Long story short. Today I got pretty bored. I’ve been wanting to put my 1090T under dry ice for quite some time now. However, my bench partner has been busy with work so I could not obtain the dry ice pot.

So I was thinking of ways I could cool down my processor, in order to play around with my new 6 core. Since I own a Corsair H50 AIO Watercooling kit, I decided to have some fun.

I hung the radiator in an old lunch cooler and filled it to the brim with ice. I also threw a bit of water in for more cooling surface area. I figured this could get my processor 5°C or below. I was right. Yes, the slushbox idea is not a brand new innovative one, but I wanted to try my chip under something else then regular cooling for now.

So I pushed my processor to frequencies I only previously thought could be attained on dry ice (at least with my deneb’s). It seems these new Thuban chips pack quite the punch when it comes to running up the frequency.

Anyways. Enough with the chit chat. I threw together another youtube short just like the good old days when I played with my denebs. So here you are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwb1K3_G7Mg

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwb1K3_G7Mg]

Here are all the screenshot results and validations:

4250MHz Prime 95 Stable 1 Hour

I wanted to see how the slushbox worked under a real stress and if the chip would stay stable. The slushbox doesn’t deal with loads too well, but is still kept below 32C at all times. I believe if I had a good enough water setup, I could attain this stable speed no problem without any slushbox at all.

SuperPi 1m @ 4662MHz

I ramped up SuperPi to see what this chip can do. On my previous deneb chips, SuperPi 1m was my bread and butter, my favourite benchmark to run. Since SuperPi is a single threaded application, I imagine if I disabled some cores or ramped up only one core I could get better results.

SuperPi 32m @ 4500MHz                                                        SuperPi 32m @ 4571MHz

My first run was kind of on the safe side. To avoid a crash. However for second run I ramped up the processor a bit. This was the max I could go while still using all 6 cores. Once again, being single threaded, disabling cores might be able to help my clocking.

wPrime 32m @ 4500MHz

wPrime 1024m @ 4250MHz                                    wPrime  1024M @ 4409MHz

PiFast @ 4500MHz PiFast @ 4553MHz

Cinebench 11.5 @ 4250MHz Cinebench 11.5 @ 4427MHz

3DMark Vantage @ 4427MHz

SiSoft Sandra @ 4427MHz

CPUZ SS @ 4730MHz – Validation

In the video I attained a speed of 4.75GHz, however it was not stable for validation nor screenshot. It was only a taken as a video clip. The cpu did not last very long at 4.75GHz and crashed soon after.

Factors contributing to unreliable test results that can be controlled by the tester:

• Air temperature and humidity: When doing a comparison, temperature and humidity should be kept the same, or at least as close as possible.
• Location: Testing should be done in an area that has little air movement or an area with a reasonably controllable environment.
• Sunlight: Testing in direct sunlight will skew results.
• Electronic devices: Most electronic devices expel heat. Avoid testing near such devices, if this is unavoidable, make sure that the device is in the same state for all testing; preferably off.
• Other environmental considerations: Consider air movement; as limiting air movement will eliminate many variables.

1. If central air is being used, the testing should be done near the thermostatic control unit as this will limit many of the temperature variances that occur in a structure between on/off cycles.
2. Fans: Box, osculating, ceiling or any other type of fan should be turned off.
3. The testing should not be near an air duct.

Eliminating the biggest contributor to inaccurate results (the computer):

The computer needs to be eliminated from the equation if a heat sink is to be tested accurately.

• Background operations that are controlled through the services settings panel in the administrative control panel need to be completely eliminated, as these may cause random CPU cycles.
• Legacy buses (dumb buses) need to be disabled as they are polled by the CPU.
• Motherboard monitoring hardware and software are not always dependable and accurate.
• CPUs and Chipsets have been known to have temperature monitoring issues.

Building an external test unit is the only way to eliminate the factors that are beyond the tester’s control.

Components and tools used for testing. Only the fan headers are used on the motherboard. Molex to fan header adapters are available.

A water tight pan and standard PSU are used for testing as well.

Transfer blocks need to be lapped and mounted with thermal transfer adhesive.

A hole needs to be drilled for thermocouple insertion. The hole above is 7/8" deep with a 5/8" counter bore to allow the thermocouple ball to fit tightly.

Using non-conductive thermal paste allows the gaps to be filled and better results to be obtained.

A thermocouple can be used if you wish to test specific points on the HSF for variance, which can indicate a poor performing or bad/damaged HSF.

Variance testing

Variance testing

Probing areas

The probes need to be cleaned and thermal paste used for every test.

Insertion of thermocouples should be done before adding water.

Using water as a heat transfer medium allows for more control of environmental factors that are otherwise left unchecked.

1. Humidity is controlled and maximized
2. Temperatures are controlled (as long as air movement is eliminated)
3. Air density is affected but will not be a factor that can be readily measured.

A control thermocouple (black) is used to monitor the base temperature.

1-2mm of water needs to be above the plate.

Using water will allow for repeatability in testing. This allows the temperatures to be easily stabilized and the maximum temperature will usually be in a predictable range; thus allowing for data sets to be formulated. After a point, head to head tests will no longer be necessary.

Keeping the meters on during the heating process can help identify trends in HSF units and also identify potential problems.

If only one unit is to be the focus, then a probe can be affixed to the HSF itself.

Testing temperature scaling and humidity is a necessity as they will work together to give a more controlled testing environment.

Testing room and zone temperatures is helpful if a database is to be made for comparison.

