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Evercool STC-01


Date
: 01/20/06 – 01:10:26 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
EVERCOOL Thermal Corp., Ltd.

Price:
N/A

Evercool, a Taiwan-based company, has been in the computer cooling business for almost a decade and a half. Naturally, it is a popular company that is known in the enthusiast community. To cater to the needs of enthusiasts, Evercool produces products that can cool everything from your CPU to your PC to your laptop! They also make accessories such as fan controllers so you can cool the aforementioned components silently. In any case, Evercool's products are recognizable by their themes. For example, among other products, their Nighthawk VGA cooler is modeled after a fighter jet.

Evercool continues their fighter jet theme with the Sidewinder STC-01, their first packaged thermal compound for retail sale. Is Evercool's first attempt at entering the thermal interface market successful or not? Well, let's find out!

Page 2 : Package and Contents

Evercool has packaged the Sidewinder STC-01 in a blister package. These days it seems these blister packages are everywhere, probably due to the fact that they allow the manufacturer to display the product most prominently and attractively.

In the front of the package, we see the company name, the "Sidewinder" subtitle, and a brief introduction. The model number is also present. The fighter jet theme is evident as the background consists of a plane's wireframe with four tubes of thermal compound serving as 'missiles'.

Turning the pack over, Evercool has included a thorough discussion of the features, contents, and specifications augmented with a thermal conductivity chart.

The features list is reprinted below:

The contents list:

And last, but not least, the specifications:

We will go into further detail about these in the next section. At the bottom, we see an Evercool-branded plastic spreader to be used when applying the compound. Directly above the spreader is a caution label:

The warning label is flanked on the right by the UPC code, below which it says "Made in China".

In any case, I proceeded to open the package. The contents are the same items we saw through the plastic. I was surprised to see that no manual is included! Sure, experienced users know how to install thermal compound but by not including a manual, Evercool has just lost a majority of novices.

Nevertheless, let's take a comprehensive look at the specifications highlighted on the back of the package before putting the STC-01 to test.

Page 3 : Specifications

Evercool's website has furnished us with the following specifications table for the Sidewinder STC-01 thermal compound.

For comparison purposes, I found similar specifications for Arctic Silver 5, one of the most famous and mainly used thermal compounds in the enthusiast community:

Note that I had to do several conversions to get the quantities to be in the same units as those given by Evercool for the STC-01 and the values are by no means absolute.

The STC-01 comes in four tubes, each massing in at approximately 1g; it says 0.8g on the back of the package and on the syringes themselves but that's no big deal. This is in contrast to the Arctic Silver syringe which has only one tube, weighing 3.5g. This is good in that you can store the extra tubes somewhere, using only what is needed from one of them at a time; the smaller size also makes it more convenient. However, the advantages end there. The thermal conductivity of the STC-01 is over two times less than Arctic Silver 5's and the thermal resistance is almost four times higher! Things aren't looking good for the STC-01 so far; convenience is no substitute for performance.

In any case, Evercool has included an odd chart showing thermal conductivity values; this chart is also present in the back of the package.

The chart is not an accurate representation for two reasons. One, it doesn't show any values and therefore, we are not sure what the scale is; it could be a logarithmic scale for all we know! Two, it doesn't show what the brand names are. The descriptions "Brand C" and "Brand T" are really vague. What is interesting is that we are going to be testing the STC-01 not only against Arctic Silver 5 and Arctic Silver Lumière but also against Cooler Master's NanoFusion and Titan's Nano Silver. Maybe "Brand C" stands for Cooler Master and "Brand T" for Titan… who knows? Only the test results will tell, but first let's install the quirky thermal compound that is the Sidewinder STC-01.

Page 4 : Installation

The installation setup consists of the following:

I will go through application for the CPU only as the process is similar for the chipset and video card core.

You can't install a new thermal compound without removing the old one so that's first; remove your heatsink carefully. It might be easier if you remove the motherboard from the case but it is not necessary. Whatever method you choose, after removal of the heatsink, you have to clean both the heatsink and the CPU's lid with high-purity isopropyl alcohol or an appropriate cleaner.

Refer to Jody's guide for more detailed instructions regarding this procedure, available in the forums via this URL.

