Temperature Testing

Results: The test results show that the CoolIT Domino A.L.C. is the cooler to have when running default settings in the BIOS. The Domino A.L.C. kept the CPU 17.2C cooler under load, which was nice to see on our test system that was loaded up with video cards and running 6GB of triple-channel memory. At low speed the Domino A.L.C. the cooler was silent, but performance took a significant hit.

Results: With the base clock raised from 133MHz to 175MHz on the ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard I was able to easily overclock the Intel Core i7 920 processor to 3.5GHz.  Just to make sure things were 100% stable I increased the CPU Voltage in the BIOS to 1.350V, which is 0.150V more than the previous benchmark. The increased voltage and speed caused the heat sink that comes with a retail processor to max out at 100C as the system started to throttle to reduce the temperature below this critical mark. The Thermaltake BigWater 760is got the job done, but seeing load temperatures above 80C at high fan speeds isn't what I want to see. The CoolIT Domino A.L.C. with the high settings was very impressive and was just north of 61C under full load when running eight instances of Prime95! Looks like the CoolIT Domino A.L.C. with it's $79 MSRP gave the Thermaltake BigWater 760is an old fashioned ass kicking as the BigWater has a street price of $149 plus shipping. I didn't believe the benchmark numbers, so I re-did the testing outside the test bench on all three of the coolers and the results were in-line with what is shown in the charts above. This just goes to shows that having the best performance doesn't mean the highest price tag has to be higher.