KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
When we reviewed the Thermaltake Contac 29 we used a variety of heatsinks to compare against on the AMD platform, but this time we wanted to see how well the Frio was able to handle an Intel Core i7 980X at reference speeds, then after overclocking with increased voltage.
Even though the Noctua NH D14 is much more expensive than the Frio we felt it was a good ‘extreme high end' baseline to compare against. We have also included a few other coolers available on the market today for comparion purposes.
We use the following for measurements as many onboard software based results are not accurate.
MultiMeter Thermal Probe
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Test System:
Thermaltake Frio
Noctua NH D14
Prolimatech Megahalems
Xigmatek HDT-S1283
Coolit Domino ALC
CPU: Intel Core i7 980x
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO
Power Supply: Antec 750w Truepower
Graphics Card: ATI 5870
Memory: Corsair XMS3 DDR31600
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 02
Hard Drive: Intel 160GB X-25 M SSD
With air conditioning, room ambient temperatures were kept at a steady 25c, comfortable conditions for most people. Load temperatures were recorded by looping Cinebench R11.5 for a 30 minute period under 100% load and recording the maximum results. These are real world conditions … the application uses the Cinema 4D rendering engine.
With the variable fan speed on the Frio we set them to various points to get results, although I personally would use the cooler at a mid way point (around 1,800rpm) – full speed is unbearable.
Next we cranked the Intel 980X to 4.2ghz and raised core voltage to 1.375 to get stability.
In our overclocking tests the NH D14 comes out top however at high fan settings the Frio is only 3c behind. That said, at high settings the noise is painful, so I would classify medium as a real world usable result. 5c seperates the two heatsinks at these settings.
As expected, with ‘high' fan speed settings the Thermaltake Frio is generating a hell of a racket with our meter. This is an unusable situation and thankfully when we turn both fans to a midway point (around 1,700-1,800rpm) the noise drops dramatically to 43.2dB. at the lowest settings the cooler is barely noticeable (39.2dB) and would be my ideal position for non overclocked settings.
