Test bed

Each of the CPU coolers was installed in the following PC:

• CPU: Intel Core7-920 Retail
• Case: open air testbed
• Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe Bios 1301
• Memory: 3x1GB Crucial PC3-1066
• PSU: OCZ 720W
• HDD: WD 80JB
• Operating system Windows XP SP2 with all the latest updates installed
• Software: OCCT v2.0.1 & CoreTemp 0.99.3
• Thermal Paste: Tuniq TX-2
• Idle time: ~30min
• Load time: ~30min
• RPM speed controllable via SmartFan BIOS or via external hardware controller

We tested the cooling efficiency of each CPU cooler by producing high temperatures using the OCCT v2.0.1 software. We set a custom 30mins (mixed) operation.

We left both cores running at full load for ~30 minutes. All temperatures were logged using the CoreTemp 0.99.3 utility and the software itself. We also followed two realistic overclocking scenarios:

• Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.66GHz
• Vcore: 1.1000V
• Other BIOS values: Auto

• Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.60GHz
• Vcore: 1.26250V
• DDR3 Voltage: 1.64V
• Other BIOS values: Auto

The operation noise for each model was measured with the Precision Gold N09AQ Environment Meter. All measurements were taken at a distance of 30cm from the cpu cooler, with its fan(s) spinning at full speed.

For all the coolers we used the same thermal compound by Tuniq, the TX-2. All in all we tried to have the exactly same environment conditions for all the coolers in test.