Corsair Hydrocool
MSI MEGA 651
MSI FX5900-VTD
RocketRAID 1520
RocketRAID 404
FIC AU13 nF2
LanParty KT400A
AS Ceramiqué
TV Wonder VE

Test Results

First lets look at one of the most important features of fans, that of the sound level.  What kind of sound level does the Thermaltake Smart Fan 2 have at medium and high settings, is it lower than a 60mm Delta fan?  Lets look at the results.

We can note that the stock AMD fan is the quietest, but not by much.  However that fan also moves the least air as it is only a 60*10mm fan.  Next we have the Smart Fan II running at its medium speed (about 3800RPM), it is almost as quiet as the stock AMD fan but moves more air due to its size.  The two loudest fans were the high speed Smart Fan II and the 60*25mm Delta fan.  The Smart fan itself was quieter and provides more in the way of airflow compared to the Delta Fan (75CFM vs. 38CFM), though it provides about half of the pressure of the Delta fan.  So as we look at the temperature results keep in mind these results so that we can see the best heatsink/fan combination.

How do the various coolers do in a closed system with a tiny, but very powerful heat source?  Well let us see how much above the ambient temperature they are, and also to see the second by second graphs click on the results in the graph.

That is quite allot of results to look at upon first glance, however if we look at the graph we see the results simplified which allows us to figure out the results.  We can see that the SK7 with the Thermaltake Smart Fan II is in the lead, as one would expect from a large heatsink.  At the same time we have the SK6+ with the high volume Delta fan which performs just as well as the SK7, this could be because the Delta fan is on the heatsink, unlike the SK7 or it could be the increase of pressure created by the smaller faster Delta fan.  However you look at it the SK6+ does a good job, but at the expense of your ears.  

When we look at the medium fan speeds, for a more palatable sound level what heatsink performs best?  Here the SK7 takes a decent lead, of about 2ºC over the next closest rival, the Zalaman CNPS 3100 heatsink, which has a larger surface area due to its 'flower' design.  The SK7 at medium speed also beats the SK6+ with the high speed Thermaltake fan, which is a interesting point, as this 'apples to apples' comparison shows the SK7 is a better performer when most other things are equal.  We see the stock AMD fan doesn't do that well, though it performs almost as good as the SK6+ with the medium speed Thermaltake fan.  Overall, in a stock configuration you can manage to lose about 9ºC when moving from the stock fan to the SK7.  Overall this is a good change, as with the test system, there is only a couple of degrees of difference between the case temperature and the CPU temperature.  So we are reaching a limit in our test case, as the best coolers reach very near the actual case air temperature, which is what the heatsink has to work with. 

Conclusion

So with these two heatsinks as well as this fan, what can we conclude about the cooling performance of these Thermalright products?  Let's look at the installation, the heatsinks themselves as well as their cooling performance.

The SK6+ installed fairly easily, though figuring out how to put the clips on, as well as putting them on the fan is a hard process.  The clips keep the fan on the heatsink well, but they are tight and this doesn't allow for a grill to be placed on the fan, which in the case of high speed fans, such as the Delta or other high RPM fans is more of a necessity than just for show.  I liked the fact that the retention system used all of the available socket lugs to hold the heatsink on, as by itself the heatsink is about 382g which is over AMD specifications.  The base shows that care has been taken with making the contact area, as it is very smooth, almost mirror like.

The SK7 is  much like the SK6+ but on a larger scale, allowing for a larger fan and also a larger cooling surface area.  As such it is also heavier, reaching just over a pound so its a good idea that it uses the same mounting system as the SK6+ does.  The larger size also allows for the ability to put larger fans on this heatsink, anything from 60mm fans to 80mm fans.  Both heatsinks are made by soldering the fins to the base, and it seems to work well.  Overall the SK7 isn't a multicolored gimmick but rather looks good and aims to please in the way of performance, as does the smaller version, the SK6+.

The performance of the heatsinks was pretty good, though the tests aren't extremely accurate, as I was forced to use a motherboard that didn't read properly from the on CPU thermal diode, after going through about four or five other motherboards that died on me.  Even so the SK7 performs very well, beating the Zalman heatsink by a couple of degrees at the same fan speed.  The SK6+ combined with the delta fan surprised us, but when we put the Thermaltake fan on the performance drops significantly going from a tie for the best cooling, to cooling less than the SK7 with the fan on medium.  None the less the performance increase over the stock AMD heatsink was very good, and in the case of the SK7 it didn't introduce much more in the way of noise.

The price of the heatsinks, about $15(US) and $24(US) for the SK6+ and SK7 respectively is a good deal for the cooling that you get compared to other higher priced coolers.  This helps make good cooling available to most people which helps those who need cooling or want to lower the rather high temperatures that stock coolers provide.

I would again like to thank for providing both of these heatsinks for testing, and also for being so understanding as I was going through motherboards one after another.  If I manage to get my hands on a motherboard that reads the temperature from the diode of the Athlon XP I will retest these heatsinks. 

Good Points - SK6+

• Very good cooling with a Delta Fan
• Three lug retention system
• All copper
• Fits any 60mm fan
• Only $15(US)

Bad Points

• Loud with best fan
• Low performance with quieter fan
• Heavier than AMD specs
• No fan included
• Soldered fins

Good Points - SK7+

• Good performance at low volume
• Three lug retention system
• All copper
• Fits any 60, 70, 80mm fan
• Fairly easy install
• Only $24(US)

Bad Points

• Heavier than AMD Specs
• No fan included
• Soldered fins
• Annoying fan retention system

Final Words

Both are very nice heatsinks that will perform well in overclocked systems.  While the SK6+ does well with a loud fan, many would not like to have to listen to that sound all day long, and at lower sound levels the performance leaves something to be desired.  The SK7 on the other hand does very well, even with a quieter fan, and the price makes it something that is well worth the amount of money you have to spend on it, along with the fact that you can put any fan on it.

SK7

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