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Cool It 2004 • CPU Special Issue Page(s) 132-138 in print issue |
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Heatsink Heaven The Right Product Will Save Your CPU From A Fiery Hell |
 Complex watercooling, peltier, and phase-change systems are all the rage, but heatsinks are still at the heart of most CPU cooling systems. That explains why computer component companies continue to pour money into heatsink research and development and why there are so many users willing to invest their limited computing budgets into a new heatsink—they know there might always be a heatsink that's just a little better than their current model, and not every user wants to expend the time or money to install a more complicated form of chip cooling. But before you buy a new heatsink, it helps to have an idea of how well it will work. That's where we can help. We know you don't have budget to test and dismiss a dozen heatsinks before you find the one that's best for your CPU, but we do, so we ordered a pile of these products, everything from inexpensive aluminum extrusions to coppery monstrosities that barely fit inside our PC case.  Heatsink Hopes Manufacturers design heatsinks to accommodate varying purposes, from keeping the heat off of a relatively cool Pentium III to dissipating the boiling temperatures of an overclocked Athlon 64. To find the appropriate heatsink to suit your purposes, you need to start with a basic understanding of heatsink construction. CPU heatsinks fall into two broad categories: active and passive. Passive heatsinks are pretty rare even in heavily modded home PCs because they use a heatsink and nothing else for cooling. Active heatsinks integrate the use of a fan, which cools the heatsink and allows the metal to absorb more heat from the CPU. This concept helps the heatsink transfer heat at a fast rate, preventing the CPU from exceeding optimal operating temperatures. Both heatsink types are usually made from either copper or aluminum. Copper is heavier and more expensive but transfers heat more efficiently than aluminum. Many heatsinks combine both aluminum and copper, resulting in a product that works better than an aluminum heatsink but with significant cost savings. Heatsink designs. Manufacturers produce folded-fin, bonded-fin, and cold-forged heatsinks and even heatsinks that use heatpipes, which are liquid-filled pipes that can help speed up heat transfer. All of these heatsink designs require special manufacturing techniques, but the most common heatsink creation methods involve extruded aluminum or machined copper. Traditional aluminum heatsinks are almost always extruded, which means that the manufacturer forces a hunk of metal through a die to create fins. Those fins are usually rectangular, long, and skinny, all good traits for conducting heat to the surrounding air. The manufacturing process itself is automated and produces many heatsinks quickly, but these heatsinks have limited fin densities and heights. Copper is denser and more difficult to work with, so heatsink makers use a machining technique to create fins. This process is more expensive than the extrusion technique, another reason copper heatsinks cost more than their aluminum brethren. To help you get an idea of performance differences, we tested numerous models of both heatsink types. How We Tested Of the nearly 20 heatsinks we tested, many were designed for only Intel socket 478 CPUs, and others were made specifically for AMD socket A CPUs. A few heatsinks included brackets that helped us switch them back and forth between AMD and Intel CPUs. After we applied a fresh coat of thermal grease to each heatsink, we started up the PC, let it run for 10 minutes, and then recorded five temperatures. We took four of the readings from the temperature probes connected to a MacPower Digital Doc. We placed three of the probes between the fins of the heatsink, and we taped the fourth sensor so that it hovered above the heatsink fan. We also recorded temperatures using Motherboard Monitor, a program that uses your mobo's onboard sensors to track heat levels. Once we recorded these initial temperatures, we made the situation more difficult for our test products. We ran PCMark04 on each CPU to see how each heatsink would respond to the added heat stress and then took notes on the higher temps we encountered. Test disclaimers. We'll offer a few disclaimers before we reel off our heatsink test results. Heatsink effectiveness is fairly difficult to gauge for a couple of reasons. One, every heatsink, even those that are the same make and model, are different, thanks to manufacturing processes that leave microscopic ridges