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Thermalright AX-7 Heatsink


Date
: 02/26/02 – 11:43:38 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Thermalright
Price: $29.95 (bare heatsink) / $45.95 with Delta fan

Introduction

Lately, there has been a new trend evolving in the heatsink community: all the
big mofo's
are not only growing in size, they all come with 80mm fans too. A few months ago, all the powerful heatsinks were using high RPM fans, resulting in whining rigs that are really disturbing to the user and his environment (how many folks can leave their computer up and running while they sleep with a Delta fan whining … I know I can't!). Since installing even faster fans was not an option, there had to come a new way to improve cooling capabilities, and that is by using larger heatsinks with larger fans. One company has been offering such a setup for a while now: Swiftech. Their MCX462A is still one of the best air cooled heatsinks out there, but unfortunately the performance comes with a price tag too. Next in line to release larger heatsinks was Thermaltake. Their Volcano 7 unit is a very good product that won't disappoint you at all, but still the performance is not as good as the Swiftech. Today, a new kid is on the block and it goes by the name
AX-7
. This new heatsink has been designed by the same people who developed the once so great SK-6: Thermalright. Overclockers Online got a hold of a sample of this bad boy and took it for a real torture test …

Page 2 : Specifications & Installation

Specifications & Installation

Let's see what the spec sheet has to say about the AX-7:

Features

-Copper heat spread
-High performance Aluminium based HSF
-Minimized noise to performance ratio with low speed fan
-Maximum efficiency thermal pad T725 by Chomerics

Technical Specifications

-Dimension: L77 x W77 x H80 (mm)
-Weight: 600g
-AMD: Athlon XP Desktop CPU Palamino 2000+ and higher

Stock Fan

-Maker: Delta
-Model: FFB0812EHE
-Size: 80 x 80 x 38 (mm)
-Bearing: Dual Ball Bearing System
-Voltage: 12V
-Speed: 5700 rpm
-Air Flow: 80 CFM
-Noise Level: 52.5 dBA

When I first laid my hands on the AX-7, it looked like a very solid and high quality heatsink. Because it comes with a pretty thick copper base, the weight is fairly high too: 600gr!!! Not too shabby huh?
Anyway, like I said, there is a thick copper base that is in direct contact with the processor, making sure that all the heat is drawed away from the core as soon as possible. Once the heat is "caught" by the copper base, it is released to the 28 aluminium fins. Half way, the fins stop and there are other fins sitting in the opposite direction, 7 of them to be exact. This sounds weird, but if you look at the pics it will become clearer. I tend to like this design because the airflow from the fan can easily find its path through the fins and the air is expelled on all four sides of the heatsink, cooling down other stuff like the memory or the chipset.

Something that I really loved about the AX-7 is the retainer clip: it clamps the heatsink down very well plus it doesn't require you do remove the motherboard from the case (unlike with the Swiftech MCX462A). The only thing needed to install this baby, is a flat head screwdriver: slide it in the intended "slot", push down and you're set!! The retainer clip uses all six attachment points on the CPU socket, which is a very good thing and makes you feel a lot more confident about transporting your case to LAN's.

Thermalright advices you to use the AX-7 in combination with an 80mm Delta fan in order to get the most out of the unit. Since I was sent a bare bones unit, I got myself an 80mm Delta fan from Coolerguys pushing 80CFM!! Installation was a breeze: for safety reasons I put a fan grill on top of the unit, so after I pushed the included screws through the grill, I pushed them through the fan holes down to the heatsink. A couple of turn from the screwdriver and all done!! Note that Thermalright also includes four rubber stand-off's to increase cooling power but also to reduce the noise significantly.

Page 3 : Testing

Testing

It's time to see what this bad boy can do for us!! As usual, the heatsink was tested under stress and under idle. How did I stress test it?? I took our good and trusty AMD 1.4GHz Thunderbird CPU running at stock speed with a core voltage of 1.75V and I let her rip Prime95 and RC5 for about one hour. After that, temps were recorded. Note that new paste was applied for every test (Artic Silver II). Now, let's take a look at some numbers.

As you can see, the AX-7 is very close to our number one, the Swiftech MCX462A. With a difference of only one degree Celsius, the AX-7 did a great job. Note that the room temp was around 25 degrees Celsius during all tests.

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Thermalright did an excellent job with the AX-7. Although it didn't manage to take the number one spot in our heatsink charts, it did got away with a good second place, performing one degree worse then the champion. When you look at the price tag, you'll see that the AX-7 is around $10 cheaper (with 80mm Delta fan) then the Swiftech MCX462A. Also note that the installation is a lot simpler with the AX-7, thanks to its great retaining clip. With that in mind, I am happy to call the AX-7 a real winner that will fit well on all those overclocked processors out there! Because of the great price/performance ratio and the high quality of the unit, I have no other choice than to give it the official
Overclockers Online Power Award
!