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Installation
Installation involves removal of the motherboard's CPU retention bracket.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Once you have removed the bracket, you would
start by placing the included foam insulator and universal metal bracket on
the bottom side of the motherboard. Place the four screws in through the
back and tighten the washers and nuts through the front end of the board until
the screws are tightly in place.
**click to enlarge**
It is recommended that you first install the
fans you will be using prior to mounting the heatsink onto the board itself.
For our tests, I will be using the two silent CAT fans that were provided for
testing.
**click to enlarge**
The second universal metal plate is then placed
on the top of the base on a gap that is located between the heat pipes.
You will then simply tighten the plate evenly using the nuts provided.
The picture above gives you a good indication of the size of this heatsink, as
you can see it towering over the motherboard. Due to the excessive
weight added, it is important to handle the board with care from this point on
in order to prevent any damage to the processor or the board itself.
This is also why it is important that you have tightly mounted the heatsink to
prevent the weight from shifting the heatsink away from the processor.
**click to enlarge**
This heatsink is quite tall and just barely fits
in a mid tower chassis. If you choose to install the second fan, it is
likely that you will have to remove the rear exhaust fan from the case.
Performance
Let's take a quick look at the test system
specs.
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Test System |
| Motherboard: |
Shuttle AS45GTR |
| Processor: |
P4 2.8GHZ (800FSB) |
| Memory: |
Corsair XMS3200 512MB |
| Video Card: |
ATI Radeon 9600 |
| Hard Drive: |
WD ATA 40GB 7200RPM |
I used this older Shuttle board for testing
because it provides the most accurate temp readings out of any other board
I've used or tested. I captured temperatures both at idle and under
load. To stress the system, I used
Sisoftware's Burn-In Wizard and ran it
a total of 20 times under normal setting. Temps were recorded both at
stock speed and maximum OC. Maximum overclock for this particular board
is roughly 2GHz. Arctic Silver 5 was used in place of the included
thermal compound.
Considering the size of this heatsink, I was
certainly expecting these low readings. Its cooling performance is
excellent and the CPU temp would peak at only 42șC under load. The
idle temperature peaked in at 37șC. These results are very impressive
and is what you should expect from such a massive all copper cooler.
Keep in mind that we ran it with the two CAT fans installed, but you should be
able to easily run it with just one fan on the heatsink and an exhaust fan on
the case itself.
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