Hardware / Pc Cases/Cooling

Antec Performance CPU Cooler

Author: Mike Mackenzie
Source: DevHardware
Data: 18.06.2006

Are you ready to get rid of your stock cooler, but not ready to pay the $50 or more to get a heatsink with all the bells and whistles? If you're just starting to get into cooling and overclocking your system, you could do worse than the Antec Performance CPU Cooler. Mike Mackenzie takes a look.

Are you ready to get rid of your stock cooler, but not ready to pay the $50 or more to get a heatsink with all the bells and whistles? If you're just starting to get into cooling and overclocking your system, you could do worse than the Antec Performance CPU Cooler. Mike Mackenzie takes a look.

Introduction

Providing your computer with a better cooling system normally means spending around $50 and getting a heatsink that is designed with all the latest cooling technologies. That allows the CPU to run at much lower operating temperatures, which allows the CPU to run at much higher clock speeds. As great as these coolers are, it's not a practical cooling solution for everyone. Any user that does not have the ability to overclock their system, or does not care to, will be wasting their money on a cooler that has much more cooling potential.

Heatsink manufacturers for the most part offer the user the best possible cooling solution, with features like heatpipes; they've even created large tower heatsinks, which rapidly move heat away from the CPU to be pumped away by the fan. Most are so large that they sometimes cause compatibility issues with some smaller chassis. Most users who are around default clock speeds can achieve similar temps with much a much smaller heatsink. When the same technology in a high end overclockable heatsink is scaled down just right, you get a cooler with an amazing performance in a smaller, more compact size and price tag.

Antec packages the Performance CPU Cooler in a plastic container fit to the heatsink. The sign on the front of the package says "Lightweight CPU Cooler featuring copper heatpipes and aluminum fin design." In the back, all the specifications are listed.

Antec has been producing quality computer accessories for many years. Their presence in the aftermarket cooling market includes a large assortment of cooling fans and specialty coolers for certain components such as graphics cards, hard drives and laptops. Antec had dipped into the processor-cooling market with their Solutions series cooler. Designed for Athlon XP processors and early Pentium processors, it really never made an impact in the market. Today Antec is back with their Performance CPU cooler, a small cooler that has many features that could potentially make them a strong competitor in the aftermarket cooling market.

Contents

- Antec pre-installs the Intel bracket on the CPU cooler, but the best thing is that all the hardware is already mounted; C clips are used to keep the screws on the brackets in between installations.

- Antec Performance CPU Cooler

- AMD Athlon 64 Mounting bracket and screws (includes backplate)

- Intel Socket 478 retention bracket and screws (includes backplate)

- CPU Cooler Thermal Compound

- Installation Guide

Specifications

The back of the packaging lists all of the specifications, as well as the compatible sockets. It also shows that there is no optional dual fan solution; it offers just a pass through airflow design.

Compatible With:
Intel Socket 478 Celeron, Celeron D, Celeron M, Pentium & Pentium M CPUs
AMD socket 754, 939 and 940 Sempron, Turion, Opteron Athlon 64 & 64FX CPUs

Overall dimensions
AMD: 100 x 80 x 74mm
Intel: 72.5 x 87.5 x 74mm

Weight:
AMD: 297g
Intel: 291g

Heatsink Dimensions: 45 x 80 x 74mm
Fan Size: 70 x 70 x 15mm
Speed: 3800 RPM
Voltage: 12v
Input Current: 0.30A (Max)
Input Power: 3.6W
Airflow: 30CFM
Noise Level: 34.9 dBA (Max)
Thermal Resistance: 0.26 C/W

The heatpipes are pretty average in size; a quarter on the top of the heatsink shows just how small this cooler really is.

Antec has designed their performance CPU cooler just like most companies designed their high end, heatpipe aided tower heatsinks. Antec uses a dual heatpipe design to pump heat away from the base of the heatsink through four heatpipes, and dissipate the heat to aluminum fins, which are directly cooled by a smaller 70mm fan.

The base of the heatsink is very thin. Directly over the processors die will be the heatpipes; the cooler also has small dense fins for radiating air from around the Integrated heatspreader of the CPU.

The base of the cooler is constructed of relatively thin aluminum, with the heatpipes soldered in place directly over the CPU. The outermost edges of the base have fins to dissipate heat caught in the Integrated Heat spreader that has not been transferred to the heatpipes.

The heatsink is still very small compared to a quarter. Since it operates with a 70mm fan, there is really no need to have a taller heatpipe. It would also increase the weight of the cooler.

Once the heat is transferred from the base, it's carried along by the heatpipe. The heatpipe runs vertically away from the motherboard, and significantly reduces the heat surrounding the motherboard. The cooler has 35 fins that run parallel to the motherboard. With the 70mm fan, heat trapped is efficiently radiated away and is pushed toward the rear of the chassis.

Installing the Antec Cooler is fairly simple. All necessary hardware is provided, and Antec even provides its own backplate for securing the heatsink. Although the cooler is light in weight, it still stands out far from the motherboard, so a through the motherboard mounting system is the most secure method of installation.

