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SFF.Network [SFF Network] In-Win Chopin Review – A Concerto in Black
- Thread starter PlayfulPhoenix
- Start date
So I've tried to make it quiet, but the fan makes a high-pitched sound not unlike coil-whine. I double-checked, it's the fan. Even at 20% duty cycle (1200rpm) it still makes this sound. That's just annoying.
At idle it's about 35-40°C, when I open Firefox, it shoots over 50°C in a second, during the first minute after logging in I've seen peaks of 63°C. Just loading a single core of the dual-core with Prime95 raises the temperature over 70°C within a minute with the fan speed around 2500rpm.
I caved and ordered the Noctua NH-L9i which seems a better choice with the most mass (420g) vs Zalman CNPS2X (83g) vs Scythe Kozuti (250g) vs Alpenföhn (250g). Also the Noctua has undoubtibly the better quality fan and build quality.
Pictures will be updated in this post within the hour.
The box.
The contents.
The cooler.
Apparently they're afraid something might scratch the surface... Notice the crud on the protective plastic.
Looks quite good quality-wise !
Yep, still lookin' good !
Euhm, not looking good. I've seen vinyl records have less of a story to tell. The thermal paste will have to work overtime for this !
Not perfectly parallel but better than most moderately priced heatsinks I've handled.
PWM is nice, although the minimum duty cycle isn't very low for this fan.
Mounting bracket attached. On Intel you need to have access to the back of the motherboard, for the Chopin case this means removing the motherboard. Mind you, this is usually the case, unless pushpins are used. One of the AMD brackets didn't have the countersunk tapping, QC issue.
Installation with the heatpipe ends pointing to the upper side of the board, you can see the VLP RAM sticks. It barely extends a millimeter over the board's edge, no problem for fitment in the Chopin.
Respecting the keep-out zone.
Just barely cleaing the VRM heatsink but this picture is to illustrate the height (without fan), it seems less than 5mm from the top of the PS2/USB rear I/O sockets (tallest one).
Fan mounted later on, this was very hard to do when it's so close to the side, I recommend attaching the before placing the board inside the case. It sticks about 5mm over the edge of the case, luckily the Chopin has a protruding side panel.
Though still a close fit.
At idle it's about 35-40°C, when I open Firefox, it shoots over 50°C in a second, during the first minute after logging in I've seen peaks of 63°C. Just loading a single core of the dual-core with Prime95 raises the temperature over 70°C within a minute with the fan speed around 2500rpm.
I caved and ordered the Noctua NH-L9i which seems a better choice with the most mass (420g) vs Zalman CNPS2X (83g) vs Scythe Kozuti (250g) vs Alpenföhn (250g). Also the Noctua has undoubtibly the better quality fan and build quality.
Pictures will be updated in this post within the hour.
The box.
The contents.
The cooler.
Apparently they're afraid something might scratch the surface... Notice the crud on the protective plastic.
Looks quite good quality-wise !
Yep, still lookin' good !
Euhm, not looking good. I've seen vinyl records have less of a story to tell. The thermal paste will have to work overtime for this !
Not perfectly parallel but better than most moderately priced heatsinks I've handled.
PWM is nice, although the minimum duty cycle isn't very low for this fan.
Mounting bracket attached. On Intel you need to have access to the back of the motherboard, for the Chopin case this means removing the motherboard. Mind you, this is usually the case, unless pushpins are used. One of the AMD brackets didn't have the countersunk tapping, QC issue.
Installation with the heatpipe ends pointing to the upper side of the board, you can see the VLP RAM sticks. It barely extends a millimeter over the board's edge, no problem for fitment in the Chopin.
Respecting the keep-out zone.
Just barely cleaing the VRM heatsink but this picture is to illustrate the height (without fan), it seems less than 5mm from the top of the PS2/USB rear I/O sockets (tallest one).
Fan mounted later on, this was very hard to do when it's so close to the side, I recommend attaching the before placing the board inside the case. It sticks about 5mm over the edge of the case, luckily the Chopin has a protruding side panel.
Though still a close fit.
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Yeah it is, even though it would probably only have been relevant for Europeans as Alpenföhn seems to be oriented mainly here. It wasn't expensive at € 20,- which is half what the Noctua NH-L9i costs, tomorrow I should be able to do a rough comparison.
I can't understand why that cooler performs so bad, it looks like it's got all the makings of a great little cooler to at least rival the NH-L9i in terms of heat dissipation. Could it be the fan doesn't move enough air, have you tried another fan on it? Or could it be that your OC'd G3258 is drawing more power than you think?
You know, I was actually gonna get this Alpenföhn cooler when you first showed it for my custom build, but now I'm not so sure. The different tones of fan noise can be subjective. Also, it looks a lot like the ID-Cooling IS-40 in form and build quality.
