Testing

The test system was as follows:

• Abit IC7-MAX3 Motherboard
• Corsair TwinX 3200PRO DDR RAM
• Intel 3Ghz Pentium 4 800Mhz FSB
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 Meg Video Card
• Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Sound Card
• Western Digital 120Gig 7200rpm hard drive
• Liteon 52x24x52 CD-RW drive
• Super Flower Fan Master
• NZXT Guardian Gaming Case

For comparison, I also installed the stock Intel heatsink and a Swiftech MCX478-V with a 92mm fan rated at about 49cfm at 2900 RPMs. Just as a note, both of these two heatsinks have a copper core although any Pentium 4 less than 3 gig is going to come with an all aluminum stock heatsink. Idle temps were taken after the system had been powered up and unused for about an hour and ambient temps were taken using a Fan Master probe left hanging out of the Guardian’s faceplate. For the stress testing, I ran Prime95 and Folding@home for about 30 minutes and took the temperatures from the Fan Master. The thermal probes were installed with just the tip of the probe directly in contact with the chip. The thermal grease I used was not brand name, so slightly better temps may be obtained using Arctic Silver 5 or the like. The Guardian itself is stock, aside from the addition of a lower restriction laser cut grille on the side panel, an 80mm LED fan in the front, and a second 80mm fan in the exhaust. All fans were left at maximum RPMs for both phases of testing.

**click to enlarge**

I was impressed with the numbers from the stock Intel heatsink, and it’s good to see that their thermal solution is up to par with the big aftermarket players. The Swiftech was a little quieter than the stock Intel heatsink, but not at a level one would notice outside the case. The Swiftech is a high end heatsink, but it is somewhat hindered in these tests by the lack of a high performance fan. Even so, it manages to produce competitive numbers. The 4ProL was easily the quietest cooler in this crowd, even on the high setting, and you couldn’t even hear it on low. The lesson here is that if you’re considering a high-performance heatsink with a big fan in order to get a quiet rig, you’d probably be better off getting a 4ProL.

One of the great things with the 4ProL is installation. I wish every CPU heatsink installed as nice as this one does. It was the most quick and painless install I’ve ever dealt with. Simply set the 4ProL in the socket and hold it steady with one hand while you clip the four hooks to the mounting bracket. The stock Intel cooler installs almost as easy, but does not uninstall as well as this unit does. I won’t even go into how much fun the MCX478-V install is!

Next: Conclusions