Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000

With a conventional heatsink, the fan is always spinning at the same speed, no matter how much cooling is actually necessary. If the CPU is currently running cool, then this means that the cooler creates a lot of unnecessary noise... But there's a simple solution to this problem: a cooler with a temperature-controlled fan. Until now, such units were not widely available. RDJD is probably the first manufacturer that makes coolers with temperature controlled fans available to the masses. One of these heatsinks is the P715, designed for FCPGA CPUs. The P715 uses the same heatsink as the P710, but comes with a smaller, temperature-controlled fan.
 
 

The fan
 
 

The fan, produced by JMC, will spin at 1530-4620 rpm, depending on the temperature. The thermal sensor (the little blue thing - or "NTC", for the experts -  you can see on the image) isn't very smartly placed though - it actually measures the temperature of the airflow, not of the heatsink itself. Nevertheless, the temperature control works very well, it willl keep the CPU at a constant temperature, and unless you run your PC under extreme temperature conditions, the cooler will be exceptionally silent.

Unfortunately, the fan does not support rpm monitoring (the third wire from the fan is a "rotor lock signal" wire, and not a "rpm signal" lead). That is a pity, since with a temperature-controlled fan, it would be even more interesting to know at which rpm the fan is currently spinning...
 
 
 

Conclusion
 
 

It's about time that somebody came up with a temperature-controlled cooler. The P715 is definitely not the cooler overclockers will choose, but for anybody who isn't overclocking, low noise is more important than cooling performance. So if you do not have any overclocking plans, the P715 is a great choice. It will provide adequate cooling for non-overclocked CPUs, and it is much more silent than any other cooler in this comparison. Plus, it is inexpensive!