Bring up the temperature and humidity

The air temperatures in the test zone should stabilize and be maintainable and repeatable.

Using a humidity of 90-100% in the testing zone will help better control temperature for dependable and repeatable results.

Though the temperatures should remain uniform, there is no guarantee. ALWAYS CHECK TEMPERATURES AT MORE THAN ONE POINT!

Water temperature variance test point #1.

Water temperature variance test point 2

Video of fan on a cool down run.

Testing:

• Although a passive test, the process of heating up the HSF shows the ability to absorb and dissipate heat with no fan assistance.
• Variance testing will show the HSF’s ability to evenly spread it’s heat (this is best done with the fan off), which is critical for the HSF to respond to rapid changes in heat output. If there is a large variance between the closest point to the CPU and the furthest point away from it, then the HSF generally will not deal well with rapid heat output changes or the high heat output from overclocking.
• Testing of heat pipe efficiency is similar to standard variance testing. Testing the heat pipe at the points closest to and the furthest from the CPU will show the efficiency of the heat pipes.
• Building on the heat pipe test, a heat pipe to fin variance test shows the efficiency of the bond between the two materials/components of the HSF. This test shows design weaknesses and may show manufacturing flaws that show up from time to time in production runs. The causes for this are dependent on many factors, and if a HSF is found to be poorly made, the manufacturer should be contacted so that it can be corrected. It is never the intent of a major manufacturer to sell a bad product. If it is found to be a poor design then the tester or reviewer has little choice, a spade is a spade and a bad product should be shown for what it is.
• The fan on test shows which HSF is more capable of dispersing heat into the surrounding environment.

There are many other types of tests that can be done with an out of the box setup. The testing above is just a start.

Data collection: Keeping track of information allows the tester to build a database of results. By studying the variances, from run to run, choose a control heat sink to work with as a standard for comparison; a benchmark of sorts. The best way to record and store the information is with a meter that will log the information and allow output in a standard form that can be used in something like Excel or Open Office.

Obtaining a testing pan and plate: Most of these items are easy to acquire, save the box or pan. Local fabrication shops usually have plenty of scrap around and will usually sell it at a discount rate. If you are a product tester, the shop may cut you a break for a little free advertising in your review/blog, or you can part with the ~ $70 – $200 and just have it made.

That is all for now. Feel free to comment or ask questions and I will be happy to help in any way that I can.

• Compatible with K-, J-, T- and E- thermocouples (others should work but these are the recommended types)
• User programmable offsets
• Internal memory stores 100 sets of temperature readings that can be transferred to PC software
• Data logging software for real time testing (good for working with fan and component placement and viewing their effects in real time)
• Ability to export data sets from software in .xls format to do comparative studies and graphing

The graph capabilities of the 72-7712 software are not phenomenal, it does however serve the purpose. Though dual software readout (T1 & T2) would be preferred; the logging capacity and decent feature set, as well as an Excel export feature make up for the software weaknesses.

Thermocouple 1 reading

Thermocouple 2 reading

Thermocouple 1 - thermocouple 2 reading. Temperature difference. This screen is most effective when trying to move case temperatures closer to ambient room temperature.

Example of exported data to .xls format

Thermal conductivity of the heat sink material is an important factor in air cooling. Copper and aluminum are the most widely used materials in PC HSF (heat sink & fan) construction. The properties of these two materials are critical to proper cooling of the processor.

The Chart below shows the thermal conductivity of materials for comparison. The only three that matter for this testing are aluminum, copper and air (water and the other items may be of interest to those who like to get a little wet).

:More information about thermal conductivity and conductive heat transfer:

Some simple ideas for improving the PC enthusiast experience:

Checking the case for hot spots.

Keeping your entire case as close to ambient is probably the most important thing that can be done to keep the HSF operating at its maximum efficiency. A heat sink can not lower temperatures below case ambient and will usually level out 4-12 degrees centigrade above case ambient no matter how much money is spent on it.

By identifying hot spots, proper fan placement can be made. Though these areas may not seem relevant to CPU cooling; they are. Air circulating throughout the case creates eddies, (a current of air running contrary to the main current; especially: a circular current : whirlpool) which in turn, remain hot and by cross circulation make  air circulating around them heat up.

Working in a similar fashion to the eddy, dead zones (hot area where there is no mechanical air circulation) may seem harmless, it is critical to circulate or eliminate this air to alleviate convection (heat transfer in a gas by the circulation of currents from one region to another). For dead zones a fan may not be an option and directed air may be needed. If directed air is not possible then closing in/sectioning off this area may be the only option.

Knowing where the hot areas of the case are allows for fixes that otherwise would not be possible.

Testing for efficiency.

Methodology: Air can only dissipate a fixed amount of heat due to its low thermal conductivity. Having a material of higher thermal conductivity does not always mean better temperatures, but it does allow a potential for lower temperatures, depending on other contributing factors. Testing the two most common heat sink materials to see these differences helps gain an understanding of what the conductivity numbers really mean.

Copper and Aluminum heat sinks tested for conductivity.

Copper; 56.8 seconds to reach maximum efficiency with a variance of 3.9 degrees centigrade

Aluminum 59.8 seconds to reach maximum efficiency with a variance of 7.9 degrees centigrade

This is the point where temperatures stabilize and heat is dispersed through natural convection. This is not a scientific test as the blocks were not exactly the same and some variables were omitted. What it does show is that copper will transfer heat faster and more evenly.

A double boiler is used to allow for better temperature control

Test equipment and stop watch used (phone) for testing. A Tenma 72-8540 is used as a control.

