by Sergey Lepilov
08/25/2008 | 06:59 PM
You all know very well that the cooler bundled with the boxed Intel Core 2 Duo processors is hardly fit for their extreme overclocking, although in nominal mode and during moderate overclocking it can perform quite well. As for the operational modes that are far beyond the nominal boundaries, the “boxed” cooler becomes too noisy especially after long-term operation in such a mode. So, in most cases, it is this cooler that limits the processor overclocking potential.
<%BANNER[article]%>You can replace the reference CPU cooler with any efficient CPU air-cooler, and we have already reviewed tons of them in our site. However, these solutions are usually pretty expensive and may not always fit because of their extreme dimensions. Moreover, not everyone really needs the cooling efficiency of a solution like Thermalright SI-128 SE or Scythe Infinity. There are a lot of overclocking fans out there who would be more than happy to replace their boxed cooler with a quiet and efficient solution that wouldn’t cost a fortune. So, today we are going to briefly talk about three coolers from a budget price segment that are priced around $20.
The first budget cooler that we will be talking about today comes in a small cardboard box. Everything in its looks indicates that it is indeed a budget solution:
The cooler is bundled with a small tube of pretty efficient Titan Nano Grease (TTG-G30015) thermal compound. That is the only accessory we found in the box.
The cooler design is pretty ordinary: it includes a small aluminum heatsink with its plate array sitting on three copper heatpipes 6mm in diameter. The whole thing is topped with a 92 x 92 x 25mm fan:
There is actually nothing to dwell on here. I would only like to add that there are 45 aluminum plates in the heatsink array, each about 0.2~0.25mm thick. The gap between the plates measures 1.5mm. Everything else you can see from a series of photos below:
The cooler weighs about 350g and is a little shorter than 90mm. TITAN TTC-NK64TZ/PW (BX) is equipped with a fan featuring so-called “Z-AXIS” bearing with 60,000 hours MTBF. The fan supports PWM rotation speed control from ~900RPM to ~2700RPM (±10%) with the maximum airflow of ~49.37CFM. it generates about 22.2dBA of noise.
The distinguishing feature of TITAN TTC-NK64TZ/PW (BX) cooler is heatpipe direct touch technology in the base of the cooler that TITAN refers to as EDM:
It is for the first time that we see a budget cooler solution employ heatpipe direct touch approach. Although, we have to admit that TITAN TTC-NK64TZ/PW (BX) has a really budget implementation of it. The distance between the heatpipes in the cooler base is 4mm, so the aluminum plate in the base will hardly be able to make up for uneven heat distribution. However, let’s not guess here and wait for the test results.
The cooler is designed exclusively for LGA775 platforms and is fastened with standard push-pin retention:
The heatpipes coming out of the cooler base do not interfere with the memory DIMMs as well as the chipset heatsink of our Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 mainboard, although they appear very close to these components during installation.
This cooler is priced at ~$14.
The next budget cooling solution from TITAN is represented by three practically identical modifications that differ only by the type of retention and fans. They are shipped in the box of the same design as the just discussed TTC-NK64TZ/PW (BX), so we won’t repeat the same photo here again. Let’s take a look at the cooler:
Well, looks like two years have passed and TITAN haven’t thought of anything better than equipping their good old TTC-NK32TZ model with a new fan. Other than that it is the same simple cooler with three copper heatpipes 6mm in diameter and aluminum plates sitting on these heatpipes:
37 aluminum plates each ~0.4mm thick form a heatsink array. The gap between them is about 1.8mm. The sides of the heatsink array are left open.
The heatpipes are soldered to the copper base that is barely finished at all:
However, the base of all three cooler modifications we checked out was very even and we cannot complain about it. Two of the three cooler models were equipped with seven-blade 92 x 92 x 25mm fans working at constant speed of !2500RPM (TFD-9525M12Z). The third universal model was equipped with a fan supporting PWM rotation speed control function. Its fan rotates at a variable speed changing between ~900RPM and ~2800RPM (TFD-9525H12ZP):
Unlike the fans from the previous model, TTC-NK32TZ, these fans come with a frame and aren’t hanging on an open stand. As a result, they create higher air pressure at the same rotation speed than the fans without a frame.
Besides different fans, all three coolers differ by the retention type they use. Two models are universal and can be installed on Socket 939/AM2 or LGA775 mainboards. The third model has two removable retentions and fits on all contemporary platforms:
As you can see from the photos of the retention brackets above, the coolers are very easy to install and are very compact around the base. The distance from the mainboard PCB to the lower heatsink plate of this cooler is 60mm, so it will never be in the way of any mainboard components:
The recommended retail price for TITAN TTC-NK34TZ/RF (BX) cooler is set at ~$18.
