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SocketA Cooler Shootout August 2001


Date
: 08/4/01 – 11:47:21 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Introduction

By now, we all should know that an AMD Tbird or Duron generates a lot of heat, even when the CPU is not overclocked. And during these hot summerdays, temperature rises even more due to an increase of overall room temperatures. So, when you combine the fact that there is a general increase of temperature caused by the summersun AND the fact that you want to overclock your CPU to its limits, it’s advisable that you consider a high performance heatsink to keep your baby stable. Because as you know, overheating will cause your system to become unstable and give you those nice Windows BSODs. O just doesn’t want that to happen to your rig!

And since there are a lot of newcomers on the cooler market and O has had to chance to take them for a testdrive, we decided to present you our August Socket A cooler shootout with again some of the best, if not THE best coolers on the market today. We’re talking about HSFs like the new Vantec coolers (copper and aluminum version), the all-copper GlobalWin CAK38, the popular SK6 from Thermalright and yes folks, we also have the Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3 included in this shootout. Although these are the most famous HSFs in this test, we also added some other nifty and less known coolers to it! Coolers like the Spire range of Socket A cooler, the Taisol CGK760092 and last but not least, the QuietPC Radial Fin low noise HSF … will be an interesting comparison if you ask me ;)

To make things a bit easier on you guys, here’s the complete list of coolers included in our August Edition of the Socket A Cooler Shootout …

This month’s contestants are :

• Spire 5E32B3
• Spire 5E34B3
• Spire 5P53B3
• Taisol CGK760092
• GlobalWin CAK38
• Vantec FCE-6030D
• Vantec CCK-6035D
• Thermalright SK6
• Tt Dragon Orb 3
• QuietPC Large Radial Fin

Testing Method

Before we can begin with testing our first heatsink of the day, I’d better tell you how we test heatsinks around here. Actually, it’s still the same method of testing as we used to test the heatsinks in our previous shootout. Once more, here’s how we do it : we tested each heatsink for about an hour with RC5 and Prime95 running together with other common used software like email, ICQ and stuff. RC5 and Prime95 is used to max out the CPU power and to let the CPU generate as much heat as possible. After an hour, we measured the temperature with the almighty Motherboard Monitor software. The next step is to turn of all the programs that were running during the stress test and see how the temperature evolves after about half an hour. That’s when we measure the idle temps. These should be the same as the temps we’d normally take about 15 minutes after startup without running a single proggy.

I’d like to note that the HQ45 case of our testbed was closed and no additional case cooling was turned on. (Just like in the previous shootouts)

We also decided to test all HSFs with a 7000rpm black Delta fan as well as the stock fan. The reason why we do this is simple, by using the 7000rpm Delta fan on each heatsink (where possible!) we can compare all different heatsinks with each other to see which one is the best!

Page 2 : In This Shootout?

How much do these things cost?

Spire Coolers

Manufacturer: Spire
Price 5E32B3 (aluminum) : N/A (heard that they will not be expensive)
Price 5E34B3 (copper base) : N/A
Price 5P53B3 (all-copper) : N/A
Kindly supplied by Spire!

Taisol CGK760092

Manufacturer: Taisol
Price : $35.95s
Kindly supplied by the Coolerguys!

GlobalWin CAK38

Manufacturer: GlobalWin
Price : $39.95
Kindly supplied by Coolerguys!

Vantec FCE-6030D

Manufacturer: Vantec
Price : around $25
Kindly supplied by Vantec!

Vantec CCK-6035D

Manufacturer: Vantec
Price : $35.95
Kindly supplied by Vantec!

Thermalright SK6

Manufacturer: Thermalright
Price : $45.95
Kindly supplied by Coolerguys!

Tt Dragon Orb 3

Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Price : $35.95
Kindly supplied by Thermaltake!

QuietPC Radial Fin

Manufacturer: QuietPC
Price : $44
Kindly supplied by QuietPC!