The copper and aluminum heat sinks used for the test

A two minute test of both materials (copper and aluminum) showed a 3.7 degree centigrade variance, copper being hotter (this is good, it means it will draw that much more heat to be dissipated). It must be taken into consideration that these heat sinks did not have a fan and the variance would have been lower during operation.

The results of this test correlate directly to the previous test results.

Testing your Heat Sink and Fan assembly

Using an Arctic Cooling AF64 PRO

If the HSF is not equalizing temperatures within a reasonable variance or running 10+ degrees above ambient case temperature (check the temperature at the intake area of the HSF to eliminate the possibility of a hot spot causing the problem) then a re-seat of the HSF may be needed and possibly a replacement HSF of higher quality may be in order.

Using information gathered with a good temperature meter will help guide the process of lowering case temperatures and in turn allow for a cooler processor, memory and hard disk drive.

Shots of the 72-7712

All display elements

Temperature readout screen

Variance screen

Setup: Offset adjustment screen

Front view of meter showing controls

Conclusion

Using a dual probe temperature meter with capabilities comparable to the 72-7712 is a definite step up from the volt meter type single probe units that were used in the past. With the data logging capabilities and other features available with this unit it is much easier to maximize case cooling and potentially gain a few hundred MHz from a heat limited overclock.

With acceptable quality, useful software and features the 72-7712 makes an excellent addition to the tool box of the overclocker or small PC mod shop.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2010/06/01/tenma-72-7712-dual-chanel-temp-probe-what-happens-with-tempratures-inside-a-pc/feed/ 4 http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/18/bitfenix-launches-first-video-log-previews-colossus-gaming-chassis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bitfenix-launches-first-video-log-previews-colossus-gaming-chassis http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/18/bitfenix-launches-first-video-log-previews-colossus-gaming-chassis/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 11:24:23 +0000 EnJoY http://www.techreaction.net/?p=6643 BitFenix, a new company that first made it’s presence known several months ago, is getting closer and closer to releasing some of it’s very first, top secret products!  The company has released a video log that gives some more information on who they are, what their goals are as a company, and most importantly…previews their upcoming gaming chassis, the Colossus!

“Today, we have a very special video for you. In the first of many BitFenix Video Logs, David Jarlestedt, BitFenix Product Manager, gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the who, what, and why of this new gaming hardware and peripheral company. Learn what makes BitFenix tick and what BitFenix has coming up in the very near future. Also, catch a sneak peek at Colossus – BitFenix’s first PC Gaming Chassis!”

Packaging:

The 5770 Hawk:

Specifications & Features:

• ‧Microsoft DirectX 11 Support
• ‧ATI Eyefinity Technology
• ‧ATI Stream Technology
• ‧40 nm Process Technology
• ‧Advanced GDDR5 Memory Technology
• ‧2nd Generation TeraScale Engine
• ‧Microsoft Windows 7 support
• ‧ATI CrossFireX™ Technology
• ‧Enhanced Anisotropic Filtering
• ‧Accelerated Video Transcoding
• ‧HDMI 1.3 Support
• ‧Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Support
• ‧ATI PowerPlay™ Technology Enhanced Support for GDDR5 memory
• ‧ATI Avivo™ Technology Enhanced Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2)
• 7+1 phase PWM design

• - World’s first HD 5770 with 7+1 phase PWM for better overclocking capability.
  - 7 phase PWM for GPU on Hawk provides 100% more current compared to 4 phase PWM on reference HD 5770.
• Twin Frozr II Thermal Design
  - Dual PWM fans and triple heatpipes.
  - Temperature is 13℃ lower than reference cooling design.
• Over-voltage function of GPU.
  - Use afterburner to overclock HAWK, increase performance up to 20%.
  - GPU Voltage can be increased up to 1.35V
• Military Class Components.
  - Hi-C Cap provides more precise GPU voltage and has better stability.
  - SSC (Solid State Choke) for No Buzz noise.
  - All Solid CAP for longer lifespan.
• V-Check Points.
  - Hawk series has built-in voltage measurement points.
  - Get accurate voltage of GPU and Memory on the fly.
  - Additional cables to hold multimeter probes.

Test Setup:

Overclocking Software and Results:

Afterburner Software:

The MSI Afterburner software is incredibly easy to use. It’s very self-explanatory and with just a few clicks here and there you can tweak almost anything you would like. You can set custom profiles and even your very own custom fan speed settings. This is a really nice addition to the software because it limits the requirement of 3rd party programs and the added congestion on your computer. MSI did a great job combining all of the options in one easy to use program!

Overclocking:

Stock voltage OC 961/1372

1.3v OC 1005/1372

1.35v OC 1016/1372

Overclocking the 5770 Hawk using the Afterburner software was a breeze. Settings were easily changed and the software gave us a nice range to play with. The final overclock of 1016/1372 was, needless to say, interesting. The Sapphire 5770 we tested had an overclock of 960/1435. With the Hawk, it seemed to offer a little give and take, having a slightly higher core clock, but a lower memory clock frequency. Although any overclock is a plus given that it is not guaranteed, we were just expecting more on the memory front with the voltage control and great software from MSI.