The next cooler model we will discuss today is Thermaltake TMG i1 (CL-P0370). It comes in a small brightly colored box:
Besides the list of key features, 6-year warranty and other things, the box contains the detailed specifications of the Thermaltake TMG i1 cooler:
The cooler sits in secure plastic casing repeating its shape. It is bundled with an installation guide, a logo sticker and a Key 3 memo:
The cooler is simple, lightweight and very pretty:
It is based on four copper heatpipes 6mm in diameter that pierce solid copper base plate. The heatsink array is made of aluminum plates and is cooled with a thick frame-free fan (92 x 92 x 32mm according to the specification):
The cooler is pretty small according to today’s standards and measures only 117 x 102 x 141mm. It weighs 525g. The heatpipes are positioned linearly inside the heatsink array and the sides of the heatsink remain open:
All in all, Thermaltake TMG i1 design reminds us of the successful Cooler Master Hyper TX2 solution. The only difference is that Thermaltake TMG i1 has one extra heatpipe and a slightly differently shaped heatsink and fan. There are 39 aluminum plates in the heatsink array, each ~0.35mm thick. The gap between two plates measures ~2mm.
The seven-blade fan from Everflow sits on a plastic frame that locks to the heatsink with special clips on its sides:
The fan is attached to the retention frame with springs that absorb vibrations and make it sound more comfortably for a human ear. The fan supports PWM rotation speed adjustment in the interval from ~300RPM to ~2500RPM (±10%). The minimal noise is 16dBA and the maximum airflow is 35.14CFM. The MTBF of the slide bearing inside the fan is 50,000 hours. As you probably remember, I have already mentioned that the fan is claimed to be 32mm deep. However, Thermaltake is tricking you here: the actual fan is 25mm, while the fan with a plastic frame indeed measures 32mm.
The cooler base with pre-applied thick thermal compound is covered with a protective plastic cover:
The layer of thermal compound is way too thick (about 0.5mm). The cooler base, however, is finished quite OK. It is also very even.
Unfortunately, Thermaltake TMG i1 is not a universal cooler and is designed to fit only onto mainboards for Intel processors in LGA 775 form-factor. There are metal retention loops with standard plastic clips screwed to the cooler base. They are practically the same as the retentions on Intel boxed cooler:
The clips hold the cooler very firmly in place, although they bend the mainboard PCB a little bit.
Thermaltake TMG i1 is very compact and doesn’t interfere with any components in the around-the-socket area:
The cooler is priced at ~$20. Thermaltake is also offering a modification for AMD platform. It is exactly the same cooler, but with a different retention type. It is called TMG a1.
The table below contains all the technical specifications of the tested coolers and their recommended retail pricing side by side for a better comparison:
The today’s coolers and two of their competitors were tested only in a closed testbed with the mainboard in vertical position. We didn’t test the coolers in an open testbed because the coolers are very compact and the result will not be dramatically affected by the open testbed. Moreover, the today’s testing participants are not technologically complex to make results in an open testbed valuable enough.
Our testbed was identical for all coolers and featured the following configuration:
All tests were performed under Windows XP Professional Edition SP3. SpeedFan 4.34 was used to monitor the temperature of the CPU and mainboard, reading it directly from the CPU core sensor and to monitor the rotation speed of the cooler fans:
The mainboard’s automatic fan speed management feature was disabled for the time of the tests in the mainboard BIOS. The CPU thermal throttling was controlled with the RightMark CPU Clock Utility version 2.35.0:
The CPU was heated up with OCCT (OverClock Checking Tool) version 2.0.0a in a 23-minute test with maximum CPU utilization, during which the system remained idle in the first 1 and last 4 minutes of the test:
I performed at least two cycles of tests and waited for approximately 20 minutes for the temperature inside the system case to stabilize during each test cycle. The stabilization period in an open testbed took about half the time. Despite the stabilization period, the result of the second test cycle was usually 0.5-1°C higher. The maximum temperature of the hottest CPU core of the four in the two test cycles was considered the final result (if the difference was no bigger than 1°C – otherwise the test was performed at least once again).
The ambient temperature was checked next to the system case with an electronic thermometer that allows monitoring the temperature changes over the past 6 hours. During our test session room temperatures varied between 24.0 ~ 24.5°C. It is used as a staring point on the temperature diagrams. Note that the fan rotation speeds as shown in the diagrams are the average readings reported by SpeedFan, and not the official claimed fan specifications.
