Date:
Thursday , July 23, 2009
Author:
Marc Adams
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Intel Core i7 Heatsink Roundup Q309

Thermalright TRUE processor cooler has been king of the hill for quite some time. Today we bring in four new challengers to see if any of them have what it takes to make our short list of coolers to buy for your next enthusiast box build.

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Results: Temperatures

For our stock testing our i7 920 will be kept at 2.66 GHz with a minimal 1.25v. For overclocked CPU testing we will be running our i7 920 at 3.6GHz with 1.45v. Idle temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes. Load temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of 100% load. To obtain this load we will be using Prime95 v25.3. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Please note the following scores are normalized to the ambient temperature. This will show you visually the rise above ambient temperature as well as the overall temperature. Since we are dealing with air cooling it is physically impossible for the temps to be less than ambient. This is why we start our charts at 25º C.

Stock Settings

These results will show us the range of the coolers and how well they operate across varying levels of fan speed and airflow. An apple to apples comparison using the same fan was also made and those results are further down the page.

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Right off the bat we see our old favorite, the TRUE-120 getting slapped around here. Three of the four coolers tested are able to best the TRUE-120 and the biggest surprise is the COGAGE TRUE Spirit’s performance, or as I like to call it, "the little heatsink that could." Far from the beefiest cooler, the TRUE Spirit shows us that size isn’t everything. Let’s see what happens when we turn up the heat a bit.

Overclock Settings

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The extra heat only serves to push many of our competitors down the line. Many, but not all. In a move reminiscent of David vs. Goliath, the COGAGE TRUE Spirit beats out the TRUE-120 if only by a fraction of a degree. All the heatsinks turn in a very respectable performance given the amount of heat we are pumping through our CPU. Only the ZALMAN cooler when set to low is unable to keep the CPU from going into meltdown mode.

Apples to Apples

For this portion we took the various heatsinks and removed the fan they came with and replaced it with a Thermaltake Thunderblade A1926. This is a 120mm fan that pushes a lot of air. Where the other charts show you the "out of box experience" you can expect with these coolers, this chart will show you a direct comparison of the heatsinks themselves. We thought that an A2A fan comparison would show some interesting results, and because we are SURE that some [H] readers have already thought, "Man, I bet these heatsinks would kick some ass with a real fan on it!"

The results below are taken with our overclocked settings for maximum punishment.

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This is where we find out just which heatsink is most efficient at removing heat from the CPU. We have the same thermal paste and the same fan. The only thing that is going to separate the temps here is the heatsink themselves.

The TRUE-120 retains its position on top but just barely. The TRUE Spirit from COGAGE is nipping at the TRUE-120’s heal and to be honest this is just amazing as it is the smallest cooler by weight tested here today. The engineers over at COGAGE have some serious magic up their sleeves. Let’s turn our attention over to the sound testing.