Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: CPU-Coolers, Phenom, Core2
Categories: Hardware
MSI / Watercool HydroGen (Cont’d)
The water cooler draws its power from a molex connector via a 9-pin cable (2 meters long) that enters the case through a faceplate on the back of the PC case. The fan speed signal is sent to the motherboard using the standard fan-header connectors.
The radiator’s fans can be set to three different speeds, namely 5 Volts, 7 Volts and 12 Volts.
At the lowest fan speed, the processor runs at 72.5°C. The medium speed cools it down to 66°C and the fastest mode drops the CPU’s temperature down to 63.5°C. When operating at one of the lower two settings, the cooler is barely audible, while we were able to make out a dull hiss. This water cooler will never distract you from work if it is mounted under your desk.
The inherent advantage of a water cooling solution is that it can always maintain these temperatures – regardless of the airflow inside the tower and the choice of components. As a result, the entire system is quieter, since the CPU cooler also doesn’t bleed heat into the tower, forcing other components’ fans to compensate.
The CPU cooler dissipates the heat very well, and the system’s radiator is very effective.
According to MSI, the bundle consisting of the motherboard and the water cooler will appear in stores soon, although we haven’t heard any details on pricing. MSI will also be selling the board separately under the name X38 HydroGen at a price of around €295. Obviously, this version will lack the water cooler.
| CPU | 100% load | idle |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature 12V | 63.5 °C | 33 °C |
| Temperature 7V | 66 °C | 33 °C |
| Temperature 5V | 72.5 °C | 33 °C |
| Noise | 41.9 dB(A) | 36 dB(A) |
| Fan Speed | 1540 rpm | 560 rpm |
| Weight | 426 grams | |
| Intel Socket | 775 | |
| AMD Socket | AM2 | AM2+ |
If you’re considering buying the water cooler separately, expect to pay somewhere around €300.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Heatkiller CPU LGA775 Rev2.5 | ca. €50 |
| HT Fusion Dual | ca. €230 |
| HT Fusion Triple | ca. €270 |
| Screw connection A. 90° 10 mm (four pieces) | ca. €11 |
| PUR tube 10/8 clear (per meter) | ca. €2.50 |
| PVC tube 10/8 clear (per meter) | ca. €1 |
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1) the test is using a extremely high power processor, if you were to test these coolers on a dual core CPU you may see very different trends with regards to noise/performance. The ninja is famous for quiet cooling at lower settings, passively there are few better heat sinks than it.
2) the test is not been done in an enclosure, in some cases the very high level or very low level of airflow could make a drastic difference to the performance of some of these coolers.
My p180b with the Ninja plus rev B and a Noctua NF-S12-1200 works well with the Q6600, yesterday I did a Prime session, after 1h max Tjunction was 61 Core 1, core 3 was the coolest at 57.
Can you clearly explain why you choose not to do the test in a enclosure. Surely you didn't take into account the effect intake and exhaust fans, they are the key things to helping the heatpipes working at there best. The cool air coming from the intake fan is what aids the heatpipes and the exhaust remove the hot air, again aiding the heatpipes to work.
When you try them in open air you lose a lot of the power of the heatpipe as there isn't as much of a contrast between the cold and hot air.
Guys pull me up if I'm wrong, but if I'm not you really should redo this test in a enclosure.
I mean look at the pictures on the Scythe Ninja page of this review for example - they just scream out "WRONG!!!!!".
Even an 8 year old will tell you that hot air rises!! The ideal placement for the fan is therefore either on the side for horizontal airflow through the fins or underneath so the fan actually helps the already rising hot air to rise even quicker. I reckon you could easily drop most of the recorded temperatures by up to 10 Degrees or maybe even more by mounting the fan(s) anywhere but on top blowing down.
If you really had no choice but to mount on top because of interference from other motherboard components (in which case the cooler should lose points), then at least have the fan blow the hot air away from the heatsink fins and not back through them!!
This review does lack the Zalman 9500 series of fans as Therlian mentioned (including the Fatal1ty versions) but I think a nod to them was placing 2 on the motherboard in the Skulltrail articles - clearly one of the best air coolers around
The heatpipes favoured by a lot of the P35 chipset boards seem to be about simply getting some airflow through the voltage regulator heatsinks not necessarily cold airflow.
OK, I admit my comments don't necessarily apply to all heatsinks tested here - but the point is that in some cases I believe the tests are flawed and don't reflect the true potential of some of the solutions (e.g. the Scythe Ninja and possible some others too) simply because of the sub-optimal placement of the fans.