Roundup of Noiseless Coolers for SocketA. `2002 Q2

Introduction

In a short while, manufacturers pressed by competition started to supply more and more new models of varying shapes, dimensions, materials, fan speeds (or even varying fans, because some users installed two fans :). But they all had one common flaw - high noise levels. At first, the user did not mind the noise. Those who heard it thought it was the way it should be :). As AMD processors were gaining more popularity, there appeared a large group of users opposing to the noise incomputers. Many companies saw a good chance to make money on that and immediately responded with their solutions battling noise.

In this review we'll test noiseless coolers available currently on the market and select the best in terms of noise levels. Meanwhile, theircooling mechanisms don't count. Or, more exactly, almost don't. Most importantly, the processor temperature should not surpass the admissible norms.

Now about the measurement procedure. Without any noise measurement instruments I will gauge the noise levels (as well as other characteristics) and give them a certain rating in scores. The higher the score, the better a certain parameter is, or in this case the quieter a cooler is. Such assessment is quite subjective. But I must admit I am very sensitive tothe noise level since my computer is running on a 24/7 basis and must not disturb the user from good night's sleep. Now regarding the temperature. The processor temperature as well as the rotational speed were gauged with Motherboard Monitor v5.1.0.7. The test setup was assembled in an Inwin S506 case. If the cooler had a related thermal interface material, the test was performed with that first, then we removed it and measured the noise with silicon-organic paste KPT-8 used. The processor was heated up with the BurnK7 software and an Athlon XP having internal thermal conductor was picked up as the test processor. That gave a high precision of temperature measurements.

Indescribing the cooler I'll draw your attention to the fastening convenience. Also don't forget about such factors as the fastening reliability, radiator's dimensions, material used, appearance, processing quality etc. Most of these are fairly subjective (especially, the appearance :), so I'll try to be as impartial as possible through presenting more illustrations.

Thermaltake Volcano 7

The produce of Thermaltake is very popular on the Russian market. It was just Thermaltake who first produced a series of ORB coolers which were rather successful owing to the lack of competitors. Some time later that series was on the down and consumers turned their heads towards the Volcano line. Volcano 6Cu proved the most successful model but did not appeal to many because of the high noise level (theVolcano 6Cu+ model with a faster(7000RPM) 60 mmfan made a terrible noise). Being aware of that, Thermaltake engineers released a completely new cooler, Volcano 7. The main idea behind it is this: we maximize the radiator dimensions (the copper insert in the base remains the same), install a large fan whose speed is variable. This results in a sufficient damping of vibrations and noise produced by the cooler.

Now let's verify how true it is to life.

Besides the cooler itself, in the package there is a Thermaltake logo and an adapter converting the standard Molex connector to the ordinary 3-pin socket (but with2 wires only).

What struck me first was its weight. The cooler is quite heavy - 550 g. On the one hand, it isn't bad since the heavier the radiator, the better it pumps out heat from the processor. On the other hand, a heavier cooler needs to be fastened to the motherboard socket more firmly and reliably. In this part, there is a flaw in Volcano 7- the radiator is fastened with a metal clip hooked up to one socket tooth. So I wouldn't recommend moving around a complete PC with a Volcano 7 inside.

Again the cooler mass is important but is not a decisive factor. More important is how large the surface area is for the radiator to contact the flowing air. There are 20 aluminum fins in the radiator. Its dimensions are 70x68x53 mm (height).

look at the copper insert in the base

The cooler efficiency strongly depends on the right choice of material. To improve the heat transfer, Thermaltake engineers fitted a copper insert into the base, 46 mm in diameter.

Although new Thoroughbred-based processors use the0.13 mk process technology, their maximum heat emission power stays as before -70 watts. With the core area reduced considerably, copper-base coolers cease to be the overclocker's toys alone and are becoming more of a must-have asset of the AMD system.

Moreover, of great value to the cooling efficiency is the thermal contact between the processor and the radiator base. Volcano 7 has a rectangular pad on the copper base,(thermal interface material Bergquist 225U or T905C). The base itself is smooth enough, although not finished to the gleam.