on the bottom surface of every heatsink and minor performance variations, as you read in "A Fine Grind," on page 140. Second, positioning the temperature gauges used to track heat levels is an important variable, but one that's also difficult to master because CPU makers acknowledge that their chips don't distribute heat evenly; meaning, of course, that the left side of a heatsink may end up a little hotter than the right. Finally, although Motherboard Monitor is a very handy utility, it's also notorious for reporting varying temperatures. However, we felt that this program did offer a general idea of how hot or cool our CPU ran from one heatsink to the next because switching heatsinks really changed temperature levels. "Testing of heatsink effectiveness is a big topic and as varied as the number of people operating test labs," says Chris Soule, director of engineering at Thermshield (www.thermshield.com), a company that makes heatsinks for servers, workstations, and PCs. Soule, who has 15 years testing experience, says that he places a thermocouple near the heat input area (by the CPU) and another in the air nearby, which gives the tester a reference point. Soule says that for very accurate testing, you should use an anemometer to measure air velocity, a power meter to measure volts and amps, "and depending on power levels, there may also be a need to measure the power factor and correct for that." Sound extreme? It is, and Soule stresses that heatsink testing really is a science in and of itself. The Reviews Undeterred, we continued our testing to see what sort of numbers our homebrewed experiment would yield. Our rough readings should give you an idea of the performance you can expect from these products. We reserved compliments for heatsinks with the most desirable traits. Ideally, heatsinks would become warmer because they were absorbing and dispersing more heat, but the CPU's Motherboard Monitor temperature would rise very little. We also considered each heatsink's overall ease of use, aesthetic appeal and visual "wow" factor, and, in the case of some products, the quality of printed instructions. Heatsinks that looked like John Deere tractor engine parts and needed finger-fumbling mounting brackets got a less than enthusiastic response from us, while easy-to-use products that combine good looks and excellent cooling received two thumbs up. Dr. Thermal TI-8639L We paid: $23 Available at: www.xpcgear.com www.azzo.com The Dr. Thermal TI-8639L has an ultra-simple but effective design, incorporating spiral-shaped aluminum fins melded to a copper core. This helps cut down on weight—the whole unit weighs only 364 grams—and, paired with the included 3,800rpm fan, provides good cooling capability. It will only take you a minute to attach this Dr. Thermal product to your socket 478 motherboard, as it uses the same four-pronged clip that fits over your stock Intel heatsink. The fit is tight and very solid, and with a good coating of the included thermal grease, you won't have to worry about making consistent contact with the CPU's surface. The TI-8639L's easy mounting system scored points with us, and the spiral fin pattern is mesmerizing, even after you attach the fan. The fan itself is nothing fancy, and we didn't like the fact that there was no grill to protect against in-case snags, but it's nice that you can replace the fan with a different model if you prefer. Our impression of this product was that it's a slightly larger and nicer-looking version of Intel's stock heatsink. When you check out our "The Hot Get Cooler" chart of temperature readings, you'll see that this heatsink isn't all that effective, and because of this, we didn't think the TI-8639L was a very exciting product.  Zalman CNPS5500-Cu We paid: $39 Available at: www.computerhq.com www.sharkacomputers.com Zalman's CNPS5500-Cu isn't fancy; it's just one big hunk of copper that easily handles the heat-dissipating needs of a P4 running up to 2.5GHz, though we're sure this 540-gram monster could probably handle hotter chips. If you're using a slightly slower CPU, you'll have no cooling problems at all and will probably cut down on PC noise. That's because the heatsink comes with a temperature-detection system that increases or decreases fan speed according to the heat levels of your CPU. At lower heat levels, the CNPS5500-Cu goes into Silent mode, and fan noise is inaudible. In spite of this heatsink's heft, you don't need to remove the motherboard for a lengthy installation procedure. You center the heatsink over the stock clips on the motherboard and press down, and the plastic clips snap solidly into place. Then you can connect the fan directly to your motherboard or use the pass-through fan controller connector if you want to use the temperature monitoring system. Removing this heatsink is a chore. You have to press down on the fan and then force the retention clips inward, and doing so takes significant strength. In the end, we had to remove our graphics card and enlist two people to pry this sucker loose. As far as looks go, as they say in "South Park," "There's nothing to see here." And the unit's large dimensions (it's 73mm tall) mean less room for other in-case components. Plus, as you'll see in our chart, the Zalman's average performance didn't seem to justify its higher than average price. Copper gets better than this Zalman.  