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3DMark:

FurMark:

Unigine: Heaven

Unigine: Tropics

Game Benchmarks:

*All tests ran at the applications highest allowable detailed settings*

Batman Arkham Asylum:

Battlefield – Bad Company 2

Bioshock:

Champions Online:

Company of Heroes:

Call of Juarez:

Far Cry 2:

F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin

Fuel:

Just Cause 2:

Modern Warfare 2:

Operation Flashpoint 2 – Dragon Rising:

Risen:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. :

Resolutions:

1920x1200

1920x1080

1680x1050

1600x1200

1400x1050

1440x900

Star Trek D-A-C :

Team Fortress 2:

Torchlight:

Warhammer 40000 - Dawn of War 2:

World In Conflict:

Wings of Prey:

Twin Frozr II:

The Twin Frozr II is a fantastic looking cooler. It has a crowd-pleasing look and great performance to top it off. We just wish more companies would put more effort into cooling their cards  instead of just throwing on the generic cooler. The dual PWM fans are a nice touch. Having two fans instead of the standard one will help to dissipate heat at a greater rate without comprising on noise levels. MSI does claim that the Twin Frozr II is s full 13 degrees Celcius cooler than the reference design, and as you will see next, this may be true under the right circumstances.

Temperatures:

The testing conditions were as follows.

• Ambient Room Temp: 24-25C
• Ambient checked before and after tests
• Card left idle at test settings for 15 minutes to get idle temperature

*Sapphire 5770 Comparison*

Overclocked 960/1435

Temperatures were impressive from what we received in our testing. While the numbers were achieve aren’t exactly the 13c that MSI claims from the Twin Frozr II, they were close. We can say without a doubt that the Twin Frozr II is definitely better than reference design coolers. How much better? Well, it really depends on the environment in which the card is being run. The Twin Frozr II makes it’s biggest improvement over the reference design with the fans running at low speeds, as you can see from comparing the charts.

Voltage Monitoring:

In the picture above, you can see the 5770 Hawk runs 1.61v for the memory. This never changes in idle or overclocked states.

With the card sitting idle, you can see a nice low .96v is being used for the core voltage. If you are into power saving features, then you should like this, even if the savings are minimal.

You may have noticed the same thing we did if you looked at the pictures above. The multimeter is reading .03v higher than what the Afterburner software is showing us. This was consistent, so you could work with it and know for sure how many volts you were pushing through the card. But this should be a reminder to all who go by strictly software readings when overclocking and playing with voltage; it usually isn’t 100% accurate.

Power Consumption:

Notice in the test below that this is total power consumption. We tried our best to push the load as much as possible on the video card and nothing else. We ran FurMark at the highest settings our system would allow. We think FurMark gives the most reasonable readings on GPU load and how much wattage it puts out without stressing other components in the system too much. (Total consumption measured at outlet.)

With the tests above, you can see just how much wattage you can expect to use during gaming/benchmarking. This should assist you with your PSU shopping and the uncertainties that it always brings. You can now refer to the chart above and make a better decision on how many watts your PSU needs to be able to deliver. The chart will also give you an idea of what to expect from the much loved energy bill you get every month. Even with the card taking the system up to 239w while overclocked, this is still a very reasonable number for most people.

Fan Noise:

We did not have a decibel meter handy at the time of testing.  When you crank up the fans to 100%, the real cooling power is unleashed. However, unlike the Sapphire 5770 we tested, there is not an annoying whine from the fans. You can hear the blowing of the air, but it does not have the same high pitched scream. We are glad that MSI took control of the noise level with the two PWM fans in the Twin Frozr II. This is an extremely nice addition to the 5770 series.

Conclusion:

Well, we took this card for a ride and tested it with anything and everything we could find.  After all was said and done, this card proved to be an extremely impressive product. It has confirmed everything and proved that the first review of the previous 5770 we tested was not a fluke. It took monster games and held them in check. Yes, we know that there are better 5 series cards out there, but for the price, you would be hard-pressed to find another card that puts out this much power. It handled high resolutions with high settings, 8x AA and 16x AF, and kept on going. The “wow” factor we saw with this card is that it can run any game out on the market without bogging down. There may be some games that you may not get to run at max resolution and max settings, but the 5770 can hold its own, especially if you tweak it a little like we did here.

Overclocking the card was hassle free and easy. With the increased heat dissipation of the Twin Frozr II cooler, the 5770 Hawk gives you plenty of headroom to overclock. However, one thing we think could be improved upon is the Afterburner software in regards to it’s voltage readings. This is not a major fault in the software, but it would be nice to get even closer to the actual voltage that you enter.  

Aesthetically speaking, we think this is one of the best looking cards on the market. MSI did a great job in the overall design of the card and the Twin Frozr II! Another great feature of this card worthy of mention is the presence of built-in voltage measurement points, or V-Check points as MSI calls them. With this feature, you can always keep an eye on the actual voltages you put into your card while overclocking simply by touching each of the points with a simple multimeter. Overall, the 5770 Hawk is an extremely strong contender at the $150 pricing point.

The MSI Radeon HD 5770 Hawk 1GB has earned the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/16/msi-radeon-hd-5770-hawk-1gb/feed/ 3 http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/12/guide-air-cooling-101-fans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guide-air-cooling-101-fans http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/12/guide-air-cooling-101-fans/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 02:40:04 +0000 mav2000 http://www.techreaction.net/?p=6497 Fans

Welcome to the next edition of our Air Cooling 101 series of guides. In case you missed part 1 on CPU cooling, you can find it here. We move on to a topic in which there are consistently a lot of discussions around the net.

When we buy fans, we look at three main criteria:

1. CFM – Cubic Feet per Minute, or in simpler words, the amount of air that the fan can push/pull in a minute.
2. Static Pressure – The force with which the fan generates this airflow.
3. dBA – This is the sound rating of a fan and it gives you an idea of how quiet or noisy a fan is.

