Specifications

The following table lists the specs of the coolers to be tested today:

Testbed and Methods

The tested was assembled out of the following components:

• Mainboard: ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP (Intel P965 chipset, LGA775, BIOS 0711)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1866MHz, 266x4MHz FSB, 2x1024KB L2 cache, SL9SA Malay (Allendale, B2))
• Thermal interface: Noctua
• Memory: 2 x 1024MB Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4 PC6400 DDR2 SDRAM (SPD: 800MHz, 4-4-4-12)
• Graphics card: Chaintech GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB (500/1200MHz)
• Disk subsystem: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (3320620AS, SATA-II, 320GB storage capacity, 7200rpm, 16MB cache, NCQ)
• System case: ASUS ASCOT 6AR2-B Black&Silver + an intake 120mm system fan?Coolink SwiF (~1200rpm, ~24dBA) + two 120mm system fans Sharkoon Luminous Blue LED (~1000rpm, ~21dBA)
• Power supply: MGE Magnum 500 (500W) + 80mm GlacialTech SilentBlade fan (~1700rpm, 19dBA)

The Chaintech GeForce 7950 GX2 was overclocked from its default frequencies to 570/1580MHz to make the test conditions somewhat harder because the air from the graphics card?s cooler remained in the system case. There was no sense in that on an open testbed and the graphics card was working at its default frequencies then.

The tests were performed in Windows XP Professional Edition Service Pack 2. I installed Nvidia nForce version 6.82 and Intel Chipset Drivers version 8.1.1.1001, DirectX 9.0c (released August 2006), and ForceWare 91.47.