Speeze 9T370B1M3 We paid: $25 Available at: www.tigerdirect.com www.newegg.com For budget-conscious copper cooling, we checked out the Speeze 9T370B1M3, a high-quality, copper-based heatsink with a low price. Right out of the box, it's easy to see that Speeze prides itself on offering high-quality products, as the fan wires are shielded and the bottom of the heatsink has a preapplied layer of thermal grease. The 3-watt heatsink measures 37mm high x 69.9mm wide x 83mm deep and comes with a 70mm 3,700rpm fan with a 28CFM rating. Speeze recommends this model for P4 and Celeron chips running at 3.2GHz or slower. Installing the heatsink was quick and painless. Speeze includes two metal retention clips that snap directly into your motherboard's stock bracket, so you'll finish this job in about a minute. Unlike some other clips in this roundup, Speeze's clips make it easy to remove the heatsink, too. With its relatively low profile and reasonable weight, this heatsink would be a good choice for users who have crowded case interiors, but only if there's no intense overclocking involved. Our Speeze model consistently ran hot and also let the CPU get warmer than most other heatsinks in our tests, topping out at 45 degrees Celsius when we started benchmarking. This one is best reserved for users who simply want something jazzier than their stock heatsink and don't want to spend a lot of money to get there.  Vantec CopperX We paid: $30 Available at: www.svc.com www.xpcgear.com The CopperX from Vantec has high-density, solid copper fins bonded to a hefty copper base. Though it tips the scales at nearly 540 grams, the CopperX's measures only about 60mm high. The 4,000rpm 70mm fan is 15mm tall, comes complete with a metal grill, and pushes air at 33CFM. From the top and sides, this Vantec product looks like an average heatsink. When you get a glimpse of the bottom, though, prepare to be blown away. Though it's not quite slick to the touch, the near mirror-like finish will make you think twice before you attempt any sort of lapping procedure. We were almost sad to subject this beautiful finish to the layer of thermal grease on our CPU. As it turns out, we were comforted by Vantec's retention clips, which are things of beauty, too. These springy metal clips fasten directly to a stock 478 bracket for a three-second installation. Performance wasn't as nice as the breathtaking design. We logged a Motherboard Monitor temperature of 45 C, one of the higher numbers in our test. Still, the knockout looks and relatively small size of this heatsink convinced us it's fine for cramped quarters and minimal overclocking.  Cooler Master Jet 4 We paid: $34 Available at: www.zipzoomfly.com www.frozencpu.com For sheer visual impact, few heatsinks can beat the Jet 4, a copper heatsink matched to a blower fan that looks like a jet engine. It's not as cheesy as it first sounds, but only because Cooler Master went all out with the special effects, including a chrome-like finish, black blower interior, and red and white LEDs to simulate the look of a real aircraft. The blower fan is louder than the traditional fans on our other heatsinks, but Cooler Master says the blower is superior because it funnels air straight down into the heatsink's center, supposedly preventing a dead spot you'd get with regular fans. You have a lot of control over fan functionality, as you can place the fan speed knob in either an expansion slot or in a 3.5-inch drive bay and, with a twirl, change speeds from 1,900rpms to 3,500rpms. That fun fan adds to the Jet 4's overall weight, which is a motherboard-mashing 700 grams, and the height is an incredible 140mm, meaning you definitely won't be using this particular model in a small-form-factor case. In a regular case, though, the Jet 4 provides substantial cooling, as Motherboard Monitor reported an average at-work temperature of 40 C. That's plenty cool for airport-obsessed modders who don't care how much space their heatsink consumes.  