Testing

Methodology

All of the testing is carried out outside of a computer case. As with every test, we use a thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 between the core and the CPU cooler for comparable results. Ambient temperature was 19C throughout.

To test we simply boot the PC up with a freshly installed copy of Windows XP, and measure temperatures using Speedfan. The onboard temperature sensor is disregarded and instead the CPU’s own diode is used.

For idle testing, we simply let the testing rig sit doing absolutely nothing for 30 minutes and take the most representative temperature of the last 10 minutes. The same is used for the load testing, but instead of letting the PC do nothing, OCCT is used to load both cores to 100%.

As this motherboard also has a temperature sensor in the chipset, we will also measure the temperature of that in the same way as the CPU in order to get an idea of how effective the ‘collateral’ cooling is of the kit.

In a new segment, we’ll be test out-of-the-box performance, which means that we use all of the included components i.e. the heatpaste and in this case, the fan. This will give you an impression of the packaged heatpaste and whether using a third-party paste (i.e. AC5) is necessary. These results are marked as OTB.

As we have two of the Noctua NF-P12 fans, we’ll also test the dual-fan combination.

Ambient temperature is 19C.

Results

We also tested the much older NH-U12 heatsink that was previously on our P4 test rig. This was the original tower cooler from Noctua and has done its job well since it was installed. The purpose of comparing against this cooler is to try and decide whether purchasing this new heatsink is necessary. To allow comparison, we used the same fan thats packaged with the NH-U12P; the NF-P12 even though this heatsink retailed with no packaged fan.

The first thing that you notice when you power on is that the cooler is pretty much silent, and is definitely mulnaz. This basically means that your PC is quiet enough to use when watching a DVD without it interfering with your watching. The heatsink disrupts the airflow of the fan itself, so the rated volume on the package isn’t what you’ll hear in real world usage. The fan is rated at 19.8 dBA with no heatsink, and it’s noticeably louder when the heatsink is used with it, although when inside your case and you’re more than a meter away you can only tell it’s on by the power LED. When you use two fans in unison it becomes louder still with the case starting to emit a small amount of noise. When you factor in case ventilation, power supply, GPU fans etc. the sound of the CPU fans will be the quietest in your case.

Looking at the results, the dual fan combination, on either the NH-U12P or U12 makes little difference to the temperatures as the cooler manages 34 C minimum during load. At idle, the dual fan seems to make a difference for idle results, with the dual fan setups managing to remove a couple of degrees off the CPU temperature.

For the most part, the newer heatsink seems worse at cooling the nearby passive chipset heatsink which is due to the position of the fan on the ‘sink (mounted slightly further down allowing for airflow over the chipset). You aren’t going to get a lot of collateral cooling from the NH-U12P, so you’ll have to invest in a third-party heatsink cooler should those temperatures be of concern.

Interestingly, while the Noctua heatpaste didn’t take a large lead in our previous heatpaste testing, it appears that it performs far better with this cooler than when Artic Silver 5 is used. With a clear lead of over 4 degrees, there is absolutely no reason why you’d want to purchase an additional tube of heatpaste.

Interestingly, this cools to the same degree as a lapped IFX-14 which is no mean feat, and considering the noise level is reduced AND the fan is included in the package. I was personally surprised that this managed to beat the IFX-14 considering the size and the backplate cooler that the IFX commands. Obviously the flat base of the Noctua heatsink makes the difference.