Cooling at Stock Speed

X6800 Stock (2933MHz) IDLE Temperature

Performance at stock speed (2.93GHz) with the RVT-9225 is exactly as measured with the Intel retail unit. While the stock unit is quite decent, we expected to see a small improvement here. However, it's under load conditions that an upgraded heatsink/fan unit should make a big difference. Load conditions are measured through looping the Far Cry River demo and logging temperature results. The highest sustained temperature is recorded.

X6800 Stock (2933MHz) LOAD Temperature

Once again, the performance of the RVT-9225 is almost exactly that of the Intel unit. Unless it can distance itself in some manner, the RVT-9225 will clearly lose to the "free" cooler.

Test Configuration Noise Levels
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  • ImmortalZ - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    The new king IS the Thermalright IFX-14. Two Ultra120s in a single package.
  • Noya - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    A retail passive cooler will never beat 120mm tower coolers.
  • Mgz - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    the base of the heatsink/heatpipe needs a good lapping, it was in such a terrible shape :(
  • icingdeath88 - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    What's that about the spoiler? Seriously? What purpose could it possibly serve?
  • Bieszczad - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    It is supposed to deflect some airflow down towards the power regulators behind the heatsink. With a cooler that blows air down, the power regulators do get sufficient airflow, but when you use a tower heatsing with a side/front mounted-fan, the MOSFETs do not get enough air and the spoiler is supposed to fix it. Not sure if it works, though, because mine was loose and I ended up taking it off lest it falls out and shorts the motherboard.
  • zebrax2 - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    those results are terrible
  • mmntech - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    First of all, the cooler isn't properly lapped. It looks like somebody took coarse sandpaper over the bottom of it. Could be a bad installation too.
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    Not exactly the reviewers fault that the bottom of the cooler is the way it is. IIRC they have tested all coolers in as-received condition.
  • Clauzii - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link

    With a 'plate' like that, one could mount a Antinov Turbopropeller - probably wouldn't help..
  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link

    As a policy we don't lap coolers we test at AnandTech. Buyers should not be required to do after-purchase grinding and sanding of a cooler to match our test results. Also the curve on many cooler plates (the better ones normally) is curved (not flat) by design and lapping can actually make performance poorer. Our philosophy is to test the cooler as received from the manufacturer as much as possible.

    Yes we have lapped a few units and compared performance to the unlapped cooler. We may even comment on those lapped results, but test results for comparison are reported for the cooler as received.

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