Surface Roughness Comparator:
Surface
finish is an important factor that we all look for when holding a new heatsink.
Flipping a cooler over to see how well the base has been machined is a quick way
to judge the attention to detail that was put into making it. The following
FrostyTech Surface Roughness Comparator offers a concise cross section common
machine surface finishes. Not every heatsink base will fit into the envelope of
this gage, but it does offer a very handy set of representations.
This commercially available gage has 22 machined surfaces from 2 to 500
microinches; Lapped (2, 4, and 8 µ" RA), Ground (8, 16, 32, and 63 µ" RA),
Blanchard Ground (16 and 32 µ" RA), Shape Turned (32, 63, 125, 250, and 500 µ"
RA), Profiled (63, 125, 250, and 500 µ" RA), and Milled (63, 125, 250, and 500
µ" RA).
| FrostyTech Surface Roughness Comparator |
 |
|
The base of a heatsink plays an important role in how well the cooling
apparatus interfaces with the processor. Poor surface roughness will affect a good heatsink
just as much as a good surface finish will improve thermal conductivity.
In an effort to put a more quantitative spin on the comments we provide
about base finishes, FrostyTech has begun using a Surface Roughness
Comparator.
Move your mouse over the image above to see an example at right.
Numbers are in Microinches, and finishes from 2 microinches
to 32 microinches are excellent-to-good. |
|
| |
| Evaluation Notes: |
|
The
Thermal
Integration TI-A8641L heatsink has a surface roughness of approximately 32
microinches, which is acceptable. Move your mouse over the tabs above
and look at 32ST for an approximate example of what this surface finish looks like. |
Acoustic
Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!
The
Thermal Integration TI-A8641L is not the quiet fan that you would have expected
given the relatively conservative RPM rate. Still, this should
blend in with most other computer noise once the case is closed. Low
noise PC users will want to look towards another solution, or replace the fan
entirely. To listen to this heatsink for yourself in operation, be sure to
click on the little headphones icon below and download the Acoustic Sample MP3
file.
|
FrostyTech Acoustic
Sampling Chamber |
| Standard Waveform view of a 10 second
recording. Click on the headphones to listen to an MP3
recording of this heatsink in operation. |
|
 |
Sound Level Measurements:
Listening to the actual noise a heatsink makes
allows you to hear what pure numbers alone cannot get across. To further
emphasize FrostyTech's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink,
we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. These results may be
higher than the manufacturer's listed specs, but then again these are real world
measurements. Measurements are made on the dB (A) scale.
| FrostyTech Sound
Level Results |
| - |
Manufacturer |
Model |
Noise Level |
Scale |
|
Verax (low RPM) |
P14Cu |
31.2 dB |
Quiet |
|
Verax |
P11T |
35.3 dB |
|
|
Spire |
SPA04B4 |
35.3 dB |
|
|
Spire |
5U213C1H3G |
35.7 dB |
|
|
Titan |
D9TBCu35R1 |
37.6 dB |
|
|
ArcticCooling |
CuSilent2 |
37.9 dB |
|
|
Aopen |
ACK7L |
40.4 dB |
|
|
Thermalright |
SK-7 |
42.8 dB |
|
|
Thermalright |
SLK-900A |
43.0 dB |
|
|
Coolermaster |
HSC-V62 |
43.7 dB |
|
|
Akasa |
AK821 |
44.2 dB |
|
|
Spire |
5F263 |
44.5 dB |
|
|
Zalman |
All Flower HSF |
47.4/28.9 dB |
|
|
Arkua |
728M-7N01 |
48.2 dB |
|
|
Taisol |
CGK760092 |
48.4 dB |
|
|
Cho-Liang |
CB0307U-17 |
49.5 dB |
|
|
Thermalright |
SK6+ |
50.4 dB |
|
|
Titan |
TTC-CU9TB/SC |
50.5 dB |
|
|
Taisol |
CEK787172 |
50.7 dB |
|
|
nPowerTek |
TTIC NPH-2 |
50.7 dB |
|
|
Arkua |
628 |
50.7 dB |
|
|
Scythe |
Kamakaze |
51.0 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration |
TI-A8641L |
51.3 dB |
|
|
Evercool |
CUF715 |
51.5 dB |
|
|
Tocools |
Novasonic |
52.2 dB |
|
|
Tocools |
Novasonic-AlCu |
52.4 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration |
TI-V77L |
53.0 dB |
|
|
Jetart |
JAKS29 |
55.8 dB |
|
|
Sibak |
AE01625B |
58.2 dB |
|
|
AVC |
Tundra 2 |
58.4 dB |
|
|
Sibak |
AC02625B |
59.7 dB |
|
|
Coolermaster |
HHC-001 |
59.9 dB |
|
|
Sibak |
AC06725TH |
62.4 dB |
|
|
Dynatron |
DC1206BMP |
65.1 dB |
|
|
Thermalright |
SLK800 |
66.2 dB |
|
|
Thermalright |
AX-7 |
66.4 dB |
louder |
|
|
|
|
|
We
measured the noise levels of the Thermal Integration TI-A8641L
at 51.3 dB, which makes it pretty average, if on the high side of the reference
list. This is not a quiet heatsink compared to true low noise coolers, but it
isn't anything super loud either. Up next, the heatsink test results!
85%
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