Most manufacturers tend to publish data on their fan’s with respect to these three criteria, however, most of the figures quoted by manufacturers tend to be a bit optimistic and I would take them with a pinch of salt.

With these basics in place, let us now take a quick look at the type of fans that are currently available in the market:

1. Sleeve Bearings – The cheapest to produce; most of the budget fans are made with sleeve bearings. The fan motor basically has two cylinders with a lubricant in between. The inner cylinder is covered with the lubricant and the fan runs when the inner cylinder turns within the outer one. This type of bearing, while initially fairly quiet, does tend to get noisier as it gets older and can also fail completely over time.

2. Ball Bearings – These fans use a ball bearing inside a pair of metal rings to turn the the fan blades. Ball bearing fans are more resilient over time and tend to last longer than sleeve bearing fans of a similar profile. The downside is that it’s also slightly more noisy. The quality of the bearings and lubricant are the two most important factors for this type of fan.

3. Fluid Bearing – Fluid bearings are made with two cylinders separated by a thin layer of liquid or gas. Since these surfaces do not make contact with each other, they tend to have an almost unlimited life and require very little maintenance. They are also relatively quiet as compared to the above two types.

4. Magnetic bearing – A magnetic bearing uses magnetic levitation caused by similar poles to keep the two sleeves apart. Again, these types of fans are very quiet and in theory have an unlimited life, as there is no contact between the sleeves. These are the most expensive of the lot .

Before we get into specific fan models that we recommend, it is important to note the most commonly used fans in a computer chassis, from an enthusiast point of view:

1. 120 x 25mm – This is the most common size that we see in a computer, either as case fans or for use as heat sink fans.

2. 120 x 38mm – This size is mainly used for heat sinks. The extra width of the fan’s case or shell helps to create more air pressure and therefore provide better cooling.

3. 140 x 25mm – These are used mainly as case fans as most heat sinks are not large enough to accept them. There are 140mm fans that have the 120mm type mounting points and are compatible with a large number of heat sinks and cases. The advantage of 140mm fans is that they need far fewer revolutions per minute to push the same amount of air as a 120mm fan of similar CFM rating can. This essentially leads to lower noise levels.

With the basics covered, we can start by looking at some of the fans that we suggest you use with a heat sink.

Heat Sink Fans

38mm

1. Sanyo Denki 109R H1011 – These are probably some of the most sought after fans for heat sink use and are considered the best amongst it’s peers, simply because it’s high static pressure at almost 6.6mm H2O and it’s acceptable noise levels. It puts out close to 102 CFM and is relatively quiet for this kind of airflow at 39dBA. Most of the extreme air coolers around the net will vouch for it’s performance. Extremely difficult to find at a decent price.

Link to product: Sanyo Denki 109R H1011

2. Delta AFB1212HHE – Rated at 120 CFM and 44dBA, these fans can push air at an amazing 9mm H2O. These are lot more noisy for daily use and need to be controlled with a fan controller if you intend to keep your hearing intact. They are great value for the money.

Link to product: Delta AFB1212HHE

There are a lot of other fans in this section, specifically Scythe Ultra Kaze’s and Panaflo’s, but these are the two that we have tested and have found to be extremely good. Any one of these would be capable of providing approximately the same amount of cooling that a pair of 25mm fans in a push/pull arrangement would provide.

25 mm

Now lets take a look at the 25 mm list.

1. Scythe Gentle Typhoons D1225C12B4AP-15 – The very high speed version has probably the best noise to airflow/pressure ratios available on the market today. They are very quiet, and while they do not move a lot of air in CFM terms, they do move the air with a decent amount of pressure. They are also highly rated for use with radiators. The very high speed version pushes around 58 CFM at a quiet 28dBA and runs on a hydro bearing. I could really go on and on about these fans as they are my personal favorites at the moment.

Link to product: Scythe Gentle Typhoons D1225C12B4AP-15

2. Delta AFC1212SH – PWM – A high speed, loud fan, but in the 25mm variety. Does a great job on heat sinks and is a PWM fan to boot, so you can turn it down using either your bios options or other software. It pushes close to 113 CFM at 46.5 dBA. Great for those who don’t have fan controllers.

Link to product: Delta AFC1212SH

3. Cooler Master Excalibur – Great fans, but a bit expensive for what they are. They have probably the best accessories package in this list as well as removable blades for cleaning. They are a bit noisy at full speed, but work well with fan controllers. They do about 86 CFM at 2000 rpm and most of the noise is generated due to the open air design of the frame more than the motor. These fans come with barometric ball bearings, which are somewhere between the ball bearing models and the magnetic models.

Link to product: Cooler Master Excalibur

4. Yateloon High Speed D12SH-12 – Another superb fan, though it can also get a bit noisy. They come with closed ended corners, so a bit of modding may be required to attach them to a heat sink or radiator. They run silently when undervolted and they don’t have any clicking sounds when turned down. Pushing 88 CFM at around 40dBA, these run on sleeve bearings.

Link to product: Yateloon High Speed D12SH-12

This is a fairly comprehensive list of the fans that we have tested within the last 12 months and should work well with any air cooling heat sink setup or water cooling radiator.

Case Fans

The reason for having a separate sub section for case fans is that while all of the above would work well as case fans, high air pressure is not generally needed in open air. Low pressure, high CFM fans generally work fine and therefore, you should not need to spend as much on high pressure 38mm fans. This is a list of fans that we have tested in the past and have found to be excellent at increasing air flow in a case.

