Heatsinks and CPU Cooling De-mystified

[robbie]

Hey X,
What is your CPU load with those temps?

[xmetrix]

idle 25-28
full load (3dsm rendering 1 million polycount animation, dvd shrink backup, and playing battlefield2 at the same time) 28-32c

[aghastpumpkin]

Firstly, it depends when your looking at your temperatures. All the temperatures I measured were whilst the CPU was under full load.
This was done by running World Community Grid, Burning a CD-Rom and playing a game.
This will put the temperatures of a Stock CPU beyond 30 Celsius, no doubt about it.
Thirdly, it depends on your CPU. They all output different temperatures, with Pentiums generally being the hottest. Your Opterons run very cooly. Some of my test results come from a rig running a toasty FX57.
Fourthly, all the CPUs in my tests are overclocked. My Venice 3000 runs at a cool 2.4GhZ.
Lastly, although the AMD stock heatsink can cool usually to around the 35 Celsius mark, it does so with an awful lot of noise. The coolers above all do it at a much lower volume. The AMD stock HSF funs at around 4 sones. The new Arctic Cooler HSF's run at 0.4 Sones.

Nobody said achieving a temeprature under 30 Celsius is hard. It depends on a lot of factors. You cannot compare temperatures from two totally different setups fairly.

[Seperah]

Yeah, everything Aghast just said X 2.

About done with my review, I got some nice pics, including some of my
own 7700 and Typhoon. I have load and idle temps. Applications ranging from FEAR, to WoW, then Prime95 to 3Dmark05.

Only problem is I'm in cleveland for another 16 hours...so I'll post my review the second I get home. Thanks for being patient.

[xmetrix]

oh ok, i thought you meant just in general cause i find alot of people who dont overclock bragging about their mid 30 temps lol. Also, when i overclocked an amd fx57 to 3.0ghz it was barely hitting 30c. then when i pushed it to 3.3ghz I had to switch to some serious cooling and got it to -41c it was fr0sty!

[aghastpumpkin]

Originally Posted by Seperah

Yeah, everything Aghast just said X 2.

About done with my review, I got some nice pics, including some of my
own 7700 and Typhoon. I have load and idle temps. Applications ranging from FEAR, to WoW, then Prime95 to 3Dmark05.

Only problem is I'm in cleveland for another 16 hours...so I'll post my review the second I get home. Thanks for being patient.

Cheers dude!

[Seperah]

Finally home!!!

Review will be here in about 10 minutes, just gotta do some proof-reading.

[Seperah]

I would first like to thank AP for allowing me to hijack his thread to post my review (thanks bro)

My review will today will be comparing two seperate CPU cooling solutions from respected companies. In question today we have the
Zalman CNPS 7700-CU and the Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

For the most controlled test possible, I moved the components to
the least drafty room in my home, and kept all air movement inside
the room to an absolute minimum (no open windows, doors) to in order
to keep the temperature around an average 67F. I also made sure by killing any unused proceses in the task manager and kept the number of
processes the same when using different units.

My testing display was by Nvidia's tool "Nv Monitor" and I can assure
as a margine of error -2C or +2C, so please take this fact into account.

Seeing as how AP does not have a pic of the Typhoon I'm posting one...

**Insert Typhoon image here***

My most critical tests...

First was this, I decided to simultainously run a Virus Scan (AVG Free edition 7.1.385) a single song from Limewire (Breaking Benjamin -Polyamorous) and conducting a Torture test using Prime95 (Blend option)

I allowed this to continue for 20 minutes while continously looping the song, after the given amount of time I took a measurement...My results with the Zalman 7700 (see below) 36C***

**Insert Zalman image of 36C here***

Then I simply preformed the same thing while the Typhoon was mounted.
(results) 33C***

**Insert Typhoon Image of 33C here**


Next came 3Dmark 06, and the Zalman 7700's results were....

**Insert 3Dmark 06, Zalman 7700 Image here***


And again the Typhoons results....

***Insert Typhoon 3Dmark 06 image here***


At first I felt some of the results were very inaccurate.
Therefore I took another day to repeat the tests, and the
findings came to be just about exact same.

Some other interesting things...

Idle 15 minutes the 7700 - 30C
Idle 15 minutes the Typhoon - 23C

30 minutes of Prime95 on blend 7700 - 35C
30 minutes of Prime95 on blend Typhoon - 31C

F@H 30 minutes on 7700 - 32C
F@H 30 minutes on the Typhoon - 27C

Other thoughts.....

In America the Zalman 7700 can be had for $49.99 + 5.99 3 day S/H.
The Typhoon can be had for $47.99 + 2.99 3 day S/H.
(Prices based from newegg currently of 4/24/06)

The 7700 itself is a huge mass of Copper, and I mean large.
It weighs quite a bit, while the Typhoon contains Copper heatpipe
mounting surface and an aluminum/copper fan base.
Weight difference between the two isnt much by real standards,
however the Zalman has a condensed weight of Copper over a smaller
area whilst the Typhoon has a larger weight over a larger area.

Some set backs were physical size. The Zalman in my Chieftech Intro server sat very comfortable with plenty of room to navigate around the cooler itself. The Zalman itself is around 2 1/2 inches from base to crest, and 5 1/2 inches from fin to opposite fin.

The Typhoon however is indeed "Big', in fact its a monster!!!
Being nearly 5 3/8 inches in height and still maintaining the same width as the 7700. The problem in turn resides in the height. As my original tower was a Thermaltake Wingo 5. The Zalman rested comfortably in its design as well, the Typhoon would physically not allow the 90mm fans mounted on swinging side hinges to close while installed (hense, why I'm using the cheiftech now)


Final thoughts.

Neither of these coolers are bad in anyway. The Zalman still kept the CPU under very acceptable temperatures. However the Typhoon just seems to have the lead by 5-7C both idle and high load temps, while
keeping a low noise of 16dBa. The price too, obviously at this current time the Typhoon being the cheaper product has its benefits as well.

The setback again is how massive the unit is, I cannot recommend this
solution too anyone with a small(er) tower. My Wingo was 8.1 inches in width, while my chieftech is 9.2 (give or take .2)

If you can hurdle this barrier, and are looking for a high preformance solution while not paying an extreme amount. The Thermaltake Big Typhoon is what you want. It bested my Zalman 7700 is EVERY test, and the results were repeatable by far. The price is attractive, the preformance great, noise low and should it fit in your case, you can brag how large the thing is. By far one of the best, if not the best air unit I've used for any CPU I've owned so far.


*Test CPU was an Opteron 148*
*Default voltage, HTT & Multipliers*
*PSU - Thermaltake 560watt Pure Power*


**Special thanks to Cadaveca for the recommendation**

[Seperah]

I have the images below the post...so if any admin could please add the specified images to the area in which designated with the "**Insert here**
would be much appreciated --the Zalman has the higher temps, the TT the lowest, so figuring out what goes where shoudl be very easy....thank you!!

[aghastpumpkin]

I will give some more feedback when I get back from Work. It looks like that Typhoon is a really good bit of kit!

[bonesaw]

my friend just got the Gigagbyte cpu cooler and it works great, dropped his temperature about ten degrees i think. i'll ask him pain in the ass to install