Coolers for AMD Athlon64: Asus StarIce vs Titan Siberia

Asus StarIce

Asus StarIce first "exposed" at Computex 2004. That time, it produced an indelible impression as the biggest and stylish cooler. Half a year afterwards, it's there in our test lab:

After we unpacked the StarIce, our eyes simply dazzled over the abundance of varied bundle items:

• StarIce cooler;
• Universal reinforcement frame + rubber washer;
• A universal fastening kit + another washer;
• Special wrenches to tighten screws;
• A pack of thermal paste;
• A piece of double-side scotch tape;
• Thermal sensor;
• Rotational speed regulator into an expansion slot;
• Rotational speed regulator into a 3" panel;
• Installation guide.

The latter item is the most important! Aimed at installation on all known platforms, the cooler will be quite difficult to install without a setup guide (at least, for the very first time).

Anyway, experienced overclockers will easily sort it out where and what to connect. First, the reinforcement plate on the motherboard's reverse plate:

The plate is dismountable (made up of three components fastened with screws). The thing is, its configuration differs from the way it is installed on Socket478, Socket939, SocketT (LGA775), and SocketA (Socket462). But the user's guide comes in handy, and in five minutes the cooler is installed on the motherboard. At the same time, the motherboard has to be removed from the PC housing (it's a tradeoff for universality - in this case, it is increased labor intensity). Besides, the dismountable plate allows to avoid short-circuiting the wires located on the board's reverse side.

This component is very important: the cooler mass reaches 700 grams (to be precise - 680 grams), so to prevent the board from bending, a metal plate is simply a must. The second plate is solid and is meant

There are two rotational speed regulators bundled to the cooler: one is installed on the rear panel of the housing,

and the second - on the 3" panel which can be fitted on the front panel. Note that only one of two regulators can be plugged in to the cooler. In view of the large dimensions of the cooler, you have to think twice which of the two coolers is best to use.

In fact, I installed two at a time, and during the tests I was alternately switching between them. Anyway, it was quite awkward to plug them in.

The cooler design looks quite intricate at first glance. But all turns out to be simple: there is a copper base to which a pad with three heat pipes is fastened (actually, the pipes run both ways, so they can be treated as six :). On the pipes, a great number of copper plates is strung (~30 pieces), and the quality of contact between the plate and the pipe is satisfactory.

A structure like that is already a good radiator which can be successfully used for passive cooling of a low power-consumption processor (e.g. I used Athlon 64 266x4 (Winchester core) with the Cool'n'Quiet enabled, at Vcore = ~1.0V). Very few users would dare for an experiment like that, so most are more interested in the nominal operation mode of StarIce cooler.

Once again, I suggest that we should estimate the cooler's dimensions:

The processing quality of the base is middling:

To reject heat from the copper plates, the cooler uses a 80 mm fan of rotational speed variable within 2000 to 4500RPM. At the same time, the rotational speed is adjustable with both the mentioned regulators and automatically - depending on the temperature displayed by the additional thermal sensor.

The fan is installed in a dismountable plastic case and does not touch the radiator. The case is made up three parts: two form something like a pipe,

with the third being decorative (transparent, with an Asus logo on).

On the case, there are two blue LEDs which highlight the logo quite effectively. On the rear part of the case, there are 4 holes that allow plugging in one more 80 mm fan for blowing out. The default fan is nonstandard (round) and it's quite difficult to replace it.

Why am I talking about replacement of the fan? The level of noise is very high even at the minimum speed, while at the maximum it is simply intolerable. The powerful air head seeps through the fissures of the case, which makes the cooler whistle unpleasantly within a certain RPM range. All in all, if we awarded a medal for the loudest cooling system, then Asus StarIce would have easily won it leaving the competitors well behind :). I also didn't like the structure of the case - too clumsy and heavy (well, compared to the noise, it's a trifle).

In conclusion, let me bring in a couple of StarIce cooler photos:

And lastly: regardless of the test results, I can't recommend the cooler for those who prefer quietness. Even to those users stating they don't mind the noise, I strongly recommend to listen to the cooler in operation right at the shop (i.e. before you buy it). On the other hand, this cooler is quite interesting for skillful hands. To be more precise, not the cooler as a whole, but its radiator :)

Pros:

• Universality (can be installed on all popular platforms);
• Fantastic exterior;
• Second fan can be plugged in;
• Two speed regulators are available + automatic control.

Cons:

• Very high noise level;
• High labor intensity of installation and large dimensions of the cooler;
• The cooling efficiency at maximum speed is middling, and weak efficiency on reducing the RPM;

P.S. A few words on installation of the cooler on SocketA boards. Despite the over twofold excess in the admissible weight, you don't have to worry about this aspect - the reinforcement plate will smoothly distribute the load over the motherboard and won't let it bend. But to install the plate, 4 assembly holes are needed, and most latest-generation motherboards lack them. On the whole, as Sempron 2800+ and 2600+ for Socket754 emerge, the demise of the SocketA platform can be regarded as a fact (at least for the PC enthusiasts).

P.P.S.: Just before publishing the review, I came across a description of Beetle cooler which looked like two peas against Asus StarIce. So I thought that either ThermalTake "inherited" the StarIce structure or, which is more probable, Thermaltake is engaged in OEM orders from Asus while using these designs for manufacturing own coolers.