1. Cooler Master R4 – They come in three different colors, with wonderful translucent cables and push close to 90 CFM. What more could you ask for in a case fan with some bling? They tend to be a bit noisy on side panels, but otherwise they are quite decent in terms of noise levels, but don’t believe the official rating of 19dBA or the manufacturer stated CFM numbers. Great, cheap case fans which are readily available.

Link to product: Cooler Master R4

2. Yateloon Medium Speed D12SM-12 – Great fans and very cheap at that. They are a lot less noisy than their higher flowing brothers and do a wonderful job as case fans, as well as heat sink fans. Easily one of the cheapest options around. Remember that these are sleeve bearing fans, so some amount of motor whine is to be expected.

Link to product: Yateloon Medium Speed D12SM-12

3. Xigmatek XLF-F1253 – Very quiet, these fans push a decent amount of air and have all the bling that you could want. They come in a couple of different colors, so you can match them to whatever theme you are using in your case. Great case fans, but not so good when strapped on to a heat sink.

Link to product: Xigmatek XLF-F1253

4. Enermax Apollish – Again, great fans with a whole lot of bling. They come in three different colors and most modders should love the style quotient. The only thing I don’t like about these fans are the thermal controls. They push about 71 CFM at full tilt and are a bit noisy when running at max.

Link to product: Enermax Apollish

Again, there are a number of other fans that you could look at, but these in my opinion should be amongst the best around, both in terms of performance and style.

That brings us to the end of another section of the Air Cooling 101 series. We will be back next time to take a look at Thermal Interface Materials.

As always we recommended Performance-PCs for all of your case and cooling needs as they offer some of the best service and product selection that we have seen.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/12/guide-air-cooling-101-fans/feed/ 0 http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/07/guide-air-cooling-101-cpu-cooling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guide-air-cooling-101-cpu-cooling http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/07/guide-air-cooling-101-cpu-cooling/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 18:00:47 +0000 mav2000 http://www.techreaction.net/?p=5174 Hello and welcome to the first article in my series on Air Cooling.

Over the last year or so, I have reviewed a number of air coolers and also a number of different fans and cooling setups. I thought that sharing my experiences would be useful to a lot of people and this is the reasoning behind the writing of this series. This series will cover a number of topics and to start with we will take a look at CPU cooling, which is by far the most important part of our computers.

So, why do we need to cool our CPU’s?

Well let’s look at it this way. A single core of a CPU is made up of millions of transistors, which operate continuously to complete any command. The moment we open a word file, for example, we are running a command which involves thousands of operations on each of these transistors, every second. The operation of these transistors within the core is what causes the CPU heat up. The greater the number of cores, the greater the power that is required to run it and the greater the heat produced.

If unchecked this heat can cause damage to our expensive CPU’s and that’s the main reason to keep it cool. That is where increased air cooling comes into play. Heat always moves from a warmer mass to a cooler mass, and in this case it is air which helps to move this heat away from the CPU.

All processor manufacturers provide some type of a heat sink solution for use with their processors.

What we see above is a heat sink which is slightly better than a stock all-aluminum heat sink. Let’s look at how each part of this heat sink works to keep a CPU cool.

At the bottom of the heat sink, we have a copper base which is in direct contact with the CPU. Through this base run a number of copper “pipes” known as heat pipes. The heat pipes are basically tubes of copper which are filled with a pressurized fluid and a wick. The heat pipes then run through a series of aluminum fins, and right on top of all of this is a single fan. Now let’s see how this works.

The copper base of the heat sink is in direct contact with the surface of the CPU. The heat from the CPU is conducted to the copper base, which then causes the fluid in the copper tubes to heat up and vaporize. This vapor travels to the top of the heat pipes, where with the help of the fan and the fins, cools down and turns back to it’s original liquid form and travels back to the base of the heat sink.

* Image from wikipedia

The aluminum fins help to increase the total area of the heat sink, which in turn helps to dissipate the heat faster.

Now that we have the basics in place, the next question is, why do we need an after market cooler? Well, there are two main reasons to get an after market heat sink:

1. To reduce the amount of noise – The basic heat sink shipped with all CPU’s tend to be extremely noisy, especially when the CPU is running at a high load. Remember that most of these heat sinks come with puny 60mm-80mm fans, and these need to run a lot faster to produce the same airflow that a larger 120 mm fan can produce.
2. To look at safely increasing the speed of the processor through overclocking – The stock heat sink should be capable of running the CPU at decent temperatures as long as the CPU is running at it’s rated speed. The moment we increase this speed, even by 10-15%, the amount of heat generated by the CPU increases and the stock heat sink may not be able to keep the CPU within it’s predefined temperature threshold.

So, taking all of this into consideration, let’s look at some suggested aftermarket heat sinks:

High performance

1. Cogage Arrow- The Cogage Arrow is a dual tower solution with the capability to use up to three fans. It’s made by a sister company of Thermalright and the design is based off of the IFX-14. It uses four 8mm heat pipes, which are very capable of pulling heat away from the CPU. We have done a thorough review on this heat sink on the AMD Phenom II platform, and in our tests, it beats it’s nearest competition (the Noctua NH-D14) by a very small margin. It is currently the best cooler money can buy.

Link to the product: Cogage Arrow

2. Noctua NH-D14 – The current king of the hill, but not by much. It costs an arm and a leg, and your case better have a lot of space as this is one big cooler. Please check clearances around the motherboard before buying this. It is just slightly behind the Cogage in temperatures, but it does come as a complete setup (including fan) and you do not need to spend anything extra to get this cooler up and running.

