Testing
The test rig consists of the following parts:
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 EVO
Video Card: SPARKLE Calibre Series X480 GeForce GTX 480
Memory: Corsair Vengence 8 GB @ 1600mhz
Power Supply: High Power Astro PT 700w
Storage: 250 GB SATA II Drive
Cooling: Deepcool Neptwin
Case: Antec 900
Testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set. The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes a i5 2500K a whole lot harder giving us a better sense of load temps. All of the testing was done at the high memory setting for a single pass. While this in no way would qualify the chip as stable when overclocking, it gives us a realistic idea of what temps it will be hitting.
First though I did some testing with the stock Intel cooler, at the stock motherboard settings, in the test rig with results as follows:
Ambient temps: 18.89C/66F
Idle temps: 27.25C/81.05F core average
IBT temps: 69.25C/156.65F core average
Next I ran the Neptwin through the same test at the same motherboard settings:
Ambient temps: 18.89C/66F
Idle temps: 25.5C/77.9F core average
IBT temps: 47.25C/117.05 core average
Right away we are seeing amazing improvements from the stock cooler!
Now I wanted to see what this cooler could really do. I did about an hour session of overclocking working it up as high as I could with these fantastic final results:
Ambient temps: 18.89C/66F
Max overclock: 4.8 ghz/1.496V vCore
IBT temps: 78C/172.4F core average (Seems like I could have gone just a little higher, but I was at 82C on two cores.)
These results are very very good. I do have to wonder, perhaps if Deepcool were to source a thermal compound like MX-2 if perhaps those temps would be even better? The compound included is very thin and seemed very much like a ceramic to me.