SPCR

It's unfortunate you guys felt like you had to waste your time reviewing this silly thing.

But thanks for doing it anyway.

Thanks a lot, dear sirs (though I'd have been way more glad wheter AMD had sent you an X4 835/845 along with it): I'd add, what a fan! Too bad there aren't lower speed ones in that series.

As a side note, why did you replace the Arctic Silver Matrix?

quest_for_silence wrote:As a side note, why did you replace the Arctic Silver Matrix?

It's discontinued and our supply is almost exhausted.

Lawrence Lee wrote:

quest_for_silence wrote:As a side note, why did you replace the Arctic Silver Matrix?

It's discontinued and our supply is almost exhausted.

Thanks: and did you make any educated guess about how much that may affect the recorded thermal figures?

xan_user wrote:It's unfortunate you guys felt like you had to waste your time reviewing this silly thing.

But thanks for doing it anyway.

I don't think its a waste of time!
It's important to have a baseline. You can compare your awesome cooler to what you would have had if you didn't spend those x dollars.

On this point, SPCR would be cool if you did the Intel stock cooler as well!
Do they even still come with a cooler? Haven't upgraded for a while.

quest_for_silence wrote:Thanks: and did you make any educated guess about how much that may affect the recorded thermal figures?

Here's reviews of the two TIMs using the same methodology. Arxtic Silver Matrix and Noctua NT-H1. With an overclocked and overvolted 130W TDP CPU and a waterblock, the Noctua TIM is better by 1C to 2C..with the potential of another 1C swing due to curing over the first hour or two with the NT-H1.

So, maybe it'll cause new results to be 1C better for the small coolers and 1 to 2C better for the large coolers...too many variables to nail it down further w/o a retest for more data points.

CA_Steve wrote:Here's reviews of the two TIMs using the same methodology.

I asked because I hoped he/they tested/can test the same heatsinks (maybe that Wraith) with both those compounds.

Moreover, for some specific purposes (like drawing up a somewhat long lasting ranking chart), even just 1°C or 2°C may be a significant gap.

Stock heatsinks similar to the right can be spotted in many lower-end Phenom II and newer products.

I say "similar" because there are many slight variants of the fan and heatsink, just like Intel's.



I find the design pretty good for the size and when idling it can be quiet. But not all of them are created equal - one guy scammed me and replaced one of mine with another that is obviously louder for the same performance.

Direct comparison Phenom II X3 720 with Intel's i3 2100 shows i3 pwning it for noise/performance...

EDIT: I mean the HSFs, there are brackets that let Intel use AMD HSF.

maybe someone has the patience to explain what the fascination with this (possibly-ever-so-slightly-less-loud-than-intel-stock) fan/cooler (but-still-adds-more-cost-per-unit-cost-for-the-amd-chip) is?

xan_user wrote:maybe someone has the patience to explain what the fascination with this fan is?

Just the fan or the whole cooler?

quest_for_silence wrote:

xan_user wrote:maybe someone has the patience to explain what the fascination with this fan is?

Just the fan or the whole cooler?

sorry. the whole unit.

xan_user wrote:

quest_for_silence wrote:

xan_user wrote:maybe someone has the patience to explain what the fascination with this fan is?

Just the fan or the whole cooler?

sorry. the whole unit.

Because it's the first "new" stock cooler design from either AMD or Intel in....forever. The stock coolers are also the baseline against which all 3rd party cooler are measured, so it's important to know what the new baseline is.

My local supplier is offering the AMD FX 8370 with the Wraith cooler at an additional cost of £10.53 over the same CPU with the previous stock unit. I can't image that anyone would really want one. £10.53 is after all around 25% of the cost of a Scythe Ninja 4 from the same supplier that surely would be a better use of the money...

Because it's the first "new" stock cooler design from either AMD or Intel in....forever. The stock coolers are also the baseline against which all 3rd party cooler are measured, so it's important to know what the new baseline is.

since it had been so long, i had hoped they just kill off stock coolers all together and just let people choose. there has to be so many unused stock coolers already cluttering up PC shops and landfills. just another useless waste of money and resources.

As soon as the major tech sites posted their reviews of this cooler, I hoped that SPCR would come around and show them why they have no business reviewing heatsinks. So, now I finally know:

• I would probably be satisfied with this stock heatsink
• The reference fans are sometimes the wrong choice
• What an amuse bouche is

Thank you!

lodestar wrote:My local supplier is offering the AMD FX 8370 with the Wraith cooler at an additional cost of £10.53 over the same CPU with the previous stock unit.

I guess he's just banking on AMD marketing bullshits until the old stocks last: mainly because AMD just cannot afford to raise prices nowadays.

xan_user wrote:just another useless waste of money and resources.

I mostly agree ("...waste of...") on that thought, though you're maybe overestimating ("...another useless...") the aftermarket heathsinks customer base.

You release a new heatsink and marketing focuses on how quiet it is yet it has a shroud fitted that increases the noise level and the manufacturing cost but hey it gives marketing another place to stick an AMD logo so that’s good right?
Maybe they have got carried away after all the rebranding of RAM sticks and SSDs!
Looking forward to Zen which will actually be a relaunch of the current CPUs but priced $50 higher but it will come with a $50 voucher to be used at a tattoo parlour to have AMD tattooed on a prominent part of your body.

[link removed]
Does anyone think it would be worth it to replace the stock fan with one of the noctua's or not?

Taisser wrote:[link removed]
Does anyone think it would be worth it to replace the stock fan with one of the noctua's or not?

Money wise, no.

quest_for_silence wrote:

Taisser wrote:[link removed]
Does anyone think it would be worth it to replace the stock fan with one of the noctua's or not?

Money wise, no.

http://noctua.at/en/products/fan
In terms of performance would these fans be a noticeable upgrade over the stock fan.
Here in the UK straight up replacement coolers are still pretty much more expensive

Taisser wrote:In terms of performance would these fans be a noticeable upgrade over the stock fan.

If you had read the review you had known that cooling wise the stock Delta fan is probably unmatchable in that application. On the other hand, it's not the quietest: that's the specific trade off, appropriate cooling and good enough acoustics (to be a stock cooler: usually stock ones are not good at both).

Taisser wrote:Here in the UK straight up replacement coolers are still pretty much more expensive

As far as I know that cooler is not meant to be upgraded, though it clearly isn't among the finest in the wild: you may mod it, but you'll likely loose cooling prowess (so more money for a different trade off).

Amazon.uk sells the Scythe Kotetsu for £28.51. I think spending $40 is worth the extra cost. Then again, I question the whole buying a new AMD CPU at this point...The architecture is very old, the CPU is inefficient, and new architecture is due out sometime later this year.

CA_Steve wrote:I question the whole buying a new AMD CPU at this point...

Cummon Steve, it has the AMD logo lit with a cool light!


-That's got to be worth something?

Thanks, It was more about this being Amd's future cooler for zen too

I don't trust particularly E. Fylladitakis (at all, with reference to PSUs testing), but at any rate seemingly Anandtech found it somehow comparable to the CM Hyper 212 EVO: JFYI.

smilingcrow wrote:Looking forward to Zen which will actually be a relaunch of the current CPUs but priced $50 higher

Zen is a very different CPU architecture from the Bulldozer variants. It is focused purely on SMT rather than CMT, for instance.

Not only that, it is built on a 14nm process instead of a 32nm process.