Link to the product: Noctua NH-D14

3. Thermalright Venomous-X – The Venomous-X is by far the best single tower design to date. It even manages to beat the previous king of the hill, the Prolimatech Megahalems. The Venomous-X comes ready with two sets of fan clips and an excellent thermal paste. I just wish they would concentrate more on the finish as the base is not up to par with offerings from Noctua. The best solution for those who cannot fit either a Noctua or Cogage in their cabinets.

Link to the product: Thermalright Venomous-X

4. Prolimatech Megahalems – The Megahalems and the Megashadow are the last entrants in the high end list. The Megahalems was the first cooler to dethrone the TRUE and held on to the crown of the best air cooler for almost a year. It is still rated highly amongst the top five coolers.

Link to the product: Prolimatech Megahalems

After the top four we have a number of players, but the more noticeable are the Noctua NH-U12P, the Prolimatech Armageddon and the Xigmatek Thor’s Hammer. You can also look at the H50 from Corsair. It’s a nice piece of hardware, but I would rate it more as air cooling than liquid cooling. Remember, that it’s not going to beat the top four air coolers, but it does tend to keep the rest of your case rather clutter free and therefore keeps the motherboard a lot cooler.

Budget Coolers

1. Thermolab Baram -The Thermolab Baram is one of those coolers that never got the right amount of marketing behind it. It’s one of the best budget coolers around, and at its price, it’s really very hard to beat. It has a very good fit and finish, and a great mounting system.

Link to product: Thermolab Baram

2. OCZ Vendetta 2 – The V2 is by far one of the best coolers for dual and triple cores available on the market. The three direct touch 8mm heat pipes do a wonderful job and it’s a snap to install on an AMD board. For a dual or triple core look no further as this cooler can handle your overclocks pretty well. The stock fan is good, but the stock TIM should be avoided.

Link to product: OCZ Vendetta 2

3. Cooler Master Hyper 212+ – The “+” version of this cooler is wonderful for dual and triple cores. One of the few budget HDT coolers that have the ability to handle a push-pull setup, and the included fan and TIM provided is pretty good as well. The mounting system is a bit difficult to use, but it does it’s job and gives a very tight fit. I have seen a fair number of high Phenom II overclocks using this cool which should tell you not to judge this cooler by it’s price.

Link to the product: Hyper 212 Plus

4. Xigmatek S1283 – Like the TRUE, the Xigmatek S1283 is legendary. This cooler has spawned a lot of look-a-likes, including the OCZ Vendetta 2. Both are similar in terms of their specifications and even share the same fan. The OCZ V2 has a larger fin area and that’s where it wins.

Link to the product: XIGMATEK S1283

Another heat sink that is worthy of mention is the Scythe Mugen 2, and the only reason that I did not add this to the list above is that we have not had the opportunity to test it ourselves.

That brings us to the end of the first part of this write up, we hope it provided you with a solid guide for your air cooling solutions. Part two will concentrate on fans for case and CPU cooling.

As always we recommended Performance-PCs for all of your case and cooling needs as they offer some of the best service and product selection that we have seen.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/07/guide-air-cooling-101-cpu-cooling/feed/ 1 http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/01/thermalright-blog-twitter-giveaway-winners-announced/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thermalright-blog-twitter-giveaway-winners-announced http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/01/thermalright-blog-twitter-giveaway-winners-announced/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 23:09:12 +0000 EnJoY http://www.techreaction.net/?p=6363 Well…it’s May 1st and that means that April’s giveaways have ended. As with each months giveaway before it, we have randomly selected winners from the two contests. First we will start with the monthly blogger contest winner.

The prizes were a TRUE rev.C CPU cooler and two TRAD2 GTX graphics card coolers. This makes for one nicely cooled dual-gpu PC when all is said and done.  Shockingly, despite several blogs from mav2000 and The Duke, this blogger manages to get the luck of the draw on his side.

And the winner of the April Blog & Win Giveaway is…

Burn

Please congratulate him and thank you to all who participate each and every month and blog.

Next up we have the winners of our Twitter Giveaway.  There are two prizes for this, each being a brand new TRUE rev.C CPU cooler, with two separate winners.  Again, the winners were chosen at random from this thread only.  Without further ado…

The winners of the April Thermalright Twitter Giveaway are…

chispy and zalbard

Thank you to everyone who participated and helped spread the word.  Thank you to Thermalright for your generous sponsorship!

Stay tuned for the May’s giveaways and as always, keep spreading the word about TechREACTION.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/01/thermalright-blog-twitter-giveaway-winners-announced/feed/ 2 http://www.techreaction.net/2010/04/30/innovation-cooling-diamond-7-carat-tim/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=innovation-cooling-diamond-7-carat-tim http://www.techreaction.net/2010/04/30/innovation-cooling-diamond-7-carat-tim/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 02:45:24 +0000 randomizer http://www.techreaction.net/?p=6337 I did some tests of a largely unknown synthetic diamond-based Thermal Interface Material by Innovation Cooling. I compared it to the most well known and most widely used thermal paste, Arctic Silver 5.It’s a small 1 gram tube of very viscous paste which works best when spread with a lot of pressure and not by manual spreading.

System configuration:

Intel Core i7 920 @ stock clock speed
MSI X58 Pro-E
Coolermaster CM690
Corsair HX-520
Zotac GTX 275
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
OCZ Vertex 30GB

I am measuring ambient temp from an intake point that is blowing directly onto the CPU heatsink. The Arctic Silver 5 has had plenty of curing time and many load/idle and on/off cycles. This is a fresh application of IC7. I was unable to compare the two after giving IC7 a good amount of curing time due to some changes to the system configuration that would invalidate the previous results. However, I am awaiting a 24 carat tube which I will test again with results after an appropriate curing time included.

