Usage

I used the heatsink on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, and started the test using the stock heatpaste that came on the Hyper TX. The ambient temperature was recorded. I then changed the heat paste to Arctic Silver 5 and repeated the tests after it had had 2 days to ‘set’. My rig was artificially put at full load by using StressPrime 2004 on both cores and running Folding@Home.

First of all, the 4 pin fan motherboard connector on this motherboard is faulty, and always reads 45000 RPM. This means that the temperature controlled aspect of the fan can’t be tested with this motherboard. I didn’t realize that this was the case (the faulty mobo header) until the CPU temp hit 70C.

I changed the header that the fan was connected to, to one that that wouldn’t control the temperature, but would always keep the fan at 100%. At max RPM the fan is far from noisy, but it doesn’t really seem to pump all that much air through. At the lowest speed the fan is pretty much silent and would be a perfect addition to a silent case.

The fan is also connected to the heatsink by rubber vibration-killing ‘screws’ which stops any annoying humming caused by the fan. Coolermaster have definitely designed this heatsink to be as quiet as possible.

As you can see, the use of Arctic Silver lowers the temperatures considerably, even when you take into account the difference in ambient temperatures. At full load, 2 degrees are shaved off, and at idle by 2 degrees.

The Hyper TX is much better than the AMD cooler, especially when its coupled with Artic Silver 5.

I put on a 5% overclock, putting the 3800+ up to 2100mhz. The temperatures raised by a couple of degrees at full load, but nothing that would scare a seasoned overclocker.