Cooling [SFF Network] CPU Coolers – An Introductory Roundup

[confusis]

Any good review website needs a solid test bench for reviewing hardware. Now it’s time to introduce ours. It does not yet have a name, and it’s a bit camera shy, but it does the job well.

Read more here.

 

[iFreilicht]

Are you sure it's a good idea to record the hottest temperature you measured in idle? Wouldn't it make more sense to get the hottest temperature at 5 minutes after startup, so that previous test runs cannot influence the result?
I did a bit of cooler testing at work, and I noticed that under certain circumstances, the CPU can retain some of the heat, making the startup temperature higher for one run than for another, even if they averaged out at the same temperature after a while.

Also, using averages over a small time period would help to reduce noise in the measurements.

 

[confusis]

"Wouldn't it make more sense to get the hottest temperature at 5 minutes after startup, so that previous test runs cannot influence the result?"

If you read the article I said I did that after ten minutes.

 

[Phuncz]

Interesting, keep up the good work !

 

[iFreilicht]

"Wouldn't it make more sense to get the hottest temperature at 5 minutes after startup, so that previous test runs cannot influence the result?"

If you read the article I said I did that after ten minutes.

To get idle temps, we booted up Windows, loaded Realtemp and left it there for 10 minutes. The hottest core and hottest chipset probe were recorded.

To me this sounds like you record the hottest temperature within a timeframe of 10 minutes after boot, which would yield misleading results if the temperature was high at the beginning and dropping afterwards.
Maybe it's just me, but that sentence seems a bit ambiguous.

 

[confusis]

Slightly ambiguous yes, but the statement is meant to mean that at the 10 minute mark I recorded the hottest temp at the time.

 

[iFreilicht]

I see, thanks for clearing it up

 

[NFSxperts]

You should include a picture of the testbench so we can see how the setup actually looks like.
Maybe have sensor probes to measure the intake and exhaust temps.
The large D15 can be used as a baseline benchmark to see how low profile coolers perform against a large tower cooler.

 

[confusis]

Sensor probes is on the to-do list, have to replace one on my NZXT LX.

The test bench will be photographed when it's completed (probes attached). It's an open bench (ATX mobo tray from an old aluminium chassis).

Yeah, I will be using the NH-D15 as the target cooling level