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Testing
The test system is as follow's :-
Athlon Thunderbird 1.4
Abit AT7 Max
Windows XP (Sp 1)
GeForce 4 Ti4600
Arctic Silver 2
The coolers I'm comparing with are :-
AKASA Silver Mountain 2Q
Swiftech MCX462 with Coolermaster 3000 RPM 80mm FAN
For idle settings, Windows was booted up and left for 15 minutes and a reading taken. For load settings Quake III Arena was left running a looped Timedemo for an hour and readings taken. This was done 3 times and the average temperature taken for each. Room temperature was maintained at 26C and the case side was left off.
Temperatures in Degrees Celcius
And for our American friends...
Temperatures in Degrees Fahrenheit
The X-Dream keeps up with the other coolers quite nicely, and at the highest rpm can even beat the Swiftech under load. But this is only where the rpm on the X-Dream has been increased to maximum. This in turn increases the noise output by quite a significant amount especially when compared to the other coolers which run very quiet. At highest rpm, the noise is pretty irritating. Not Delta or Tornado annoying, but louder than you would expect from an 80mm fan. When the X-Dream's rpm are at its lowest, performance (obviously) drops but it still doesn't do all that bad, and does it in almost complete silence, with only a slight background hum that you would have to really be listening for to hear. Running the X-Dream at about the halfway mark (3500 rpm) performance averages out, and the noise output is very tolerable. You can hear it, thats for sure, but it is a long way from loud and annoying. A pretty good perfomance from the X-Dream, not up there with the top coolers but certainly not bad.
Final Words
Coolermaster have obviously put a lot of thought into this HSF. They've listened to end users and provided the best of both worlds in regards to performance and noise. The materials used in constructing the unit are on the cheaper side and the savings of which will hopefully be passed on to the end user's. Despite the fact that a lot of the materials used here are cheap, the HSF does manage to provide a feeling of quality, although more along the lines of mass production quality than hand picked/constructed. Using plastic and aluminium as the majority construction material's also reduces the weight of the unit, which is good idea as lately the idea from manufacturers seems to be to put as much stress on the CPU socket as possible.
The aerodynamic grill, turquoise fan blades and holographic centre to the fan make the aesthetics quite pleasing to the eye. The clipping mechanism is of the tool free kind, using a simple push lever affair that makes installation a breeze. The base of the HSF with its copper insert is poorly machined with a lot of marks and scrapes, though it is at least flat. Might have been just my sample but something I would make you aware of. Be prepared for the possibility of lapping the sink.
Performance wise, the HAC-V81 delivers quite nicely, although I wouldn't call it a top performing HSF. Were it really shines though is in its ability to control the fan speed and therefore the noise output. Being able to choose a fan speed dependent on the systems current function can be a great asset to those looking for a 'best of both worlds' cooler.
Fan noise can be reduced whilst the system is idling or not performing a CPU intensive task (such as surfing the web) and conversely increased when under load to keep the temperatures down. When at its lowest speed, the X-Dream is virtually silent, but the higher the rpm, the more annoying the sound gets and at it's highest is pretty noisy. As I read over this review, the thing that stands out the most about it is the fan. Perhaps Coolermaster might like to market the fan on it's own as well as with the X-Dream.
Over all the X-Dream's performance was good, and being able to control the fan speed is a great addition to CPU cooling. Big thanks to for supplying the review sample.
Pros
Looks good
Copper cylinder inserted into aluminium design
Fan speed control
Virtually silent at low speeds
Good performance at high speeds
Funky hologram sticker effects when in motion
Cons
Poorly machined base
Noisy at highest RPM's
Bottom Line
Performance is ok, but controlling the fan speed is where this package really shines. Selling at about 20$ US, this is one heatsink you may want to consider.
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Cooler Master X-Dream HAC-V81 Socket-A: Cooler Master kicks out a new AMD cooler, and although the heatsink is new, it's the included fan that steals the show.
