Battle of The CPU Stock Coolers! 7x Intel vs 5x AMD, plus an EVO 212
by E. Fylladitakis on July 22, 2016 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- CPUs
- AMD
- Intel
- Cooler Master
- Cooler
The AMD Coolers
Five AMD-specific coolers are going to be tested in this review, four being stock coolers that accompany AMD’s CPUs and one being a cost-effective cooler from Cooler Master.
| Vendor | Cooler | Common Bundle | Core | Fins | Fan (mm) |
Mass (g) |
| AMD | 1A213LQ00 | AMD “Kabini” AM1 | Alu | Alu | 50 | 75 |
| FHSA7015B | Several AMD Lines | Alu | Alu | 70 | 164 | |
| AV-Z7UB408003 | Black Edition Phenom | Alu +2 Cu HP |
Alu | 70 | 374 | |
| Wraith (125W) | AMD FX-8370 AMD A10-7890K |
Cu +4 Cu HP |
Alu | 90 | 304 | |
| Cooler Master / AMD | HK8-00005 | AMD FM2+ “Godavari” | Alu | Alu | 70 | 125 |
The first AMD cooler that we are having a look at is the 1A213LQ00 that accompanies AM1 “Kabini” core CPUs. It is by far the smallest heatsink of this review and of very simple design, with a full aluminum body, a tiny circular base and a small 50 mm fan. As a matter of fact, it is so small that it can be easily mistaken for a motherboard’s chipset cooler. Kabini CPUs however have very low power ratings, which makes this small cooler more than enough for them.
AMD 1A213LQ00
AMD’s FHSA7015B is perhaps the most widely used stock CPU cooler in existence, as the company has been supplying it alongside with tens of CPUs across nine different platforms (FM1, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 1207, 940, 939 and 754 sockets). It is a rather simple design entirely made out of aluminum, with a square base and straight fins extending to all four sides of the cooler.
AMD FHSA7015B
Cooler Master’s HK8-00005 is actually the stock cooler supplied with AMD’s high end “Godavari” FM2+ CPUs. It can be bought as an aftermarket cooler for just $14 and should fit all of AMD’s sockets/CPUs since socket 754. It is a relatively small cooler, about the same size as the FHSA7015B, using a similar 70 mm fan, with an aluminum base and fins. The main difference is that there are two heatpipes running across the base of the cooler, transferring thermal energy from the core directly to the edges of the fins.
AMD/Cooler Master HK8-00005
The AMD AV-Z7UB408003 was perhaps the first “advanced” cooler that came supplied alongside a CPU. It was first seen supplied as the stock CPU of AMD’s Phenom X4 9600 processors back in 2008 and can still fit on the latest FM2+ processors. It has large aluminum fins attached to a solid copper base. Four heatpipes run through the copper base, transferring thermal energy directly up to the center and edges of the fins. The short fan is embedded inside the fins in order to reduce the overall height of the cooler.
AMD AV-Z7UB408003
The AMD FX-8370 “Piledriver” processors come with the first stock cooler that has been baptized with a nickname rather than a series of digits and letters - the Wraith. AMD’s Wraith cooler looks almost identical to the AV-Z7UB408003, and its core design is, but everything is larger. The Wraith has larger fins and thicker heatpipes, with a full size 90 mm fan mounted on top of the cooler. At least for the metal part of the cooler, it almost looks as if someone took the AV-Z7UB408003’s schematic and simply pressed the “scale” button, increasing everything by about 25%. Despite the increase in size, the fins are not as dense and the copper base is a little thinner, resulting to a reduction in raw mass. Although the core design may be the same, the significantly superior fan should significantly improve the performance of the Wraith over that of the AV-Z7UB408003 that it is based upon.
AMD Wraith (125W)
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bigboxes - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Yup. My Athlon X2 4400+ (Toledo) came with a 4-pipe cooler as well. Never used the stock HSF when it was in my main rig. Got a Zalman which was badass at the time. Used the stock HSF when I moved the Athlon 3200+ (Winchester) to my file server.Marburg U - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
OK, but just to recall that DB scale is a logarithmic scale. And the difference between 44.7 and 46.3 is roughly 45% power ratio!!!ZeDestructor - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Perceptually though, odds are you won't observe a difference in loudness (tone is a whole different ballgame): 3dB is the generally accepted number for human hearing to be able to perceive a difference in volume, and 10dB for a perceptual halving of volume.DanNeely - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
But also remember that your ears are a logarithmic sensor. So while 10 dB is 10x the sound intensity, it only sounds twice as loud. In this case the 1.6 dB only corresponds to sounding about 15% louder; which is barely noticeable. Other factors like your case material (type, thickness, if sound deadening material is present, locations of fan holes, etc) affecting how much sound gets out from the CPU cooler; and the number, type, and layout if your case fans affecting how hot the internal ambient is and how hard your CPU cooler has to work will all have more significant impacts on how loud your system is.pseudoid - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Ummmmm....Logarithmic scale to measure Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) are normally a relative measurement based on voltage (not power). As such, an order of magnitude increase (10X) results in a 20dB (not 10dB) increase in SPL. Keeping with the same SPL measurements, a doubling (octave) or an increase of twice as loud (2x) is a 6dB increase! No need to bring up Fletcher-Munson curves into this correction. Cheers!
hailey14 - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
"With bulk PC orders it is, of course, a "difference" scenario..."some typo.
Calculatron - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Wow, I knew the Wraith cooler is good, but I didn't realize that it was that good.I have the "quiet" 125 TDP cooler solution, which is the Wraith Cooler without the fancy shroud - same heatsink and fan, though. Maybe I'll keep it around...
Lolimaster - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
The thing intel non 2011 socket cpu's uses complete trash internal dissipation compound, another reason to not sell it with stock cooler.Even with a decent one (juper 212z) you see load temps of 75°C without OC. Meanwhile their new Broadwell-E stays within the 50°C (+/- 2°C) with a similar cooler.
AMD didn't screw up users with the IHS dissipation.
ZeDestructor - Sunday, July 24, 2016 - link
As many have stated before, Intel has to use TIM on the small cores because the small cores crack from repeated thermal shock when soldered to the IHS. Intel doesn't want to screw you over, but they literally have to! Or do you want 32nm and larger lithographies back?Ascaris - Sunday, July 24, 2016 - link
They could use a bigger chunk of silicon wafer to help with heat dissipation/bond to the IHS without printing anything on it. It's not as if the smaller litho chips have gotten cheaper because of less silicon usage!