The noise level of each cooler was measured according to our traditional method described in the previous articles with the help of an electronic noise meter – CENTER-321. The subjectively comfortable noise level was considered ~34.5dBA and is marked with a blue dotted line in the diagram. The ambient noise from the system case without the CPU cooler didn’t exceed 33.5dBA when measured at 1m distance.
We are going to compare the cooling efficiency and acoustic performance of our three testing participants against that of a regular boxed cooler that ships with Intel E8xxx processors (not the new low-profile one, but a regular ~60mm tall one with copper center). The rotation speed of this cooler’s fan is adjusted with pulse-width modulation feature (PWM) and varied from 1320 to 2460RPMduring our test session.
The second opponent to our today’s testing participants will be the well-known Cooler Master Hyper TX2 cooler priced at $25.50 MSRP and featuring a fan rotating at a constant speed of 1880RPM.
Now let’s check out the obtained results.
You may have already noticed that I am using a different 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor today instead of the usual quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX9650. I replaced the CPU, because we are talking about budget cooling solutions, because any overclocker who buys a $400+ processor will ever save money on CPU cooling. However, E8400 costs less than half of that, so the obtained results will definitely be valid for cheaper dual-core processors, such as E7200/4xxx or even E2xxx series.
So, inside a closed system case using the “weakest” cooling system we managed to overclock our Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor to 4GHz (+33.3%). The nominal processor Vcore of 1.3125V was increased to 1.44375V in the mainboard BIOS:
The SpeedFan monitoring utility reported a little lower voltage setting than the one in the mainboard BIOS: 1.41~1.42V:
The obtained results are given on the diagram below:
I have to admit that the performance difference between the coolers is pretty small, which makes compact TITAN TTC-NK64TZ look very good against the competitors’ background. It is about 3ºC more efficient than Intel’s boxed cooler. Nevertheless, the obtained results indicate that there are no serious reasons for you to replace your reference Intel Core 2 Duo cooler with any of the alternative cooling solutions reviewed today. Especially, since we managed to hit 4GHz frequency even with the weakest of the today’s testing participants.
However, as you know, 4GHz is the maximum frequency you can overclock this processor with a boxed cooler, so the question is: can we overclock our CPU more with any of the alternative cooling solutions? Yes, we can, but the result will depend on the cooler. TITAN TTC-NK64TZ allowed us to win extra 50MHz without losing stability or getting into thermal throttling. TITAN TTC-NK34TZ won us ~80MHz, while Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 pushed the CPU frequency up to 4140MHz with 1.5V Vcore setting. As for Thermaltake TMG i1, this one appeared the best of our today’s budget competitors: the CPU remained stable at 4203MHz with 1.525V Vcore:
| Thermaltake TMG i1 (1450~2800RPM) | ZEROtherm NV120 Premium (~1380RPM) |
And on the right you can see the results for one of the super-coolers during the same CPU overclocking. As you can see, ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 Premium in quiet mode (at ~1380RPM) wins about 7ºC from Thermaltake TMG i1 at comparable noise levels. By the way, since we came to speak about noise, it is time to move on to the acoustic measurements:
We measured the noise at 3cm, 1m and 3m distances. The results are given on the diagram below:
The diagram shows the noise generated by the coolers at the maximum fan rotation sped. WE skipped the tests at the minimal fan rotation speed, because you won’t hear any of them against the background noise from the system case (except Cooler Master Hyper TX2 with a constant fan rotation speed). As you see, all coolers are very close and the results are far behind the subjectively comfortable level, so it is hardly possible to prefer one of these cooler to another from acoustic standpoint.
No wonder that all three coolers we tested today turned out better than the regular boxed solution bundled with Intel CPUs. However, we were very surprised to see that they are only a few degrees better and provide only 50~200MHz of additional CPU speed, which makes around 1.7~6.7% frequency gain for Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU. Not much, actually very little, considering that both TITAN coolers and Thermaltake i1 are practically as noisy as the boxed cooler. The results could be different on a quad-core processor, but as I have already said above, you will hardly go for a budget cooling solution if you own a quad-core CPU.
It is really hard to recommend any particular model in this case as well as advise replacing the reference boxed cooler. However, if you decide to do it, then you should pay special attention to Thermaltake i1, as it is the most efficient solution of the three tested today. Under maximum workload it also turned out the noisiest, but if you don’t load your CPU to the maximum all the time, or if the workload is mostly average, the fan of Thermaltake i1 doesn’t speed up beyond ~1700RPM, which is pretty comfortable for everyday work.
Again, the choice is yours :)
