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Appeared on: Thursday, June 23, 2005
Arctic Cooling Copper Lite


1. Introduction

Founded in 2001, Arctic Cooling is a well known manufacturer of cooling solutions for personal computer systems that focus on CPU, GPU and PC-Case cooling. One of its most well known products is the Copper Silent 3 alias CopperLite. This is the CPU cooler that we will be reviewing in the following pages.

 

CopperLite belongs to the latest "Low Noise" coolers for the Athlon XP, which can effectively cool the highest clocked Athlon XP CPU. A clip which is designed especially for the CopperLite, provides simple installation and increases security during transportation. Thanks to the long-life ceramic bearings, Arctic Cooling offers 6 years warranty.

Here are the detailed specifications as provided by Arctic-Cooling:

Product name CopperLite
Heatsink Dimension 79.5 x 78 x 45 mm
Fan Dimension 77 x 77 x 42 mm
Overall Dimension 92 x 114 x 120 mm
Rated Fan Speed 2200 RPM
Power Consumption: 0.13 Amp.
Bearing: Arctic Ceramic Bearing
Air Flow: 32 CFM / 55 m3/h
Weight: 298 g
Compatibility:

This cooler is compatible to all Socket A boards.

It can also be used on Socket 370 boards if there is a 60 x 78 mm space around the socket.

Noise Level: 1.0 Sone
Thermal Resistance: 0.49°C/Watt
Retention Module included Warranty: 6 Years

Relevant Height
The relevant height for air flow, measures the height at which air can be drawn in. A fan mounted above this height, will not influence the airflow. Therefore, for accurate results, when the total height of a standard fan is compared with a reverse mounted fan, the relevant height for airflow must be used.

Noise Level
The noise level is measured in Sone (loudness) instead of dB (sound intensity).
The loudness depends upon the ears response curve and tells you exactly, how bothering a certain noise is.

Thermal Compound
Arctic Cooling ships their coolers with the ARCTIC MX-1 thermal compound. This compound hardens during the first 200h while the performance improves steadily. With heating up the paste / heatsink the process can be shortened. The performance is good enough even from the beginning, to provide reliable cooling for your CPU.

Below you can see the CopperLite nest for the AMD Socket A stock cooler.

Both coolers have a copper base where the CPU contacts the cooler. In the case of the Arctic Cooling CopperLite, the surface is very polished. The reflection of a hand on the surface in the picture below confirms this :-)

The retail box...

The ARCTIC MX-1 thermal compound we mentioned previously is included in the retail package.


2. Installation

As Arctic Cooling declares, the CopperLite is very easy to install. This is something we can confirm. After applying the thermal compound over the the CPU, we mounted the CopperLite cooler.

Before installing, you'll have to loosen the screw which is only on one side, attach the other side first and then the side with the screw. Then tighten the screw with a screwdriver.

We put the cooler on the CPU and connected the clips onto the hooks of the Retention Module ...

It is not required to install the cooler in any specific orientation since the fan sits on top and not on the side as is the case with some coolers.

After completing a successful installation, we attached the power cable on the corresponding power socket on the motherboard.

Don't forget to connect the power cable

And we are ready to go. Installation completed successfully.


3. Performance

To measure the CPU's temperature, we used SpeedFan v4.24. After letting the processor cool down in idle mode, we fired up Prime95 and ran the in-place large FFT test to heat it up to its maximum level. This is the graph of the temperature with the original AMD Socket A cooler:

Starting from 58C...
and the reported fan speed...

The temperature during idle is approximately 58 °C. When we began the torture, test this increased to 65 °C. At the same time, the rotation speed of the fan was between 2720~2820rpm.

We then repeated the same test with the CopperLite cooler installed:

Starting from 34C in idle mode...
the RPM graph under the Freezer 64

The temperature began from 52°C instead of 58 °C and reached 60°C instead of 65 °C. 5 °C difference is not bad at all. The rotation speed of the fan was at 2680~2760rpm. The noise level was rather low but we couldn't estimate the absolute value.

Lower temperatures with lower rotation speeds than the stock cooler, do we need anything more?


4. Conclusion

The Arctic Cooling CopperLite is a very practical cooler, small in size and easy to install in most cases. The installation of the CopperLite is easy and requires less than a minute. If a screwdriver wasn't necessary during the installation process, we would rate it 5 Star.

While the temperature is lower than the stock cooler, most of us would have expected that the rotation speed of the fan would be much higher. This is something that didn't happen. Moreover, the fan speed is approximately 100rpm lower than the stock cooler. This and the design of the fan has as a result, lower noise levels.

The suggested price from Arctic Cooling for the CopperLite is US$19 / €16, quite low. If performance, ease of installation and the low noise levels are what count, then the CopperLite surely deserves our Best Buy award!

Pros:
-
Extremely low noise
- Very good heat reduction
- Easy to install
- Low price

Cons:
-

Performance:
Features/Design:
Installation:
Value for money:



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