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Aerocool GT-1000 Gold-Plated Heatsink |
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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Sunday, 01 July 2007 |
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Page 4 of 5
It'll end up looking like this. Two steel clips will then push down on these brackets from either side. This is the same installation method that's used on Swiftech's MCX478-V. It's far from the (nearly perfect) stock Intel retention mechanism, but it works. Having to install these one side at a time is no longer a problem (cracking a P4 core is almost impossible thanks to the protective heat spreader). The real issue is the amount of force that's required to get these clips in position. You'll most likely need a screwdriver to push down into the hole near the clip's end just to get it down far enough to engage the bracket. Patience and caution are of extreme importance here, as a slip of the finger (or screwdriver) could easy send a nearby capacitor or other component flying.
Another very important note on the P4 (Socket 478) installation is to NOT over-tighten the side brackets. They, along with the mini-heatsink above them, should be relatively loose, otherwise you risk the heatsink base not coming into contact with the processor core! I found this out first hand when I almost fried my CPU. The first time I turned the computer on it didn't boot. The second time I saw artifacts before the BIOS came up.
When it finally did, I was shocked to see the processor at 80C after only 10 or so seconds of operation. Needless to say I immediately pulled the plug. This was of course due to my over-tightening of the side brackets as the heatsink base showed no signs of thermal compound. After loosening them I re-installed the cooler and all was well. Don't make the same mistake I did; it could cost you a pretty penny.
In terms of clearance the GT-1000 doesn't suffer from the same problems as other large coolers such as Thermalright's XP-120. You can mount the fan on either side. For testing we mounted it as shown above because it also provided some video card cooling and allowed for maximum air intake. However, in a case environment this may not be possible due to clearance issues with an installed power supply. The reason it wasn't tested in a case was because that would introduce another variable to the equation. The main test system (shown above) is comprised of the following:
- Intel Pentium 4 2.4C, voltage set to 1.6V
- Abit IS7-E i865-PE
- 1GB (2 x 512MB) Kingston PC3200 UL HyperX @ DDR460 (230MHz x 2)
- Hercules GeForce3
- Onboard audio and LAN
- Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus 160GB HDD
- Seasonic 430 watt PSU
- Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound
For idle I left the computer untouched for an hour. Load was achieved by running Prime95 Torture Test for the same duration. I used Motherboard Monitor 5 to record the average temperature after an hour of 5 second interval readings (~700-800 total readouts). In addition to the provided low speed fan, we decided to also test it with a high output 92mm Panaflo, the same one found in our performance fan comparison. Briefly, it's rated at 68.8CFM, 3450RPM, 43 dBA, and 5.16watts. First is the low speed fan:
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 July 2007 )
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