Special thanks to CoolerGuys, Vantec and Thermaltake for supplying us with samples ;)

The Tests

Test System :

- AOpen HQ45 (without case cooling)
-
AMD Athlon 1.3GHz @ 1.3GHz (1.75v) – 71W

- A copper shim from Overclockers Hideout was used to protect the CPU
- Abit KT7A-RAID Motherboard
- 256MB OCZ Value PC133 SDRAM
- Hercules Kyro II
- WD 45GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drive
- Windows 2000 + SP1 + 4.29 VIA drivers

– The Thermal Interface Material (TIM) has been removed from each heatsink before the tests –

Page 3 : Spire HSFs

Spire 5E32B3

Never heard of Spire before? Well, maybe that’s because Spire is a new kid on the block on the coolermarket. Maybe you’ve already seen some reviews on the web about a couple of Spire’s products, but I doubt you will find as much reviews of a Spire cooler as of you will find of a GlobalWin cooler for example. The first of three Spire coolers we will discuss in this shootout is the 5E32B3. It looks like Spire has this nasty habit of using a number as the name of a cooler :( Anyways, the aluminum 70mm x 65mm x 48mm heatsink has no copper bottom on this cooler. In fact, there’s not a single bit of copper on this heatsink. To cool down the heatsink, Spire have chosen to install a 4000rpm fan which measures no more than 60mm x 60mm x
15mm
and is capable of delivering an avarage airflow of about 17CFM. The fan is not one of the most quiet fans available, but with the case closed, you will not be bothered by too much fan noise either. Too bad the fanguard of this cooler is optional. Underneath the fan, the heatsink has a kind of fin design with about 16 fins. Both sides of the heatsinks have been cut out (as you can see on the pics) to increase airflow around the sink. Oh yeah, the fans also have rpm monitoring. All this Spire goodness together should be able to cool socket A CPUs up to 1.33GHz … let’s see if the specs are right …

Performance : The Spire 5E32B3 certainly doesn’t perform bad considering the fact that it’s a rather small cooler and has no copper base or something else that will cause the heat to transfer to the heatsink faster. The cooling performance is on par with the performance of a popular Thermoengine running a stock fan. However, the Thermoengine heavily outperforms the Spire 5E32B3 when we equip both coolers with a Delta 7000rpm fan.

Spire 5E34B3

Here’s the 5E32B3′s big brother, the Spire 5E34B3. This one almost has the exact same 70mm x 65mm x 50mm aluminum heatsink as the 5E32B3 except for the fact that it’s fitted with a 70mm x 40mm x 5mm copper plate base. Spire equiped this 5E34B3 with the same 60mm x 60mm x 15mm 4000rpm fan blowing about 17CFM of air. (note that the Spire website gives this 5E34B3 a 19CFM airflow but it’s the same fan as on the 5E32B3 so why should it deliver more airflow on this heatsink than on the 5E32B3?). I also counted 2 more fins on this copper base model compared to the all-aluminum one. According to the specs, a 1.4GHz CPU should give this HSF any problems. Well, we’ll just see about that …

Performance : It was pretty obvious that the big brother was going toperform better than the alu-only version, but the difference between the 5E34 and the 5E32 never gets more than 1 or 2C.

Spire 5P53B3

The Spire 5P53B3 (another original name :)) is the last Spire cooler in this test and I must say it’s compelety different from the two previous coolers. Why is that? Well, instead of using an aluminum heatsink with/without copper plate base, the 5P53B3 heatsink has been built using 100% copper (actually it’s 99.9% copper and a couple of other materials, but you get the idea). The heatsink measures 63mm x 60mm x 46mm and is quite a lot smaller than the two other Spire cooler we’ve looked at earlier in this review. Just like the previous Spire coolers, the 5P53B3 also has a fin design heatsink. But there’s something special about these fins ; they are folded to create more surface. Great idea huh! The 55mm x 55mm x 15mm fan is also a bit smaller and delivers slightly less airflow than the other Spire fans … 15CFM at 4500rpm to be exact. Of course, it’s also a little bit more quiet than the 17CFM Spire fans, but not all that much to be honest! Again the fanguard is optional and should be a standard in my opinion. I guess, I forgot to tell you about the three Spire coolers (all three have the exact same retention clip) is that the retention mechanism needs to be attached with a screwdriver, but for a screwdriver mechanism it attaches itself pretty easy and solid. One last thing about this Spire HSF … weighing about 250g, this tiny HSF looks quite heavy to me. (that’s because it’s all copper dudes!!)

Performance : Looking at the temps we got from this heatsink, I’d say this little Spire 5P53B3 should rather be used on Durons up to 1GHz instead of Athlons up to 1.4GHz ;) I certainly NOT recommend this HSF for overclocking purposes.

