Socket-A Heat Sink Comparison

Date Reviewed: November 6, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason Rabel
Companies: Thermaltake, Thermal Integration, Millennium Thermal, Fortis Technologies, VantecUSA, Dynatron, Swiftech

Testing:

Testing was done using a voltage modded KT7A-RAID with a 1.4GHz Athlon. Temperatures were taken at two different speeds / voltages:

• 1400MHz @ 1.88v

• 1600MHz @ 2.05v

Two temperatures were taken, the first was using the built in thermistor on the motherboard, which I applied some arctic silver to and made sure it was in good contact with the CPU. The second temperature was taken using a CompuNurse temp probe touching the side of the core on the top side of the CPU. Prime95 was used to put the CPU under load.

Since all these heat sinks came with such a variety of fans, not only in CFM rating, but also physical size, it is impossible to test them all with the same fan. All these numbers are the heat sinks that you get "out of the box". With so many choices today, I don't think many people are going to invest a bunch of money in a heat sink, only to spend even more to get a better fan. Instead people will (should) purchase the combination that fits what they want / need, and the manufacturers should tailor the heat sinks to that, not the other way around. This is one reason why we see many manufacturers making a line of heat sinks with a variety of fans (like the Thermal Integration model).

First we start out at a normal 1.4GHz @ 1.88v:

1.4GHz @ 1.88v

And for you people who like Celsius better:

1.4GHz @ 1.88v

Now we crank it up to 1.6GHz @ 2.05v:

1.6GHz @ 2.05v

And for you people who like Celsius better:

1.6GHz @ 2.05v

*N/A means the system would not boot into windows.

** I found the prices from various sites such as Heatsink Factory, CrazyPC, CoolingGears, Utah PC, and a couple others.

Conclusions:

Again, the Dynatron with the massive 44CFM fan was the top performer, achieving low temperatures by combing its high CFM to a relatively small area (compared to the larger heat sinks / fans like the Volcano 7 or TI-V77L). However this cooling comes at the expense of NOISE! It is a screaming 50dBA, which is a noticeable difference against the 46dBA 38CFM Delta fan. The Vantec CCK-6035D came in second with its all copper design and less noisy 38CFM Delta fan.

However, cooling alone is not always the deciding factor for some of us. Many people are willing to sacrifice a little performance for a LOT quieter system. If you are this type of person, then I would have to say that the Millennium Thermal Glaciator II or Thermaltake Volcano 7 is the heat sink for you. The Volcano 7's price hasn't been determined yet (I couldn't find it in any online stores), but from guessing what previous Volcano heat sinks cost it should be in the mid $20 range which is a very good deal. The Millennium Thermal heat sink will run you $30 which is about average for most of the high performance heat sinks, however it is much quieter than the rest of the pack.

The Fortis heat sinks weren't able to handle the extreme heat generated from running the CPU at 2.05v, however since many people don't (or can't) voltage mod their board to run this high, you must consider that when judging these heat sinks. The A92 is rated for AMD up to 1.6GHz, and the A102 is rated for up to 1.7GHz. All things considered, if you are on a budget, the A92 is an extremely good deal for about $20 because you get the 7000RPM fan, and also the silver compound is included.

The Thermal Integration TI-V77L did sound much quieter than its rated dBA, I think they need to re-check that because to me it was almost as quiet as the Glaciator II or the Volcano 7. I really like the TIM on it as it is very high quality. The clip is pretty much fool-proof, so if you are very hesitant about putting on a normal heat sink, then you haven't tried the TI-V77L. It is honestly so easy to mount this heat sink that there is just about no way you could crack / chip your core.

Me personally, if I had to choose one of these heat sinks to run in my own system, I would either go with the Millennium Thermal Glaciator II or Thermaltake Volcano 7. Both of them look very cool, are very quiet, and perform very well.

Finally, my thanks go out to Utah PC, CrazyPC, AZZO, Thermaltake, Thermal Integration, Millennium Thermal, VantecUSA, and Dynatron for supplying the heat sinks used in this comparison. Without their support, none of this would of been possible, so please check out their web sites for more info on these heat sinks.

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