Performance

Test system:
Note:
Room temperature is maintained at 20°C (68°F). Since you need EIST enabled to make use of the Turbo Boost feature with this generation of Intel Core processors, letting the machine fall back to the idle state is becoming a norm. Hence Idle (stock) refers to the machine running at 1.60 GHz (12 x 133 MHz), with vCore at 0.928 V. Idle (nominal) refers to the machine idling at the processor's nominal clock speed of 3.06 GHz (23 x 133 MHz), with EIST and C1E disabled.

Load (stock) refers to the CPU running four threads of Prime95's "In-place large FFTs" stress test for 15 minutes, with default BClk value of 133 MHz, with EIST, C1E, and Turbo Boost enabled. Turbo Boost bumps the clock speed of all four cores by 133 MHz, taking it up to 3.20 GHz (24 x 133 MHz).

Load (OC) refers to the CPU running four threads of Prime95's "In-place large FFTs" stress test for 15 minutes, with overclocked BClk value of 166 MHz (4.00 GHz, 1.38V). We chose 4.00 GHz as it's stable on just about any cooler, while giving us close to 1.4 V of vCore to test load on. Later in the review, we'll let the cooler run wild by testing the maximum stable OC achievable.

The fan is set to run at 100% speed (i.e. no motherboard-based fan-speed control was in place).

Temperatures have been taken via RealTemp.


With huge architectural improvements, processor manufacturers have made their chips adequately fast in idle clock states to run most applications without any noticeable performance drop. Whenever the CPU isn't keeping up, it jumps to higher clock speeds, and if even that isn't enough, technologies like Turbo Boost kick in, pushing the clock speed up further.

The HPK-10025EA doesn't present any advantage as such over the Intel stock HSF, in terms of temperatures. For those who still don't trust the processor's inbuilt speed control and run their processors at nominal speeds, this cooler gives a puny temperature drop.


With Prime95 applying the maximum CPU load it can (large FFTs), we finally get to see some action; the HPK-10025EA drops temperatures down by 6 degrees. At this point the the cooler is looking promising, until we crank up the clock speeds. The overclocked Core i7 continues to sweat it out, with marginally better temperatures than Intel's stock HSF.

Fan Noise

While not numerically much, the HPK-10025EA does sound much quieter than the Intel HSF. Perhaps it's because the slightly larger fan gives out a lower-pitched noise. When under stress, although temperatures don't impress, the cooler is noticeably quieter, getting into the league of coolers with larger, slower (and hence quieter) fans.