New Mid-Priced Coolers from OCZ and Scythe: The Small and the X of It
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2007 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cooling at Stock Speed
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. All temperature benchmarks were compiled with CoreTest, a public domain utility that is quite stable with reproducible results on the Intel platform. This required retesting a cross-section of the best coolers evaluated so far at AnandTech. To better document performance in the large speed gap between 2.93GHz and 3.73GHz, the intermediate value of 3.33GHz was added to all test results and results were compiled at 3.33GHz during the retest of the coolers.
The very good Intel stock air cooler keeps the X6800 at 31C at idle, compared to the top Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme at 24C, Corsair water at 24C, and Swiftech water at 27C. By comparison the OCZ Vendetta manages a decent 27C, while the Scythe Kama Cross was very close to the stock fan at 30C. This was with a 120mm fan on the Kama Cross as results with the 100mm fan were exactly the same as Intel retail at 31C.
The Vendetta results were what would be expected of a decent mid-priced cooler, and they were just 2C higher than the more expensive but also small Thermalright Ultima-90 running a 120mm fan. The Scythe results were a bit disappointing considering it is larger and more expensive than the Vendetta.
All these results except the Scythe are significant improvements over the Intel stock cooler performance at 31C. In comparing results please keep in mind the test results from the new cooling bed using CoreTemp are not directly comparable to earlier cooling results.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates running a demanding contemporary game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you would expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT. Cooling efficiency of the Scythe and OCZ coolers was then compared under load conditions at stock speed to the retail HSF and other recently retested CPU coolers.
The Idle pattern of the OCZ and Scythe Kama Cross was repeated in load testing. The Kama Cross was very close to Intel retail cooling results to 3.73GHz, but it did manage to continue on to 3.83GHz with the 120mm Scythe S-FLEX fan. The stock 100mm fan topped out at 3.80GHz. This translates into 48C at 2.93GHz load to 64C load at 3.73GHz. The top Thermalright eXtreme does much better at 36C at 2.93, 49C at 3.73 and 59C at 3.94GHz . The entry level water coolers performed close to the levels of the Ultra-120 eXtreme.
The OCZ Vendetta fared much better, reaching performance expected of a quality midrange air cooler. As you can see in the chart, performance fell in the middle between stock Intel and the top air and entry water coolers. The Vendetta overclock reached a 3.87GHz overclock, which matched the Thermalright Ultima-90 running a similar 92mm fan. The Ultima-90 performed best with a 120mm fan.
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. All temperature benchmarks were compiled with CoreTest, a public domain utility that is quite stable with reproducible results on the Intel platform. This required retesting a cross-section of the best coolers evaluated so far at AnandTech. To better document performance in the large speed gap between 2.93GHz and 3.73GHz, the intermediate value of 3.33GHz was added to all test results and results were compiled at 3.33GHz during the retest of the coolers.
The very good Intel stock air cooler keeps the X6800 at 31C at idle, compared to the top Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme at 24C, Corsair water at 24C, and Swiftech water at 27C. By comparison the OCZ Vendetta manages a decent 27C, while the Scythe Kama Cross was very close to the stock fan at 30C. This was with a 120mm fan on the Kama Cross as results with the 100mm fan were exactly the same as Intel retail at 31C.
The Vendetta results were what would be expected of a decent mid-priced cooler, and they were just 2C higher than the more expensive but also small Thermalright Ultima-90 running a 120mm fan. The Scythe results were a bit disappointing considering it is larger and more expensive than the Vendetta.
All these results except the Scythe are significant improvements over the Intel stock cooler performance at 31C. In comparing results please keep in mind the test results from the new cooling bed using CoreTemp are not directly comparable to earlier cooling results.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates running a demanding contemporary game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you would expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT. Cooling efficiency of the Scythe and OCZ coolers was then compared under load conditions at stock speed to the retail HSF and other recently retested CPU coolers.
The Idle pattern of the OCZ and Scythe Kama Cross was repeated in load testing. The Kama Cross was very close to Intel retail cooling results to 3.73GHz, but it did manage to continue on to 3.83GHz with the 120mm Scythe S-FLEX fan. The stock 100mm fan topped out at 3.80GHz. This translates into 48C at 2.93GHz load to 64C load at 3.73GHz. The top Thermalright eXtreme does much better at 36C at 2.93, 49C at 3.73 and 59C at 3.94GHz . The entry level water coolers performed close to the levels of the Ultra-120 eXtreme.
The OCZ Vendetta fared much better, reaching performance expected of a quality midrange air cooler. As you can see in the chart, performance fell in the middle between stock Intel and the top air and entry water coolers. The Vendetta overclock reached a 3.87GHz overclock, which matched the Thermalright Ultima-90 running a similar 92mm fan. The Ultima-90 performed best with a 120mm fan.
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rbuffetta - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
Spend the extra $20-30 and get the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. Of all the places to cut corners and save money this is really where it counts to protect your cpu and allow for decent overclocks.EtherealDragon - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
As always, it was a nice read, but why oh why would you plot the 2 graphs on page 7 in that manner? Seems funny to me to have the points on the graphs "drop" as the temperature raises... I guess thats just my .02Wesley Fink - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
It's very easy to change the chart with temp going up if enough readers prefer it. We changed the graph scale after receiving several complaints that the top performance was the lowest chart position on the old charts and difficult to comprehend. If more readers prefer the original chart layout we will be happy to change back. Please let us know.strikeback03 - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I prefer the old orientation, as it makes sense to me that when you are looking for the cooler with the lowest temperature, you look at the lowest point on the graph.Sentrosi2121 - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
Pretty acceptable for the OCZ cooler. I wonder how it would perform inside an enclosure like the X-Qpack. I'm trying to build a nice gaming rig with the X-Qpack and would like to see if it would fit inside.Basilisk - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
Depends on your skill with a hammer and chisel: The X-Qpack (and X-Qpack2 and Ultra Micro Fly) only have about 75mm of headroom above the CPU -- challenging for a 92mm fam mounted perhaps 40mm above the CPU! Go with a Zalman horizontal flower (7000, 7700, 8700), a few other units or just the stock fan in those cases.
PS: The X-Qpack2 has improved airflow and clearance (length) over the X-Qpack.
Anonymous Freak - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
StorageReview just did a review of the http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr">Western Digital "Green Power" 1 TB hard drive. While it's not the best performing drive in the world, it's no slouch, and it has the side effect of being the quietest drive they've ever tested. (Plus it runs cool enough that you could probably slap it in aEtherealDragon - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
As always, it was a nice read, but why oh why would you plot the 2 graphs on page 7 in that manner? Seems funny to me to have the points on the graphs "drop" as the temperature raises... I guess thats just my .02Phil Harris - Monday, October 1, 2007 - link
It seems utterly ridiculous to me that these coolers are tested on dual setups.If someone looking to build a quad is trying to find useful information, this review is completely pointless.
A test on a quad however will still provide useful info to someone building a dual core.
The defence that games don't use quads yet is also totally specious, if thats the reason, why bother testing anything other than dual core machines?
Lets all ignore quad core computing until we can play games on them... is that the idea?
This is the second poor quality review in the cases and cooling section within a few weeks, if Anandtech wants to be taken seriously, a serious re-think is required.
Acanthus - Monday, October 1, 2007 - link
Many enthusiasts that are spending money on components for overclocking have opted for cheap quad cores.Sorry to sound frustrated, but this is getting rediculous when we are in the world of $270 quad cores.