Test #1 was conducted using an Intel P3-700 cb0, on an ECS P6VXA VIA 133a Chipset board, with 128megs PC133, running WindowsME. For creating a 100% CPU load, I now use a handy little utility app, called HotCPU, available on http://www.tweakfiles.com in their diagnostics section. In the tests, with slight changes in ambient temperature (low ambient temperatures too....It's rather chilly in the basement-with-only-one-cheezy-heating-duct Lab-o-Doom) I relied on Hardware monitor measured mainboard temperatures from the ECS boards thermaldiode. On each install and boot, the system was given 5 minutes to stabilize temperature @ idle, and load temperatures were taken after 10 minutes running HotCPU (anything longer didnt result in any higher temperatures). To eliminate heat buildup issues, I mounted the board in a new case, equipped with 120mm intake and exhaust fans! Expect a review of that soon, btw. So without further adieu, let's take a glance at Test#1's results.

There wasn't a lot of variation in mainboard temperature, which indicates a similar lack of change in overall ambient temperature. Although we are in an un-overclocked situation here, some conclusions can be drawn. the JMC ArcticWind+ is the poorest performer of the bunch. It's overall lack of mass, thicker fins, and rather anemic fan seem to bear out here. Still, it does seem to be doing an adequate job of cooling the CPU, at least in an un-overclocked state. I would imagine (I had none to compare to onhand) that it would far better than you're average OEM job. The FC-PAL 28 performs considerably better. Offhand, it, and the JMC heatsink are of similar mass. Just goes to show what a superior design is capable of. The PEP66T performs a decent bit better than it's kin, despite the fact that it is equipped with a smaller 60mm x 10mm fan. It is more massive, and would probably perform a good bit better still, with a better fan, but would cost more. The OCQ Ofrio seems to cool the best in Test #1. It's the most massive of all the heatsinks tested here, and is equipped with the awe-inspiring Delta38 60mm fan, so this is little suprise. Now, let's bring the SuperOrb on board, and take a look at how I conducted Test #2.

Next page: Test 2

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