Large surface area of the radiator is still half the success. What matters more is how large is the air contact area - the larger it is, the better. Thus, we are coming to the issue of choosing the right fan. On Volcano 7 there is a fan of 80x80x25 mm in dimensions which could have been regarded as standard if it were not for the thermal sensor. Yes, the thermal sensor is not installed in the radiator base (where it should be, following the logics) but on the outer surface of the fan.

that green thing is the thermal sensor

The thermal sensor controls the fan speed varying between 2900 rpm (at the ambient temperature 25 C) and 5000 rpm (35 C), with the air flow being 46CFM and 53CFM, respectively.

Now we move on the main part of the review - testing the noise levels of Volcano 7. The specifications said the noise level was 27 dB at the speed 2900 rpm and 39 dB at 5000 rpm. This cooler is making much noise, and for a"quiet"cooler it is too much noise. Vibrations are also high, so it doesn't matter much if the case cover is closed or not. The noise level stayed the same - only the tone was changing.

The scheme of plugging the cooler is quite interesting. There are 3 standard wires coming out of the fan. The 3 wires are forked into 2 and 1 (thus, making up 2 sockets). One of the wires is used for measuring the rspeed and is plugged directly to the motherboard. The other two are plugged to the power supply (via an adapter). Such a scheme is used primarilybecause of the high power consumption of the fan, and not all boards are able to provide sufficient power.

Some notes on the appearance. Volcano 7 is fantastic - there is a dark blue radiator, a decorative grid on top of the fan (which protects the fan against extraneous stuff like cables and fingers :), and finally a gleaming metal plate with Thermaltake logos on each side. By the way, the fan is fastened by this frame. Being ofstandard size (80x80 mm), the fan can be replaced with a new one. Which I did. I replaced the related fan with a Zalman ZM-F1 fan. In so doing, I plugged it to the motherboard via a special adapter (that came in the package kit with the fan). The result was simply fantastic - the noise level dropped substantially.

I also installed another aluminum fan taken from the Spare cooler(made by Fanner). The noise level was on par with ZM-F1, but the appearance was much better.

Mind you, not every user can afford to buy 2 coolers and join them into one. While Zalman ZM-F1 sells separately (at $5), the aluminum fan made by Fanner can't be obtained as a separate piece.

Asus FSCUG9C-6FC

The first look at it did not arouse optimism. It's too small, lightweight, the fins are thin and the fan iself is tiny.

Going through it step by step.
First thing - it is fastened with a metal clip hooking up to a single tooth of the socket, the fastening is firm and reliable, and thetotal weight is 265 g. The installation procedure can't be simpler. The clip has a lever convenient to handle with fingers, so it takes a few seconds to install it. The radiator is also easy to remove. As to the packaging kit, nothing but a small pack of thermopaste was put into the box.

Looking at the radiator. Its base is a thick copper plate (4 mm thickness). Copper is known to be a perfect heat conductor.. Thin aluminum fins placed inside the housing are soldered to the base. The cooler dimensions are 68.2x66.6x53.8 mm, which aids installation on any motherboard.

The fins are very thin and will stay cold at higher temperatures, which will negatively affect the cooling efficiency.

At the center of the base there is a rectangualr pad with flares. Basically, this pad should provide a better contact with the processor core, with the flares meant for preventing the core from chipping. And, finally, some kind of heat conductive layer is applied to where the processor contacts the copper pad (it is clearly seen on the photo that the thermal interface is shielded with a special detachable strip).

So the entire rig is cooled by a small 60 mm multibladed fan. As in the case of Volcano 7, the fan is able to vary the rotational speed within the range 3200 rpm to 4800 rpm. The speed varies with thereadings of the thermal sensor which, unlike Volcano 7, is placed at the center of the copper base. The base is finished quite crudely, so pay a special attention to the thermal paste used.