I used a calibrated infra-red thermometer for measuring ambient temperature. Ambient was taken at 4 points around the intake fan on the side of a closed case and averaged out. This was done at the start and end of a series of tests (ie. stock and undervolted runs) and then the two averages were averaged again to get the mean ambient temp for the test period. Due to the fact that I can’t measure the exact same 4 locations every time, nor can I account for the slight variations during a run except by using averages, ambient temp should be assumed as accurate to +/- 1C.

The undervolted runs are at 0.16V below stock. Hyperthreading was disabled for all tests to reduce strain on the shockingly poor Intel stock heatsink. Prime95 Small FFTs was used as the load for all tests. Clock modulation via Real Temp was used to reach load of ~50% and no changes to the Prime95 run (still 4 worker threads) were made in addition to this. Real Temp 3.5 was used for monitoring core temperatures with Core 1 as the reference temperature by which all other readings were calibrated to align with throught the entire temperature range. All temps shown in the graphs are delta to ambient.

Packaging:

Specifications, and Features:

• Compact profile design for HTPC chassis and LAN box chassis.
• Universal mounting for Intel LGA1366/1156/775 and AMD AM3/AM2/940/939/754 sockets.
• 4 x Direct Contact heatpipes for seamless contact between CPU surface and cooler.

Vortex Plus:

As you may notice from the pictures, the four heat pipe design was created with a direct contact base to help dissipate heat as effectively as possible. With the low profile design, the Vortex needs to take advantage of everything possible to help keep temperatures under control.

We also noticed that the base is not exactly parallel to the ground. With the picture above (left) you can see the slight bend in the base upward to the top of the cooling fins. In this picture, you can also see where the retention clip will go across when we install the Vortex Plus.

The picture on the left shows off the gap in the fins which will come in very handy while installing the retention bracket. This was a great idea, because without it, we would have bent/broken plenty of fins during the installation process. In the other picture, you can take a look at the 92mm Blade Master PWM fan that accompanies the Vortex Plus.

Installation:

Installing the Vortex Plus was actually very easy. A lot of the coolers in today’s market make you install their own back plate with a bunch of screws. The Vortex is streamlined to make installation a breeze. The pictures above help show it off and you can see one of the two retention plates which you install with black push pins. You can also see ‘775,’ ‘1156′ and ‘1366′ etched into it. All you need to do is line up the correct socket type for your motherboard, then screw it in.

Now you can see why the ingenious idea of leaving those fins off came in handy as the retention clip needs to be screwed into the retention plate. It is a very simple process, and takes no time at all to get it screwed in.

Fan Installation:

The fan sits nicely atop of the Vortex awaiting the wire clips to hold it in place.

The pictures above show how the wire clips are attached and hold down the fan. The wire clips fit snugly once they are installed. This is good because you can move the case around and not have to worry about the fan coming off of your CPU cooler.

You can see just how low profile the Vortex Plus really is from this picture. It is almost the same height as our Thermalright HR-05/ IFX north bridge cooler! You will also notice both of the wire clips attached firmly on both sides. This cooler is made to fit in tight spaces, and as you can see, it will do just that!

Temperature Results:

Test System:

• ‘Duke’ Tech Station
• Intel i7 920 @ Stock / 3.5GHz / 4.1 GHz
• ASUS Rampage GENE II
• 3×2GB Mushkin Blackline
• MSI 5770 HAWK
• Corsair HX750w
• Western Digital 320GB HD

Testing Parameters:

• Ambient Temperature 24-25C
• Temperature checked before and after each test.

From the tests, you can quickly tell that the Vortex Plus has problems with the I7. The idle temperature for the stock CPU speed is acceptable, but once it gets under load, things start to get very hot. Now if you were never planning on running your i7 at prolonged 100% load, then you could work with this cooler. Gaming may be possible for you, but long sessions may be too much for this cooler to handle. Also, you may have noticed the same thing we did, and that is that overclocking with this cooler is out of the question. The idle temperatures are not terrible, but at 100% load, it hit 90c and we shut down the test for the sake of our CPU.

Conclusion:

The overall look to the Vortex Plus is very pleasant! The four heat pipe design with direct contact to the base is an outstanding addition for cooling efficiency. The wire clips that are used to hold the 92mm fan in place were very capable of doing the job. We have used fan clips in the past that were not able to keep fans in place if you moved the case around. Installation is quite simplistic to say the least and anyone could do this and it would only take a few minutes, which is a great feature. However, once we moved to the temperature testing, we were not impressed with the cooling capacity of the Vortex Plus. If you are looking to overclock, this cooler will not make anybody’s recommended list. It just simply cannot handle the heat the i7 puts out when overclocked, and therefore could possibly cause damage to your CPU if left to run for extended periods of time. From what we have seen with this cooler, it is designed to be used with a CPU running at stock speeds and voltages, assuming you are using an i7. We would guess that a dual core would suit this CPU cooler just fine however. Again, this is clearly not geared to the overclocker, but for the user who wants a slight upgrade in cooling capacity over the Intel stock cooler and has tight space constraints. Overall, the Vortex Plus has a great design and does have a purpose in today’s market, just not in the high-end market.

We give the Cooler Master Vortex Plus the TechREACTION.net Bronze Silicon Award!

You can find more information on the Vortex Plus and many more great products at Cooler Masters homepage.