Cooler Comparison Testing

Cooler Testing Methods

To best gage the quality of the system coolers under review, system CPU temperature and cooling system audio measurements were taken with the CPU idle and under load. To replicate CPU idle conditions, the system was rebooted and allowed to sit idle for 10 minutes. To replicate a stress system load on the Z77-based system, a combination of LinX and FurMark were run over a 30 minute period with LinX running for 500 loops with Memory set to All and FurMark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 2x MSAA in stress test mode. For the Z87-based system testing, Aida64 System Stability Test was used in conjunction with FurMark for 30 minutes per run. After each run, the system was shut down and allowed to rest for 10 minutes to cool down. Then the CPU cooler was removed, cleaned, and remounted to the CPU with fresh thermal paste applied. This procedure was repeated a total of 12 times for each cooler – three times each for the stock speed and overclocking runs on the Z77 and Z87-based systems.

Temperature measurements were taken directly from the CPU thermistors using RealTemp (the newer Tech|Inferno edition). For the Z77-based systems, the highest recorded value for idle and load temperature were used for the run. Because of the volatile nature of the Haswell thermistor readings, the Z87-based system temperatures were measured in a different manner. For idle temperatures, the highest recorded value was used for the run. For load temperatures, a series of three values were notated: the average (high and low) across all cores, the average (high and low) across the single highest core, and the high temperature.

To adequately measure the SilverStone Tundra Series TD02 liquid cooler performance, performance testing was done for all scenarios under two operational conditions – dual fan and quad fan. In both modes, fans were directly connected to the PSU and run at full speed. In both operating modes, SilverStone fans rated for 2500RPM fan speed and at 0.30 amps of power draw under a 12V load were used for testing.

Note that the temperature values are reported as deltas rather than absolute temperatures with the delta value reported calculated as CPU temperature – ambient temperature. For all tests, room ambient temperature was maintained between 23-27C. Sound measurements of the system cooler where taken with the sound meter placed 3 feet away from the system with all other devices in the room silenced. The Sound Meter Pro applet on a Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone was used to measure decibel level.

Intel Z77-based Ivy Bridge System Testing

CPU Stock Speed Testing

The CPU stock speed testing was conducted with the BIOS defaults set (including enabling of the CPU-integrated graphics processor) with Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 3.4GHz CPU speed, 1600MHz memory speed, and 100MHz base clock. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.

When tested with a stock speed Ivy Bridge CPU, the SilverStone TD02 managed to stay within a few degrees of the lead coolers. There was minimal performance difference between stock mode (2 fans) and quad fan mode, indicating that the cooler was not stressed by the heat load.

CPU Overclocked Speed Testing

The CPU overclocked speed testing was conducted with known stable settings from a previous board review with Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 4.4GHz CPU speed, 1960MHz memory speed, and 105MHz base clock. Also, the CPU-integrated graphics processor was disabled to reduce the processor heat generation. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.

Board voltage settings were configured as follows:

  • CPU Core Voltage – 1.2750
  • CPU I/O Voltage – 1.150
  • DRAM Voltage – 1.6255
  • System Agent Voltage(SA) – 1.0850
  • CPU PLL Voltage – 1.7500
  • PCH 1.05 – 1.0995

Again, we see that the overclocked Ivy Bridge processor poses no challenge for the TD02 liquid cooler. Both its stock and quad fan temperatures remained close to the performance leaders. The second set of fans makes no real dent in the units performance with the Ivy Bridge CPU's heat load, even under overclocked conditions.

Intel Z87-based Haswell System Testing

CPU Stock Speed Testing

The CPU stock speed testing was conducted with the BIOS defaults set for the CPU (including enabling of the CPU-integrated graphics processor) and Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 3.4GHz CPU speed, 1600MHz memory speed, and 100MHz base clock. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.

The TD02 starts to differentiate itself performance-wise with the Haswell processor. At stock speeds, we see the cooler pull ahead of the pack. However, there is still only minimal difference between the stock and quad fan configuration cooling performance of the unit.

CPU Overclocked Speed Testing

The CPU overclocked speed testing was conducted with known stable settings from a previous board review with Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 4.68GHz CPU speed, 1780MHz memory speed, 4.0GHZ ring bus speed, and 167MHz base clock. Also, the CPU-integrated graphics processor was disabled to reduce the processor heat generation. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.

Board voltage settings were configured as follows:

  • CPU Core Voltage – 1.25 + 0.005
  • VCCIN Voltage – 1.90
  • DRAM Voltage – 1.55
  • CPU Ring Voltage – 1.125 + 0.005
  • CPU SA Voltage Offset – +0.100
  • CPU IO Analogue Voltage Offset – +0.100
  • CPU IO Digital Voltage Offset – +0.100
  • PCH 1.05 Voltage – 1.120

The overclocked Haswell processor seems to finally push the TD02 cooler with clear temperature scaling between the unit's 2-fan and 4-fan mode. The unit performs well with only 2 fans, but you increase the thermal headroom of the unit by almost 4 degrees Celsius across the board with 4 fans active. However, the TD02 does not seem to be able to match the performance of the stock Corsair all-in-one unit.

Sound Testing

The TD02's performance comes at a price with the price paid being the fan noise generated by the unit. With only two fans running, the unit remains audible until the graphics card fan starts to scale with the heat load. Under quad fan mode, the unit remains audible even over the graphics card fan. Keep in mind that if the fans were connected to the motherboard instead of set to run at full speed, their audio profile could be much different.

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