[section_title title=”Test Setup”]Test Setup
CPU – Intel i7 4770kMotherboard – ASUS Z97-K
Memory – Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) 2400MHz
Graphics – ASUS GTX 770
Cooler – Raijintek Aidos Storage – Corsair Neutron 128GB PSU – SuperFlower 450w
Acoustic performance
Each cooler will be tested at night as it is naturally the quietest time of the day. A decibel monitor is placed at 30cm away from the cooler which is much closer than you would probably be sitting but it allows for consistent readings in my eyes. The system is left to idle for five minutes to ensure it is at its most rested work load and then the readings are taken. The fans are on PWM mode rather than ‘x’ volts as some fans will not spin without it getting its start voltage. The PWM curves are set to the default ones that are supplied by the ASUS Z97-K’s BIOS.
To find out how much noise the fan(s) will make under a full loading, I plug them straight into a 12v line to ensure that they are running at full speed to give you an idea of how much noise is created at maximum RPM ranges.
Thermal performance
Thermal performance is judged on four factors overall; the idle temperature at stock and overclocked speeds as well as the loaded temperatures at stock and loaded speeds. During the testing, whether that be the idle or loaded testing, the system is either in idle or full load for a duration of five minutes before any readings are taken. The average temperature across all four cores is then noted down and used as the results. All room temperatures are recorded beforehand as well as during the test to ensure that the delta temperature is as accurate as possible.
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Why is every single review for this cooler different? I have now come across 5 different reviews with 4 of them for certain using this same exact i7 4770k and 2 show pretty poos numbers with this being one of the two and the other two using the i7 and the third using a cpu I can’t think of atm showing performance that beats the hyper 212 evo in just about every area except a 1 degree loss with an overclock idle temp. I also seem to get conflicting opinions from people who have purchased this cooler pretty much matching the reviews. It either shows there is some variance in installation or the build quality of the cooler. Unfortunately I’m waiting for one in the mail and can’t even pawn it off to my son since he his cpu runs hotter then the skylake I planned to use it with. I wasn’t hoping for much but considering the low tdp of skylake expected to at least be able to safely overclock my i5 6400 to 4ghz but all these reviews makes me wonder.
Unfortunately without access to the same cooler we can’t re-run the tests to find out if it was a seating/fitting issue. I don’t think we would be able to find out if it’s a random problem across manufacturing without access to a large number of coolers and ran the tests again in lab conditions… something that simply isn’t possible for us to do.
TL:DR – Best of luck, hope you get a good one 🙂