AeroCool Deep Impact DP-102 We paid: $55 Available at: www.xoxide.com www.frozencpu.com When we shelled out nearly 60 bucks for the Deep Impact heatsink, we expected awesome cooling, but we certainly didn't expect the magic tricks we encountered. Yup, that's right, attach this heatsink to your CPU socket and POOF, your computer will magically stop working. We don't know whether it was this heatsink's 580-gram heft or not-quite-big-enough circular copper CPU plate, but Deep Impact gave us fits. By the time we got it working (two hours after beginning the installation), we had encountered more weird boot-up problems and nervous PC tics than we could've ever imagined, and in the case of our Intel CPU, the only way to successfully boot was to leave the motherboard flat on a table with only two screws securing the heatsink. In spite of those problems, there's no denying the appeal of this heatsink's outrageous design, which includes a cylindrical heatpipe encircled by 36 copper fins, and not one, but two 80mm fans. The whole contraption swallows a ton of case space, thanks in part to its 100mm height, and with many motherboards, you might not be able to attach more than one fan. The setup is visually striking, and our results showed that this AeroCool works better than stock heatsinks. Our Deep Impact kept both the Intel and AMD CPUs at stable temperatures, and it performed marginally better when we paired it with our Pentium 4, possibly because the mobo was resting outside the case. Idling temperatures were very cool—approximately room temperature—and work temperatures maxed out at 40 C. For modders who want to impress with size and have space to spare, the Deep Impact is about as high (and cool-looking) as heatsinks get, but be prepared for installation frustrations.  Scythe NCU-1000 Heatlane Zen We paid: $59 Available at: www.frozencpu.com www.3dcool.com Today's hot-running Pentium 4 CPUs attempt seppuku when users try to operate them without a heatsink fan, unless you can find a feasible passive heatsink such as the Scythe NCU-1000 Heatlane Zen. This very tall (143mm) and very wide (108mm) heatsink uses a system of fluid-filled fins to dissipate heat in a hurry, and from what we saw, this concept seems to work. The Zen's total weight is a significant 615 grams. However, most of that heft is due to the heavy copper plate that covers the CPU, while the towering arrangement of fins is lightweight and won't cause any funny motherboard-flexing problems. That's not to say you won't run into problems with interior space logistics. The Zen's huge body didn't interfere at all with motherboard components, but it's easy to see that in a component-stuffed case, this product will only add to overcrowding. To install this heatsink, we uninstalled our motherboard, slapped the Zen's rubber insulation pad and bracket to the mobo's backside, and screwed the heatsink snug against the CPU. There is one installation catch—you have to make sure the heatsink's fins run perpendicular to the floor so that the hot air in the fins can naturally rise up and away. Our tests demonstrated that this works, but not as well as a heatsink that incorporates a zippy fan. The Zen had the highest temperatures at idle (42 C) and the second highest at work (49 C). Our results lead us to believe that this heatsink is probably inappropriate for serious overclockers, but for average users who will do anything to make their systems quieter, there are few alternatives to this Scythe.  AeroCool High Tower HT-101 We paid: $59 Available at: www.zipzoomfly.com www.frozencpu.com Like its Deep Impact CPU cooler, AeroCool's High Tower HT-101 is an oversized heatsink with exciting technologies inside. Fortunately, we had much better success with the High Tower than with the exasperating Deep Impact. This is another all-copper heatsink, but it uses three 6mm heatpipes to transfer heat to 31 vertically stacked copper fins. Designed for AMD XP 3600+ and P4 3.6GHz (and faster) CPUs, the HT-101 comes with one 80mm fan but can accommodate two 70mm or 80mm fans for added airflow. Adding a fan might not be a bad idea, as the included fan is a 2,500rpm model, but beware of space constraints. This monster is nearly 110mm tall and really doesn't need to be any bigger than it already is. If you're into decorating your PC with lights, you will like this heatsink's plastic frame, which glows blue under a blacklight. Its massive amounts of copper are also plainly evident when you use only one fan, and all that penny-colored metal is sure to impress your aluminum-fixated friends, and they'll be even more jealous when they see the full-color instructions that help make installation simple. The heatsink's cooling power, however, is less impressive. This heatsink's results included temperature spikes as high as 69 C, and Motherboard Monitor consistently tracked temperatures in the 50s, higher than the passively cooled Zen. If we really wanted a sky-high AeroCool product, we'd stick with the Deep Impact.  