Performance

Pentium 4 2.4GHz Northwood "B"
MSI i845PE Max2
Nanotherm Ice Thermal Compound
Prime95 run for 20 minutes
Room temperature is maintained at ~23C/74F

We'll be testing the Aeroflow against the stock Intel cooler that came packaged with the CPU, as well as the Vantec CopperX CCK-7025. Note that the stock Intel cooler is an all aluminum heatsink, with no copper at all. I've heard more recent Intel CPUs come with a different heatsink now, but I have not had the chance to try one out. The CopperX uses a 33.1CFM fan by default, and although we'll be including those numbers, we'll also be testing the heatsink with the TMD fan to level the playing field. All the fans will be running at their top speeds.

Idle

At idle speeds, all heatsinks keep the temperatures below 50C. The Aeroflow easily dominates though, but when the CPU isn't doing anything, this doesn't matter all that much...

Full Load

By pushing the CPU, this is where we determine if the heatsink is up to the task. All the heatsinks keep things under 60C, with the Aeroflow leading the pack by a wide margin. The CopperX shows an improvement with the TMD fan, but still can't touch the Aeroflow.

Overclocking

I didn't expect any cooler to have problems running things at stock speed, but it gets trickier when you decide to overclock the CPU. The stock cooler has done alright in the past, but with the Aeroflow, I was curious if overclocking would improve.

Previously, we only managed a 156FSB overclock using the all aluminum stock Intel cooler, and unfortunently with the Aeroflow, we didn't get much of an improvement. At 157, the system was stable in all benchmarks but 3D Mark. At 156FSB, things were rock solid. What is important to note that at full load, at 156FSB, the stock cooler managed 68C, whereas the Aeroflow kept temperatures at a steady 66C. With the stock cooler, we managed a POST at 160 (before crashing), and with the Aeroflow, we nailed down 161FSB at POST, before crashing again, forcing a CMOS reset.

In summary, improvements were minor, and when the heat is on, the Aeroflow still manages to perform a little better than the stock cooler, though the gap is a little closer than when it's not overclocked.

Final Words

Much like our Athlon Aeroflow results, we were quite pleased with the VP4-C7040 results. Vantec engineered an interesting technology (read: Aeroflow) that manages to work on both platforms. As with most Vantec coolers, the price is right, averaging in the .

The only criticism I have, other than some rather mediocre overclocking results, is the TMD fan. Although we were happy with it in our last Aeroflow review, it may seem odd that we're picking on it now. With the majority of Athlon coolers we've tested in the past, the TMD fan is one of the more quieter ones. However, when we're talking about the stock Intel HSF, the TMD fan is one of the louder ones. To put it in perspective, the Intel fan is pretty much unnoticable, whereas the TMD fan may annoy those who have gotten use to Intel's solution. Knowing that, I'd imagine most enthusiasts would not care since it's likely the fans they use easily overpower the noise levels of the TMD.

The question now that most Pentium 4 owners may want to consider, do you need it? Considering the stock cooler does pretty well for the most part, an after market cooler may not be required. However, a large number of processors are sold as OEM (usually no heatsink is provided), making the Aeroflow on the shortlist of quality heatsinks to consider.

Pros: Great performance. Good engineering design. Heatsink clip is great also.

Cons: TMD fan is far from silent. Overclocking results were average.

Bottom Line: If you're in need of a nice cooler, without breaking the bank, this is one to watch. Serious overclockers may wish to splurge on a larger air cooler, or watercooling.

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