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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NextIntel LGA775 Low Profile Heatsink Round-up
July 25, 2009 by Lawrence Lee
Stock heatsink/fans that shipped with desktop processors were among the key catalysts that brought SPCR into existence. Their loud, nasty sounding fans
were easily the biggest noise complaint among PC owners, at least until graphics
cards became so powerful that they too required fans. Not only were they bad
to begin with, heat and dust accumulation would inevitably take their toll on
the bearings, and over time, they would get progressively noisier. By comparison,
today's stock CPU coolers are much improved — they can actually keep the
temperature reasonable (at least at idle) without sounding like jet engines.
Still there are much better, relatively inexpensive alternatives on the market,
and for quiet or silent PC, the stock cooler is typically the first component
thrown aside. However, in some cases, a better, quieter cooler that fits can be difficult to find. Thin is in, interest in low profile cases is on the rise, especially in light of the new popularity of the mini-ITX form factor. By "low profile",
we generally mean cases that are only tall enough to accommodate low profile (half-height) expansion cards. Typically these cases have no more than 8 cm of heatsink clearance and sometimes substantially less if the enclosure in question is designed with a component (e.g. power supply) overhanging the CPU socket.
Everyone knows that the best CPU coolers are usually the largest, and they have no hope
of fitting into a smaller form factor case. Low profile cases almost always allow just
enough room for the stock heatsink, which becomes the defacto choice
— it's hard to find a short, quiet CPU cooler. With that in mind, we collected
some smaller heatsinks and pitted them against one another
and against some of Intel's stock coolers. Represented today are PWM models
from Arctic Cooling, Thermolab, and Scythe. Let's meet the candidates.
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Clockwise from left: Thermolab Micro Silencer, Thermolab Nano Silencer, Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 GT, stock Intel cooler, and Scythe Big Shuriken in center.
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Intel Q9550 Stock Cooler (E0 stepping)
Intel's cooler running 45 nm retail boxed processors ship with a very short
stock heatsink, about 4.5 cm tall. Like the rest of the Core 2 line, the dual
core versions have coolers constructed entirely of aluminum while the quad core
models have copper cores. Our sample comes from a quad core Q9550 purchased in May 2009.
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The Q9550 heatsink is cooled by a 1.68W fan with a diameter of
79 mm.
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The mechanical design of the fins is slightly reminiscent of a spiral. The
surface area of each fin increases toward the outside edge, as it splits into two. The pushpins
are part of the fan assembly. (Note: Gray patches on the base are pre-applied TIM.
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Fan Measurements
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Voltage
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Speed
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SPL@1m
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12V
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1880 RPM
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26 dBA
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9V
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1290 RPM
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18 dBA
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7.8V
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1110 RPM
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15 dBA
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7.5V
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880 RPM
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14 dBA
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The acoustics of the Q9550's PWM fan are fairly typical for Intel stock heatsinks.
At higher speeds, it is buzzy with a high-pitched hum. As the speed is decreased
the pitch of the hum lowers and a brushing sound becomes more evident (it sounds
like something soft is pressing against the fan blades). The heatsink features
a fan made by Foxconn which is very sensitive to voltage control under 9V. It
is moderately loud at 12V and quickly becomes quiet below 10V, although its acoustic
character is unpleasant.
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