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Thermal Performance Test Procedures:
- Idle temperatures are obtained after sitting at the desktop for 15 minutes.
- Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95 in the ‘Small FFTs' mode for 15 minutes.
- We repeated testing with our CPU overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x multiplier, 100MHz base clock) using a BIOS-set voltage of 1.300V.
- The cooler's fan(s) is set to 100% to eliminate inaccuracies due to dynamic PWM fan speed adjustments.
- The supplied thermal paste is used to provide an accurate interpretation of the cooler's out-of-the-box performance.
- We use HWMonitor to measure the CPU temperature.
- CPU temperature recording is accurate to +/- 0.5°C.
- Ambient temperature recording is accurate to +/- 0.05°C.
- Ambient temperature was maintained at 21°C.
Acoustic Performance Test Procedures:
- We measure the noise output of our entire system from a distance of 1m while the CPU cooler's fan(s) operates at 100% (indicating the maximum noise output).
- We set the case fans to minimum speed (hence noise) and avoid using a discrete GPU to isolate the CPU cooler's noise output.
Test System:
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K.
- Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V.
- Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333MHz.
- Case: NZXT Phantom.
- Cooling Fans: 1x 120mm 1900 RPM Scythe Kaze Jyuni (front intake), 1x 120mm NZXT (side intake), 1x 200mm NZXT (roof exhaust), 1x 120mm NZXT (rear exhaust)
- Graphics card: On-board.
- Power supply: 1000W Seasonic Platinum-1000.
- Storage drives: 128GB Kingston V100 (OS), 1TB Samsung F3, 300GB Western Digital Caviar.
- Thermal Paste: Supplied PH-NDC thermal compound.
Comparison Coolers:
- Cooler Master Seidon 120M (fan as rear intake).
- Corsair H60 2013 Edition (fan as rear intake).
- Sapphire Vapor-X.
- Thermaltake Frio.
- Arctic Freezer Xtreme Rev. 2.
Software:
- CPUID HWMonitor.
- Core Temp (additional certification).
- Prime95.
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
