Testing
The VapoChill Micro was tested on an open frame K8 test rig consisting of the components listed below. The ambient room air temperature was maintained at 23°C ±0.5°C. The CPU was loaded by running Folding@Home 24/7. Several dozen temperature reading were recorded and averaged over 2~3 days for each test. For testing, the fan speed was adjusted to high, medium and low settings and run straight off of 12V (by-passing the fan speed controller)..
- Asus K8N-E Deluxe nForce3-250 motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (0.13 µm Newcastle core)
- 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)
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)
As you can see, the VapoChill Micro HSF did a good job of cooling the Athlon 64 processor with minimal noise. When the fan speed was turned down, the cooler became almost silent.
For comparison, here are the results from several other popular HSFs designed for quiet operation and the stock OEM aluminum HSF that comes bundled with the Athlon 64 3200+. All HSFs were tested on the same CPU under the same conditions.
- Cooler Master Hyper 6 with 80mm CM variable speed fan
- Thermalright XP-90c with 80mm Panaflo L1A, 92mm SilenX, and 92mm Panaflo M1A
- Thermalright XP-120 with 120mm Panaflo L1A
- Cooler Master Hyper 48 with 92mm Delta fan
- Athlon 64 3200+ OEM aluminum heatsink with 70mm fan