Page 4 : Taisol & GW

Taisol CGK760092

Compared to the Spire coolers, this 80mm x 60mm x 56mm aluminum Taisol CGK760092 looks like a giant. More like a giant with a small head because the 4800rpm fan only measures 60mm x 60mm x
10mm
! Although the fan is only 10mm high, it still manages to produce a maximum airflow of about 21CFM which is more than the larger Spire fans. The heatsink is built upon a good old straight fin design and is equiped with a small copper base to increase heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink. The fan, which also supports rpm monitoring, is a little louder than the Spire fans but it never comes close to a Delta 7k rpm noise level. The retetion clip is very exceptional and I’ll tell you why. Simply because it fits on all six pins on the CPU socket which increases heatsink stability (for example when you move your rig a lot like me). Can this Taisol CGK760092 be considered as a high performance heatsink? Well, if we can believe the specs on the Taisol website, it has been designed to support CPUs from 1.4GHz and beyond …

Performance : The tempartures with the stock fan are rather high. 49C at full load is not exactly what I call a cool for a heatsink this big. What I suspected was that replacing the tiny cooler by a Delta fan could change things. And so it did … suddenly the Taisol was capable of cooling my Athlon 1.3GHz down to 43C under full load. *But damn that Delta fan noise!*

GlobalWin CAK38

As always, a GlobalWin HSF has an impressive spec list otherwise it just wouldn’t be a GlobalWin HSF. The one we recently received from the CoolerGuys is no different! Watch out peeps, because here comes the CAK38! The 60mm x 60mm x 35mm all copper fin design (about 20 fins) heatsink comes with a sweet but loud black 60mm x 60mm x 25mm Delta fan sporting rpm control, running at 6800rpmand capable of delivering 38CFM of airflow. Too bad the noise level (42dBa) can and will be annoying to some of you. The clip hasn’t changed one bit compared to some older GlobalWin coolers like a FOP38. As you might remember from our previous GlobalWin reviews, the clip makes it pretty easy to attach the WBK38 to your socket, but you’ll need a screwdriver. (Perhaps some of you are capable of attaching the CAK38 without a screwdriver but I certainly wasn’t). I just want to warn you that this cooler weighs more than 450g (*heavy* alert!) so be absolutely careful that you install it correctly and that it can’t fall off! By the way, the fan grill isn’t optional, it comes with every CAK38 !!

Performance : Hardcore overclockers won’t mind the very high noise level of the black 7000rpm fan and will find this HSF very useful. 43C under full load!

Page 5 : Vantec HSFs

Vantec FCE-6030D

The 6030D is the first of two new high performance Vantec heatsinks we’re going to discuss today at O. This first one is completely made out of aluminum and has a 60mm x 60mm x 25mm 7000rpm fan (with fan grill) as stock fan. The 59mm x 60mm x 27mm alu heatsink has a kind of thin fin design with over 30 thin (1mm) fins. The 6030D measures 66mm x 63mm x 61mm in total which isn’t that big at all. The retention clip is superb, you don’t need a screwdriver or any other tool to mount it onto your CPU. That’s just great! :) There’s nothing more to say about this heatsink. Are these new (and improved?) Vantecs even beter than the older ones? Let the figures speak for themselves …

Performance : Well, to be honest, I was a little surprised to see a Vantec HSF perform this ‘bad’. 47C isn’t exactly what I call a cool temperature for a heatsink equiped with a 7000rpm fan. Let’s see how the copper Vantec gets trough our torture session …

Vantec CCK-6035D

The second and last Vantec in our shootout is the CCK-6035D, Vantec’s current flagship. That’s right, this 6035D should be Vantec’s best heatsink at the moment and just like the CAK38 from GlobalWin, it has an impressive spec list. Actually it seems to me that this 6035D from Vantec is especially engineered to compete with GlobalWin’s CAK38. They also look pretty much the same in general! The all copper heatsink of the 6035D measures 65mm x 64mm x 39mm which makes it slightly bigger than the CAK38. Did you already notice the extremely thin (less than 0.5mm) fin design on the pictures? Temperatures of this all copper heatsink are controlled by the same 7000rpm fan (again with fan grill) as on the 6030D. The retention clip is completely different from the 6030D one, but hey, you also don’t need a screwdriver to put it on top of the CPU! Let’s see how the 6035D stacks up against aginst the CAK38, his well-known competitor …

Performance : The Vantec 6035D manages to keep the temp on my Athlon 1.3GHz down to a very cool 41C. I’m certainly keeping this one for myself! I mean this HSF almost performs on pair with the Swiftech MC370-0A which is better than the CAK38!