I remember somebody describing quite vividly how hard he was at removing the thermal sensor. He even had to make use of torch flame and a pair of sizeable pliers :)

Now the most essential - the noise level declared by the manufacturer (www.elanvital.com.tw/products/thermal/FSCUG9C-6FC.htm) is within 25dB and 37 dB (depending on the rotational speed). I must add, the cooler makes low noise (not absolutely noiseless, of course) and it was no problem sleeping with the PC left powered-on overnight. Admittedly, it ran non-stop quietly for the first 4 months, but then either some dust fell into the fan or the bearings were wearing out (which may have been caused by the former :). As a result, that brought in some annoying high-frequency noise.

By the way, when a fan breaks down, you are very unlikely to find the identical one. However, if you are lucky to find one (or similar in size), there won't be any problems installing and plugging it, since the speed controller (a black box) has a three-pin socket (as you can see from the photo, it is of white color).

Zalman CNPS3000 Plus

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/intro.htm

I first got to know that miracle from some news website and didn't attach any importance to that since they said it would unlikely be imported to Russia. To my great surprise, I saw them later on stores some time later, in three makes: aluminum-copper, full copper and gold-plated copper :). All I could afford was an ordinary copper cooler.

The cooler was packaged in an impressive box with a plastic window.

I unpacked the box and took out the following items: a radiator, a 92 mm fan with the special fastening, a pack of screws, 2 metal clips (surprisingly, absolutely identical ones), a thermopaste syringe, an adapter (more precisely, an extension cord) with a soldered resistor (rated at 57 Ohm) and a mounting device. The User's Guide deserved a special praise for its detailed and clear desciption of every installation step.

The installation can't be simpler and no User's guide would be needed for a smart user. Apply some thermopaste on the processor and place the radiator on top. Then fix the radiator with an iron clip. For that, we used a special device made of a thick iron rod.

It rests conveniently in the hand, with the other end easily gets into a special hole on the clip. The same device was also used to remove the radiator.

By the way, first devices of the kind for cooler installation were suggested by the Japanese company Canopus.

Then, with the fastening device we install the fan on top of the expansion boards and fasten it to the case with the same screws which fix the PCI(AGP) boards in place.

note the two slits on the arch - its shadow is clearly seen (in fact, no shadow is there :)

Note that the fan is fastened to the metal plate with a screw conveniently corrugated for fingers. That is, we can slightly loosen the screw, change the fan position and fix it again by tightening the screw. Followng this mounting scheme, we can also replace the fan if the latter breaks down. These 92 mm fans are sold as separate pieces (e.g. Zalman ZM-F2), but you can install any other, e.g. a 80 mm piece, if necessary.

Zalman CNPS3000 Plus has one more advantage - on the metal arch/plate where the fan is mounted you can install at least one more cooler for cooling the video card (or improving the air circulation). Only a bolt, a nut and a pair of spacers would be needed for that.

Well, done with the installation.Now looking closer at the radiator. First off, it's quite heavy and weighs 238 g, with the dimensions 105x52x65 mm. That it weighs much and the clip hooks up to only one tooth of the socket is definitely a flaw.

The radiator is made of copper plates (which are 42 in number, 0.3 mm in thickness and 65 mm in length each). The plates are joined and tightened with an aluminum plate using two pins. Therefore, we get a copper foundation whose edges are made of aluminum (the base of the model CNPS3100-GOLD is full copper). Zalman engineers say the radiator was made with the Flower Heatsink technology. Indeed, the name is quite to the point- the radiator looks very much like a blossomed out flower.

Note especially that the radiator plates are not solid but have several slits. Therefore, the passing air flow is efficient. The surface area reduced but anyway it is quite large - 2300 sq. cm (!).

The radiator base is finished to the mirror-like gleam (the best among all the reviewed coolers).

