Performance

Temperature data was obtained by directly reading the Athlon64 thermal diode with a MAX6655 reader which offers an accuracy of 0.125°C. The CPU, cabling, diode reader setup has been calibrated in a water bath over a 0°C - 75°C range. Room temperature was kept at 20°C, data has been normalized if necessary.

Idle means Windows sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load is after 30 minutes of Prime95. The different clock/voltage settings are representative of an un-overclocked, medium overclocked and heavily overclocked system.


Cooling performance on all three load settings is pretty weak. However, as long as the system stays stable, this shouldn't be a danger.
What I noticed during testing is that the cooler has a very big mounting variance. This means that between successive installations the cooling properties vary greatly, I've seen up to 10°C difference. Usually heatsinks show 1-2°C variance. This might be caused by the mounting mechanism which doesn't lock in the heatsink position. It seems to be very easy to mount the cooler off center.

If you install this cooler, please observe temperatures in the first hours to make sure you have mounted it right.


Thermaltake advertises this fan as "18 dbA", maybe at 5m distance. While it is pretty quiet at 50% fan speed, the fan's noise at full speed is rather loud and very audible.