Intel LGA775 System Results

For Socket LGA775 we used a 2.13GHz Xeon X3210 overclocked to 2.66GHz by increasing its FSB from 266MHz (1,066MHz effective) to 333MHz (1,333MHz effective) with a vcore of 1.41V. The system is built inside a Cooler Master Stacker 830 chassis along with an Abit IP35 Pro XE motherboard with an ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card.


The Corsair H50 performed very well in our LGA775 test rig, even beating the best aircooler we have recorded on the LGA775 platform - the Titan Fenrir at high speed. What's more, the Corsair H50 is significantly less quieter than the Fenrir. Once again adding a second fan, whether it was sucking or blowing made not appreciable difference to the delta T.

AMD AM2+ System Results

For Socket AM2+ we used a 3GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition overclocked to 3.6GHz with the vcore boosted to 1.5V. This was all housed in a Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 chassis with an Asus M3A78-T motherboard and ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. As Socket AM2+ HSFs mount to the motherboard in the same way as they do to Socket AM2 and Socket AM3 motherboards, these results apply to both.


The AMD results may seem like a bit on the high side but we tested, and retested, and remounted, and checked and changed the pump and fan connectors, but the results were entirely consistent. The problem is that the Cosmos 1000 lacks any intake fans, it only has teo 120mm exhaust fans in the roof and a 120mm exhaust fan in the above the I/O shield. As a result, even when we set the Corsair H50 to draw air in from outside the case the system ran very hot.

It's a worrying trend that pairing a case without positive pressure or a ready route for air to escape through a mesh means performance suffers massively. After the CPU had been under load for an hour the motherboard around the CPU socket was to hot it wasn't comfortable to touch, while the CPU block was also very hot. Worse still, the air temperature inside the case was in excess of 45C. Relatively this makes it worse than the stock AMD cooler - i.e. clearly very, very poor.

Clearly with a normal heatsink the two roof fans draw off the heat right out the case, leading to better performance, but with the radiator on the H50 limiting airflow, it really makes the whole setup struggle. Evidently the H50 isn't suitable for use in every case.