
0.29
|
0.47
|
0.69
|
Â
|
MCX462-V with Panaflo 80L1A fan
|
| Fan voltage / CFM (calculated) |
12V / 24cfm
|
7V / 14cfm
|
5V / 10cfm
|
| Idle temp |
32°C
|
39°C
|
45°C
|
| Load temp |
40°C
|
50°C
|
63°C
|
| Rise from ambient |
20°C
|
30°C
|
43°C
|
| °C/W |
0.32
|
0.48
|
0.69
|
Â
|
MCX462+ with Panaflo 80L1A fan
|
| Fan voltage / CFM (calculated) |
12V / 24cfm
|
7V / 14cfm
|
5V / 10cfm
|
| Idle temp |
32°C
|
42°C
|
48°C
|
| Load temp |
43°C
|
56°C
|
73°C
|
| Rise from ambient* |
22°C
|
35°C
|
52°C
|
| °C/W |
0.35
|
0.55
|
0.82
|
*Ambient temperature during MCX462+ testing was 21°
CONCLUSIONS
As Ralf discovered with the P4 version of the MCX462-V, a 92mm fan and an 80mm fan does not produce the results necessarily
expected. At its full 36CFM, the 92mm fan outperforms the 24CFM 80mm, but
not by much. It puts out 50% more air, yet results in only a 10% performance
gain. As the airflow drops, the performance difference narrows, until at
5v the extra 5CFM from the 92mm is of no help at all. The most logical explanation
for these numbers is the fact that the airflow from the 80mm fan is concentrated
closer to the center of the heatsink, where the greatest heat load is.
Compared to the previous edition,
the results are quite striking. Swiftech's claim of
the MCX462-V being optimized for low airflow is not marketing hyperbole.
The temp reductions range from 2° at 24CFM, to an impressive drop of
10°at the 5v setting of 10CFM.
Overall, the performance of the MCX462-V moves Swiftech up closer to the top of the SPCR heatsink rankings, besting the perennial favorite Thermalright SLK-800
and falling behind only the heavyweights Thermalright
SLK-900A and Zalman 7000A. The MCX462-V is certainly a worthy improvement.
|
Pros
- Fit-and-Finish, top notch as always.
- Big boost in performance over previous version.
- New retention mechanism.
- Flexibility of 80 or 92mm fan sizes
- Improved motherboard compatibility
|
Cons
- Performance improved, but still bested by other heavyweights
- New retention mechanism
|
Much thanks to Swiftech for the review sample.
NOTE: Click here for a review of the P4 (Intel) version of the Swiftech MCX478-V.
* * *
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