Page 6 : SK6, Dragon Orb & Radial Fin

Thermalright SK6

The CoolerGuys have supplied us with this almighty high performance heatsink called the SK6 from Thermalright. You’ll probably have read about a thousand reviews on this mofo, but I bet you’ve always been waiting for the day that O checks this SK6 out for you. Well, today is that day! By the way, did you hear of Thermalright before they introduced their SK6 heatsink? No? Well, me neither! Oh well, they are here now with their SK6. The 100% copper heatsink measures 64mm x 72mm x 31mm at the top and 64mm x 64mm x 31mm at the bottom. Just like most other heatsinks on the market these days, this SK6 also uses a thin fin design to spread the heat over a larger surface.We only received a SK6 heatsink so we had to install our own fan on top and guess which one we chose … right, a noisey Delta 7000rpm. We chose this fan over a more quiet fan because we were very curious about the performance of this heatsink! We put the fan onto the heatsink by using the special fan clip design (just look at the picture and you will understand it) instead of the regular screws. In the package you will receive a set of normal fan clips (for the average fans) and a set of large fan clips (for the ones that don’t work with the normal clips) The retention clip is solid but needs to be attached with the help of a screwdriver :( Now, let’s have a look at the performance chart and see if you really should spend your $$$ on this cooler …

Performance : The Thermalright SK6 is also an absolute top notch performer because it kept my stressed Athlon 1.3GHz at 42C. Not bad at all, but we must not forget that the Vantec 6035D keeps the CPU at 41C … that even 1C cooler than the SK6!

The SK6 fan clips

Tt Dragon Orb 3

Another orb has found its way to our testlab, we present you the Dragon Orb 3 from who else than Thermaltake. Why is this one called the Dragon Orb 3 instead of just Dragon Orb? Well, that’s because there are 3 different versions of this cooler available. The Dragon Orb 1 is an aluminum based dragon orb, the Dragon Orb 2 is the twin radial fin version and the Dragon Orb 3 is copper based. The last one is also the one that we’ve included in our shootout today. The Dragon Orb 3 measures about 69mm x 79mm and looks really nice! Instead of using two separate fans, this orb has only one high performance 7000rpm fan delivering about 38CFM of airflow. The retention mechanism is very good because it uses all six pins on the CPU socket, just like the Taisol HSF earlier in this roundup. I must say that this Dragon Orb is rather noisey (37dBa) … let’s say you don’t expect an Orb to be this noisey. If you’re as eager as I was to learn how a copper base combine with an orb design and a 7000rpm fan performs, I suggest you stick with us and look at the figures …

Performance : Well, I never thought I’d say it, but here’s an orb that actually allows you to do some serious overclocking. The Dragon Orb 3 can compete with the best high performance HSFs in this test with ease.

QuietPC Large Radial Fin

I quote from the QuietPC website : ‘There is no other cooler on earth designed like this.’ This statement is 150% true. The Radial Fin hasn’t been designed as an overclockers HSF, that’s for sure. This cooler aims at offering superb cooling performance without the annoying sound of a fan running on the background. The design is pure and simple : a copper core with some radial fins around it, a silent cooler on top creating a 360 airflow and one giant and easy to use retention clip. This Radial Fin is certainly something for all the boys and girls out there who leave their rig on all night and have the $$$ to buy this Radial Fin because it’s certainly not cheap ($44)! Silence is one thing, but good cooling is another issue … can this HSF do a little bit of both?

Performance : I said it before and I knew it from the start that this Radial Fin wasn’t going to give me temps below 40C on the Athlon 1.3GHz CPU. Hey, 57C is hot but still acceptable and allows you to run a system stable and extremely silent at the same time. Well done, QuietPC!

Page 7 : Summary

SUMMARY

Everyone has his own personal favours and that’s why there shall never be a HSF on the market this is perfect for every single one of you! While one wants to overclock his CPU to the limits at all cost, another will want his rig to be as quiet as possible. That’s why the cooler market has a cooler for everyone, but nowerdays it’s pretty hard to find that cooler that 100% meets your needs. That’s why O brings you a regular update on the most important HSFs available today.

If you ask me which heatsink has suprised me the most this time, I must answer the Dragon Orb 3. At first, I was a little sceptical about it, but it turned out to be a true overclockers cooler. That’s a nice improvement over the Mini Copper Orb we reviewed last time and didn’t turn out to be that much of a great cooler.

If we think about the price/performance ratio of the coolers in this August shootout, we can come up with a TOP 3:

TOP 3

First place: Vantec CCK-6035D
Second place : Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3
thirt place: ThermalRight SK6

This Month’s Top Performer
: Vantec CCK-6035D

Best low budget
: No real excellent budget sink in this shootout, although I heard the Spire heatsinks will not cost that much and are aimed at the budget market. I can’t give you an exact price, sorry.

Once more we like to thank CoolerGuys, Vantec and Thermaltake for supplying us with review samples of their products!