Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Cooling > Overclocking On Air: 10 LGA 1156-Compatible Performance Coolers

Test Settings

07:10 - Wednesday 27 January 2010 by Thomas Soderstrom

Test System Configuration
CPU	Intel Core i7-860 (2.93 GHz, 8MB Cache), O/C to 4 GHz (20 x 200 MHz), 1.388V
Motherboard	EVGA P55 SLI E655, P55 Express PCH, BIOS A39 (10/23/2009)
RAM	Crucial CT2KIT25664BA1339 (4GB), DDR3-1333 at DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-24
Graphics	Diamond Radeon HD 5870 1GB, 850 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4800
Hard Drive	Western Digital Velociraptor WD3000HLFS, 300GB, 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB cache
Sound	Integrated HD Audio
Network	Integrated Gigabit Networking
Power	Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W Modular, ATX12V v2.2, EPS12V, 80-Plus Gold
Software
OS	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Graphics	ATI Catalyst 9.11
Chipset	Intel INF 9.1.1.1015

Still warm from our most recent PCI Express Scaling comparison, EVGA’s P55 SLI was retained for the “just right” overclock settings that were already programmed into it. We wanted to approach (but never reach) the processor’s thermal limit and these settings worked perfectly for nine of the 10 coolers.

Several coolers hung over the memory slots of our motherboard, preventing the use of memory with tall heat spreaders. We skipped the heat spreader issue entirely by using Crucial DDR3-1333 modules, yet were still able to use DDR3-1600 settings.

Benchmark Configuration
Prime95 v25.8	64-bit executable, small FFTs, 8 threads
RealTemp 3.00	Highest core reading at full CPU load (60 minutes) Highest core reading at 30 minutes idle
Acu-Rite thermal probe	IOH/VRM heat pipe temperature at the northbridge junction Ambient temperature at 6" from the motherboard's front edge

Priced at around $150, Galaxy’s CM-140 has gotten a great deal of attention on the Web as one of the broadest-range, most accurate SPL meters available for under $400. We love a great deal!

Taking a cue from the audio world, we wanted to gauge all of today’s performance coolers at a distance of one meter. The problem for us is that the bottom of our SPL scale is 30db, and the meter is only accuracy rated for decibel levels of 32db or higher. In order to get a “higher” reading from quieter parts, we measured each cooler at 0.25m and then used one of several SPL conversion applications to convert our readings to one meter.

However, the method isn’t perfect--testing several items of known SPL values revealed a consistent 1db (lower) difference that might be attributable to improper meter calibration. To compensate, we added 1db to all of our measurements.