Performance

The tests were run with idle temps taken after 30 minutes at desktop. Load temps with an instance of Prime95 along with Systool CPU stress test with both CPUs running at 100% and temps taken after 30 minutes. Ambient room temperature remained at 19.4°C (67f).

Arctic Silver 5 was used on all heatsinks and original Big Water, the Big Water 745 was tested with the thermal paste supplied with the kit. The stock AMD HSF with four heat pipes and Cooler Master Hyper6 with six heat pipes are the two air coolers in our test. We'll also be comparing the original Big Water (cl-w0005) against the Big Water 745 (cl-w0076).



I added an ATI Radeon X800 XT PE to the loop of the Big Water 745 with a ViperFang Crossfire Water Block which is a Swiftech MCW6000 modified by ViperJohn. The X800 XT PE has a 1.75V VCore and speeds are tested at 640/630 MHz using ATITool artifact scan to heat up the GPU.



Also added to the water loop was a Thermaltake T-type Water Temperature indicator. Installed it in the external dual radiator out to pump line. This will gives us an idea of the water temperature after being cooled by the radiators.



Limitations of using the T-type indicator is even though it uses 3/8" quick connects the T itself is only 1/4" ID, which reduces the flow rate in the system a bit. If you don't need the temperature monitoring, do not install it, this will give you slightly better temperatures.