Installation

The system used for testing is:

AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Palomino
Abit KX7-333
512mb Mushkin PC2700
PNY Geforce 4 Ti4600
2x 120gb Western Digital 8mb Cache
Windows XP Professional

I first coated the core of the CPU in a paper thin coating of Arctic Silver 3 and then went right to work. I first removed the motherboard from the case to make it easier on me.

The installation, whether using a P4 or Athlon, is completely tool free. Unfortunately even the lack of tools does not make this the most trouble-free installation. The first clip went on eaily but, due to the slanted edge of the HSF, it was difficult to get a grip on the tab that pushes the second clip down. It took a fingernail to push the tab down and once I had gotten my entire finger on the tab the clip slid into place easily. I am blessed with small fingers but those not so blessed will find it very difficult to get the clip over the socket lugs. I think that Aerocool should have extended the tab about another centimetre or two.

I tipped the motherboard upside down and gave it a good shake (thank you AMD for your cheap CPUs) just to test if the heatsink was firmly in place. There was no visible shifting and I proceeded to reinstall the motherboard back into the case.

Upon turning the computer I was presented with not a heck of a lot. Not a lot of noise that is. The fan makes little more than a calming swish. There are no annoying whines and when placed inside a case is quite inaudible.

The lights are very well picked and have a very solid glow to them. The orange fan gives the impression of there being fire-within-water.

Temperature Testing

I tested the heatink at two different speeds, the default 1.53ghz (1.75 vcore) and overclocked to 1.75ghz (1.85 vcore). You may say that the testing only represents up to a 2100+ processor speed and is not thorough enough. Keep in mind, however, that this is a Palomino core which by default runs significantly hotter than its Tbred equivalent. The Abit KX7-333 is also known to read higher temperatures than most boards due to its longer than normal temperature diode. This brings the recorded temperature closer to the actual on-die temperature of the processor.

All temperatures were recorded by Winbond Hardware Doctor and confirmed through Sisoft Sandra 2003. The Idle temperatures are done while sitting in Windows and the Load temperatures were recorded after 45 minutes of Prime 95 Torture test.

I also matched it up against 2 coolers:
A Generic Aluminum cooler with copper insert w/ 60mm 36cfm fan
A Globalwin FOP32 Aluminum cooler

Aerocool Extreme

FOP32

Generic

The Extreme stays ahead of both of these coolers at Idle and it's lead increases as the processor begins to work.

Aerocool Extreme

Due to my lack of interest in running my processor at 70+ C the FOP32 will not be participating.

Generic

I attempted to reach a higher clockspeed on the Extreme but it would not boot into Windows past 1.75ghz. With watercooling it had no problems up to 1.85ghz.

The Generic seemed to have hit it's thermal limit at load speeds because the temperatures shot up so dramatically. The Extreme on the other hand maintains a fairly predictable curve upwards in temperatures.

Temps are very usable but they are really starting to get toasty. This is certainly not an overclockers heatsink. It does beat the life out of the Generic and the FOP32 though. Keep in mind that the cooling fan is the limiting factor here and with a high cfm fan would be enough to turn this into a fairly powerful cooler for most overclockers.

First Looks

Conclusion