Prescott FMB2 C40387 - The Prescott's First Cooler
When Intel introduced the socket 775 platform, the processors of the day were still using the 90 nm Prescott core. Prescott was known as one of the most power-hungry cores Intel has ever designed, dissipating a great deal more heat than its predecessors built around the 130 nm Northwood core. The new socket also required a new box cooler, which Intel presented with the model reviewed here. Its name, “Prescott FMB2”, already indicates that this model was developed specifically for the new processor core.
This “grandfather” of all 775 box coolers had a tremendous impact on all box cooler models that followed. Its basic design using a fan blowing air onto a cooler with arched cooling fins from above was kept throughout the next generations. Indeed, only details were changed whenever a new model was released. In some cases, the size and direction of the cooling fins was changed, the fins were bifurcated, the base of the cooler’s copper core was made a little larger or the fan speed was adjusted to better suit the CPU.
Among our editors, the FMB2 samples proved hard to forget, simply for their very high noise level, especially compared to the previous socket 478 versions. Running at over 46 dB(A), this cooler easily topped almost all coolers we had tested before. Sadly, this did not translate into equally impressive cooling performance. At 93°C, our quad-core test CPU was extremely close to its thermal throttling threshold, making this cooler a poor choice for today’s generation of multi-core CPUs.
| CPU | 100% load | idle |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature PWM | 93 °C | 43.5 °C |
| Noise | 46.6 dB(A) | 43.9 dB(A) |
| Fan speed | 2500 rpm | 1600 rpm |
| Weight | 494 grams | |
| Intel socket | 775 |
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You slip into German on page 7 around half way up.
You slip into German on page 7 around half way up.
I thought hes got to be kidding then I looked down page 7 and lmao. Its a whole paragraph in German.
Question to the article creator; Is this the last in the cpu cooler charts 2008?
lol @ the German
How come the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 was not covered in this series? It's quite a popular cooler and I would be interested in seeing how it compares (as that's what I'm using).
that german has got to be the best typo ever. you tested stock coolers but didnt test an arctic cooler 7? the articles all say that arctic cooling is represented in this test but I fail to see where?das ist nicht los!!
You slip into German on page 7 around half way up.
My apologies.
Thanks for the heads-up...
We translators also have our off days. Consider me awake now
I think box coolers have to compromise between price and performance, so it's pretty much a foregone conclusion as to one's expectation.
However I have had some pleasant surprises; a lot of the boxed AMD processors I have bought (S393 and AM2 in medium speed ranges), have had pretty good coolers. Granted they run on cool processors so they aren't really pushed to the limit, but they do perform excellent: low-noise, good cooling, good MTBF, and decent overclocking results.
Something else I've also noticed - price doesn't buy a good cooler. Some of the more expensive devices are very noisy, bulky and (as I did), you end up wondering where you went wrong. I've bought expensive coolers with copper fins and small fans and had to remove them..they're simply too noisy. I replaced them with devices from Cooler Master etc (some of which were the cheapest I could find i.e. bargain basement), and have had no problems whatsoever. I don't work for Cooler Master but credit is where credit's due - they do their job and they generally do it well.
I think you can get a good boxed cooler, but it's the luck of the draw depending on the platform and particular processor model. If you have an overtly noisy cooler you can always alter your BIOS settings to only spin the fan up when a critical point is reached. Most CPU's just run idle a lot of the time so there's no point suffering or wasting electricity.
p.s. Please..please..manufacturers, you know the LED fans? Please put a switch on them will ya?