Heatsink testing overview

Past Performance

To provide an idea of past heat sink performance in our new standard setup, we decided to test some of the better and more popular heat sinks from the last year. This will allow us to make clear comparisons in future heatsink reviews (and believe me, they’re coming) to this battery of sample results.

We decided on a selection of air coolers that we feel represents the full demographic of CPU heatsinks, ranging from budget to high performance, and from jet engine to super silent. They are the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, The OCZ Vendetta 92mm, the Zalman CNPS9700 NT, the Akasa 965BL, The Noctua NH-U12P and the Thermalright 120 eXtreme.

All the heatsinks were tested using our standard software torture tests, and using our aforementioned test case and hardware platform. Lets check out the results!

Results for Arctic Cooling Freezer 7

Manufacturer: Arctic Cooling
UK Price: £14.04 (inc. VAT)
US Price: $25.99 (ex. Tax)

The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro was a favourite among many system builders last year, but is now starting to show its age. Significantly louder than our control setup, the CPU averaged 33°C at idle and 50°C under load – unimpressive considering the 2°C difference in ambient air temperature in the Freezer 7's favour.

Results for OCZ Vendetta 92mm

Manufacturer OCZ
UK Price £17.57 (inc. VAT)
US Price $34.99 (ex. Tax

The 92mm version of the Vendetta scored well when Rich looked at it back in December, and it continues to show its quality in our new testing. Recording an idle temp of 31°C and a load temp of 45°C, with an ambient temperature 3°C lower than our original test setup.

Zalman CNPS9700 NT

Manufacturer: Zalman
UK Price: £38.06 (inc. VAT)
US Price: $62.99 (ex. Tax)

Despite being a lot noisier than the control setup, the popular Zalman matched that and produced a noticeably cooler GPU temperature in the CPU test – this demonstrated the advantage of a cooler with good airflow for your whole system and not just the CPU. It recorded an idle temperature of 34°C and a load temperature of 49°C under similar conditions to our control.