Testing Methodology:
We used Motherboard Monitor 4.18 to read the
temperature from within Windows 98 SE. We recorded the CPU
temperatures under an idle state and a heavy load state (running Prime95
for 30 minutes). Please Note, the system/CPU temperatures may
vary from your own tests because of different hardware/cooling
configurations.
**Note** A thin layer of MPU 3.7 thermal grease was used on all the
heatsinks to ensure maximum heat transfer.
Here is the system configurations used for the tests:
|
System Configuration 1
|
System Configuration 2 |
- Intel Celeron
400 CPU @468MHz
- Soyo SY-6BA+IV
Motherboard
- 128 MB CAS 2
PC100 SDRAM
- ELSA Erazor X2
DDR GeForce
- Aureal SQ2500
Vortex2
- D-Link
DE-530TX+ NIC
- Adaptec ISA
SCSI card
- Diamond
SupraExpress 56i Sp
- Pioneer 6X DVD
Drive
- Quantum
Fireball KA Plus 13.6 GB HD
- WD Caviar
6.4GB HD
- Microsoft
Windows 98 SE
|
- Intel Celeron
566@ 700MHz
- ASUS CUV4X
Motherboard
- 128MB CAS2
PC133 SDRAM
- 3dfx Voodoo3
3000
- Sound Blaster
Live!
- D-Link
DFE-530TX+
- Toshiba 50X
CD-ROM Drive
- Quantum
Fireball Plus LM 15GB Hard Drive
- Microsoft
Windows 98 SE
|
|
System
#1: Celeron 400@468
|
|
Idle |
Heavy
Load |
| Intel S370 Retail
Heatsink |
41 |
45 |
| ATTECH CM25 |
35 |
37 |
| Thermaltake Golden Orb |
35 |
37 |
The Orb and the CM25 were right on par here, providing very decent
performance. The CM25's scores are especially noteworthy due to it
being much smaller than the Golden Orb.
|
System
#2: Celeron 566@700
|
|
Idle |
Heavy
Load |
| Intel S370 Retail
Heatsink |
33 |
44 |
| ATTECH CM25 |
30 |
39 |
| Thermaltake Golden Orb |
30 |
38 |
Again, we see that Intel's heatsink/fan really sucks and the Orb and
CM25 performed very close to each other, with the Orb just slightly
beating it out.
One thing to note is the large difference between the idle
temperatures and the load temperatures on System #2. ASUS's
hardware monitoring chip does not seem to work as well as the Winbond
ones. The number jump sporatically with the ASUS chip and can even
jump 4-8 degrees within two seconds which is highly unlikely. So
the scores on System #2 may not be entirely accurate, but the ASUS board
is all I had to test with.
The ATTECH CM25 is definitely a contender. It's pure copper
heatsink with densely placed fins does a great job of absorbing the
heat, while taking up significantly less space than most of the competitors.
If you do grab one of these babies, you could always add on a bigger,
more powerful fan (something you can't do with the orb). Besides
being a good CPU heatsink, it would surely make one heck of a good video
card heatsink, don't you think? The only problem would be finding a way
to mount it on and keeping it on, since it is quite heavy. One
other thing to note, is that it's not quite as pretty as the Alpha's or the
Orb simply because it's copper and copper is very ugly and very malleable.
So if you're looking for a nice looking cooler, this is not for you.
If you would like to buy this cooler or any other cooling
solution, head over to the CoolerGuys.
Hardware Pros Home Page
The Hardware Pros are not
responsible from any damage resulting from overclocking. |