Now the most annoying, the noise. Two previous coolers were able to control the fan speed depending on the load applied to the processor. With Zalman CNPS3000, the situation is absolutely different. Option one. We plug the cooler straight to the motherboard and get the rotational speed around 2500 rpm. The air flow amounts to 38 FM, and the noise level declared by the manufacturer is as high as 36.1 dB. Another option. We plug the fan via the extension cord with the soldered resistor. This switches the fan to the Silent mode and it starts running slower at a speed around ~1500 rpm, while the air flow amounts to 31 FM and the noise level declared by the manufacturer is 20.0 dB. More about the fan.The first models of Zalman cooler had third-party 80 mm fans (presumably, made by ADDA). I wouldn't recommend buying a cooler with such a fan because it does not have a tachometer and the80 mm fans are a bit noisier.

the right 92 mm Zalman fan

Additionally, the noise level in the normal mode is about the same asproduced by Asus FSCUG9C-6FC. In the Silent mode with the fan cover closed it doesn't make any noise. However the PC hasn't become quieter. The noise coming from the fan installed in the power supply turned louder.

We can't ignore the cooler's drawbacks. First, it's the high price which is as high as ~750 rubles (about $25) for a model with fully a copper radiator compared to 500 rubles ($16) for a Volcano 7 and Asus FSCUG9C-6FC.

An aluminum-copper radiator (Zalman CNPS3000) costs around 550 rubles ($18), and (CNPS3100 GP) with a gold-plated radiator - 1100 rubles ($34)

Secondly, in some systems installation of this cooler will be problematic. This especially refers to systems where the motherboard is installed with the socket on the edge (classical example - Abit KR7A) and where the ATX case is smaller in height. This may force one of the radiator edges rest against the power supply. The plates bend easily and the cooler anyway can be installed, but part of the plates will be pressed closer to each other, and the cooling efficiency will suffer.

Cases where the power supply overhangs the processor are absolutely unsuitable for Zalman coolers.

For boards with the socket turned by 90 degrees such a problem was not observed. Examples of such boards are Epox 8KHA+ (on the KT266A chipset), and 8K3A (KT333).

That the cooler is made up of an independently running radiator and a fan gives the cooling system maximum flexibility of arrangement.For example, I can set the fan in a way so that it can simultaneously cool the radiator on the processor, the radiator on the motherboard's Northbridge and that on the memory module.

If we place the fan strictly above the processor, then the temperature difference amounts to 2-5 C.

Finally, I tried cooling the processor with the radiator alone. Clearly, it does not make sense to use a powerful processor (like Athlon) for that purpose. That is why we took a Duron 700 whose normal voltage 1.5V (series ANDA) was pushed down to 1.45V and the fan switched off. So what? The temperature started to grow rather fast, then stopped at 64 C and only in two hours reached 67 C. This shows that it's quite possible to set up a completely noiseless computer in the home environment, however, a few prerequisites must be met.
First, the case cover must be kept open. Secondly, a software like Vcool or some other that monitors the temperature and processor load has got to be started. Then, you can't start resource-hungry applications on such machine. The list of programs must be limited to Internet aplications, office suites etc. Finally, I wouldn'trecommend using Win9x operating systems because as far as I remember (haven't used them for the past two years) some powerful applications may hang and the processor reaches 100% (most frequently that occurred with IE and Word running, which wasn't noticed by the user).

Those who couldn't get a Duron system running at decreased voltage can try using a raditor from Zalman CNPS6000-Cu cooler that has wider plates and is heavier - 462 g. See the photo at the end of the review.

Fanner 5F263 WhisperRock II

The cooler WhisperRock II (model5F263) came to our test lab the last straight from the Netherlands representation office of Fanner. First, it is fully made of aluminum (while other coolers were made partially or fully of copper), and secondly is not equipped with any special noise reduction means. Moreover, it was formerly covered on our website.

However, it is positioned by the manufacturer (Fanner, www.Fanner.com) as quiet and therefore is worth taking part in the tests. It has a special trait. I already said it is fully aluminum - even the fan is made of that popular metal (although the blades are plastic).

Examining it step by step. The cooler is shipped in a bright package whose contents are the cooler itself, a tube of proprietary paste, a slip with the installation instructions in several languages, a gift trinket (optional) and a gift pen (also optional).

The radiator is made fully of aluminum, has a peculiar shape, and its dimensions are 74x74x47 mm. A screwdriver is absolutely necessary when installing the cooler, and it's quite a laborious job.