Scythe Kamakaze We paid: $34 Available at: www.directron.com www.performance-pcs.com The product name is misspelled on every retail Web site, and even on the product box itself, which is adorned with more Taiwanese than English, yet that's no reason to dismiss the Scythe Kamakaze outright. Or is it? Poor translations hindered this product's ease of use. Installation instructions were difficult to read, and the diagrams (one each for Intel and AMD sockets) were less than fully explanatory, but muddle your way through, and you'll see that this Scythe product comes preconfigured for an AMD socket A, so for a socket 478, you have to play with tiny screws and an unwieldy bracket before you can begin installation in earnest. Once you click a new bracket into place on the motherboard, it's easy to snap the Kamakaze into place, and the fit is secure. The Kamakaze weighs nearly 700 grams and stands 90mm tall. It comes with a grill-less 80mm fan that will beckon to every cable in your box, but the fan does have redeeming traits, most notably an expansion-slot-mounted speed knob that lets you adjust rpms from 1,300 to 3,400. This heatsink is made of aluminum, but instead of fins, Scythe incorporated long, jagged pins (about 500 of them) that make for a turbulent airflow and thus maximize cooling. The overall look is a little awkward, and due to the messy weld points on the edges of the metal jacket, this potentially very cool heatsink loses big points on aesthetics. After we finished testing, we decided we wouldn't buy this heatsink for either an Intel or AMD CPU. The idling temperatures were higher than average on both chips, in some cases approaching the working temperatures of other heatsinks we tried. When we turned the heat up a little, our CPU temps rose to 46 C, which is fine for general purposes but not enough to sway the jury in the Kamakaze's favor.  Gigabyte Cooler Pro GH-PCU21-VG We paid: $45 Available at: www.newegg.com www.pcdirectsource.com The Gigabyte Cooler Pro is one of the freakiest and most effective heatsinks we tested. You probably won't find anything more eye-catching that this blue-tinged alien; nothing else in our roundup came close to grabbing our attention like the Gigabyte's glowing blue top and copper fins, which stand on the four "legs" and CPU block that actually make up a heatpipe cooling system. There's precious little making up the copper block that makes contact with your CPU. Apparently, that thin layer is enough to whisk heat away via the heatpipes and into the circular fin pattern, which—like the Cooler Master Jet 4—contains a blower fan instead of a traditional finned fan. This blower works at speeds from 2,000rpms to 4,000rpms, and you can install a fan speed control knob, which slips into either a floppy diskette drive bay or an expansion card slot. The heatsink and fan weigh only about 460 grams, which is very light considering the product's 93mm height. This heatsink's wacky design shouldn't cause too many difficulties with space, but there are a couple of flanges at the base that may interfere with motherboard components. This is an adaptable heatsink with a user-friendly clip system. It not only works with Pentium 4 3.2GHz and faster CPUs, but also with AMD's super-fast processors, including the Athlon 64, and for each socket type, Gigabyte helpfully included easy-to-use fasteners that make installation a pleasure. Most of our cool-looking heatsinks weren't top performers, but the Copper Pro proved its worth on our hot Pentium 4, logging very low at-work temps of 33 C and 37 C from our Digital Doc and Motherboard Monitor, respectively. The heatsink returned higher numbers when we used it with our Athlon, but the maximum recorded temperature was only 43 C. For modders and overclockers who like flashiness, the Cooler Pro is worth the dough.  