Performance

The system being used to test the heatsink is as follows:
Ambient temperature was kept to 26 degrees Celsius (+/- 1 degree) and was measured by a standard mercury thermometer.


Running the system at stock speeds shows the Tuniq Tower performs at the top of the list. There was little difference between low speed and high as far as temperatures were concerned, but high speed managed to give the best result so far.


When the CPU is overclocked and the voltage increased slightly, the difference starts to separate a bit more. Once again, the high speed manages to bring the temperature down farther than before under 100% load.

Fan Noise

To measure fan noise we used an IEC Type 2 sound level meter on the dbA setting. Measuring distance was 10 cm from the heatsink fan hub. The short distance of 10 cm is necessary to get proper readings with very silent fans. All fans were tested outside of the case at 12V supplied by a lab PSU. On fans that come with a fan controller or allow control of fan speed in any other way, "low" and "high" indicate the settings on the fan controller.


At low speed the fan included with the Tuniq Tower is one of the quietest in our test group. However at full speed it becomes almost as loud as the Thermaltake SmartFan 2. At least with the fan controller the user can adjust the speed (and noise level) as needed.