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Date Posted: June 12, 2002

The Test Results

    The first test was carried out on an non-overclocked Athlon 1GHz B series, with a core voltage of 1.75 volts, producing 51.4 watts of heat.

    What do these test results show?  We see that the heatsinks with high volume/speed fans perform within about 1°C of each other.  When a slower fan is added the Alpha is only 2°C behind the high speed fans, and is about 1°C ahead of the CAK-II '32'.  All temperatures are within 4°C and as such there isn't much to differentiate between heatsinks, as they all perform very nicely with a standard Athlon 1GHz.

    Does this graph change when we add 25% more heat?   Lets see with a look at the Athlon 1.2GHz running with a core voltage of 1.94 volts, and producing 75.8 watts.

    This test helps to separate the great performers with the 'good' coolers.  Here the CAK-II loves the high speed of the black label Delta fan that is 2000RPM or 34% faster than the slowest 60mm fan tested.  The Alpha is only 700RPM or 21% faster than the slowest 80mm fan in this test.  Even though it is slower, speed wise, with the 50CFM fan the PAL is only part of a degree off of the best temperature produced by the CAK-II, which is well within the error range of the test. 

    The other Alpha fans perform much better than the CAK-II '32' by about 3-4°C because of the volume of air that they move.  The slower fans perform nicely, but not as good as the other heatsinks with fans giving higher RPM's but similar CFM's as these 43CFM/37CFM fans.

Sound Levels 

   What about the sound levels

    The sound levels are fairly similar with temperatures, as the lower sound levels are the weaker performing heatsinks.  The Alpha with the 3900 RPM Sunon fan is quieter (slightly) than the other high RPM fans, yet the fan sound is more of a whooshing than the incessant whine of the Delta Black label fans.

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