But I also have a lower watt CPU so the Alpenföhn may be all right for me. The Scythe Kozuti keeps my CPU under 40C at idle and it's very quiet. I heard a more noticeable hum with the Noctua, maybe because of its higher minimum duty cycle. But as I said before the tone of different fans is a more subjective matter.
But I also have a lower watt CPU so the Alpenföhn may be all right for me. The Scythe Kozuti keeps my CPU under 40C at idle and it's very quiet. I heard a more noticeable hum with the Noctua, maybe because of its higher minimum duty cycle. But as I said before the tone of different fans is a more subjective matter.
Other than the fan & heat dissipation area, there can be other factors such as;
- Heat pipes material & diameter
- Heat pipes placement. That Silvretta cooler provides direct contact heat pipes, but I doubt whether all the pipes are exactly on top of the CPU die. Also, whether it's parallel or crossing the shape of the CPU die.
- Heat pipes contact with the fins
- Good base contact with processor
- etc;
I think it's a combination of lack of mass, bad base-plate finishing and bad contact/pressure. It could very well be the heatpipes but I can't really test that.
The mass is 250g (including fan) vs the NH-L9i's 420g. The base finish is also very rudimentary. After tightening it down, I saw it deform my board and loosened the screws slightly. Today I removed it and I saw this:
So the pressure seemed to be far from optimal, but I'm not going to bend my board to remedy it...
And then there's the fan. I don't like coil whine, but when you get the same sound from a fan, it's just ruins the experience. If the fan wasn't crap, I could have lived with it.
The Noctua NH-L9i is installed, Prime95 has been running for about an hour and settles between 75 and 79°C with the fan at max speed. Though the noise is still less obnoxious than the Silvretta at anything above 20% duty cycle (excluding the extra noises). So the Noctua can atleast handle the load from the overclocked G3258 at the most extreme, so it will undoubtibly be able to handle everything else too. For reference, the NH-L12 managed about 64-67°C in Prime95 with a 120mm Scythe fan at max speed.
The mass is 250g (including fan) vs the NH-L9i's 420g. The base finish is also very rudimentary. After tightening it down, I saw it deform my board and loosened the screws slightly. Today I removed it and I saw this:
So the pressure seemed to be far from optimal, but I'm not going to bend my board to remedy it...
And then there's the fan. I don't like coil whine, but when you get the same sound from a fan, it's just ruins the experience. If the fan wasn't crap, I could have lived with it.
The Noctua NH-L9i is installed, Prime95 has been running for about an hour and settles between 75 and 79°C with the fan at max speed. Though the noise is still less obnoxious than the Silvretta at anything above 20% duty cycle (excluding the extra noises). So the Noctua can atleast handle the load from the overclocked G3258 at the most extreme, so it will undoubtibly be able to handle everything else too. For reference, the NH-L12 managed about 64-67°C in Prime95 with a 120mm Scythe fan at max speed.
Sounds like contact pressure isn't the problem, but contact geometry is. Could be a concave finish to the base, that would explain the paste left right at the edges along with the lump sitting in the middle. For someone willing to lap the underside of the heatsink that may not be a problem, but if they are all that bad out of the box then you're never going to get decent performance without a copper shim.
Thx Phuncz for the pictures and test.
And just for fun
, the case modded to accept a better CPU cooler:
(From MetallicAcid @Techpowerup)
And just for fun
, the case modded to accept a better CPU cooler:
(From MetallicAcid @Techpowerup)
Well, that seems like a silent solution I was comtemplating putting a heatsink that sticks out and somehow resembles a "bug catcher" supercharger's intake like this:
But at the moment I'm coming up empty with ideas.
EDIT: not quite the same but could be a good fit considering that it would fit nicely with the 49mm clearance between heatsink and baseplate: http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-air-cooler/v10/
EDIT 2: LOL I'd probably have to hand in my SFFn badge if I get that one:
I was comtemplating putting a heatsink that sticks out and somehow resembles a "bug catcher" supercharger's intake like this:
But at the moment I'm coming up empty with ideas.
EDIT: not quite the same but could be a good fit considering that it would fit nicely with the 49mm clearance between heatsink and baseplate: http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-air-cooler/v10/
EDIT 2: LOL I'd probably have to hand in my SFFn badge if I get that one:
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I was this > < close to buying one just for lulz: https://www.amazon.de/Cooler-Master-RR-B2P-UV10-GP-Triple-Design/dp/B001Q3LWLG/
But then I slapped myself for almost spending 90€ just for lulz, I already spent 60€ for two air coolers for this case which already was an impulse buy.
But then I slapped myself for almost spending 90€ just for lulz, I already spent 60€ for two air coolers for this case which already was an impulse buy.
Well, with it being on amazon you could make a build with it, take pictures and then refund it. What about a NoFan CR80? "Only" costs 60 bucks and is passive, so that would actually be a feasible build.
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