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 Intel Coolers
We have seven Intel coolers to test for the means of this review. Six are stock coolers accompanying processors that the company has released during the past decade and the seventh is the Intel BXTS15A (TS15A) that the company recently released as an aftermarket upgrade.
| Vendor | Cooler | Common Bundle | Core | Fins | Fan (mm) |
Mass (g) |
| Intel | D75716-002 | Socket 775 Celerons | Alu | Alu | ≈80 | 118 |
| C25704-002 | Socket 775, P4 6x0 | Cu | Alu | ≈80 | 132 | |
| E97378-001 | Socket 1155 Intel i5 | Cu | Alu | ≈80 | 146 | |
| E97379-001 | Socket 1155 Intel i3 | Alu | Alu | ≈80 | 92 | |
| D60188-001 | Socket 775, C2D E8x00 | Cu | Alu | ≈80 | 419 | |
| E31964-001 | Socket 1366 i7-X | Cu | Cu/Alu | ≈100 | 435 | |
| BXTS15A | Aftermarket, ≈$30 | Cu | Alu | ≈80 | 362 |
The Intel C25704-002 and Intel D75716-002 probably are the oldest coolers in this review. These were usually accompanying Socket 775 Intel Celeron and Pentium 4 “Prescott” processors several years ago. They are of nearly identical size and very similar in terms of design, with the exception that the D75716-002 has an aluminum core and a less powerful fan.
Intel C25704-002 and D57516-002
The Intel D60188-001 is essentially an overgrown C25704-002. Intel has been receiving a lot of criticism back in the day for having noisy stock coolers, therefore they nearly doubled the mass of the C25704 and used a significantly less powerful fan. The Intel D60188-001 usually was the stock cooler accompanying high performance Core 2 Duo processors.
Intel D60188-001
The E97378-001 and the E97379-001 look almost identical and their ID numbers are very close, but major differences can be discerned when the coolers are turned upside down. Aside from the E97378 having a copper core, the E97379 has significantly lower mass and straight fins, hinting the use of a more powerful fan. Bent pins cause significant turbulence at high airflows and unnecessarily increase the cooler’s noise output.
Intel E97378-001 and E97379-001
Intel’s first attempt to design a high performance cooler was probably the Intel E31964-001, the stock cooler of socket 1366 i7 Extreme processors. They kept the core design the same but replaced half of the aluminum fins with copper fins and used a semi-transparent fan with blue LEDs. The mix of aluminum and copper fins creates a “flower” visual effect similar to that first seen on Zalman CNPS coolers nearly two decades ago. The straight fins and very high current rating of the fan hint that the Intel E31964-001 is not designed with silence in mind.
Intel E31964-001
The Intel BXTS15A is an aftermarket cooler sold by Intel as an upgrade for socket 1151 CPUs but will also fit on older 1150/1156 processors. A mere glimpse on the cooler reveals that it is just an oversized version of the company’s stock coolers, mostly just much taller than what they have been supplying alongside with the CPUs. It is almost identical to the E31964-001, but has only aluminum fins and they are taller. It also has straight fins and a very strong fan, hinting that this will not be a silent cooler either.
Intel BXTS15A
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ZeDestructor - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Yes they could, but then you'd be reducing yields, which would drive final price up.pseudoid - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Did I miss the part about the SkyLake (LGA 1151) uPs? The Intel boxed Core I7-6700K Skylake uP comes with no cooling fan. I found that the Noctua coolers are a better fit for my needs, especially the iron-clad 3yr. warranty!LordanSS - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
Thank you for this review.Although I already expected the 212 EVO to pull ahead (it's tough to match it on price/performance), was interesting to see the differences on the other stock ones. And the Wraith came out as a pleasant surprise.
Maybe in the US it's all about Intel and their CPUs, but in other areas of the world, like here in South America, AMD and their APUs are not doing poorly, with very good (local) pricing and decent enough performance for usual Office and light work cases, and people even use them for League of Legends and DotA2, which are very popular games around here, and not too graphics intensive.
zodiacfml - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
I went to Intel's list of Skylake desktop CPU's and found only two that has around 90W of TDP.The 212 is only 25C above ambient at 150W.
Anything larger or more expensive than the 212 is pretty much overkill for modern CPUs.
wintermute000 - Friday, July 22, 2016 - link
"modern [Intel standard desktop] CPUs"FIFY
Ascaris - Sunday, July 24, 2016 - link
"modern [Intel standard desktop] CPUs at their stock clock and voltage settings"Byte - Saturday, July 23, 2016 - link
The hyper 212 is a bit overrated and dated, but then again i used it to test a bunch of 6700k i had fun delidding with liquid ultra and it kept them cool to 4.6/4.7GHz pretty easy.phylop - Saturday, July 23, 2016 - link
I would love to see you guys post an anthology of coolers throughout the ages. Include comparing how older coolers would perform on modern CPUs and vice versa.Teknobug - Saturday, July 23, 2016 - link
The 212 is probably the best bang per buck for HSF, can't go wrong with it. I also have a TX3 which is nearly as effective as the 212 and about $10 less, however there is one thing you must do if you're going to use it on an Intel system- ditch the flimsy black/white plastic locks and steal the ones from an Intel HSF to replace them with. Once you do that, you got a pretty solid HSF even for decently OC'd CPU's.Zap - Saturday, July 23, 2016 - link
IMO stock coolers are perfectly fine for systems that run stock speeds and aren't intended to sit running torture tests all day.Noisy? Did you enable "smart fan" in BIOS? Is that in normal use or hammering it with Prime95?
Bad temperatures? Did you install it properly? For whatever reason many people can't figure out push pins when they are super simple to use. Is your temperature "comfort level" calibrated for overclocks when you're just building a stock clocked system for family to use? Fact: Your stock clocked CPU does not require low temperatures.