The base is polished to mirror-like gleam.

And here comes the spice - a fan in the aluminum housing. The speed declared by the manufacturer is 2500 rpm, (i.e.,the low speed was set originally) while the air flow is 31.70 FM and the noise at the level 26.5 dB. In my opinion, the cooler runs very quietly, a bit louder than FSCUG9C-6FC.

I was especially amazed by the long cords coming out of the fan (50 cm :). Its bright feature is the grid that protects the fan.

Tests

* The fan speed in the cooler Fanner 5F263 WhisperRock II does not varies with temperature.

For the tests we picked up Athlon XP 1600+ which is standard for today (the maximum power consumption is 63 watts). Let's see how these coolers cope with such load.

The best at cooling was Thermaltake Volcano 7+ was, while Asus FSCUG9C-6FC the worst. But in terms of noise levels, Zalman CNPS3000 with the fan running in the Silent mode was the winner. Also note the excellent performance shown by the hybrid 'Volcano 7 + Zalman ZM-F1'. Despite that only finished products are allowed in the tests, that one was admitted 'hors concourse'.

Let's see how these coolers cope with a much hotter processor. For that, we did some tests with Athlon XP 2100+ (the same as Athlon XP 1600+, but for the bus speed set to 166Mhz and Vcore =1.85V) . I can't tell precisely the maximum power consumption, but it is approximately 75-80 watts.

the zero value means no tests were done.

Not all coolers were able to withstand increased heat emission. Those which "survived" did not provide for the proper cooling - the processor temperature is balancing at the very dangerous edge (however, you don't have to worry about that - the processor will hang rather than burn).

You may ask "Aren't there more efficient quiet coolers?" Of course, there are, and we will cover them in the addendum to the review.

Conclusions

Thermaltake Volcano 7
Owing to its cooling quality, this cooler is probably the best. It did a great job cooling Athlon both at its normal and overclocked speeds. In terms of the noise level, it lost much to the competitors. Frankly, I don't quite understand how this cooler fell within the "quiet" category. The only thing we could recommend to reduce the noise is to replace the fan, which is very easy.

Asus FSCUG9C-6FC
Despite its small dimensions, FSCUG9C-6FC made a good showing. It succeeded in cooling Athlon XP 1600+ to acceptable temperatures and preserved its quiet operation. But wasn't able to cope with the overclocked Athlon.

Zalman CNPS3000 Plus
This cooler is a potential winner - its massive copper radiator of huge surface area instantly pumps out heat from the processor. The only flaw is the price. Another flaw - you can't change the fan speed on the run. Unfortunately, not every computer can accept this cooler.

It's a pity I couldn't test the aluminum-copper Zalman CNPS3000 which in its qualities slightly lags behind its full-copper brother (the temperature difference may be within 3-7 C), but its price is practically equal to that of Volcano 7 and Asus FSCUG9C-6FC.

Fanner 5F263 WhisperRock II
Despite the full-aliminum radiator, the cooler did a good job cooling the processor running at its normal clock speeds. The noise level was very low. However, overclocked processors can be efficiently cooled by coolers having radiators fully or partially made of copper. Note that the cooler's fan is in a full-aluminum housing.
Unfortunately, we couldn't find out about the prices for the Fanner 5F263 and whether it would be shipped to Russia.

Addendum

Volcano 7+ (Volcano 9)

2) Silent Volcano 9 with improved noise characteristics.

Besides that, we noticed one more fixed flaw. The fastening system has been essentially improved (the clip now hooks up to 3 teeth of the socket). And finally, the manual control of the speed is enabled. A potential hit of the season, isn't it?

Zalman CNPS6000-Cu

But the fastening is still made of a clip that hooks up to one tooth of the socket. The problem of fastening reliability appeared to be so serious that Zalman's website addressed users with the urgent request not to move the PCs around.The cooler is shipped with a block for manually changing the speed - isn't that a new interesting trend coming up?

Of course, there are various coolers that stand out with low noise levels. But they haven't yet reached Russia. As soon as new models come up, we'll willingly test them.