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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextSmallish LGA775 Heatsink Round-up Part 2
September 21, 2009 by Lawrence Lee
Our low profile LGA775 CPU cooler roundup
from two months ago revealed only one clear-cut recommendation: the Scythe Big
Shuriken, a short but capable cooler with an excellent fan at a reasonable price.
However, it is far from the ideal compact cooler — its low clearance over the pushpin mounting system makes it excruciating to install, and taller motherboard
components like Northbridge heatsinks can impinge on its use. As small form
factor systems become more popular, the demand for better low profile
coolers grows.
Today we have a new set of contenders, a varied group, most of which may be
too big to be considered "low profile" by many. However, they are
smaller than the typical tower giants that dominate best-of cooler ranks and there are many cases with just enough
room to accommodate them. As they wouldn't fare well against the
behemoths we test on a regular basis, we threw them together in this gladiatorial romp.
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Heatsinks Tested: Physical Dimensions (measured)
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Heatsink
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Height
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Fan Diameter
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Fin Thickness
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Fin Spacing
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Weight
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Silverstone NT06-E
(Nexus fan)
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107 mm
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111 mm
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0.34 mm
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1.4 mm
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550 g
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Cooler Master
Geminii S
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86 mm
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112 mm
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0.28 mm
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1.6 mm
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500 g
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Arctic Cooling
Alpine 7 Pro
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86 mm
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85 mm
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0.93 mm
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1.8 mm
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450 g
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Nexus LOW-7000
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70 mm
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111 mm
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0.33 mm
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2.0 mm
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480 g
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Intel Q6600 HSF
(Nexus fan)
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67 mm
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111 mm
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varies
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varies
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540 g
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Arctic Cooling
Alpine 7 GT
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64 mm
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74 mm
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0.44 mm
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2.6 mm
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280 g
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Intel Aluminum HSF
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63 mm
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77 mm
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varies
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varies
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330 g
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Intel Q6600 HSF
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62 mm
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82 mm
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varies
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varies
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440 g
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Thermolab Micro
Silencer
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58 mm
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85 mm
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0.43 mm
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1.4 mm
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270 g
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Scythe Big
Shuriken
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57 mm
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113 mm
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0.32 mm
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1.3 mm
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420 g
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Intel Q9550 HSF
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45 mm
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79 mm
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varies
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varies
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260 g
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Thermolab Nano
Silencer
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39 mm
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76 mm
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0.38 mm
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1.5 mm
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210 g
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Silverstone
NT07-775
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36 mm
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80 mm
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varies
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varies
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300 g
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Coolers tested in our last roundup in green.
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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, C1 stepping. TDP of 95W; under our test
load, it measures 78W including losses in the VRMs.
- Asus P5Q-EM motherboard.
A microATX board with integrated graphics and short solid-state capacitors
around the CPU socket, and a diminutive northbridge heatsink for maximum compatibility.
- Intel
X25-M 80GB 2.5" solid-state drive.
- 1GB
of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 memory. 2 x 512MB PC2-8500.
- FSP Zen 300W
fanless power supply.
- Arctic Silver
Lumière: Special fast-curing thermal interface material, designed
specifically for test labs.
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Seasonic
Power Angel for measuring AC power at the wall to ensure that the
heat output remains consistent.
- 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 sensor. This sensor is not calibrated,
so results are not universally applicable.
- CPUBurn
P6, used to stress the CPU heavily, generating more heat than most
real applications. 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. The stock fan was tested at various voltages
to represent a good cross-section of its airflow and noise performance.
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