The CPU cooler comes pre-installed with the Intel 478 socket assembly, back plate and mounting brackets. To install you simply remove your existing heatsink, remove the paper over the adhesive tape on the back plate, secure it to the back of the motherboard, apply a small amount of thermal paste to the CPU and spread it out in a thin, even layer over the CPU. Remove the film from the base of the heatsink and place over the CPU. Using a Phillips screwdriver, secure all four corners of the heatsink to the backplate. Check to see whether the heatsink is secured, and if it is, attach the fan cable to the motherboard's CPU Fan power connector. Double check all connections to ensure the system is ready to start.

With the two Intel brackets removed we can install the one-piece Athlon 64 bracket using the same hardware

In my installation I'll be testing the cooler on an Athlon 64 system, so I will need to remove the four screws holding down the Pentium assembly to the base of the heatsink, using the same four screws secure the Athlon 64 brackets to the base of the cooler.

The provided backplate is not necessary in most installations. My old Asus Athlon 64 motherboard used a very similar backplate; this DFI motherboard uses a slightly different backplate.

Antec provides a backplate for mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. Not all motherboards use the same backplate. My DFI motherboard does not use a common back plate that sticks through the motherboard around a eighth of an inch. The provided backplate is completely necessary for my installation.

The fan on the CPU Cooler is directed towards the rear of the case. Most standard cases have ventilation holes in the rear to remove exhausted air, which should help provide better operating temperatures of other components in the system.

When installing the backplate, it's best to remove the plastic tape that is covering the adhesive tape. This will help secure the backplate to the motherboard, so if you ever take the heatsink off, you do not have to worry about it falling out or moving around.

Seeing the CPU Cooler installed on the motherboard is quite a relief; it certainly looks better than the stock cooler. Hopefully it performs as good as it looks.

My initial thought on using the Performance CPU cooler was that it has the potential to be the perfect aftermarket cooler for non-overclockers, for users who are just looking for a good cooling solution to help prolong the life of their system. I really wasn't expecting any great temperatures out of the cooler. I plan to take my system up to 2.2ghz at the very least; this will be at about the same clock speeds as a 3500+ Venice CPU, and a clock speed I know my system is capable of running off of stock cooling. This should show how quick the CPU can warm up, and how much better, if at all, the Performance CPU cooler would be.

Test bed

- AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice E6 CPU
- Running 2.2ghz 9x244 stock volts.
- 512MB G Skill Value Ram
- ATI 9600 XT 128MB, Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Cooled
- 80GB Hitachi Deskstar HDD
- 120GB Samsung Spinpoint HDD
- BenQ Lightscribe DVD+RW drive
- Antec Smartpower 350W PSU
- No additional chassis fans running

To test the system's maximum temperature I set up a few CPU benchmarking programs. I started with Super PI up to 32M, as well as Sandra 2006's burn in wizard, and ran the CPU benchmarks. In addition to all that, for fun, I ran Prime 95 at the same time. I took my temperature readings with both a temperature probe and the die temp that's provided in speed fan. In case there are a few people out there who question this, I used the die temperature reading, but made sure of course that it was close to my probe's temperature.

The results of the temperatures at load were very close. The Antec Cooler does offer a little bit more performance. If Antec took the same heatsink and built it in a larger scale, the heatsink would perform much better -- comparable to other heatsinks twice its size.

Well the delta temperatures remained nearly the same, but the idle temperature was decreased by only 2C, and the load temperature was decreased by 3C. It's not the most impressive decrease I've seen, but for the price of the cooler and its size, I think it's pretty decent. Especially given that it's air-cooling, a 2C drop is harder to achieve than you would think; although after looking at a few other reviews, I saw one where another reviewer swapped fans with their stock A-64 fan and lowered temperatures even further. The problem with the stock cooler is that it's temperature controlled; if it gets hot, it'll start running much faster, and end up being louder than the original Antec fan.

Pros

- Decent cooling performance considering size
- Innovative features in a more compact design
- Fan blows air towards rear of chassis, providing cooler motherboard temperatures.
- Base is fairly smooth compared to other heatsinks in its price range.
- Excellent solution for users on stock cooling.
- Very affordable at $20-30
- All hardware is pre-installed, and back plates are included

Cons

- Fan is a little noisy at full speed. (swap with your old AMD Stock Fan!)
- The heatsink doesn't offer a copper base.
- Not compatible with Intel socket LGA775.
- Provided thermal paste is hard to spread, tends to clump up.
- Would offer more performance with an 80mm fan
- Availability is limited, can be found in some retail stores.

Well it's safe to say that the Antec Performance CPU Cooler is quite possibly the best solution for anyone who is still using a stock cooler. Since Antec provides everything needed for installation, it's great for first time users; they can just remove whatever clip brackets they have, and install everything as Antec directs. Sure it doesn't drop your temperatures a huge amount, but when you're looking at air-cooling, a few C does help. Again this was in a chassis with no additional airflow; with a rear exhaust fan in the chassis, I am certain this cooler would perform much better.

I would like to thank everyone for checking out our review of the Antec Performance CPU Cooler. It's definitely a great deal for most users who are not looking for insane temperatures. Anyone who wants something to get their system running just a few Celsius cooler should track down an Antec Performance CPU Cooler.