Titan Siberia for AMD Athlon 64

We are presenting another cooler taking part in our tests - Titan Siberia for AMD Athlon 64. It is packed in a plastic box of formidable size, with the brief installation guide illustrated on the reverse side.

Apart from the cooler itself, it comes bundled with a rotation regulator (fitted on the 3" front panel of the housing), two fastening screws, as well as tub of thermo paste. This Titan thermo paste is of new type - of blue color.

The distinctive feature of the cooler is its huge 120 mm fan which is much larger than the radiator.

The radiator is of small height and is quite difficult to see behind.

The radiator itself is made of aluminum and has a copper insert in the base.

The processing quality of the base is decent enough (although grinding traces are visible). To prevent the surface from scratching, there is a protective sticker on the base.

The first stage in the cooler assemblage is its installation and fixing with fastening screws. However, this method works only on those boards which offer a reinforcement plate with threaded holes. That means the cooler cannot be installed on motherboards made by Gigabyte (which offer a socket frame with plastic clips as the fasteners).

The second stage of the cooler is to attach a fan. That the fan is mounted on a fastening plane allows its flexible orientation: the air flow not getting into the radiator can be directed for cooling the power supply module of the motherboard or for cooling the memory modules. Also, if the board has some deviations from the standard, the fan can be fitted at 180 degree turn thus avoiding a conflict.

Now let's look at the speed regulator which has two cables. One of them is connected directly to the motherboard (via a 3-pin connector), the other - to the cooler's fan.

With it, the user can smoothly vary the fan's rotational speed within 1400RPM to 2900RPM. At the same time, the noise varies within 27 dBa to 45 dBa, with the air flow fluctuating within 58 CFM to 111.73 CFM. Despite the impressive performance, the cooler's efficiency proved quite weak: during the tests, the radiator was simply red hot, while the part of the air flow coming to the radiator was definitely not enough for its cooling.

In conclusion, let me stress it out that Titan Siberia is a very stylish and nice cooler, notably due to its fan. The latter is made in a blue housing, has silver-plated blades and is closed with a metal grid. Moreover, the manufacturing quality of the fan is high: at the minimum rotational speed, the noise is small, while at the maximum speed you can hear only air rustling albeit immense.

The preliminary conclusion - the bottleneck of Titan Siberia is its small and weak radiator. Therefore, this cooler may be of interest to the regular user mostly due to is low noise level, as well as its ability to cool the motherboard components (or memory motherboards). For the overclocker, this cooler is of no interest - it is unable to cool a strongly overclocked processor.

Pros:

• Low noise level at the minimum speed;
• Fantastic exterior;
• Ease of installation + adjustable position of the fan;
• Speed regulator available;
• Motherboard components can be cooled;
• Relatively low price (~17$).

Cons:

• Middling cooling efficiency.

Cooling efficiency and conclusions

To verify efficiency of the coolers, we assembled a test configuration with the Athlon64 3500+ (NewCastle) of stepping CG made in the 0.13 mk process technology (remember that Winchester processors made in the 0.09 mk process technology offer a 1/3 less heat emission). Also, to make the coolers' lives more difficult, we overclocked the processor to 2.5 GHz and raised the Vcore to 1.65V

To heat up the processor, we used BurnK7 (the Cool'n'Quiet feature disabled; although that is not important at all). As the thermo interface we used a very popular KPT-8 thermo paste (out of the tun :). So, here are the following results:

It's not difficult to make conclusions: I can't recommend Asus StarIce for purchase because of its very high noise level, high price, and the middling cooling efficiency. Titan Siberia does even worse cooling job, but among its strong points is the not high price and the big fan. Therefore, the user can be a good alternative to the "boxed" cooler. However, most Athlon 64 (and Sempron Socket754) processors sell just as boxed versions, so there aren't any weighty arguments in favor of additional spending (Titan Siberia costs around 17$).

P.S. After testing the coolers I started thinking something was going in the wrong way: looks like something was missed. In cases like that you got to relax, and the wise idea will come itself. Soon it came at last :) Just see - the Asus' cooler offers a good heat-pipe radiator but a useless fan inside the not the best case. With Titan cooler, all is the reverse: the fan is nice + the radiator is poor. Well, no use thinking too much about it - they got to be interbred :)). That's what we got after interbreeding:

Titan fastened with its own fastening mechanism proved an ideal fit upon the Asus' radiator. In the two positions we simply snap the lever, and for other two positions (more optimum) we have to put something elastic (say, a piece of rubber) between the lever and the plastic frame.

But that is not all - we still have one more Titan Siberia cooler (albeit for SocketA) whose design is coincident with the design of the cooler for Athlon 64. Understand that? That's it. We called what we produced as the Extreme Edition

You may laugh but take a look at what we invented over here. After the test, I got disappointed: it looks like it's not so easy and quick to make an efficient and noiseless cooler. It lost 10C to Zalman 7700Cu. The efficiency of the Extreme Edition did not differ from that of the single-fan version. The cause of that may be in the insufficient performance of the Asus' cooler, as well as in the non-optimum mode of blowing (without a case).