Tuniq Tower 120: Air Cooling to the Max
by Wesley Fink on January 15, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Does Cooling Matter With Core 2 and AM2?
In a recent review of the upcoming Core 2 Duo E4300, Anand found that the new 1.8GHz E4300 could be easily pushed to 3.37GHz with stock cooling, an astounding 87% overclock. Why then, would anyone want to worry about enhanced cooling? The answer is really simple. If you want to reach even higher overclocks - to potentially around 4 GHz - you need to look at improving CPU cooling.It is absolutely true that Core 2 Duo is not Pentium 4 when it comes to heat generation. The extremely hot and poor performing NetBurst processors have been replaced by Core 2 Duo, which runs very cool at stock speeds and overclocks like few chips we have ever seen in the evolution of the CPU. As a result life is good right now for Intel CPU users.
This year we will see if AMD can accomplish something similar with AM2 at 65nm. Current top 90nm AM2 processors have almost no "head room" at all, making concerns about overclocking relevant only for lower end AM2 chips. Early 65nm chips are also not stellar overclockers, but it is still early, and everyone expects that AMD can achieve overclocking results similar to C2D when their 65nm manufacturing is fully rolled out. It will be interesting to stop the speculation and actually see what AMD rolls out this year.
With relatively cool CPUs and massive overclocking capabilities it is worth looking at what happens with a stock processor and a stock heatsink/fan, at rated speed and when overclocked. We monitored CPU temperature on an NVIDIA 680i motherboard running an X6800 CPU with the stock Intel HSF - both at the stock speed of 2.93GHz, and at the highest stable overclock that would still allow gaming of 3.73GHz.
| X6800 CPU Operating Temperature with Standard Heatsink/Fan (Ambient Temperature 21C (70F) |
||
| CPU | System | |
| IDLE 2.93GHz | 41C (106F) | 32C (90F) |
| GAMING 2.93GHz | 56C (133F) | 33C (91F) |
| IDLE 3.73GHz | 56C (133F) | 37C (99F) |
| Gaming 3.73GHz | 71C (160F) | 38C (100F) |
While temperatures are dramatically improved compared to P4 NetBurst processors, it is clear that temperatures do increase rapidly as the overclock increases. At the highest overclock of 3.73GHz idle temperature had increased to 56C (133F) and stressed temperature rises to 71C (160F).
At this 3.73GHz overclock we suspect that the biggest handicap to further overclocking is CPU cooling. However, this is a question that can only be answered with a closer look at the performance of the Tuniq Tower 120. In the end we buy improved coolers for better cooling in most performance configurations. This improved cooling should theoretically allow even higher overclocks of the CPU. If the cooler you are considering does not cool better and/or improve overclocking, there is absolutely no justification at all for buying the cooling solution.
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imaheadcase - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
I just put that artic cooler freezer Pro 7 (thats a mouthfull) on to replace my stock HSF, that itself made a HUGE difference. I got it for $25 at newegg.Before, I was running top speed 1.86ghz @ 2.8ghz with stock HSF. When i put on Freezer pro I hit 3.2ghz without any voltage change, but now its 48c at 3.2ghz vs 62c at 2.8ghz! Pretty impressive no matter how you dice it.
I'm guessing its just all heatpipe heatsinks that help a ton with cooling over stock HSF.
Araemo - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
Not all 'heatpipe heatsinks', you can still design a heatsink badly with heatpipes. But most of the highest performance heatsinks use heatpipes to increase their efficiency, or to allow amazing masses of metal that would not fit around the CPU socket directly. My current heatsink looks a bit like an old style heatsink, but with 4 heatpipes coming out of the thick base and extending through the fins an inch higher and off to the sides.. it cools VERY well.I've also seen similar looking heatsinks w/ heatpipes that cool worse than stock AMD and Intel heatsinks.
slayerized - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
It is indeed a fair way to compare this with the stock heat sink. It would be more insightful to compare the results with other available products such as Zalman. Good review anyway!Wesley Fink - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
Other cooling reviews are in the works. Eventually we will have a cooling database that will compare all the top cooling solutions.We have found the Intel Retail HSF to be a decent cooler - particularly on a C2D. We needed to test the Retail Intel as a base line for future cooling tests.
mostlyprudent - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
Very nice article. I would love to see a review of the Thermalright HR-01-775. I have heard reports that it is capable of passively cooling an E6400.poohbear - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
yea i just wanna echo the above sentiment that we all know its better than stock, but how about comparing it to the top 5 coolers on the market to get an idea of how good it is? nonetheless, nice to finally see a heatsink review on anandtech.:)shank2001 - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
Don't forget to test the Scythe Infinity when you do your comparisons. I think it may just beat the Tuniq! Amazing heatsink!xsilver - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
I would like to request reviews of HSFs in the lower price bracket as well as this one. ($30 us approx.) eg. are you getting the extra $20 worth if you go for the tuniqalso the tuniq isnt readily available in some parts of the world :( so reviews of more easily obtained products would be good.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
A low cost cooler roundup is in the works. Roundups always require lots of bench time so it will be several weeks before you will see the roundup at AT.xsilver - Monday, January 15, 2007 - link
oh alsoanother good idea may be to also bench all new coolers against paradigm coolers of the past the people may be privvy to keeping/using such as the zalman 7000 / thermalright xp-90/120 and seeing how they compare to newer HSF units or even if they beat stock coolers anymore?