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Maybe it is just me but some P4 clips just have a special quality of irritating you. The clips on the AX-478 were so simple, I was actually a bit confused at first on how to put them on. I kept looking for parts I thought missing. There were none. The clip catches on one side of the heatsink frame on the mainboard. You pull the other side down to latch it with a moveable lever to apply pressure to keep thinks in place.
With the large solid mass at the center of the AX-478, elevating the fan slightly is critical. This is done but putting rubber spacers between the fan and the sink when you use the included screws to mount things.
Specifications
Performance
For comparison, we are going to use two different fans on our AX-478. The first will be a Thermaltake Smart Fan II running at full honk which is 75.7 CFM @ 4800 RPM. The second fan is a Mechtronics 80 x 80 x 25mm fan that turns 4200 RPM while moving 53 CFM. Also in the mix is our trusty Tt Volcano 7+ and a factory Intel P4 cooler. Now our cursory statement…
No two systems will perform
identically, or for that matter, there will be variations within a single system
to some degree depending on several factors. Hence our results may end up
being a little better or a little worse than the results you may get in your own
box.
All measurements were obtained
by a thermal probe mounted so that the probe tip touches the CPU core. Our load
temperatures were attained by running the SiSoft Sandra Pro 2002 Burn In Program
for thirty minutes. Our results come from five runs per product with the
highest and lowest values being thrown out. The remaining three are averaged
and charted below. Nanotherm Blue thermal goop was used as our interface
material in all tests. Ambient room temperature was 21.5 degrees Celsius and at
no time did this base temperature deviate more than 0.5 degrees C. Test Bed
Now lets see what we will see.
Conclusion ThermalRight reminds us that good performance doesn't always have to come at the cost of an arm and a leg. Priced at $26, while outperforming the Tt Volcano 7+ regardless of which fan we used is a noteworthy feat. The clips were first rate in their ease of use and functionality. Quality control detail is obvious with the AX-478, especially in regards to the base which was beautiful. In a relative comparison with our V7+, using the results from our Swiftech MCX-4000 tests, it superficially appears that the AX-478 would best the MCX. We were not able to test this as that our MCX-4000's YS Tech Fan shorted out sometime back. (Like many others I hear.) But any way you cut it, the ThermalRight AX-478 is an excellent sink because of it's performance and cannot be beat dollar for dollar by anything. Thanks again to the good folks at Sidewinder Computers for sending this nice little cooler over. They have the units in stock if you are looking for an quality inexpensive upgrade. Pros
Cons
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pages Copyright © 2000 - 2009 by R. Dean Barker.
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