CPU Cooler Test Results

Benchmark Reviews is still a rather new website, even though we have just proudly completed our first year on the web. So in the spirit of improving on the old ways of testing, we have decided it was time for the industry to see things from a new perspective. Beginning with this review series, Benchmark Reviews is doing two things to change the way CPU coolers are tested:

1. We will test coolers using a common fan so that air speed and volume between products do not have an impact on our results.
2. We will test coolers in both a horizontal and vertical position, since heat-pipes are effected by product orientation and gravity.

Like we mentioned at the beginning of this article, the CPU cooler must perform for itself before a fan can improve upon it. The concept behind this is that the cooler is isolated and compared, rather than the team of cooler and fan. Now obviously this will have an impact on our results, which will not match the results of other websites that use the factory included fan.

So with the test system positioned horizontally based on our new test methodology, we were a little surprised by the new benchmark results. To begin with, the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 didn't finish on top as it has consistently done in the past. The Kingwin RVT-12025 just barely edged it out based on average performance, but it was the OCZ Vendetta 2 that took the top position by a noticeable margin. The Ultra ChillTEC cooler did a good job, albeit noisy that's the to factory fan that was used (not easily interchanged for our common fan). To our disappointment the Noctua NH-U12P, Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283, and Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme all averaged behind the 92mm Kingwin RVT-9225.

The fact that any of our 92mm coolers could finish near the top is a great testament to their ability, but I personally felt like the Noctua NF-B9 fan we used was a little too tame for the task. This proved to be a major factor in the poor performance of our former runner-up champion, the OCZ Vendetta. Because of the extended fins in their design, the lower-power NF-B9 fan doesn't push with the same force as the moderately loud OCZ 92mm 0.30A fan.

It was interesting to see the order of performance get shuffled by the horizontal positioning of our test system. Even more interesting was the immediate effect it had on our test results. Here is an example of the effect on performance that turning a heat-pipe CPU cooler from a vertically-standing position to the normal horizontal position will have:

In every case where the CPU cooler used a "U" shaped heat pipe rod in their design, having the unit positioned with the rods running horizontally proved to offer a cooling benefit. This was especially true for the Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283, which had the most significant drop in temperature out of the bunch. This goes to show you that heat-pipes are in fact prone to suffer the effects of gravity in their design. Once the vapor cools and becomes liquid, it seems to have an easier time completing the thermal circuit from side to side than it does from top to bottom. So let's see how these coolers performed with the stress of gravity removed from them:

When I tested each cooler, I made certain to keep the hardware settings identical across the test platform. This would enable me to clearly compare the performance of each product under identical conditions. While the ambient room temperature did fluctuate between 20.1~20.3°C, this would not be enough to cause a noticeable impact on our test results. For the most part, the product performance in this vertical position was very close to the same order as it was horizontally. Almost all of the products dropped a few degrees, which is something you'll want to consider if you're building an HTPC that sits horizontally.

When the dust settled, our second half of the benchmark testing indicated that we have a new champion among CPU coolers: the OCZ Vendetta 2. The trusty Xigmatek HDT-S1283 from which it borrowed its design from tied for second place with the Kingwin RVT-12025 clone. Xigmatek's newly skinned Red Scorpion S1283 finished in third place for this test, with Kingwin's RVT-9225 right on it's tail (pun) with the help of three mighty large 8-gauge copper heat-pipe rods. Noctua's NH-U12P CPU cooler finished in fifth place, with the for the vertical position benchmarks, and the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme was right behind it. Just like we discovered in the last test, the Kingwin RVT-12025D, OCZ Vendetta, and Zaward VIVO PCJ004 cannot keep in-step and fall well behind the other HDT cooling solutions.

Some of the bigger disappointments in our test group belonged to the gigantic Scythe Mugen SCINF-1000, which really didn't care for the modest 120mm Noctua NF-P12 cooling fan. This would explain why Scythe built this giant to accommodate four 120mm fans total, and also why it does so poorly with only one. The Thermaltake MaxOrb also shared the last place rights, but I can't pick on it too much since it's neither behemoth in size or using Heat-pipe Direct Touch technology.

EDITORS NOTE: After initially testing these products with the 120mm Noctua NF-P12 cooling fan, we later re-tested them with a few much louder and more powerful fans. The results changed across the entire test group, and those coolers with a tighter more dense fin placement (such as the Ultra 120 eXtreme, Vendetta 2, and HDT-S1283/RVT-12025) favored the most. It is impossible to randomly select one fan that best captures what the enthusiast might use since everyone likes something different, however all future tests will include results with the stock fan (whenever included) and a high-power Yate Loon D12SH-12 fan.

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