Alpha PAL8942 We paid: $39 Available at: www.frozencpu.com www.performance-pcs.com Alpha's PAL8942 is a forged heatsink with a copper plate that sprouts hexagonal aluminum pins. These pins are anodized black, which offers the Dark Side aesthetic appeal but has no effect on performance. The copper base is a thing of beauty, with a glossy, brushed finish that won't require lapping unless you're obsessive about smoothness. Alpha did not include a fan with this heatsink, as the company prefers to leave this option to the reseller. Our vendor didn't include a fan, so we opted for a standard 80mm 4,800rpm fan, and whatever fan you choose will add to this model's 44mm height. When you see the baggies of screws, nuts, and other hardware, you intuitively know installation is going to require some work, and because the PAL8942 makes no use of stock heatsink brackets, you end up using screws and springs to mount the device directly to the motherboard. You do have to remove the mobo for this project, but thanks to the clear instructions, this job shouldn't take you more than a few minutes. Unlike a few other heatsinks we've seen that screw into the motherboard, this one uses compression screws so you know exactly how much pressure you can apply without causing damage. This Alpha's understated looks belied its superb performance. At work, our Intel CPU edged upwards to only 36 C, cooler than with any other heatsink we tested. Its relatively small size and effectiveness proved to us that this heatsink is perfect for serious users who like good looks in a small heatsink, yet still need better-than-average cooling power.  Swiftech MCX462-V We paid: $52 Available at: www.sidewindercomputers.com www.coolerguys.com Swiftech's heatsinks are renowned for their off-the-wall designs and top-notch performance, and one of the company's most highly touted models is the MCX462-V, which uses a half-inch thick copper baseplate matched to 390 patented Helicoid aluminum pins. These pins are arranged in a circular pattern and have rough edges to increase turbulence at low fan speeds, which optimize cooling while helping your system stay quiet. Speaking of fans, you don't get one with this heatsink, but you do receive hardware that lets you attach the 80mm or 92mm fan of your choice. We opted for a Vantec Tornado, a gutsy fan that spins at 4,800rpm and moves air at 119CFM. That consumed a lot of space, but the heatsink alone is actually less than 40mm tall. The baseplate is smooth and has a polished look to it, and it's the reason this heatsink is fairly heavy at 650 grams. Considering the retention mechanism, that weight might be a concern for a few users. That's because this heatsink doesn't use your motherboard for support. Instead, it relies on the socket for support like many other (much lighter) AMD heatsinks. While this simplifies installation, it also means that there's an awful lot of weight pulling on the sides of the socket when your case is vertical. Because of this, you should definitely avoid moving or jarring the case while this heatsink is in place. With the hurricane force of the Tornado on top, this heatsink performed very well. Motherboard Monitor reported an idle temperature of 40 C and a working temperature of 43 C, while our Digital Doc sensors recorded a rise of one degree when we began benchmarking.  Spire SkiveStream III We paid: $19 Available at: www.3dcool.com www.frozencpu.com At less than $20, the Spire SkiveStream III was one of the least expensive heatsinks we tested, so you might be surprised to hear that this product does include copper. It also has a nickel coating that adds a chrome-like shine and also comes with a preapplied layer of thermal grease for those of you tired of playing with the messy stuff, and although this layer was too wide for the top of our CPU's die, it's easy enough to wipe the excess off of the shiny finish. Compared to the 600-gram monsters that we tested elsewhere in this story, the SkiveStream III is quite small, so at only 65mm tall (with a fan), you will have plenty of room for your other components and cables. It comes with a translucent blue fan that spins at 3,600rpms and moves air at 32.25CFM. In a nice touch, Spire added a fancy chrome-like fan grill that spices up the product's look and prevents wiring and finger damage. If you like classy-looking components without overblown glowing and blinking effects, this is a good option, and the fan wiring has a whitish shielding that will match up with most color schemes. The Spire's performance was very good, especially when you consider how much we spent on it. Our CPU did get as warm as 47 C, but this is still an excellent budget-priced modding buy.  