Since no instructions were included, I'm just going to go with intuition. I placed a small blob of compound on the CPU's lid and tried to spread it around with the included spreader. Interestingly, the compound is actually silver in color, contrary to the white color that the specifications said it would be.

I was unable to coat the entire surface of the lid after much effort so I just applied some of the compound directly onto the heatsink with the idea that it will fill in the areas that I couldn't cover.

Then, I just placed the heatsink back onto the CPU, secured it, and plugged in the fan to the appropriate header on the motherboard.

In this process, the lack of instructions was not a deathblow but it did complicate things a bit.

Now, we can test the Evercool STC-01 to see whether it is worthy of having a place in your computer.

Page 5 : Testing and Performance

The test setup consists of the following:

The thermal compounds that will be competing against the Sidewinder STC-01 are Cooler Master's NanoFusion, Titan's Nano Silver, Arctic Silver 5, and Arctic Silver Lumière. Lumière is a specially formulated testing compound that resembles Arctic Silver's Céramique but requires no break-in time.

Here is a visual comparison of all the contenders:

Lumière is a white paste-like substance, NanoFusion is thick and mushy, the STC-01 is clay-like, Arctic Silver 5 is slightly runny, and Titan Nano Silver is slightly thick yet runny.

The other components in the testing setup are as follows:

Each compound was installed one at a time. For example, first I used the STC-01 on all the components. Then, I left the computer on for 24 hours running a 3DMark05 loop. After that, I left it off for 12 hours to allow the thermal compound to cure. Afterward, I turned the computer on and left it on for 30 minutes before measuring the idle temperatures using Asus PC Probe 2. In both cases, the maximum ambient (case) temperature was measured using the Aspire X-Dreamer II case's built-in thermal probe. The burn-in process was shortened significantly for the Lumière as it does not require a break-in period.

The idle temperatures chart is a mess. We can clearly see that the STC-01 is not a top performer; that is not to say it is a poor performer. It represents the median temperature in almost all of the cases. It is clearly better than the Titan Nano Silver but struggles to compete with the rest.

Load temperatures are next and the moment of truth accompanies the chart. These were measured via Asus PC Probe 2 after the idle measurement phase while running the entire PCMark05 test suite. The maximum temperatures during the run were recorded and charted.

Here, we once again see the Evercool STC-01 in the middle. It beats the Titan Nano Silver again, except in the chipset temperature measurements. It also beats and ties with Lumière on multiple occasions.

I also tested overclockability; none of the compounds aided in overclockability of any component. My CPU maxed out at 288×9 (2592MHz, 1.550V) in all cases. Also, the GPU maxed out at 575MHz core and 1140MHz memory. CPU stability was tested with Prime95 (6 hours) and GPU with the ATI Tool's artifact scanner.

Let's wrap things up.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Because of its somewhat mediocre performance, I wouldn't recommend the STC-01 to overclockers since even a minor temperature difference could mean the difference between life and death when doing major overclocking. However, the STC-01 will do just fine when running stock settings or when used on components that output low amounts of heat.

The inclusion of a manual would make this product perfect for novices who are just getting into the computer cooling scene but most will be happy with the bundled thermal compounds that come with their coolers anyway.

I can surely say that these "missiles" will drop your temperatures if you are currently using a bundled thermal compound, preapplied thermal 'goop' or a thermal pad. The Evercool Sidewinder STC-01 represents a step-up from those horrible pastes and goes toward the higher-end compounds.

After an interesting battle among the thermal interface gladiators, we have a verdict. Evercool has earned its place in the thermal interface market. Though not the best performer, the Sidewinder STC-01 is hardly a loser. It sports decent performance and could be a good alternative for thermal compounds bundled with coolers such as the Titan Nano Silver. In all, if there is one thing that the Evercool Sidewinder STC-01 represents, it's value. Altogether, it is a solid product with great potential.

Advantages:

• Convenient, value-oriented
• Includes a spreader and four syringes
• Decent performance

  Disadvantages:

• No manual
• Performance not comparable to higher-end compounds such as those produced by Arctic Silver and Cooler Master
• Not widely available yet

  Overclockers Online bids thanks to Evercool for providing the Sidewinder STC-01 for this review. We would also like to thank Arctic Silver, Inc. for furnishing the Lumière thermal testing compound.