Performance

The system being used to test the heatsink is as follows:
Ambient temperature was kept to 22 degrees Celsius (+/- 1 degree) and was measured by a standard mercury thermometer.


At stock speeds the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium performs extremely well. In fact, it is able to slightly edge out the performance of the ThermalTake Bigwater 760i, even at low speed.


When the CPU is overclocked and the voltage is increased, the Nirvana Premium is still holding its own against the top performers in the group. With the fan at full speed it ties the lowest temperature in the test group.

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 on the Nirvana Premium is very quiet, and it was not audible in the case with the system running and all the case fans set to low speed. At full speed the fan is much louder, but not as loud as some other fans in the test group.