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TESTING
As time goes on, fewer and fewer heatsinks continue to support Socket 478,
which is rapidly fading into the history. This is the case with
the Alpine, which does not fit on our standard heatsink
testing rig.
Instead, our Socket 775 test bench was used. This is the same
system was used to test the Freezer 7 Pro. Details of the system are outlined
below. So far, only four heatsinks have been tested on this system: The
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, the
Spire Verticool II, the Scythe Ninja, and the Thermalright XP-120. No other
heatsinks we have tested are directly comparable with the Alpine.
The Pentium 520 used in this test is cooler than most of Intel's desktop processors
on the market today, but it is still 15-20W hotter than the P4-2.8 Northwood
used in our socket 478 HS testing platform. On the other hand, it is also hotter
than most AMD processor on the market. This situation will change
in the near future when Intel its Core 2 chips become available in the market,
but for now the Intel 520 processor represents a good median for CPU heat.
On the test bench...
Test Platform
Measurement & Analysis Tools
Noise measurements were made with the fan powered from the lab DC power supply
with everything else turned off to ensure minimal ambient noise. Airflow
measurements for this heatsink were not made due to the difficulty of measuring
the stock fan accurately.
For this review, the Alpine 64 was mounted using the hardware for the
Alpine 7 because it is more likely to yield useful results using our standard
tests at 12V, 9V, 7V, and 5V. The Alpine 7 does not have substantially
different airflow, and should perform more or less equally at a given noise
level. See the section on fans for more
details.
Load testing was accomplished using CPUBurn to stress the processor, and the
graph function in SpeedFan was used to make sure that the load temperature was
stable for at least ten minutes.
The ambient conditions during testing were 16 dBA and 23°C.
TEST RESULTS
| Arctic Cooling Alpine 64
with Stock fan |
|
Fan Voltage
|
Temp
|
°C Rise
|
°C/W MP
|
°C/W TDP
|
Noise
(dBA@1m)
|
|
12V
|
53°C
|
30
|
0.30
|
0.36
|
27
|
|
9V
|
58°C
|
35
|
0.35
|
0.42
|
23
|
|
7V
|
63°C
|
40
|
0.40
|
0.48
|
19
|
|
5V
|
65°C
|
42
|
0.42
|
0.50
|
<17
|
|
Load Temp: CPUBurn for ~20 mins.
°C Rise: Temperature rise above ambient at load.
°C/W MP / TDP: Temperature rise over ambient per Watt of CPU heat,
based on CPU's Maximum Power (100W) or Thermal Design Power (84W) rating
(lower is better)
Noise: SPL measured in dBA@1m distance with high accuracy B &
K SLM
|
Fan @ 12V: If this was not a $15 heatsink, we'd consider the performance at 12V to
be terrible. Within the confines of a case where the ambient temperature is
at least 30°C, the Alpine would just barely be able to handle our Intel
520. But, just barely is good enough; no one should try
to build a budget quiet system using a 100W processor, so the Alpine probably capable of doing what it is supposed to. Arctic Cooling does not
suggest the Alpine for use with Pentium 4 chips above the 650 (3.4 GHz) or
Pentium D chips above the 940 (3.2 GHz).
From a noise perspective, the answer is the same: Good enough. At full tilt,
27 dBA@1m is acceptable, if not silent. Chances are, the Alpine would
not run at full tilt often; low-end processors are rarely used for
intensive computing, so examining the thermal performance with the CPU at
full tilt does not represent the way the Alpine will typically be used.
Despite all of the careful damping
and the unusual design of the frame, the noise character was not pleasant. It is best described as a rapid clicking or ticking that varies with
the speed of the fan. As noted in the fan section above, the Alpine 7 did
not exhibit this clicking, causing us to speculate that this particular sample may have
had a bad bearing. Fan bearings are easily damaged in transit; a sharp shock can cause enough bearing damage to increase the noise audibly. Aside from the clicking, the fan sounded like a normal
low speed fan: Mostly motor hum and a small amount of wind noise.
Fan @ 9V: Given that performance was marginal at 12V, it is no surprise
that it was simply not good enough at 9V — at least where our test processor
is concerned. We can extrapolate that on our older test
bench, which uses a 79W (MP) Northwood 2.8 GHz processor, would have reached
51°C — marginal but still just enough for that system.
The noise level dropped significantly at 9V, reducing the hum to a low growl
and cutting out most of the airflow noise. However, the rapid clicking remained
prominent. If anything, it was even more noticeable, since the other sources
of noise had dropped away.
Fan @ 7V & 5V: Below 7V, the Alpine 64 should be nearly inaudible
in most systems. The clicking remained just barely audible even at 5V, but
it was so quiet that any amount of system noise (from hard drives, for example)
is likely to cover it. The Alpine 7, running at roughly the same speed (9V),
could not be heard at all from one meter.
This is the level of noise that can be expected on a cool processor at idle.
It's quite possible that the Alpine could be run this quietly on one of AMD's
new 35W processors, but most other processors will need a faster fan speed
under load.
It was surprising that, as hot as the system got, the processor never
had to throttle to keep temperatures down — even at 5V. In fact, the
difference in temperature between 7V and 5V was just 2°C — the opposite
of what we expected. This result is even more shocking when you consider that
the stock Intel heatsink (the one that Arctic Cooling says outperforms the
Alpine at 12V) caused the processor to throttle when the noise level was 20 dBA@1m.
It seems the Alpine does quite well with low airflow.
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