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 Scythe NCU-2000 heatsink has a surface roughness of approximately 8
microinches, which is considered very good. Move your mouse over the tabs
above and look at 8M for an approximate example of what this surface
finish looks like. |
Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!
Since this heatsink uses no fan, there
is no need to record silence.
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 |
|
TS Heatronics |
NCU-2000 |
passive |
N/A |
|
Verax |
P16Cu |
31.5 dB |
|
|
Verax |
P16 |
35.3 dB |
|
|
Spire |
SP420B8 |
40.2 dB |
|
|
Verax (high) |
P17CuX |
40.8 dB |
|
|
Zalman |
CNPS7000-Cu |
41.7 dB |
|
|
ArcticCooling |
SuperSilent4 Pro |
41.8 dB |
|
|
Zalman |
CNPS6500-AlCu |
47.4/28.9 dB |
|
|
Zalman |
CNPS7000A-Cu |
42.2 dB |
|
|
Intel |
Socket 478 |
42.5 dB |
|
|
CoolJag |
JVC661A |
43.9 dB |
|
|
Evercool |
NW9F715CA |
47.3 dB |
|
|
Intel |
Stock 3.06GHz |
47.5 dB |
|
|
AVC |
Z7H2403012 |
48.2 dB |
|
|
Aopen |
ACP4LC |
48.7 dB |
|
|
Evercool |
CUW8-715 |
50.7 dB |
|
|
Taisol |
CEP426151A |
50.7 dB |
|
|
Scythe |
Kamakaze |
51.0 dB |
|
|
Arkua |
838T-7G |
51.7 dB |
|
|
Verax |
Polargate AL S |
52.5 dB |
|
|
Jetart |
JAP416A |
52.8 dB |
|
|
Asus |
Crux P4 XB7N (H) |
52.9 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration |
TI-RV108N |
52.9 dB |
|
|
JMC Products |
401100 |
53.0 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration (high) |
TI-V7035TN |
53.6 dB |
|
|
Zalman |
CNPS5700D-Cu |
53.8 dB |
|
|
Coolermaster (high) |
Hyper6 KHCV81U1 |
54.1 dB |
|
|
Globalwin |
VA476 |
54.2 dB |
|
|
Thermal Integration |
TI-A8736N |
54.8 dB |
|
|
TTIC |
NPH-101 |
55.3 dB |
|
|
Jetart |
JAP407A |
55.7 dB |
|
|
Alpha |
S-PAL8952 |
55.8 dB |
|
|
AVC |
117140 |
56.1 dB |
|
|
Vantec |
VP4-7245 |
56.8 dB |
|
|
Taisol |
CEP447181 |
56.8 dB |
|
|
Coolermaster (high) |
Jet4 |
58.9 dB |
|
|
Cooljag (high) |
CJC66IC-A |
59.1 dB |
|
|
Dynatron |
DC1U-B02 |
62.2 dB |
|
|
Gigabyte (high) |
PCU31-VH |
63.7 dB |
|
|
AVC |
Z7U7408001 |
64.2 dB |
louder |
|
|
|
|
|
Okay,
although the Scythe NCU-2000 is technically a zero noise cooler, it really needs
some airflow somewhere in the case to operate within reasonable temperature
levels. Since
we tested with a 80mm fan, expect an equivalent fan in a
real world situation to create about 35-45 dBA of noise. This is pretty good
all things considered. The heatsink
of course, counts for none of the noise created, but does benefit from the airflow, so
keep this in mind. Up next, the thermal results!
77%
Previous Page °
