CORE Heatsink Preview
Feb 15th, 2001 | By Archive
CORE Heatsink Preview
Date
: 02/15/01 – 09:28:46 AM
Author
:
Category
: Cooling
Manufacturer: CPU F/X
Price: N/A
Introduction
Overclockers Online is proud to be one of the first tech sites to bring you a preview of a new heatsink made by the people from CPU F/X and Overclockers Hideout. They called their first born the ‘CORE’ and once you have seen this little (it isn’t all that little ;)) mofo you’ll understand why they gave it such an evil sounding name!
This unit has been manufactured to compete with the current kings out there like the GlobalWin FOP38 and the Hedgehog, two heatsinks that are known very well in the overclocking bunkers.
CPU F/X is not only famous for their heatsink design, they also designed watercoolers (remember these cool looking blue watercoolers?), shims (here is our review), ram sinks, … everything you could possibly ask for when you are into overclocking.
Enough blabbering, lets take a look at their latest creation shall we?
The Specs
The CORE is made with overclocking in mind! Just by looking at it people will go ‘Whaaaww …. ‘ and once they see this monster into action their jaws will drop all the way to ground zero.
The heatsink uses a new design that has holes drilled everywhere into the heatsink. This ensures proper airflow all around and inside the heatsink.
The CORE will ship with a 4500rpm or a 6800rpm fan, depending on your needs, a tube of arctic silver, fan guard, a Mesa III shim for Intel CPU’s and a DTS-400 shim for use with Athlon and Duron processors. Our preview sample is equipped with the 6800rpm ‘Delta’ fan and came with a DTS-400 shim so we could test it on our AMD testbed.
Summary of the specs:
- 4500rpm or 6800rpm fan with fanguard
- DTS-400 and Mesa III shim to ensure that the cooler sits perfectly flat onto the cpu
- Tube of ArcTic Silver to increase cooling power
- ZIF socket retaining system
Installation
Because our test unit was a preproduction sample, the ZIF (Zero Input Force) retaining system was not included yet and we got 2 sets of 4 plastic screws so we could secure the heatsink through the 4 holes around the socket (these holes are available on every P4 and AMD certified motherboards). CPU F/X send me a pair of short screws and a pair of longer screws. The longer once are needed in case you want to place a peltier and coldplate between the cpu and the heatsink, but since AMD cpu’s don’t gain much overclocking potential from active cooling we decided not to use a peltier device.
In order to get the CORE installed, I had to remove my trusty KT7A-RAID from the case so I could put the screws through the holes and fasten them into the heatsink. This might be a pain-in-the-ass retaining system, but it ensures a PERFECT installation of the heatsink and makes sure it is secured. Again, the retail version will ship with a ZIF retaining mechanism so you do not have to remove your motherboard to install it.
After I installed the CORE onto my Duron cpu, and of course applied ArcTic Silver on the cpu and also used the DTS-400 copper shim to enlarge the contact area, it was time to run some tests on this killer heatsink.
Testing
First lets take a look at our system setup:
- Abit KT7A RAID motherboard with the WW BIOS
- AMD Duron 600 cpu (unlocked)
- 3x128MB PC133 Crucial RAM
- Hercules Geforce GTS Ultra
- 2x IBM DeskStar 30GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drives in a RAID0 configuration
I have used several coolers with this setup in order to see which one gave me the best run for my $$$ … after several tests and experiments I found that this cpu would run at 1035MHz with a core voltage of 1.85v. This was achieved with a GlobalWin FOP38 cooler, one of the best heatsinks available for overclocking purpose. At this speed and voltage the FOP38 would keep my Duron at a temperature around 57-58 degrees celcius which is pretty high.
The CORE is able to keep my cpu at and amazing 52 degrees celcius at this speed and that core voltage. My case temperature is around 33 degrees is all tests and I was not using any case cooling except the powersupply fan. I decided not to use any other case cooling because I wanted to see what the heatsink could do for me. Also note that the case was closed and the room temperature was approximatelly 24 degrees celcius.
All the above temperatures are recorded when the cpu was under full load. Full load means I have an instance of Prime95 running, RC5, my e-mail client, several brower windows while playing a song through WinAmp in the background.
Now lets see some charts …
Impressive heh? The CORE kicks all current coolers to the moon and back which is quite an achievement if you ask me. This cooler also manages to keep my Duron stable at 1000MHz while using a core voltage of only 1.775v whereas all the other coolers I ever tested needed 1.85v to maintain stability.
Conclusion
Although this was a preview of the actual product based upon a preproduction sample, I must say I am amazed by the performance this baby can deliver. The final product will perform just as well but it will make it a lot easier to install it onto your rig. CPU F/X also said there is a possiblity that they will also sell a colored CORE (in blue or red colors). The only downsides I can think of are the noise when you choose the 6800rpm fan and also the price tag. But if you want the best of the best, this is the cooler buy.
Good
- Performance
- Design
- Comes with ArcTic Silver, shims, fan and fanguard
Bad
- Price (around $70)
- Noise when using the 6800rpm fan
Update:
Overclockers Hideout let us know there is a small quantity of this cooler available for purchase!