SilverStone Tundra Series TD03 All-in-One Liquid Cooler Review

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 and overclocking speed 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 TD03 liquid cooler performance, performance testing was done for all scenarios under two operational conditions – dual fan and single 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 TD03 cooler maintained a solid temperature under both operational modes. The minimal performance difference measured between stock mode (2 fans) and single fan mode indicate that the processor heat load was not overly stressing the cooler.

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

The TD03 cooler again manages to keep the processor stable with the Ivy Bridge processor, but falls towards the hotter end of the scale with the overclocked processor. The performance scales between the two operating modes as expected with the unit maintaining cooler temperatures with the stock two fan configuration.

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 TD03 cooler performed well with the Haswell processor at stock speeds, matching the performance of all the top units. Performance fell by a few degrees in single fan mode, scaling as anticipated.

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

With the overclocked Haswell processor, the TD03 cooler maintains processor stability but comes in at the hotter end of the spectrum again. In stock configuration, the TD03 maintains temperatures withing 2-4C of the lead cooler with the single fan configuration adding about 3C. Keep in mind that the TD03 unit is a 120mm radiator, while the comparison liquid coolers use 240mm radiators.

Sound Testing

The TD03 cooler runs louder than the base case fans at full speed operation, but does not drown out the graphics card fan when the system is under load in either single or dual fan configuration. However, if the fans were connected to motherboard-regulated PWM fan headers instead of set to run at full speed, their audio profile could be much different.