Self-Contained Water Coolers: Xigmatek AIO vs. Evercool Silver Knight
by Wesley Fink on July 10, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cooling at Stock Speed
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. We tested the Xigmatek AIO and Evercool Silver Knight coolers with the supplied fans.
Where the Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, the Xigmatek manages 31C and the Evercool 34C. Both results are a significant improvement over the Intel stock cooler performance, but the results are average at best among the coolers tested at AnandTech. The Thermalright coolers, at the top of our heatpipe tower performance charts, cool to 26C and 27C, and the Tuniq 120 maintains 27C.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates playing a demanding game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you would expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT.
Cooling efficiency of the Xigmatek AIO and Evercool Silver Knight are compared under load conditions at stock speed to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers.
The stock load test results are very interesting, not so much from a performance standpoint as in revealing how the two self-contained water coolers operate. The Xigmatek, best at idle, goes to 52C at load, indicating the auto fan has not kicked into higher RPM mode at this temperature. The Silver Knight manages 44C, because the fan is already on high. Neither cooler is a stellar performer at stock load, which is frankly a surprise. The 52C and 44C load temps compare to the Thermalrights at 32C and 33C, the Tuniq at 34C and the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Zalman 9700 at 36C. Stock load performance is below average among tested coolers.
Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. We tested the Xigmatek AIO and Evercool Silver Knight coolers with the supplied fans.
Where the Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, the Xigmatek manages 31C and the Evercool 34C. Both results are a significant improvement over the Intel stock cooler performance, but the results are average at best among the coolers tested at AnandTech. The Thermalright coolers, at the top of our heatpipe tower performance charts, cool to 26C and 27C, and the Tuniq 120 maintains 27C.
It is more difficult to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates playing a demanding game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA Monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the load test is then reported. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you would expect to find in this recording configuration. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT.
Cooling efficiency of the Xigmatek AIO and Evercool Silver Knight are compared under load conditions at stock speed to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers.
The stock load test results are very interesting, not so much from a performance standpoint as in revealing how the two self-contained water coolers operate. The Xigmatek, best at idle, goes to 52C at load, indicating the auto fan has not kicked into higher RPM mode at this temperature. The Silver Knight manages 44C, because the fan is already on high. Neither cooler is a stellar performer at stock load, which is frankly a surprise. The 52C and 44C load temps compare to the Thermalrights at 32C and 33C, the Tuniq at 34C and the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and Zalman 9700 at 36C. Stock load performance is below average among tested coolers.
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razor2025 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
The whole "self-contained" water cooling HSF is a joke. It's basically the same design as heatpipe HSF, but use water as the thermal conductor. In which case, traditional heat-pipe design will perform far more superior than these things.The whole point of water cooling is allow a radiator MUCH larger than air cooling heatsinks to disperse the heat. Since a typical water cooling radiator have multiples times more surface area than typical air cooling heatsink, you can run a larger fan with lower RPM. With traditional water cooling, you would also have large reservoir that helps in keeping cool water running through the blocks. With "self-contained" units, you have very limited amount of water that is cycled back to the heat source. Thus, these units are nothing but creation of marketing department. It's not surprising that they weren't able to beat the heat pipe designs in term of cooling or noise.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
I'd guess part of the problem with these units is they contain far too little water to be a good thermal reservoir. At this size scale the typical heatpipes probably work better, as they can tailor the fluid to change phase from liquid to gas in the anticipated operating range, and take advantage of all the energy that absorbs.n7 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Seeing as how a few hybrid style coolers have been reviewed now, are you considering reviewing a Coolit Freezone?I realize its price tag is considerably higher, but it should best all the coolers presently tested, albeit loud at max, & pricey too.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Yes, we have a Coolit Freezone in the lab. However, it will be several weeks before the review.n7 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Sweet!Based on the results i had with it compared to my Big Typhoon it shouldn't have much trouble dominating at max fan speed.
The reason i didn't keep the Freezone was purely due to noise.
It was nice & quiet with the fan turned down, but then i found performance to be no better than air cooling.
Anyway, i look forward to the results with it!
Thanx.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Several new "self-contained" water coolers have shown up over the past few months. Water cooling is another passive cooling method, like air cooling. The water temperature cannot drop lower than the room temperature, where TEC and phase-change can actually chill below the ambient temperature. This is why they are referred to as active cooling.Actualy active cooling, or active whatever means to use electronics or mechanical means to do something. Passive means to use nothing of the sort (in this case, just a heatsink).
Active cooling includes, but is not limited to; a heatsink with a fan, water cooling, phase change, or anything that uses electronic or mechanical means.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling#Pass...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling#Pass...
Lets get it right guys ;)
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
A better description is ambient and sub-ambient cooling, which we used in describing the Vigor Monsoon II. We will make changes to our description to better describe the cooling method.asliarun - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
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Can't you at least make the popup appear only if the user clicks on the hyperlink??
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
You can disable those ads by visiting this link: http://www.anandtech.com/siteinfo.aspx?off=yes">http://www.anandtech.com/siteinfo.aspx?off=yes :)Take care,
Anand
SunAngel - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Good news! Thanks for the tip. Wouldn't it have been ironic that the very thing that made Anandtech prosper would have also been the same thing that brought it down? I actually like Anandtech and would have hate to see it lose patronage over something as silly as HTML ads. However, I can't say the same for DT. If those guys bit the dust...well, all I can say is, "Pabst Blue Ribbon for the masses." In fact, that is a suggestion. Dump them and find someone else. There are plenty out there to choose from.