Asus Triton 75 CPU Cooler

TESTING

Testing was done according to our unique heatsink testing methodology. A quick summary of the components, tools, and procedures follows below.

Key Components in Heatsink Test Platform:

• Intel Pentium D 950 Presler core. Under our test load, it draws 78W, which includes the efficiency losses in the VRMs.
• ASUS P5LD2-VM motherboard. A microATX board with integrated graphics and plenty of room around the CPU socket.
• Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB SATA hard drive.
• 1 GB stick of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 memory.
• FSP Zen 300W fanless power supply.
• Arctic Silver Lumière: Special fast-curing thermal interface material, designed specifically for test labs.
• Nexus 120 fan (part of our standard testing methodology; used when possible with heatsinks that fit 120x25mm fans)

Test Tools

• Seasonic Power Angel for measuring AC power at the wall to ensure that the heat output remains consistent.
• Custom-built, four-channel variable-speed fan controller, used to regulate the fan speed during the test.
• Bruel & Kjaer (B&K) model 2203 Sound Level Meter. Used to accurately measure noise down to 20 dBA and below.
• Various other tools for testing fans, as documented in our standard fan testing methodology.

Software Tools

• SpeedFan 4.33, used to monitor the on-chip thermal sensor. This sensor is not calibrated, so results are not universally applicable, but they should be comparable with the other tests we've done on this test bed. The current test system was put into service in January 2007.
• CPUBurn P6, used to stress the CPU heavily, generating more heat that most realistic loads. Two instances are used to ensure that both cores are stressed.
• Throttlewatch 2.01, used to monitor the throttling feature of the CPU to determine when overheating occurs.

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. Every fan was tested at four voltages: 5V, 7V, 9V, and 12V, representing a full cross-section of the fan's airflow and noise performance. The fan speed control cable was not used, but its performance is equivalent to the 9V level of our test.

The ambient conditions during testing were 18 dBA and 20°C.

TEST RESULTS

The results were excellent. The performance was good enough to compare against some serious heatsinks that we've tested and highly recommended.

The Asus isn't embarrased by any of these high performance, low-airflow, cooling champs. It substantially outperforms the SI-128, which it's closest to in design. Especially at the very low airflow level of the reference fan at 7V, only the Ninja beats it by any significant margin.

For the record, the fan was removed while the CPU load program was still running. (We lied about never testing this cooler fanlessly.) The CPU temperature reached 88°C in 10 minutes, at which point the test was stopped. Our earlier comment, that this heatsink is not suitable for passive cooling, holds.

On the flip side, a Scythe Ultra Kaze 120x38mm fan rated for 133 CFM at 3,000 RPM was also tried. The SPL measured a whopping 48 dBA@1m, and the temperature rise was held to just +12°C.

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