Testing & Conclusions
Testing was performed on the same AMD Athlon XP-2400+ platform I use for all heatsink and waterblock evaluations. The computer is an open chassis rig running at stock speeds and voltages. I also used an original aluminum NB-1 and the stock, passive Epox cooler for comparison.
Test rig components:
- Epox 8RDA+ motherboard with NVIDIA nForce2 SPP Northbridge
- AMD Thoroughbred XP-2400+ @ 2000 MHz and 1.65 Vcore
- Corsair XMS 3500 CL2 DDR RAM, 256 MB
- Gainward GeForce4 MX-440 video card
- NB — Barnant Model 115 digital thermometer (accuracy +/- 0.4º C)
- Ambient air — Barnant Model 115 digital thermometers (accuracy +/- 0.5º C)
- Field Calibration — ASTM-T precision thermometer (accuracy +/- 0.1º C)
The Northbridge temperature was measured with a calibrated thermocouple attached to the backside of the motherboard under the Northbridge chip. The NB was fully loaded by running a combination of Folding@Home, 3dMark2001 SE and SiSoft Sandra Burn-in (Memory bandwidth benchmark). The ambient room air temperature was maintained at 25°C ±0.5°C.
The following data is presented for comparative purposes only. Your actual results may be different depending on the variables unique to your system (motherboard, overclock, ambient temperature, case air flow, etc).
(click to enlarge)
The Thermalright NB-1C chipset cooler performed much better than the passively cooled Epox Northbridge cooler as you would expect. It decreased the NB full load temperatures by more than 8°C. The all copper NB-1C also out performed the aluminum NB-1 by about 1°C; a small but significant improvement.
Conclusions
The NB-1C chipset cooler lives up to the reputation many have come to expect from Thermalright. The NB-1C exhibits excellent quality and workmanship in a small package. If you are looking for a high performance chipset cooler and aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into water-cooling, then the new Thermalright NB-1C may be just what you are looking for.
On the down side, the 6,000 RPM fan is bit noisy, but this probably won’t be much of an issue if you are a hard-core overclocker looking to squeeze those last few MHz out of your FSB. The 45mm square fan will also somewhat limit your choices should you want to increase airflow with a more powerful fan or quiet things down a bit with a slower speed one.
As mentioned earlier, Thermalright has posted a list of compatible motherboards so check it out if you have questions about whether or not this little beauty will fit your particular application.
The NB-1C chipset cooler should be available by mid July 2004. Pricing has not yet been released. I would like to thank our friends at Thermalright for allowing us to be one of the first to review the NB-1C!
