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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.
|
HSF |
Idle |
Load |
Ambient |
| MCX478-V |
30.1ºC |
47.7ºC |
24.7ºC |
| Stock Intel P4 |
29.9ºC |
46.8ºC |
25.0ºC |
| 4ProL (High) |
32.8ºC |
47.1ºC |
25.0ºC |
| 4ProL (Low) |
35.0ºC |
51.0ºC |
25.4ºC |
**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!
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