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
TTIC NPH-201
heatsink has a surface roughness of approximately 16 microinches,
which is considered very good. Move your mouse over the tabs
above and look at 16M for an approximate example of what this surface
finish looks like. |
Acoustic Samples: Listen to this
Heatsink!
As the TTIC NPH-201 heatsink spins away with two fans, one would expect
it produce quite a racket. Thankfully, TTIC have opted to use slightly lower RPM fans which
together generate only about 52 dBA. 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 |
|
|
Thermaltake |
Silent Boost |
40.7 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 |
|
|
TTIC |
NPH-201 |
52.2 dB |
|
|
Tocools |
Novasonic |
52.2 dB |
|
|
Tocools |
Novasonic-AlCu |
52.4 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration |
TI-V77L |
53.0 dB |
|
|
Jetart |
JAKS29 |
55.8 dB |
|
|
Vantec |
VA4-7245 |
57.1 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 |
|
|
|
|
|
While it
is nice to listen to an actual sound recording of the heatsink in question, it
isn't the best way for us to directly compare the noise levels from
cooler-to-cooler.
For that we must turn to the sound level meter,
and it tells us that TTIC NPH-201 produces about 52 dB A under power. Not too
bad, and even a little quieter than the Vantec VA4-7245 heatsink we just tested.
Up next, the heatsink test results!
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