Vantec AeroFlow VA4-C7040 We paid: $24 Available at: www.mycableshop.com www.xoxide.com You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to invest in interesting heating technology. For less than $25, you can nab this Vantec AeroFlow heatsink that has a round, copper CPU core and four-sided aluminum fins that slope from the top and center of the heatsink toward the bottom edges. This design supposedly results in smoother and more consistent heat dissipation, especially at the heatsink's corners, thus, the AeroFlow moniker. Vantec didn't forget about the fan during the research and development process. This unit includes a TMD (Tip-Magnetic Driving) fan, which, unlike most fans, doesn't have a center-mounted motor. Instead, the motor is displaced to the fan's four corners, which reduces the fan's hub size and, as a result, shrinks the dead spot that's associated with regular fans. Installing the heatsink is easy, as you just clip it onto the CPU socket and connect the fan. Its diminutive size and plain-Jane metal top, along with the black fan blades, look a little drab at first, but turn on this Vantec, and its artistry comes to life. From a vantage point above the spinning fan, you can see the copper core and unique fin arrangement, an x-ray type view that blows away cheap-looking LED effects. At about 65mm tall, this heatsink will fit in most cases with no problems whatsoever. It will also cool your AMD chips without difficulty. Even with a heavy workload, our CPU maxed out at 42 C, making the heatsink cool enough and cool-looking enough for the most discriminating modders.  Aerocool Phantom We paid: $30 Available at: www.tigerdirect.com www.newegg.com Aerocool's Phantom is actually designed for XP 2600+ and faster CPUs, but we decided to see how it would work with our slightly slower AMD chip. Aerocool's specs indicate that this product will also help cool Intel Celeron and Duron processors. The Phantom is immediately notable because it's made from copper and costs less than $30. It weighs a reasonable 300 grams and comes with an 80mm fan that spins at 2,600rpms. It's also topped with a blue metal enclosure that makes for a sharp-looking heatsink, indeed, but you won't get the full eye candy effect until you power on your PC. When you do, you'll see the blue LEDs in the fan come to life. These LEDs help the Phantom offer some of the same attention-getting effects as the Gigabyte cooler. With our 2500+ CPU, idling temperatures were acceptable and went as high as 42 C. At-work heat levels were higher, at 49 C, but that's still plenty cool for this CPU. Because we tested this heatsink on a CPU just outside its spec range, we won't rush to judgment on performance, but there's little doubt that the Phantom is a good choice for modders who need a smaller heatsink but want a product that will blow bystanders away.  Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2M We paid: $22 Available at: www.frozencpu.com www.newegg.com At first, we thought the Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2M was incorrectly labeled—an annoying whine nearly drowned out our thoughts as we started up this heatsink/fan combo. Then we realized a nearby overclocked machine was the problem. Once we relocated our test machine to a new area, we were surprised by what we didn't hear, a good indication of just how quiet this 80mm really is. The fan sits atop an aluminum heatsink that contains a 44mm copper plate designed to cover an AMD CPU's high-temperature die. Instead of using a thermal compound between the aluminum and copper elements, the company integrated a very thin layer of tin between these two metals, which supposedly improves heat conductivity by a factor of 25. We experienced no problems with this heatsink's installation, as it quickly clipped onto the standard AMD socket. In addition to securing the heatsink, we had to install the fan control switch, which is just a basic, black, three-way switch, into an empty expansion card slot. You won't have to worry about the 2M devouring much case space. It measures less than 80mm high and weighs only about 400 grams, much smaller than the 700-gram heatsinks we tested elsewhere in this story, yet it's still rated to handle up to an Athlon XP 3400+ CPU when you set the fan to its maximum speed of 2,800rpm. Unfortunately, it didn't keep our CPU as cool as we would've liked. Both idle and work temps reached mid to high 40s, which our other test products bettered. The Cool Down New heatsinks pop up on retail sites every day, and each new product promises better cooling potential, but almost always at a higher price. As you reread our results, keep in mind that forced-air heatsinks can accomplish only so much, especially during overclocking sessions. Don't spend $60 on a heatsink until you're sure it can do the job right, keep the product's weight and dimensions in mind, and consider ahead of time whether you want the heatsink to work with both Intel and AMD processors. A little foresight will prevent wasted cash and help your CPU get the cooling effects it needs.  by Nathan Chandler View the graphics that accompany this article. (NOTE: These pages are PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view these pages. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader) |
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