test system~
I had a tbird 1.4 but since I tested too many cpu's and thermal compounds I think all the heatsink changing weakened my cpu core till it cracked. And I am always very careful. So this test is on a tbird 1 gig and with it overclocked to 1.2. The idle temps are taken when surfing the net for an hour. Letting it all sit still for 15 minutes made no change in the idle temperature. Load was taken using the prime 95 cpu torture test with it running continuously for an hour. Side panel is closed on my case and room temp was at 68 degrees.
As you can see this Dr Thermal heatsink performs very very respectable. I had tested an sk6 right before this Dr Thermal and this Dr Thermal was almost even with it. Using a lawnmower-loud 8000rpm delta fan on the sk6 the Dr Thermal ran 2-5 degrees higher. Placing a much quieter fan off a Volcano II on the sk6 then the Dr Thermal beat the sk6 by 3-9 degrees! The included 6800rpm fan on the TI-V86N is rated at around the same dba as many deltas. Bad thing is that means it's loud also. However while it does have that high-pitched delta fan sound characteristic it's still not near as loud or annoying as the delta fans. It's just more tolerable to me and I cannot have on a delta fan longer than it takes to do proper testing and even then I have mp3's or TV blaring away. Not so with this Dr Thermal fan.
The TI-V86N is very easy to install and performs very well even for an overclocker. This design is something other heatsink makers may end up copying in some form since it's obviously very effective. I just wonder if it'd perform better if that copper core would be more centered on the cpu core when installed. Even with that minor flaw this is one cpu cooler I'd heartily recommend.pros~
Mucho thanks goes out to Elaine at Thermal-Integration for sending us this fine cpu cooler for review, testing and our upcoming cpu cooler shootout! Look for it soon. Many good online dealers like HighspeedPC and Crazy PC carry one model, the TI-V77L. And according to Elaine their main distributor and the only one that carries the full line of Dr Thermal heatsinks is a place called CoolMaxUSA. I'm not at all familar with that company but Elaine spoke well of them.
