Testing
The Hyper 48 cooler was tested on an open frame K8 test rig consisting of the following components. The ambient room air temperature was maintained at 24°C ±0.5°C. The CPU was loaded by running Folding@Home 24/7. Several dozen temperature readings were recorded and averaged over 24 to 48 hours for each test.
- Asus K8N-E Deluxe nForce3-250 motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (200 x 11.0) 1.50 Vcore
- Seasonic SuperTornado 400 watt ATX power supply
- (2) Corsair CMX512-3200C2 DDR RAM
- ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
- WD800JB IDE HDD
- Sony 16X DVD, FDD
- Windows XP Pro with SP1
To facilitate taking accurate CPU temperature measurements I attached a very small Omega thermocouple to the side of the Athlon 64 IHS with Arctic Alumina thermal epoxy. The measurement equipment used during testing included:
- CPU/IHS — Barnant Model 115 digital thermometer (accuracy +/- 0.4º C)
- Ambient air — Barnant Model 115 digital thermometer (accuracy +/- 0.4º C)
- Extech Model 407736 digital sound level meter (accuracy +/- 1.5 dB)
In addition to the supplied Delta fan running at 12V and 7V, I also tested the cooler with a 92mm Sunon Tornado fan (PMD1209PMB1-A) to see how the cooler would respond to uber airflow.
The following data is presented for comparative purposes only. Your actual results may be different depending on the variables unique to your system (CPU, overclock, ambient temperature, case air flow, temperature monitoring, etc).
CPU — Temperature reported by Asus PC Probe utility (internal diode)
Tc — Temperature obtained with calibrated thermocouple attached to IHS
Delta T — Fully loaded Tc temperature rise above ambient
dBA — Sound pressure level recorded 3′ away (background ~30 dBA)
For comparison, here are the results from several other popular HSF’s for the K8 platform and the stock OEM aluminum HSF that comes bundled with the Athlon 64 3200+. All HSF’s were tested on the same CPU under the same conditions.
- Cooler Master Hyper 6 with 80mm CM variable speed fan
- Thermalright XP-120 with 120mm Panaflo L1A at 12 VDC
- Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler-Pro with integrated, variable speed, blower-style fan
- Zalman CNSP7000A-CU with integrated Zalman variable speed fan
- Athlon 64 3200+ OEM aluminum heatsink with 70mm fan
Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler-Pro Hyper 48 Cooler Master Hyper 6
Not surprisingly, the Cooler Master Hyper 48 HSF did a good job cooling the fully loaded, stock Athlon 64 3200+, but not quite as good as its big brother the Hyper 6 or Thermalright’s flagship XP-120. In addition, the Hyper 48 was very quiet, even while running at 12V.
Reducing the fan voltage to 7V made the cooler almost silent, which should please even the most ardent silent PC fanatics. However, a rise of 20ºC above ambient is a little warmer than I generally like but may be acceptable as long as you have good case cooling airflow.
With the large increase in airflow provided by the high speed Sunon Tornado fan (4,800 RPM, 199 CFM), the Hyper 48 performed extremely well, but of course with a LOT more noise!
At first glance, you might have assumed the Hyper 48 would equal or better the performance of the Hyper 6 cooler. In regards to the fan and noise levels it is definitely better. However, cooling performance took a slight hit due to the smaller fin surface area and the use of only four instead of six heat pipes. Bottom line—performance is directly related to airflow.
