Top Tier CPU Air Coolers Q3 2015: 9-Way Roundup Review
by E. Fylladitakis on July 6, 2015 8:00 AM ESTTesting results, maximum fan speed (12 Volts)
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load |
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*Note: When the cooler has two different fans, the fan speed of the faster fan is recorded.
We should start by noticing that one should be extremely careful when reading the performance charts. Even though some of the coolers are of similar design or size, their performance differs greatly. Similarly, coolers with similar thermal performance may have great differences in size, acoustics and or price.
Without a doubt, the grandest example of this warning is the Okeanos. Reeven's offering outpaces nearly every other cooler, comparing directly with Noctua's and Cryorig's finest, when tested at our maximum load and has the best average absolute thermal resistance. However, this is not due to excelling technology or design. On the contrary, the Okeanos is simpler and smaller than most of the coolers in this review. This achievement is simple brute force through high speed fans, which places the Okeanos far behind any other offering on acoustics.
Not unexpectedly, the thermal performance charts are being led by the Noctua NH-D15, the Cryorig R1 Ultimate and the Phanteks TC14PE. These are the best coolers of the most renowned manufacturers, so one would expect interative designs over time to yield benefits. The performance differences between these three offerings, thermal and acoustic alike, are very small. Raijintech's Tisis is the surprise of this review, with similar thermal and acoustics performance to that of the best coolers. The Tisis also has the best low load performance, where the charts shift greatly.
The Dark Rock Pro 3 from Be Quiet! offers lower noise levels but falls a little behind on thermal performance. Not the same can be said about Deepcool's offering, the Assassin, which does not match the thermal performance of the best coolers but is neither quieter nor notably cheaper. The performance gap is rather small but the Assassin is at a disadvantage. The Grandis falls even further behind in terms of thermal performance while the noise levels are similar, but SilentiumPC designed it to be more budget-friendly than other offerings, not to compete with the elite on terms of raw performance. Thermalright's Macho Zero is also an inconsistency in this review, as this cooler is not meant to provide maximum thermal performance and hits the bottom of our absolute thermal resistance charts. On the other hand, the Macho Zero paired with the TY147A is by far the quietest cooler in this review, being whisper-quiet even while the fan is spinning at maximum speed.
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MartenKL - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
I would of course like to see the testbed updated to have fan/s controlled by thermals, ie something like ASUS Fan Expert. Set for a target temperature and loads in the more realistic range of 15-150 watts. And of course when reducing voltage it should be via PWM and not simply reducing static voltage. The results should then be presented in temperature variance and noise levels/profile.MrSpadge - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
Good suggestions. I hate those charts with "full fan voltage" and "fan voltage reduced to ..". What I really care about is "how silent can the cooler be for a given temperature / cooling performance?" And "which one cools better at similar noise level".It doesn't help much to see a strong fan with inbearable noise in those charts. Even if someone is interested in such solutions - wouldn't his question rather be "which heatsink performs best with this high-speed fan"? Which would again be something he couldn't answer from this data.
I know making noise based comparisons is difficult. But the raw sound pressure could be accompanied by some subjective remarks regarding the noise spectrum.
Cookiespy - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
It would be interesting to see how the stock coolers compare to this high performance cooler. I wouldn't pay $80-100 just to see 5degrees improvement.Eidigean - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
Chips big enough to need these coolers, such as Socket 2011, do not come with stock coolers.meacupla - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
The stock heatsink cools great and is pretty silent with stock settings in a case with decent airflow, end of story.These kinds of $80 heatsinks are what you want when you overclock, but with the same or lower noise levels.
If you don't overclock, then a $20~25 heatsink can do a 5~20C improvement and keep the computer quieter at the same time too.
Eidigean - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
What are you, a shill for Intel? The Intel stock heatsinks are the absolute worst. Check out the graphs from this Anandtech article:http://www.anandtech.com/show/6830/cpu-air-cooler-...
Dead last in performance AND noise. Stock heatsink was greater than 30 degrees C hotter, and 20 decibels louder.
meacupla - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
It says right there in the system specs used to test those coolers..."Intel Core i7-2700K overclocked to 4.4GHz @ 1.4V"
I'm surprised the stock intel heatsink was able to complete the tests.
meacupla - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
no wait, look, it says the stock heatsink and a low profile heatsink failed on an overclocked i7.Like I said, stock intel heatsink, especially the one with a copper core, works great at stock speeds.
Azurael - Friday, July 17, 2015 - link
I don't know if the stock HSFs have changed since Sandy Bridge, but my 2500k would hit 98+ degrees and throttle under AVX loads with the pathetic little stock thing whilst sounding like a small tornado had developed inside my case (how is it that a 95w CPU comes with an HSF half the size of the ones they used to ship with 65w C2Ds?!)Whichever cheap tower cooler I replaced it with does the job just fine, though. It's been running like a champ at 4.5GHz for near enough 4 years now. (I think it's a Xigmatek SD1283 - I haven't even taken the side off my machine for over a year, those heady days of tinkering and yearly upgrades long since passed.)
bug77 - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link
What, no mention of the weight of each cooler? I think that's a rather important aspect.